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One of the challenges I have been working on overcoming this year, is being the 8th music teacher some of my students have had in their educational career.  We have been working on building trust, and the students are beginning to see that I have every intention to stay and help rebuild this amazing music program.

A success is having my students completely off book, songs completely memorized and choreographed two months until their show opens. Students are developing their characters more and having a blast!:)

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A challenge is teaching a rigorous music appreciation plus performance class designed for high school students with a range of musical backgrounds, from total beginner to experienced sight reader. So differentiating and designing activities with a wide range of responses has been a design factor. A success is in how enthusiastic, thoughtful, and well-versed in different genres / styles of music my students are. Since they chose to take my class perhaps they're more inherently open to new music and came in interested and educated, but it's still been a treat to work with them.

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The peer assessments were used as more of a guiding tool for the students to see what they may focus on within their artwork. Donnor told the students that they may choose to not take their partner's suggestions and focus on what they felt needed more work.

A potential challenge could be found within the guidelines of the peer assessment.  If they are not structured and practiced within the class, students could take to bullying within their peer assessments, causing their partner to close themselves off creatively.
A way to modify this would be to practice as a class giving peer assessments so that students know what to expect.  I would use this possible template below for students:

"Describe two elements your partner did well within their project, then give one "wish" that you feel they could improve on for next time."

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The assessment tool I want to try in my classroom is adding more writing to describe or analyze the music we are working on. Music speaks to each of us differently, and creates a different story in our minds. It gives my students another way to use their musical vocabulary, and tell the story they are visualizing. Adding that other creative outlet will help strengthen students writing across all subject matters.

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Donnor's video does show student testimonial that peer feedback was helpful, but some of the sticky note comments may not have been as helpful to a 4th grade artist.  Be more unique!  Brighter colors!  Peer assessments bring social dynamics into the picture; even when using a rubric, students may try to soft-pedal some comments to avoid hurting feelings, or get a dig in on a student they don't get along with.  I did appreciate that the teacher encouraged students to take both their self-created assessment and external feedback and evaluate which was more helpful.  If I were to modify this strategy I think that rather than suggesting students leave advice I'd ask them to "notice" specific instances of the learning goals:  reference to source material, realism, fine details, and evidence of control of materials.  In 4th grade language of course!

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I really want to explore written responses in my own work and in the mentoring work I do with other arts teachers at my school. I love the integration of language into arts, both as input (great articles and other readings) and output in writing and presentations.

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Working with "at risk" teen, it is challenging for them to see the value of music, and why they might want to pick up an instrument and play it. Most just want to do there core classes and get a job to cover their elective credit, but none the less, I have started a guitar class.

Success:
One of my students taking the guitar class father plays the guitar. He doesn't really get along with his father. After a couple weeks of classes he can now play a few songs. I asked him, "What does your old man think about you playing the guitar?" He smiled and said, "He loves it. We jam on the cords almost every day."

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I would like to integrate geometry into an art history class. Students can explore how to draw perfect shapes us Euclid's Elements and Leonardo Da Vinci's ray in mirrors. This will allow the students to access some of the great artist from history, understand how they developed  these techniques, replicate their techniques, and compare and contrast what the students created. This will advance the students understand of how geometry works using something tangible, and open doors for them to explore other artist in history.

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Jumping into a music teaching position half way through the year has been a challenge of its own, but more than that I have been trying to find the most effective way to teach first year band students in the same classroom as experienced players since my school is unable to have separate classes for the differing levels. A success I have enjoyed since starting this position would be encompassed within a simple statement made by a student. She said, "Wow, I feel like we have really improved!" To hear a student say this to herself and her ensemble mates is rewarding because she is feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride in their hard work and, yes, they really have improved so much!

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I believe her use of peer assessments was very effective. It appears to me that they must have had some type of front loading before taking part in this process because the students all seemed to communicate well and receive suggestions productively. The key to peer assessment is in the training or guidance that takes place as you build up to it. I believe the skill of peer assessing should be treated as a learning objective and you must scaffold learning targets before letting them practice it fully on their own in order to be effective. There needs to be a high level of trust and "professionalism" (sorry, I cannot think of a better word right now!) between the students. If this skill is not taught to students there is the risk of cruel language instead of constructive criticism, fear of expressing what they really think because they do not know how to say it, resistance to suggestions because they do not understand how to receive it, and a lack of taking it seriously because they are working with a friend or someone they do not like. I believe this would be difficult to do in junior high unless a great deal of practice and discussion takes place first. One idea for modification that comes to mind would be to make comments anonymously, however, I believe it is important for students and all people to learn how to receive suggestions and have discussions that could be uncomfortable. I would definitely spend time building up to using peer assessments in my classroom.

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I have very recently begun to use self-assessments in my middle school band classroom. It is still a work in progress as I am learning what they best implementation of this tool will be. I am trying this because I want to instill a sense of responsibility in the students for their success in class. In middle school I have had a number of behavior challenges with students which sometimes will put the entire collaborative learning process to a halt. I am hoping to find a way with self-assessments to bring a realization to students that band is cooperative and our success has a large individual component that effects the whole. Self-assessment will also help students reflect on what they are doing well and instill pride in their accomplishments.

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I felt Donner's peer and self assessment is very worthwhile, as students are creating the benchmark that they themselves will have to recreate.  They are learning the skills and knowledge needed to complete the assignment, and then they are able to complete the project as they would like to, using the rubric and examples as a guide.  One does have to be careful, though, as students can be harsh to one another.  I like to guide them with prompts like "name one thing x is doing well on, and one thing that x could improve on."  I think it is important for students to point out the positive in things as well as what needs to be worked on.

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I felt Donner's peer and self assessment is very worthwhile, as students are creating the benchmark that they themselves will have to recreate.  They are learning the skills and knowledge needed to complete the assignment, and then they are able to complete the project as they would like to, using the rubric and examples as a guide.  One does have to be careful, though, as students can be harsh to one another.  I like to guide them with prompts like "name one thing x is doing well on, and one thing that x could improve on."  I think it is important for students to point out the positive in things as well as what needs to be worked on.

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I would like to incorporate using rubrics as an assessment tool for all aspects of our programs: individuals, small groups, and the entire ensemble.  It can be kind of a living document that updates overtime as progress is being made over the course of one piece.  

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I would like to incorporate using rubrics as an assessment tool for all aspects of our programs: individuals, small groups, and the entire ensemble.  It can be kind of a living document that updates overtime as progress is being made over the course of one piece.  

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I agree with my colleagues who felt that this could be tricky. Having students who are at the same level as you offer advice could prove to be very difficult.  I teach high school choir and theatre and I feel like many students I know would just shut down and some would be harsh to those who they felt to be in competition with.  I have used a similar approach with my theatre class, asking 2 or 3 experienced, fair, and trustworthy students to be my "assistants" and offer performance notes.  This has worked well for me as long as I know the students are capable and considerate.

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I agree with my colleagues who felt that this could be tricky. Having students who are at the same level as you offer advice could prove to be very difficult.  I teach high school choir and theatre and I feel like many students I know would just shut down and some would be harsh to those who they felt to be in competition with.  I have used a similar approach with my theatre class, asking 2 or 3 experienced, fair, and trustworthy students to be my "assistants" and offer performance notes.  This has worked well for me as long as I know the students are capable and considerate.

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I agree with my collegaues that this coulf

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I agree with my collegaues that this coulf

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I agree with my collegaues that this coulf 

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I agree with my collegaues that this coulf 

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I love to use rubrics in all of my classes because it is a concrete, tangible way for students to see what they're aiming for.  I use them in conjunction with peer evaluation at things like choral music festivals where all of my choir students have a rubric by which they can evaluate other groups throughout the day.

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I love to use rubrics in all of my classes because it is a concrete, tangible way for students to see what they're aiming for.  I use them in conjunction with peer evaluation at things like choral music festivals where all of my choir students have a rubric by which they can evaluate other groups throughout the day.

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One challenge, that I have not figured out, is how to appropriately hold students musically accountable. In my band and choir classes, for example, some students are sliding by and getting that "easy A". I know there is the use of google classroom for performance tests but when I don't have a student computer in my classroom, it's hard to require the students to upload playing/singing tests. Testing them one by one takes too much time, 2 days to be exact, and if I do group tests, I find myself singling out that same student over and over. I need to figure out a way to have these students be able to submit a google classroom playing assignment if they don't have access to a phone or computer with internet.

A success I had this year was pushing those students who were excelling and getting some into honor bands. Next year I intend to take choir students as well to set an example to their peers. The students come back with positive things to share and make it seem enticing.

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When I was a young student, I didn't fully use the provided rubric for assignments. The peer assessments allow students to receive feedback to keep them on track of producing a quality product. There is the risk of the peers saying something too general like "Be more unique" but hopefully it is focusing the student on the quality of their work. I do appreciate Donnor telling students that if they wanted to focus on something else than the peer's comments they could.

Students don't always take the practice of peer assessments seriously. It would be very effective in advanced classes. There would need to be a significant amount of time on how to be and positive, constructive, supportive peer.

I could really see this strategy used in responses to student recordings. In the perfect world where all students can upload assigned musical passages to google classroom, other students could give constructive criticism on how to better that passage. It can also be something that is done during sectionals where students individually play passages, and the other give constructive criticism.

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I would really like to establish the use of self/peer assessments in my classroom. I would use it in small groups, like sections, and have students play assigned musical passages. I typically have students play in front of me, but it takes too much time. My band's section leaders can give the same general feedback that I would, if not better on an instrument I am not the best at. While they receive the peer assessment, they can do a self assessment and compare. It could open their ears to something they haven't heard before. I've been doing my method for the last 4 years and I think it's time to change things.