early childhood education Finding Joy Through Music
During the COVID-19 Pandemic Corynn Nordstrom, WMEA State Chair, Early Childhood Education
For our youngest musicians, music is synonymous with joy. My current teaching assignment is traveling with a cart from classroom to classroom, teach- ing face-to-face kin- dergarten through
second graders music without singing, manipulatives or instruments. Despite these restrictions, I am met with cheers and smiles when I “push in” to classrooms. Kindergarten students regularly tell me that I “am just the best music teacher ever” (while the classroom teacher who is working in their room and I wink at
one another, as we both know I am their ONLY music teacher ever.) Just last week, a student extended her arms out wide and proclaimed to all her friends, “Isn’t au- diating the best?” When my fully virtual or quarantined learners log in to Google Meet, their serious faces transform into big smiles that reach their eyes when they see and hear me singing a hello song and playing my ukulele. They move and dance and sing with me. Our littlest learners love music, no matter when, where or how.
Let’s rewind to the beginning of the school year. This is the first year I have ever taught “on a cart,” and certainly the only year where I could not sing for, with or listen to my students sing during in-person
music class. After my first morning of teaching in classrooms, I returned to the empty music room with my cart and cried. Singing is one of my most important tools in teaching music, but more so, it’s how I “love on” my students. As the weeks have gone by, though, I’ve noticed that despite not being able to sing in class or see remote learners in person, my students continue to be enthusiastic and engaged. We audiate and move and play, and I found a slight workaround: I regularly record videos of myself singing to my students. Although I daily regret not being able to sing in per- son or without a lag during Google Meet, there are creative ways around not sing- ing together and providing students with musical experiences that bring them joy.
DE P A R TMEN T
music.edgewood.edu D E G R E E S
Music • Music Education • Music Media & Production Music Promotion & Industry
P E R F O R M A N C E O P P O R T U N I T I E S Concert Band, Jazz, Orchestras, Choirs, Guitar Ensemble
and West African & Middle Eastern Drumming
F I N E A R T S S C H O L A R S H I P S Music scholarships offered to deserving students regardless of major.
Go to
music.edgewood.edu for audition information. For more information: Beatriz Aguilar •
baguilar@edgewood.edu • 608.663.3442 14 January 2021
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