I got the opportunity to visit Elizabeth's 5th period orchestra class today.  I have never had 75 students under my instruction at one time and I am awestruck at Elizabeth's ability to focus the group so quickly.  As soon as she started speaking, eyes were on her, students were quiet and focused, and I did not observe any students on their cell phones.  It was pretty amazing.

It was clear that Elizabeth put in a lot of time developing the lesson with Tim Koziak.  She had grouped the students, created a Schoology file for the activity, and provided a slide-show presentation so students could follow along with the lesson objectives. 

Elizabeth began the lesson by telling students that they would be doing something a little different in class today.  She went over lesson objectives and rationale for the activity.  She proceeded to guide students through an immersion activity that asked students to match a section of music from a piece called "Jupiter" to a 3D video segment from Google Cardboard or other 3D platform.  The goal was for students to make a visual connection to the music (not just the music notes on a page).  Very cool! 

Each group uploaded their video and music segment to their group Schoology file which allowed different groups to share their experience.  Like I said, very cool.

Thanks to Elizabeth for allowing me to visit her class today.  I really enjoyed it.

Thank you so much for attending yesterday!  It was wonderful to have you there.  Thank you also for your incredibly kind words.  It is quite the experience to have a rehearsal with 75 people and has certainly taken time to get used to running.  I will be following up on yesterday's lesson during tomorrow's rehearsal and hope to make a stronger connection between the students and the music.  Quite a bit was learned yesterday by both the students and myself!

Thank you, again!

Elizabeth