My Classroom
Once upon a time, schools in the entire nation shut down. Everyone suddenly learned about this thing called "virtual." Mass panic from teachers everywhere. However, I was the strange one. I liked the idea of a challenge. I loved making up online lessons and teaching in a new way.
This project was the result of the summer of 2020. We were being asked at my school to teach online using a LMS that was not intended for Elementary Music at all. I got creative with sways, writable PDFs, basically anything and everything. I saw a Facebook post with someone's virtual classroom. I was drawn to the idea and obsessively worked on my own to get ready for the next school year.
Below is that work. The site itself is still functional, though not used anymore as my school has blocked Google. Some of the links may be dead, as they often change. This was all designed with Google.
Welcome to My Classroom! Have a look around!
Click the classroom to enter!
The thought process:
The initial research in this was literally, how does this work and what do my kids need.
I knew that many of my kids were stuck at home, and had been for months. I wanted this classroom to be surprising, slightly game-like, and functional for what we do. I intentionally did not label items in the room, as I wanted them to explore and be surprised. I added and subtracted from the room. I changed the entire room around for seasons. Each grade had different themes and little inside jokes. For example...my kids know I LOVE pirates. I joke that I moved to Florida just for the pirates. One grade had a pirate room.
Here is the tour. The microphone leads to a singing room, where I put new singing lessons and songs every couple of weeks. There is a dance room, an orchestra room, a game room, and a fully functional virtual instrument room. There is also a library, which contained books we were using in class.
Virtual Instrument Room
Orchestra Room
Dance Room
Game Room
Virtual Instruments
This page, a sub page of the virtual instruments, is fully interactive. All the bells work. I would put songs up every few weeks and kids could play.
A need was to keep kids playing music, and I didn't have a way to get packets home. This was the solution.
The results of this project were overall positive. I learned a lot about designing for kids, who honestly knew more than their parents most of the time. We used this classroom a lot in the course of the school year. I was able to use it to post lessons, videos, homework, and whatever else I needed.