Category: Curriculum Design
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What I’m learning from… Supporting a young person with autism and DCD (dyspraxia) in a mainstream full class setting
The ultimate discovery happened 3 days ago. Having struggled so much with the seemingly impossible ‘tapping in time to a regular pulse’, this student can now accurately tap complex rhythms using dotted notes, syncopation and triplets with perfect timing, with their left hand, with right hand and with both hands together!! Now that is beyond…
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What I learned from… Kahoot! with Live Drum Kit
This week I used that same function to be able to demonstrate a live drum kit example while they thought about each question – also giving time for students to discuss their answers and even come up to the front of class to look more closely at what was happening on the drum kit from…
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Welcome to Manor Music City – Updated Nov 2022
Manor has had a long tradition of high quality music education, but following a period of reflection during Covid-times when practical music making has not been possible in schools, it has created space to redesign how our subject works in the life of the school. This new model places musical experience and understanding at the…
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Celebrating 10 years of progress to understand how to help all young people to make confident progress in music.
To mark this 10th Anniversary of developments, I’ve decided to share the lockdown work of one of my year 10 students. I’m so grateful to the family for giving permission for the work to be shared. This is an amazing example of the musical learning and creation that’s been possible during the 8 weeks of…
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How to make a Virtual Worship Band Video (updated)
Loads of people have been in touch to ask how I’ve been creating our People’s Virtual Orchestra and Virtual Worship Band videos, so this article is a step-by-step, behind-the-scenes description. The process itself is fairly simple, but there are some key considerations to reach a good outcome for your players and singers.
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Part 2: Teaching Music in Isolation: A deeper, real-world reflection into lockdown: Finding a new ‘Extra Curricular’
Despite this deeply negative time, from that 2nd rehearsal did come an idea, like a small shoot of a spring flower appearing as a symbol of hope after a harsh winter. We decided together that rhythm and pulse could not be followed in real-time. So rather than focusing on things that were not possible, we…
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Part 1. Teaching Music in Isolation: A deeper, real-world reflection into lockdown
In this lockdown, I’ve experienced students of all levels of ability developing skills of independence in their learning. So I know the materials I’ve provided are helpful for all abilities, but maybe this is a great time to return to more study-skill type activities. There’s still nothing I can do if a student chooses to…
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Remote Learning Update: Understanding this new approach to school from the student’s perspective
The reaction when the call first connected was wonderful – like old friends meeting again after a long absence (even though it’s unbelievably only a week since we had a lesson at school). We cannot underestimate the importance of communicating with our students – even if it is just to say ‘hello’.
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Remote Music Lessons for Y7-8. Status: EVERYTHING WORKS AND IT'S AWESOME!!
I write to you with tremendous excitement. Not only are things up and running in our quest to ‘continue music education during the Coronavirus outbreak’, but many many young people are now actively involved in music creation across the country as a result and already the standard is incredible! Here’s this week’s remote work. If…
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What does remote music learning look like?
… this is my year 7 and 8 work for next week. I’m testing it with y7 and 8 music lessons all day tomorrow – I’ll post findings from testing. Students tomorrow will be challenged to act as though they’re at home on their own, rather than in front of me.
Music Teacher Solutions 