Songleading in Your Online Classroom: Steps to Success!

Want to lead a short, productive, inclusive and joyful music experience in your online classroom? This How-To blog will help you make the process simple and goof-proof.

Leading your students in a song online each day can bring them together, establishing a sense of belonging, happiness and normalcy. Done the GITC way, each student can participate, feeling valued and “heard” while hearing others. Together, your students can collaborate and support each other to create something enjoyable. In the face of disruptions, bad news and stress at home, this can do a world of good. You can be the bringer of this goodness. 

Bye-Bye, Perfection. None of us are trying to win a contest. We are teachers and we want to bring music to our students. They are so eager to make music, they appreciate our efforts.
So let's relax, have fun, and show the kids we can all make music. They need it. They need you to lead it. 

Having the courage to strum and sing on camera will model creative risk taking for them, and will build your skills. You can ask the students for encouragement, be open and honest, and then take the plunge! Remember to mute them while you are leading so you can concentrate. Then unmute them selectively to check for understanding and facilitate class discussions. 

Your students will need to learn online classroom ground rules and etiquette just like they do at school. Without being in the same physical space, and with tech at their fingertips, they need to know what is and is not okay, how to get your attention appropriately, how to respond to peers. This is all preliminary learning. We hope someone writes a song about this! Taking time to establish the order of communication operations will help so much in this regard.

Going easy on yourself and them emotionally is important because stressors are high, so rules matter but putting them across with love will work wonders. Right now students need to connect, breathe, find their friends and relax together. Teaching academic content through songs gets easier once students feel seen, heard, safe and connected. So let’s start making music to lower stress and achieve social-emotional wellness. Once this is established, content learning can happen. We’ll get to that in a future blog.

​This first GITC blog will lay-out a simple process with clear, sequential instructions to unite your students through song. To assure you songleading success and help you as the online tech “pilot” our team has created this list to steps and tips so you might have a smooth experience. We recommend following the steps in order.

                                                 STEP ONE, TACKLE YOUR TECH

Like any online teaching, the first step is to know your online platform. Learning can only happen when tech is working for everyone. You will want to be able to accomplish many things well before you have to "pilot the ship."












​LEARN TO SET IT UP  Know how to set up your meeting. Do you want to use a secret password and share it with invitees? Can you lock down your online session to exclude any surprise unwanted visitors? Does your platform have break-out rooms for student groups to meet? Do you have screen sharing or a white board? Think ahead to what tools you will want to use, and take the time to get this in place. Only then, send your invitation out.                     
​FINE TUNE YOUR OWN CAMERA AND MIC. Have a look on your own computer screen to make sure your students will be able to see your face, hands and musical instrument and to hear your voice.                     

​​TRY OUT YOUR VISUAL and AUDIO TOOLS If you are teaching on a platform that does not allow you to share your screen and you are working on a PC, we recommend installing and setting up open source software OBS Studio. It gives you a nice range of visual options. Practice screen sharing between a song chart/lyric sheet on your screen, and you. The students will benefit from seeing both. If you cannot screen share, ask a parent to assist you by putting the song chart up on THEIR screen. 
 

• PRACTICE STARTING A SESSION and admitting participants.
• Is there a WAITING ROOM? Know how to allow them to ENTER the online classroom.  
• Make sure you know how to coach participants to raise and lower their volume, make your screen full sized, and how to ask a question.
• Are there BREAK OUT ROOMS? Learn how those work. How do people move back and forth?
• Learn to use the CHAT and hand raising function so students can communicate with you and each other quietly when needed.
• FIND OUT HOW TO MUTE AND UNMUTE EVERYONE and how to help them mute and unmute themselves. You will need these muting skills to lead music. When you lead a song, all students should be muted so they only hear themselves and you/your recording.     
• Why? LATENCY is a problem with group singing online. Some computers transmit sound faster than others. If students are allowed to sing or play at the same time, it won’t sound like a choir. It will be messy. This is okay as an experiment but allowing it to go on unchecked can prohibit musical learning by causing distractions. ​
• PRACTICE ONLINE WITH A FRIEND Run a tech session with a colleague so you can both practice on your platform before you use it with others. It helps to be comfortable with the tech before you have to teach others to use it.                                      
• GATHER THE PARENTS FIRST It is best to get parents fully prepared in advance to help their children so they and their kids don’t become impatient or frustrated under pressure. Parents will also need invitations and time to plan to be there with their students. Your correspondence or phone calls will help students be able to participate.
• Most platforms we know do best when opened in Google Chrome. Let parents know early on! Some will need your support to choose the right equipment, possibly get a headset, select a mic, camera and then upload your platform with the best Internet browser.

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                                                                        STEP TWO:
          PLAN YOUR MUSIC SESSION! CHOOSE HOW and WHEN TO INCLUDE MUSIC.

Think about the role you want music to play. Will you open class with a song? Finish with one? Or insert a song partway into a lesson to enrich the learning experience? This will help you choose songs and time the music making.

Leading even 5 minutes of music makes a very significant difference for students in their mood, motivation and self confidence So what will you need to get ready?
 
                                                        BEGIN WITH A WELCOME SONG

Select a familiar participatory song to welcome students. We recommend a name song or a song the children know that makes them happy.  Whatever you choose, let it be one you know well enough to get through without forgetting.

• Leading the same welcome song each time helps establish a familiar routine for students. Not only will the song lift their spirits, the dependability will set up solid expectations and give students a chance to master that song in all of its details. Recommended songs include:
• “Get On Board!” Sing each student’s name in order to include everyone. The students’ names are usually visible under their images.
• In a small group (5 or fewer students) this song allows you to sing to one student per verse by repeating their name 3 times.  Your students will catch on and sing their name by the 2nd or 3rd time. 
• In a mid to large-size group (6 or more students) this song allows you to sing 3 names in one verse. Clearly call out the name of the 3 students before each verse so your class can join in. Relying on singing according to the images on your screen helps.
• ¿Cómo te llamas? (What’s Your Name?) from the GITC AMIGO Songbook is composed to the tune of “Shortenin’ Bread.”  It also allows you to sing to each student AND to have them sing their name back to the class.                                        

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​                                              PREPARE A QUICK RHYTHM WARM UP

Use clapping patterns to get kids listening to your instructions and tuning into playing together. Initiate a series of short clapping patterns and after each one, cue the students to copy you. Play them with a faster or slower tempo. Next give individual students a turn to lead a clapping pattern and have their peers copy them. The students will enjoy seeing each other and interacting this way together.

                                              CHOOSE A SPECIAL SONG TO SHARE 

This song can be something new or something familiar. Find one you feel fairly confident in singing and strumming. Simple is okay. Or you may want to teach a new song!

• First, consider what you hope students will experience or take away from singing the song. This will help you lead with purpose and open a discussion afterward.
• You can access the GITC songbooks at https://www.GITCteachers.org.  On the homepage, please click on the Online Learning portal to find a nice variety of easy songs. 
• Introducing a new song? Please play whole song for students first and show the lyrics. Then break it down a line at a time so everyone can copy you and learn by repetition. This builds auditory memory.
• If you are not feeling confident enough to lead the song, you can usually find a video of most children’s songs on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/
• You may even be able to find an audio recording of the song in our Recordings portal if it is something from one of the songbooks. We are working on adding more.
• Before the lesson, please prep a lyric sheet the students can read, and if you are going to ask them to write new lyrics together, you can also give them a fill-in-the-blank style version of the lyric sheet where they can see where to insert their ideas. We have plenty of fill-in-the-blank style lyric sheets in folder in the Online Learning portal, or you can make your own.
• Have paper and pencil ready to jot down any thoughts that come up during the lesson. With all your tech running, it’s easier to record thoughts the old fashioned way.

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                                                       HOLD YOUR MUSIC TIME

• Do as little or as much as you want to. 
• Start the session unmuted so children can connect
• If students have guitars or ukes, be sure they are in tune before you begin.
• Ready to begin? Explain that you are going to be muting everyone so they can hear you.
• Demonstrate how latency causes problems by having everyone attempt to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame at the same time.” This will bring laughter and also get the point across!
• MUTE ALL. Explain they should be able to hear you and themselves. 
• Give students a clear description of what they are going to be doing for music. Also lay down rules for friendliness and positive comments.
• Introduce, strum and sing the welcome song together. It’s best to break the tasks down. Some students will only want to sing. Others might want to drum or strum. Still others might dance! 
• Begin by counting in a steady beat, “1-2-ready-strum…” Even if only one child has a uke, it still helps.
• When the strumming is established, count your singers in with “1-2-ready-sing.” 
• Secret trick to singing in tune- count in on the song’s first singing note. Your students will sing more tunefully if you do.
• If something isn’t sounding right, it is totally fine to start over.
• If you would like to give individual students a chance to sing a solo, unmute one child at a time so they can sing/play while others listen.
• When the song is over, discuss what students felt about it. Is there something that could be better? Sing it AGAIN!
• Move on to the rhythm activity, then the new song.
• At the end take time to check in with students about what surprised them, what they liked, and if there are any ideas on ways to change the song. This could lead to songwriting next time!
• End by giving students a chance to reflect on something they did that they feel good about. They don’t need to share what that is, but it helps them to be invited to do so. You can also invite them to give others complements. (Remember to unmute!)
• Finally, invite students to prepare their own song to share online during a future class. You will all be pleasantly surprised at what students already know how to do. 

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