DOLCE CON FUOCO

Audio Transcript

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Introduction (0:19)

B: Hello, and welcome to Episode Two of Dolce con fuoco. I'm Brandon. 

J: And I'm Jaden, and today's episode features segments from our interviews with local music educators. First, we have Leah Weitzsacker, a director of multiple orchestras, including the Evergreen Philharmonic, a prestigious orchestra in the Issaquah School District.

Interview with Weitzsacker (0:35)

B: Ms. Weitzsacker, do you have any interesting stories to start us off? 

W: One violin player, you listen to his recording, and he's an excellent player, retirement evergreen player, it sounded like he was a trumpet player. It was so bizarre the way it recorded his sound, it totally distorted the tambour of it, and he had to record on his phone and then import it. 

B: I think it definitely sounds like you guys are going through a lot of stuff right now what I think is just strikingly similar is that right now in the Husky Marching Band 90% of the issues that you have named, I feel like have also come up in like, some sort of way for our recording software marching band pro, do you think the issue that you were saying with the grades being incorrect, do you think that that has been maybe a very strong external stressor for the students in terms of grading? 

W: For the younger students, it created stress, and I've had to tell them numerous times, they finally calmed down a little bit. And this is really the freshmen and I think this is largely a product of they don't know how to be a high schooler, they still have a lot of middle school mentality, and they didn't have the benefit of being in the room from the older students with the experience to tell “No, no, no, it's okay”. Or no, “we don't do that”. Or, you know, “relax”, the more experienced students, I think, when I tell them, don't worry about what it says your grade is, I'm going to go back in and evaluate it myself. But they definitely have that reflex, you know. Same thing with campus, if they turn something in late, I have it set to give a 50% if it's missing, or if it and then when it comes in, and it's late and I got more emails about that. And really, it was, if I didn't do that, they wouldn't have paid attention to a missing assignment. But you put a value on it. And now it starts to, you know, set off some bells for people and I had to keep educating them. If you've got a 50%, I'm probably never going to actually grade something at 50%. It's okay, you've been in class, but you were missing this assignment and when I get to it, it'll change. The noncontact, I think has made it harder to get across to students that the grade is going to be fixed, but that it's going to take some time.

B: I know we've talked a lot about a whole huge list of things that have been going wrong. But maybe if you were just to pinpoint one singular limitation that you think is maybe the biggest hindrance to your instruction right now. 

W: The biggest hindrance, I don't have screens on I can't see what's happening, the majority of the students will not turn their video camera on. And I understand not everybody's device can support that. So it doesn't always work. Not being able to read the room and see the facial expression, read the body language for are they getting it? Or are they not? That is such a critical piece to the communication between student and teacher. That's the biggest thing that I'm missing aside from the human interaction. Being in this setting the screens being off is absolutely the biggest hindrance.

B: Do you think that these issues with technology were present even before COVID hit? Or do you think that these are only things that have popped up just now? 

W: I think they've just been brought to light. Now I think that if I had there was a reason I didn't use smart music and music first before because I found it cumbersome it and I just couldn't be bothered. I wasn't forced to learn it. And so I think the drawbacks have always been there. I do think that some things have quickly improved, because it just the need is there. Not enough. We can't hold in person. Well, a live rehearsal, and that would be my second biggest drawback to those situations. The live time being able to rehearse. But no, I there's always been problems with Charms there still is. I still have some people who can't get it or who accidentally unsubscribe or you know, and don't even realize that they did it and I can't support fixing that. Technical difficulties. I think that's always been there. It's just we're using it so much more that now it's just, you can't just dismiss it and be like, well, then I just don't use it. We're forced to use it. So I think it was there. We just didn't, you know, look at it.

B: Is there anything else that you wanted to add to that maybe of any other possible benefits? 

W: Yeah, there are other benefits, it did force me to embrace the technology that was out there. And I do want to keep it going. But it is giving me more time to focus on individual students and give more individualized feedback from them submitting videos, me being able to take the time, instead of trying to crush it into, you know, however many classes. I think some students are embracing the ability to ask for things. I think that there are some students who would never have spoken up in class who will back channel with me, they won't put it out to the entire class chat, but they will privately answer questions because they're willing to take the risk with me, but not with their peers. And so I'm getting a lot more feedback from students who probably just would have tried to disappear into the class. So I think that's been a really big positive, it's giving the more shy students an outlet and an avenue to communicating with their teachers, without having to sit down and write an email and wait for the email reply, they can still talk to us and ask the question in class. So I'll have someone privately send me a question. And I'm just watching the chat. And so as we're going through, I'm able to without saying who asked, or, you know, whatever, they “Oh, I was just asked this”, or I just fold the answer into what I was already saying. And no one even knows that a question was answered, like, asked, much less answer. And then I get a thank you privately in the chat, because they know that I was talking to them, but I didn't have to draw attention to them. And they're definitely benefiting from that.
 

Interview with Holen (7:22)

J: Next up, we have Patrick Holen, director of the Issaquah high school band program. So Brandon and I have done some research on music education online, and it seems like accessibility is a big factor. Would you agree with that?

H: I would agree with that the accessibility piece, I would use the word equity, because being equitable with each student in the district, some students are going to have the awesome laptop, or they're gonna have what I have, I have an iMac at home. But if a kid has a Chromebook, and using a USB microphone that was manufactured in 2001, or whatever, it's not going to be the same quality. So it's kind of hard. That's kind of why we don't really do the virtual ensemble thing, because that's not going to be successful if we don't all have the same. And it's not gonna be fair to the students that don't have those things. 

J: Have you been using online tools actively to keep students engaged?

I assigned one just this week, which is an amazing resource of all these sight reading exercises and smart music. So if I give it to my ninth grade band, number three, and level four, whatever, and it's like 12 measures long, and they're putting on smart music, I say, don't focus on that focus on listening to the playback, which it has, listen to playback, play along with it with your earbuds in, which is fine, and then record yourself with another device like your smartphone. I'm very, very fortunate that a lot of my students have those that equipment, but they can record themselves playing it while looking at the computer and that they are given the opportunity to slow down the tempo if they want to, to create the best product they can. And that's the most important part. They can play something that they are proud of, and they could submit versus focusing on the technology telling what's wrong, because not a human being it's a computer, it's a computer telling them, hey, you did this wrong. And you're like, No, I did. Right. You know, it's that conflict that's not fair to the student that's sitting in their bedroom, trying to record something that they're supposed to submit to me, there's a little bit of a there's a little bit of a leeway there. 

J: So it sounds kind of like even though there's the negative side of having these issues of getting this technology, there still are the positives of people can really focus on their individual playing and try out pieces that maybe they would never play in a large ensemble. 

H: Right. And I have been programmed ever since I was a little kid that I’d join band. Well I have a concert here and a concert here. I'm constantly here that has all gone away. These students, all these students have no performances look forward to. So I'm finishing the 12th week of school and it took me that long to realize that I have to focus more on the individual student to make sure they're successful. They have good mental health background. So I check with them all the time mental health, they play their instruments at least minimum three days a week, because that's, you know, gotta keeps some kind of consistency. And it matches the best that I can think of, for the minimum for a band student to do in dealing with who knows how many AP courses they have, and how many other academic stuff they have going on. And number three is to give them a creative outlet. I just did a ringtone project this week where the students get to create their own ringtone. And then we're going to have a little ringtone tournament where each ensemble is going to vote for the best by using the March Madness bracket, you know, analogy of all these bring tones competing against each other and choosing one winner. And then we'll have a final four amongst all four classes. So that's definitely as you can imagine, is generating a little buzz with the students. And that's what we need right now we need that kind of morale booster. And it gets them engaged. And that's probably the most challenging thing is to keep students engaged in this environment. 

J: How do you think COVID has been affecting different types of students? 

H: There are almost like three kinds of student music students: there are the students that just want to be there because they love the camaraderie, there the in between students who practice a little bit they maybe do WIBIC or Allstate or something like that. Maybe once in their career, you have those kids. And then you have the third type of kid that is all in like, I'm gonna learn 5000 instruments, and I'm gonna write a symphony and develop like, yeah, like there's, there's a high octane kids, and most of them are in evergreen. But anyway, so that's kind of like the three students. So I think the third student that I mentioned, are probably flourishing right now. Because they have already ingrained in themselves, the practice all the time mentality, and going forward to have is already been there. I'm worried about the first and second students because thee see the middle students definitely turning in their assignments doing a good job of that. Yeah, that's happening. The first student I mentioned, I think they are struggling to keep up.

J: Regarding connecting with students on their mental health and well being, do you think that it's been easier or more difficult?

H: Difficult, absolutely difficult. I was just talking about this this week, I've been talking about it with my wife and with other students. Let me describe a normal, like rehearsal time, I would have, and you would probably remember, this is like, even if I'm sitting in my office, or if I'm walking into the band or band orchestra room, if I get on the podium, and I'm having a rehearsal, and I see something wrong with a clarinet player, I can get off the podium and go fix the problem, whatever and get back on. I can stand at the door or say bye to people or going through a student come to me and ask me questions that I answer right away, and boom, we're done. None of that is happening right now. It is hard to know. And I'm sure we experienced not many screens are on. And that's a problem with me. I would say on minimum out of a class of 65 students, I may have three or four screens on. And I've talked about with the students in it. And it's like talking to a brick wall. Sometimes I just don't know what's going on aside, it goes back to equity. And I think it's fair to know that it's like, when you were a high school student, if you're a freshman, how often did your friends come over and hang out in your room? Probably not many times. It's just not what you normally do. So of course, you're going to keep the cameras off. You know, I have very colorful stuff happening behind me you got some Funko Pop characters up and I'm trying to make the background interesting. But it's because I'm a teacher I have to be on the screen. Right I have to be here I have to be engaged I have to be engaging with them, but they don't have to because they don't need to. On their hand, being a teacher, it's hard for me to check in with them if I don't see them. And the best I can do is want to take attendance and I asked Johnny “yeah here”, you know, they just they that's all I hear that's that's all I hear is just a voice right? And I tried to be creative with it. But I mean, it's it's a challenge man, I don't know I'm that's why I'm concerned about them. And I tell them that every week that I'm concerned about them, and if that gets them what they need, I'm in and I'll just keep on doing it until, until I you know think it's done, but it's not gonna be done. I'm gonna keep on doing it. I said I'm, I'm going to be the annoying band dad from now until the school year. Whether you like it or not, I'm here. And I gotta say, especially with our my students, I would say the attendance. Everyone shows up almost 95% of the students show up every day. So they are there to click on the link to the zoom meeting and we're ready to go. So I feel honored to be their teacher because they're showing up. 

Conclusion (14:51)

B: Thank you once again to both Mr. Holland and Miss white sacker for your time. It's comforting to know that despite the grievances of music education during COVID the both of you are working so hard to make an outstanding musical experience for your students. 

J: And thank you everyone for listening to this episode of Dolce con fuoco. Be sure to tune in to our next episode once it's released.

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