In this episode of UEN Homeroom, Dani and Matt are joined by Marianne Johansen (Principal Majestic Elementary), Katie Hejazi-Far (Educator Jordan District) & Kodey Hughes (Juab District & Superintendents of Rock). Listen to learn about music education's benefits to student learning and get expert tips on incorporating music in your classroom.
In this episode of UEN Homeroom, Dani and Matt are joined by Marianne Johansen (Majestic Elementary), Katie Hejazi-Far & Kodey Hughes (Juab & Superintendents of Rock). Listen to learn about music education's benefits to student learning and get expert tips on incorporating music in your classroom.
Majestic Arts Elementary: https://majestic.jordandistrict.org/
Music Education Resources
Utah State Board of Education Elementary Songbook: https://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/finearts/elementarysongbook
The Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program: http://btsarts.org/
BYU Arts Learning Program: https://education.byu.edu/arts/BTS_artslearning
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[MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, Dani.
Hey, Matt. How's it going?
I am so excited to talk to people about music today.
Music, I know this about you, is one of your favorite topics. And then you put music and education together, I don't know how you're keeping it together right now.
Seriously, it's a hard thing to do, but this is a hard job, but I will do it. I'm very excited to talk about music, talking about arts education, talking about music education. It's some of my favorite topics because I love bringing music into the classrooms. Particularly in my old English classroom, it was one of my favorite things.
Were you playing lots of instruments for your ELA students.
No, because I can't play an instrument or sing worth anything, but I--
You're just an admirer.
I love records, and I love DJ-ing and things like that. And so I'm excited to talk about music education and arts education with three levels of educators today. We've got a superintendent. We have a school admin, and we have a classroom teacher today, which I love that spectrum of education.
We do, and we are so lucky to have with us today Superintendent Kodey Hughes, classroom teacher Katie Hejazi-Farr, and principal Marianne Johansen. Let's listen in.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Dani, I know you're a veteran of Edcamps.
I am an Edcamp veteran.
What is an Edcamp?
So great question. An Edcamp is an unconference. So it is a day that you show up with other educators. There is no schedule, no agenda, just a crazy person running around behind the scenes to make everything happen. And then you go there, and you decide what topics you want to talk about, and then there's usually a very motivational keynote. And while that keynote is happening, people are behind the scenes making the schedule, and then you get to spend the whole day talking with other educators about things that are important to you.
It's amazing professional development.
It is.
It's completely free. And this year, we have a great Edcamp down in Southern Utah on February 4 at Desert Hills Middle School. It's from 8:00 to 3:00 PM, and we have a great keynote from a Utah teacher fellow named Ryan Rarick.
Amazing. And what a great time to be going down to the southern part of our state, nice and toasty warm down there in February.
Exactly. And if you're interested in joining us there, check out more information on ucet.org.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right, to kick us off, we want to know a little bit about your background in education. Introduce yourself, and then maybe tell us why music is such an essential part of any learning experience. Kodey, do you want to start us off?
Sure. Well, Kodey Hughes, I actually have quite an extensive background in music. It's kind of put me where I am today. I started out as a young kid in a rural community that was given a trumpet by a neighbor, and she said, hey, do you want this? We were cleaning out a closet one time, and I said sure, what is it? And next thing I know, I'm in fifth grade band.
And from there, just great experiences that paved the path, opportunities to go to college. And next thing I know, I want to teach. I want to be like that cool band teacher that I had. And it just blossomed into different things, and then it was being a principal and then a superintendent and so on and so forth. So my journey with music has been pretty powerful for myself.
And it's affected my life in every single way, shape, or form. My wife and I met in a jazz band in college, and all three of our kids have names-- my daughter, my oldest daughter's name is Cadence. She's our musical cadence. My second daughter is Key. She's our piano keys. And my son is Chord-- three makes a chord. And so those are our kids.
And that's-- my life has been-- is completely-- it's been influenced by music from the start. And as a superintendent, stepping away as an administrator, it was really hard. As a matter of fact, when I was the superintendent in [INAUDIBLE] School District, I was the superintendent there for 10 years. And I was the only superintendent in the state that taught, and I taught three band classes, and then I was the superintendent on top of that.
And I would say, holistically, that was the best three hours of my day. It was not the superintendent part of the job. With that, though, things change, and moving forward, and now I'm the superintendent in Juab. It's a larger district, so I don't have that. I don't have that opportunity as I did before, nor do I think I could have maintained it. 10 years was a long time to be managing a band program from-- I was at a beginning band in fifth and sixth grade all the way up to the seniors.
And so those three classes kept me very busy, and I was spinning a lot of plates. And the funny thing is, the plates that I was most concerned about dropping were those kids in that class. And so that brings perspective into things still, but I equate it all the way back to our elementary schools. If you think about what we do in elementary education, holistic learning and student progression, student retention, oh, my gosh. We tie everything to music.
I mean, mothers tie it to their babies, and then we tie it to numeracy. Then we tie it to reading. We tie it to-- it's how we think about phonemic awareness. Everything that we tie into our own language, there's a fundamental source of music in there. And so it's a complement and a construct that really develops learners. And when you asked me that question, I really think to the elementary side of things.
And then later on, we look at how motivation and instructional design for teachers, great teachers. All these teachers, remember, they're the teachers that threw music into their classrooms or they used it part of those quizzes. Or, hey, we're going to take a brain break, and we just flip on some AC/DC. I don't know what it is, but it's-- just there's no boundary. It's just, it's endless. I think, in the world of education, especially from the context of being a music teacher and now being an administrator. So I don't know if that answers the question, but there you go.
Thank you, Kodey. What about you, Katie? Introduce yourself. I'm Katie Hejazi Farr. I am an elementary music educator in Jordan School District. I work under the Beverly Taylor Sorenson umbrella, and I have been a band person my entire life. I'm pretty sure I came out of the womb playing music, and I'm the only musical person in my family, which is crazy.
So I'm kind of the black sheep of my family, but funny thing is I decided to go to college for-- everybody laughs at this, but for forensic science because I loved CSI, and I failed miserably at that. But what I did do was I joined band the second I was a freshman in college to get friends and be involved and keeping with my musical experiences. And I ended up being first chair oboe in front of full ride music scholarship students.
So when I was failing miserably at being a CSI major, I-- a bunch of people highly encouraged that I go into music. And I was like, well I don't want to be a performer. I don't want to be a performance major. I want to go into education, and they were like, OK, and I was like, I'll dabble in it and see if I'm good at it. And I excelled so much in college, and so I knew I found my calling.
I felt so lucky because not a lot of people get to have this feeling about knowing that they're in the right spot. So I finished college. I went immediately into elementary education, and I taught four years at a Title I elementary school in Virginia before moving to Utah. And I am now-- I've been a BTS educator now for, this is my fifth year in Utah as a BTS elementary music educator, and I'm so excited. And I love the program, and I love elementary music.
My answer to why music is an essential part of learning-- of the learning experience, just like Kodey said, bringing it back to the elementary level. I just think the arts in general are just very essential because I feel it engages a lot part of the brain that we don't get to engage a lot of the day with schoolwork. Just our brain, our body, like our emotions, and it lets us use those in different ways, and I believe that it really builds confidence and encourages like self exploration and self expression with my students.
And I notice that a lot with my little kids where they're like, oh, I didn't know I could sing. And I'm like, yeah. Yes, you can. Wow. You're so great. Or I'm really good at acting. I'm like, yeah, you are. You're very good. So that's my favorite part and why I think it's really essential.
So my background in education, I started-- my first teaching position I got mid-year, and I actually was a PE teacher and-- just for like a year and a half. And then I went into the classroom I taught sixth grade. I taught fifth grade. I taught third and fourth ESL.
The majority of my teaching experience has been in Title I schools. I also-- after I left having my own homeroom class, I became a district arts teacher for Granite, and I traveled to different schools throughout the district teaching all the art forms, which was a bit of a stretch for me since my background was primarily in music. And some teachers or some schools wanted visual art or wanted dance, or-- so I kind of had to reach to the edge of my comfort zone.
But I did that for four years before I jumped into administration which was not my favorite educational job until I was offered this position at Majestic Arts Academy, which is a district-sponsored school in Jordan District. It's a magnet school where we focus primarily on the arts and especially in music. So I've been taking piano since I was five years old.
I continued taking lessons until I went into administration, and so I have a lot of background with-- and then I also am vocally trained. So my background is primarily in piano and voice. Our school, we have two full time music teachers. My kindergarten through third grade students attend music every single day, and they are learning foundational music skills. My fourth through sixth grade students, I have a different teacher for them.
She is-- she actually plays in the 23rd Army Band, and she is a professional trombonist. And our band is actually pretty good. I'm not going to lie. When you hear them play, you're kind of like, that's an elementary band? Like they're pretty good, and they go every day for 45 minutes, and they each play their own instrument. And so they either play trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet, or percussion.
And I also have a full time art teacher. They see her twice a week, and I have a full time STEAM specialist who they see on the days that they don't go to art. My classroom teachers are also required to earn their Arts Integration Endorsements which means that the core curriculum in the classroom is taught using movement or visual art or music, some kind of art form, media arts, to increase that depth of knowledge and to help the students be engaged. And so I feel like I just live and breathe this question every day.
I feel like one of the biggest reasons that music is an essential part of any learning experience is because it involves the whole person. I'm not just-- I think a lot of times when we start going to education classes, we talk quite a bit about, oh, are they audio learners? Are they visual learners? Are they kinesthetic learners? And when you're involving the arts, it doesn't matter what kind of learner they are because you're involving all of those all the time. And so you're reaching more students. You're reaching a higher level of understanding for your students, and your engagement increases.
That's fantastic, and I appreciate that both of you are diving deeply into music education, something that's very close to my heart as well. Now I think it's a good time for our student question.
Hi. I'm Bryce from Layton High School, and what is your go-to karaoke song?
I-- this was a really easy answer for me because I feel like I get asked this question a lot. But "Don't Stop Believin'" is my go-to karaoke song because A, if you're nervous everybody sings with you. So it doesn't matter. And B, everybody knows the song, and it's just like always hype and fun. Everybody is like-- oh, yeah. So that's my favorite go-to karaoke song.
Mine actually is a little bit more old school than that. Mine's actually Chuck Berry's "Johnny Be Good." So just love the genre. It was something I remember hearing my grandparents play, and it was always one of those things. And my actual first karaoke journey was with that song, and it's-- I've done it many more times before-- since then. So it's just a favorite.
I love that song. We played that song in-- I went to West Virginia University, and that was in our pep band music. And it was always the favorite of the pep band to see how fast we could play like the beginning. [VOCALIZING] So I love that song.
So mine is Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer," hands down every time mostly because I have a 20-month-old daughter at home, and she owns the whoa, whoa part, and she will sing it on tune and on cue every time. So it's going to have to be that one.
Music people are just the best people. I just love talking to you guys. Our next question is that music is often touted as a way to increase brain activity and retention and learning in general. What are some ways that you've seen music help you learn in your life, and what about in the lives of your students?
I'll go first. So I'm going to talk my-- personally for myself, it was a huge release. So a little bit of background, when I-- I was a struggling reader back in elementary school and junior high school. And a lot of my frustration in life came from you're going to go to this class, Kodey. You're going to read a different book in English class than the class, and there's so many things that happen, I think.
I look at the challenges that our students are having now, and I try to equate that to my challenges, and I remember thinking so little of myself at times because of those stigmas or because of those challenges. And music itself was breaking away, going to the music class where I was-- I could shine. And so, one, it was a confidence builder saying, you know what, I may not be in the same book as you. But I can kick your butt at trumpet.
I can read my music, or I can create. So there was a social-emotional side of what music did for me, but then I'm going to fast forward to my adult life. And after you put all those stigmas behind what you're dealing with as a young person, and I'm going to even most as recently as just years ago when I was working in my doctoral program, I can't tell you how much music gave me peace.
All the things that we deal with in administration, all the things that you deal with in life in general as an adult, there is, in my own personal way, whether-- it really did help me with studying and preparing and staying just diligent with my doctoral work. But then also as a dad, as the weight of a parent, just as an individual, how much music is-- it is my way of my brain to just release and relax and to move forward and to just find that safe space.
So I've seen it really affect me two different ways in my life. For my students, though, what's amazing to see is that-- and I'm sure that Katie is going to have similar experiences, but there's nothing more powerful than seeing music-- the light kick on or the love of music that just captures a kid, and you're kicking them out of your classroom. Like, no, you need to go to class. You've got to get out of here. You've got to get to your next class.
I'm not going to take the heat for you and them just completely sucking it up, and you almost wish what's that spark? Can I get the kid to feel like that with math? And then having a conversation with the math teacher and saying, hey, you need to know that Jason really-- he digs this, and he needs this. And so if there's any way that you can use this in your classroom, boy, what a connection that can have.
And I've had those moments where a teacher says, you know what, I can work that in. And giving him a minute just to talk about their music or talk about this, and then all of a sudden the math class isn't this demilitarized zone. It really is this teacher gets me. They've had-- they know I love this, and so I've seen the music influence where it breaks down barriers with some of their other content areas. And sometimes it's a teacher saying let's put on some music, and I've encouraged that throughout my time. But those are two different experiences.
Kodey took the words right out of my mouth. We can just copy and paste what he said into what I'm saying. I-- and I don't know if this is really the right place, but music has given-- has opened a lot of doors for me, which has been, like in my personal life, I've been able to experience a lot of travel and different cultures that I wouldn't have been able to do if not had been for the musical opportunities that I was performing in, the ensembles that I was performing in.
Like I've played in-- I've performed in cathedrals in London. I've performed on NFL football fields. Like I would have never been able to go to like the Colts stadium at Lucas Oil and perform a high level marching band show if I had never been in like band. So personally for me, just those opportunities have been great learning experiences of self expression and just learning about who I am as a person. And a lot of those times I was traveling by myself without my parent, so just personal growth.
But I've always been-- when I connect it back to academics, I feel like I've always been really good at reading and really good at math, and I actually never really wondered why I was always so good at math until I started diving into my college courses. And how come I'm OK, and I can do this but the person next to me is struggling? Or how come I was really good at this in high school, but some of my friends who weren't musically-- in any sort of music lessons or classes, how come they were having a different experience than me?
So I didn't really connect the dots until I was in college, and I was learning about these things. And I was like, wow, this is-- I didn't know music was like this amazing. Like, wow, and I think that's another reason why I was like, I want to be an elementary school music educator so I can give these kids these opportunities and open these doors for them. But I've noticed we have-- we're really lucky, and we have a band, orchestra, and choir at the elementary school that I teach at.
And I've noticed that the kids that are in those ensembles are, I don't know-- maybe because I just see them in my music classes, but I feel like they're a lot more competent and they're really great converse-- like I have really great conversations with them. I notice that they are academically doing really well, and they just have this air of confidence about them. And I don't know if it's just me being biased because I'm like I know you're in band, or I know you're in my choir, but I'm just like, you're just such a cool human.
Like you're doing so great, and I'm so proud of you. So I really think that being involved in these ensembles really helps students. I-- personally with confidence in things. But have you guys ever noticed that a random song on the radio comes on, and it's from like 20 years ago. But for some reason you know all the lyrics to-- like you haven't heard it in like 10 or so years. And I started realizing, I'm like, wow. Music has such like retaining information.
Like I haven't heard this song in 10 years, but how can I rap the entire section of this-- like the rap part of this? So I started relating that back to how can I help this and use what I know with retaining information in music and memorizing things into how I can help with my students and putting things into songs and helping them retain random information. But I'm like, hey, we rapped about it. Do you remember our electricity rap? And they're like Yeah. I was like, OK just play the rap in your head during your test or whatever. They're like, OK, yeah. So I just think it's a very powerful thing.
So the first thing that came to mind when you asked me this question, I remember back when I was in ninth grade, and my geometry teacher, Mr. Whiteman, taught us how to find and remember the Pythagorean theorem by singing--
(SINGING) the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the two legs, square two to find the one.
And I, 20 years later, still remember the Pythagorean theorem. Like I have never forgotten that. So that's like for me personally kind of my go to like-- yeah, because I still remember how to do that from when I was 14 years old. So that's probably the one that comes to mind for me, but I have a couple of teaching experiences where I can share how it's increased learning in my students' lives.
When I was teaching at Woodrow Wilson Elementary, I had-- there's a very high diversity population there, and I had a student who had recently come to the United States from Nepal. And he had never been to school before, and additionally, his English was very limited. He was the cutest kid, loved him to death. And in my classroom we started every day with a song, and it was always connected to the core curriculum.
So in fifth grade, we were learning American history. So we sang a song about the presidents, and we would sing songs about all these different core curriculum related things. And one thing that I noticed is my students really struggled with multiplication, and so we were looking at-- they really struggled with their sevens. So I wrote a parody with just the seven times tables, and we sang it every morning for like a month to help my students learn those timetables.
Now, this particular kiddo, having never been in school before, also had a really hard time like sitting in a desk all day and walking in straight lines down the hallway and whatever else. And so frequently, when I was running my small groups, he would choose to curl under the desks. And he would do his work under there. It was just more comfortable for him. And one day as I was just kind of doing a quick walk around the room to just check on my students, I found him underneath a set of desks, and he had the words that I had printed out to this parody.
But he was following along with the rhythm of the syllables in the song, and he was trying to teach himself how to read. I mean, we were still working on the alphabet at this point, but he was able to-- because he knew the words so well, he was able to point to each of the syllables in the words, and he was following along, and he was using that as a strategy to help himself read. So I was really excited about that because I felt like it was kind of a two for one, right.
He was learning math. He was learning how to read, but it was the rhythm and the music that was kind of helping him combine those two things. And so that was kind of a cool experience for me. Just last year, I had one of my sixth grade teachers asked me to come in and do a rap battle with his students. He was teaching equations and like balancing x and y and all of that. And so I wrote another parody.
I did Dua Lipa's-- oh gosh, what's the name of her song? Hold on. Levitating. We did Dua Lipa Levitating, and I rewrote that, and then I went in and performed it for the kids. And then they had an opportunity to write their own rap, and they could either write their own rhythm, or they could use music that already existed and write it. But it had to fit into the context of the rhythm and the rhyme and all that. And then we rap battled. And the kids obviously thought it was so fun but again, really made them dive into-- they weren't solving equations, but they were describing how to solve those equations in these parodies and how that continued to foster conversations among them and among me.
They-- I had a really hard time coming with-- up with like a part of that song. I think she says something about her sugar boo or something in the song, and so I change it to my alge-boo, and they thought that was the corniest thing, but they also thought it was really funny, and they called me alge-boo for the rest of the school year. And so it was just really funny but also just kind of helped build a relationship with those students and fostered some really in-depth conversations about how to solve for x and y.
That's so cool. And like you said, the relationships that you're able to build because you kind of have this in with students where I think there are some elementary students who may not even be able to point out their principal and vice principal in a lineup. And you're their alge-boo.
Yes. Their very corny [INAUDIBLE] alge-boo.
I love that and not only just the opportunities that you both have had because of music, but that opportunity to connect learning to maybe different parts of our brain that would not have been activated in another way.
Absolutely. And one thing that struck me from both of you is how music helped you to recognize connections to students but also to retain yourself in the student-- or retain students in the student community. I mean, Kodey, I had a very similar experience where you're talking about the kid in math. But you know that they really are interested in something, but they are not doing well in math and helping them out.
I never played music, love music, though and use that a ton in my classes to get students interested in things like Shakespeare and poetry that they would otherwise never be interested in. So I'm wondering if you can-- both can speak for a minute about how does music and the arts education help us to maintain student growth but then also maintain students in our classes and keep students retained in schools?
I can speak for-- on a personal note, I struggled really hard throughout-- at the very beginning of college. I was away from home for the very first time. I was 17. If I didn't have that musical ensemble-- I mean, when I signed up for band, I had 400 new friends like that, like so close. And I think that really helped in-- and this can go from just-- this could be a middle school experience, a high school experience, a college experience.
But I feel like once kids have-- students have those experience with those friends, it-- like Kodey was saying earlier, it makes it just a little bit easier to deal with school and be like, I know I can shine in band even though I'm a little-- I'm struggling in math. But I know I can really shine here in music. So I'm just going to stick it out a little bit so I can hang out with my friends in the next period, just things like that.
Well, I'm going to add to that. So when you talk about retention and student retention, we live in-- right now we live in a climate where a lot of families, a lot of students are finding the quickest way out. And our educational path is done at the end of a junior year, or it's I'm going to go part time, and I'm going to do some online. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that because we want to have education that fits the individual.
But when we talk about retention, and I'm going to give it from a standpoint of a band director, and I'm also going to tell you some of the fallacies that I think are in our school size system. So when I look at where I'm at right now with Juab High School, it's in our district. We have a student population of about 850 kids. Well, when you take choir, orchestra, and band, and I look at the number structure, and I say-- or-- and a guitar class and all the things that we do that are fundamentally around the arts. And then I take even our ceramics and all these things, if we take that, we can honestly identify that there's 300 to 400 of those 850 students that are completely immersed and engaged in an arts education that's just part of their life.
Now, a lot of these kids realize that this is such-- it's a treasure that they get to be a part of. They get to go-- I had a choir that came to the National School Board convention just the states-- sorry the State School Board convention last weekend. 36 kids come up, and all they did is they traveled from Nephi to Salt Lake and the Little America hotel and sang the national anthem. For them, that was like what Katie said, and it was an opportunity to expand their horizons. When have I been in this kind of a ballroom? And I get to perform.
But I guess what I'm getting to is retention is based off of the experiences we provide for kids in the moment. Now, this is not a knock on this, but a student that joins a basketball team, he may have this key group of kids that play-- 12 of them. 12 kids that play from that freshman year to senior year, and by God, we affected 12 lives. I'll tell you what. I just-- I'm telling you, I have 400 lives that are embraced-- sorry, engrossed in music or in arts education, and there's a retention that happens just because of that family and that connection and that opportunity to do that.
Now, guess what? When a graduation comes, those 12 kids are not playing basketball very much anymore. And those 400 kids that are in the arts programs, they will have a lessening of those opportunities, but guess what? We've instilled this opportunity for years for 400 kids that they can carry on, and they can take into a different realm. It'll not be at the level that we were providing it in the high school setting, but you want to talk about retention, we are providing opportunities for them to stay connected within a system that socially they want to-- a lot of kids are starting to pull away from.
So we need to double down on the education in music education and arts education. We don't need to soften it. We need to double down on those opportunities and those structures for those kids. And we need to double down on those teachers that are there. Honestly, Beverly Taylor Sorenson can you imagine if it wasn't in play four or five years ago? We-- I mean, we would see the decay. We're actually-- we're seeing it in decay in arts and music education, but can you imagine if we didn't have that?
Good crimey, right? So it is a complete retention tool and not just for education itself in the arts but education. So we're having kids that could have said, I'm out for math and English and science because they didn't have the tether. Not just the relationships, but the tether to that thing that gives them creation.
There is a quote that I really like by Steve Jobs, and he says creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it. They just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. And then he goes on in the quote to talk about how a lot of times in specific industries, we just get into this linear thinking because we're only looking at one pathway and how creativity is where you just take all of these experiences, and you make this conglomeration in your head.
And then you're able to see, and that's how you think outside the box. And so when I think about supporting learning across the life span, I think when you think about those really amazing people that you have worked with in any profession, they have skills in multiple areas. And that's what the arts does is it helps you really figure out how to take all of these experiences and connect them like a spider web. And so like right now, my two music teachers and my art teacher and my STEAM specialist, they have a very cohesive team, and they work really well together.
And it is phenomenal the projects that they will come up with for the students to do and to complete in their different classes, and the kids learn how to connect those things. And we're even hitting the point now where teachers will kind of say to my art teacher, hey, I'm working on factoring next week. Is there something that you could do in art that connects to that or anything along those lines. And it's really cool to see my teachers and my students learn how to think outside the box to make things more interesting.
The other part that I kind of always go to is looking at how music and art and STEAM and all of those things, they connect math. They connect language. They connect science. For example, I mean, music is math, and the more you dive into music when you look at-- I mean, yes, counting and beat and note values, like that's just the surface. If you start to look at the circle of fifths and you really dive into the theory of music, it is mind blowing how brilliant all of that pieces together to create something beautiful.
I think we talk all the time about how even the iPhone itself, it's such a gorgeous piece of equipment. And we like it because it's sleek, and it's smooth, and that's such a selling point for such a successful product that is used universally and how important that is, but the math that goes into making that work. And then if you-- even when we look at rap songs, at your favorite karaoke piece, you want to emphasize certain words, and you want to sing certain words in a specific way.
We call it coloring the words sometimes where you put different emphasis and different voice on certain aspects of what you're singing to try to get your meaning across. When we do that with our students, they are looking at all kinds of things. They're looking at text structure. They're looking at inferencing. They're looking at author's voice. They're looking at author purpose.
And so all of those things combine to give them an immersive experience into what that language means, and then in turn, when they go to write their own songs, they use those skills, and they apply those. We talk about the way their instruments are built. Why does your instrument make a higher sound? Why does this make a lower sound? How can we fix the acoustics in our band room so that your music sounds better when we put it all together?
That's a science thing, right? We talk about sound. We talk about how sound travels, all of those different things. And so it's kind of nice as you look at connecting all of those dots to foster those conversations in class that naturally come up when you're doing these different things and the students make those connections. It's kind of cool to see the lights turn on.
That's amazing, and I love that you're talking about these hard curricular like content area connections between music and science, music and English, music and math. One of the things that we see, though, in the state of Utah is this push for the portrait of a graduate, and there's this discussion surrounding these adult life skills, things like collaboration, creativity, problem solving. What are some of the special characteristics of art education that provide kind of the special sauce for career and life readiness?
I love that question because it is true. Our job as educators is to prepare students for college and career and to help prepare them to go out into the workforce and be effective and be successful. I just listed a few that I could come up with. Obviously, creativity I've touched on quite a bit and how the arts helps foster that creativity. Some other things, though, that I think directly correlate to using the arts are learning to pivot.
When you're performing, how often do things that work not go as planned? How often are you getting ready to give a presentation, and maybe your technology isn't working exactly the way you want or someone doesn't show up at the last minute or something along that line? One of the really cool things about my school, just as an example, we have a drum bus. Our superintendent gave me a bus from our fleet that was gutted, and then our carpentry department made special benches where I can store drums.
And then my students actually got to paint it. My art teacher created this really awesome mural that we painted on the bus, and the students got to go out and help with all of that. It's a really cool thing, and a local news channel wanted to do a story on it. And so a couple of days before the first day of school, we were their entire morning segment, and we were scheduled to do all of these cool things. We had planned all these activities.
We contacted students to come in a couple of days early, and that morning, the bus wouldn't start. And we couldn't get it here from the bus yard, and so that was a very stressful situation. But where I work with creative people, we were able to pivot, and we were able to create some really awesome content about arts integration that they were still able to use and still able to show on live TV. And so I think that's a personal experience, but there are so many times in our careers that we have to just pivot. And we have to think on our feet, and we have to be quick, and we have to come up with a new solution.
And the arts does that because again, it teaches you to think outside the box. And so when things aren't going according to plan, it's easier to come up with an alternative that will still help you be successful. Social skills, if you've ever worked on a group project, which is a lot of what we do in the professional world, it's really important for each person to know what their contributions are and how to interact with other people and to be a positive force on that team. And when you're creating something artistically, that happens naturally, and you have to learn those skills.
When you sing in a choir, you can't be the loudest soprano. You can't be-- it's a collective, group efficacy, and so as you work with the arts and as you use the arts to teach, it builds those social skills that will help make you a team member that people actually want to work with, which is such a vital part of being successful. Again, with like the teamwork and the collaboration, those are things that I really value when I'm interviewing employees, and I think probably most employers do look at those things.
You can be brilliant, but if you can't work with people, you're probably not going to be an asset to any company. And then the last one I kind of want to touch on as far as that part of the question is multitasking. When you're playing an instrument, you're reading music. You're focused on what's going on around you. You're listening. You're following a conductor.
You're looking at dynamics. You're trying to feel like the emotions of the music, and so you have all of these things going on in your mind just while you're playing an instrument. But how well does that transfer when you're trying to do a job? And people make fun of how many tabs that I have open on my Chrome, but if you think about how many different windows you might have up on your computer at once, that's a skill that has to be learned. If you want to be able to multitask or to jump quickly from one task to another, that takes a lot of practice.
And so as far as like what characteristic of arts-- characteristics of arts education provide that special sauce for career and life readiness, we're very intentional about what we do. I will say until the day I die that arts education is either the best way to teach, or it's the biggest waste of time. Because if you're not doing it correctly, it can just look like fluff, and it can look like play, and it can just kind of-- we just babysit kids and let them sing along to YouTube or whatever.
But when you're really intentional about it and when you can look at that advanced planning and you create opportunities for students to be innovative, what it really does is it increases their depth of knowledge for whatever they're studying. It doesn't matter what the subject is, and as educators, that's our job is to increase their depth of knowledge and help them understand on a higher level-- I'm sorry-- what we want them to do.
I know this sounds a little cliche, but I wholeheartedly believe that being a member of an ensemble teaches you and helps you develop teamwork, collaboration. You develop great social skills. You have to be a cooperative-- you have to cooperate, be a cooperating member of a team, whether it's a marching band or a performing concert ensemble. A lot of these marching bands have leadership opportunities for students to be like the saxophone section leader. So it's really putting them in some leadership positions that they might not have unless they were involved in other things.
So it really creates a sense of responsibility early on and a sense of pride and ownership of something that they're doing. And that's my biggest-- and I could probably talk around that for forever, but my biggest ones would be leadership, teamwork, collaboration, social skills, and things-- those things that go along with having to trust members of your ensemble and things like that.
Yeah, I completely agree with Katie. One thing-- I don't know, I'm going to talk in my world because the state's portrait of a graduate, it's similar to ours, but in Juab-- Juab School District has a portrait of a graduate, and we've been fundamentally carrying this into place and working on it for five years. It was started before my time here as a superintendent. This is my third year here as a superintendent, but we focus on those categories of knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
So if we look at our whole child, those are our focus points-- knowledge, skills, and dispositions. When we talk about skills, I, much like what Katie says, our skills, our critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, they are the four Cs, right? And we think about those skills, in arts education and in music education, critical thinking is that's every day. When you're talking about working with complex rhythms, and you're also talking about different genres of music, and you're trying to understand where these things come from, if you've got a great teacher, if you've got a teacher that's pushing those things and asking the right questions.
But then collaboration, of course. We're collaborating not just within our section. We're talking about within our band, within the confines of our system. And sometimes whenever I did my own things with my students, sometimes it was students from other schools we're collaborating with, right? Communication-- of course, communication is key with any ensemble or any group. And then creativity, that's the foundation of what our arts are, right? Creativity, giving them an option to express themselves in a musical form.
But then knowledge-- I'm going to leave that one aside. But knowledge, skills, and dispositions, what are dispositions? And dispositions are what Katie talked about, too. But dispositions for our district and our portrait of a graduate-- curiosity, grit, leadership, resilience, and then teamwork. So those are what we label as our dispositions. So-- and in that sense right there, everything we do in school should really give us opportunities to foster curiosity, ensure grit, find ways for leadership, and teach resiliency and then also teamwork.
But I want you to tell me any other platform-- and this is my bias showing-- any other platform in public education that provides as open and intentional opportunities for students to do that than music education. I'm just telling, if you want to throw it out there, I'll debate you, and I'll tell you how music will do it better. And that's-- I just think that when we talk about the portrait of a graduate, if we don't have music education-- and our goal is broad arts education-- then we're really not focusing and giving them that part-- we're not giving them opportunities in their portrait of that student to identify and be successful in those skills and dispositions.
So but I'm talking about that you have portrait-- knowledge, skills, and dispositions-- and those are the components that build up that whole child. And so there are just key components all the way through, and some of our students excel in some of those areas, and they really need to grow themselves. They may be the grittiest kid in the world, but their leadership is just not there. And so as a teacher and as an educator and within the arts, we want to find ways that utilize the grit to formulate the leadership.
And so knowing what those pieces of that student's portrait is, the portrait can be our key also. Not all of our educators understand that we're trying to do these things. And so it's intentionality from administration and from our state system to say, do you understand what that portrait of a graduate is and how we get that student as far as we possibly can using the content that you teach? So--
What about performance? Why is performing such an important part of music education, and what does that experience performing teach our students?
It's a really good question. The first thing that comes to mind about why performance opportunities are important is it pushes excellence. I always worked really hard right before a piano recital, and looking back, that's when I can see my strongest areas of growth. I think even in education, we look at end-of-year testing. How much more intentional do educators become about their time in that month leading up to the testing date?
There's review happening. There is such a huge push that month and-- which is understandable. That level of intensity isn't sustainable across all of our lives. But when you have a performance coming up, you're able to turn up the energy. You're able to really focus on honing your skill, and so those performance opportunities really do push students to be better at whatever craft they're looking at. And you do your best work when you know other people are going to see it.
And so it really does push that excellence. It also creates an opportunity for self reflection. I don't like to listen back to my own performances. In fact, my district took my students on a field trip to a Stars game about a month ago, and they asked me to sing the national anthem in the Nu Skin Arena, and I was terrified. And I still haven't listened to it, but you better believe I practiced really, really hard before I went and did that.
And so-- but if I were to listen back to that, I guarantee that I would be my own worst critic. I would hear every fluctuation of pitch. I would hear every vowel formation or whatever that I didn't like, which if I were ever to be asked to perform again in that kind of capacity, you better believe I would go back and listen to my previous performance so that I could use that as self reflection to increase my proficiency the next time I performed. And it also creates an opportunity for honest feedback.
Like I said, we are our own worst critics, but when you're performing for other people, your mom's always going to tell you you did a good job. But other people might be a little bit more honest with you, and they are willing to kind of give you, even if they're nice about it, we've all been to performances where the audience goes crazy and what a positive affirmation that is for the performer and how that builds such confidence. When we perform well, it helps our students, and it helps us as individuals feel confident and comfortable to do something like that. Again, we're willing to take more risks. We're willing to put ourselves out there which, again, builds skills for success.
This was a hard one for me to answer, and I don't know why because I've been performing my whole life. But for me, as a music educator, the performance aspect of it gets to show other people what we've been working on, and we get to share our hard work with other people. But I think sometimes as a music educator or a band director or a choir director, you get wrapped up in the end product and you forget to enjoy your journey there.
So I don't like to put a lot of stress on myself for my students to perform at a certain level because I want to enjoy the process of what we're doing and the journey, the mistakes, the triumphs of music making. But I think that's easy for me to say as an elementary educator because we don't have state adjudications and things along those lines. But performances are also live. So they teach you that you need to be alert, problem solving on the fly, how to be resilient.
It can help you-- you have to trust your fellow band mates or choir mates or orchestra mates. You have to trust the rest of the ensemble that they're following along. You have to trust the director. The director has to trust you. So there's a lot I didn't-- like once I started thinking about it, I was like, oh, my gosh. This is a lot.
Like no wonder people have some performance anxieties, but if you are performing a lot more and you are-- like I think performing has helped me. I talk so much for my job in front of children, in front of adults, in front of people who are way smarter than me, but I feel like I need the-- me being a performer or have had performance opportunities in my life I think has helped with that confidence and being able to be a great speaker or a great performer. I-- yeah, I just-- I don't know what else to say, but I just really-- once I started thinking about it, I was like, holy cow.
I'll start with students. Performance for students, I've seen it teach them patience. I really have. I mean, I've seen high performing kids that, gosh, they're just-- they're high performing at everything they do, and sometimes it's been so eye opening to them to see the process and performances for them, though. They realize that their patience-- the more patient they are, the better it pays off. And I've had kids come back and say, you know what? Dr. Hughes, I really should have taken the time to do this.
And you're right. It's OK. And then self reflection, that's the other thing. So it teaches them patience but self reflection. I mean there's nothing more than a performance to teach you self reflection. I've stood up on a podium, and I have I've raised my hands, and I give them those eyes, and you say, OK, guys. Here we go, and the audience is behind you, and they've got this fear of God on their face.
And you hit the downbeat, and you go, and then you get done with it, and one kid's back there with his hand on his forehead, and he can't believe that he missed something. And then there's a young lady that's just beaming because she's never had such a performance in herself-- and not like her in her life. And it gives them perspective, it really does. It gives them an opportunity to reflect. Reflect of I can't believe that just happened, or we did it together.
I mean, it's just-- that's the amazing part, and maybe Katie can speak to this, but there's nothing like as a director to end a piece and look at their faces and look at the reflection. There's moments that you grow that we've all had in our lives, but I was a wrestler back in the day, and I never reflected about my performance on a mat or in a competition like I ever did as a musician. And then so we talk about kids coping and dealing with things.
I think performances put them in a pressure cooker, and they also rely on themselves. They rely on their work that they put in. And then the funny thing is, they rely on you as a director. They rely on the person sitting next to them. So we're actually teaching them how to cope and how to support one another.
You talk about the social-emotional challenges we have today, I think a student that's in a musical group has a better foundation for social-emotional support than the student that's not because they've surrounded themselves with like-minded and focused-driven individuals that are going to face this concert, this scary thing, together. And so a whole other realm that we could talk about which is what do we really want to do to help students be prepared for the emotional stress and the pressures of society?
Music education, put them in performing groups. And so that's a completely different podcast, but I will tell you that reflection and self awareness is probably the biggest gain you'll get out of that. And then to also complement what Katie said, as an individual, as a personal person, I have to be-- I learned how to let my guard down. So as a teacher, you come in like, well-- what's the book they make you read in college, First Days of School by Harry Wong where you can't even smile until Christmas and all this kind of crap.
No, no, no. Be vulnerable. Let kids see that you're scared, too. Admit I don't know. I don't know how that looks on flute. I can't even remember what that fingering is. Go look it up. Kids need to know that you don't know everything, and you need to let kids know that you're going to learn from them. And so as-- I don't think-- I would not be a superintendent if I wasn't a band teacher because I would not have been humbled.
I mean, I come-- I was so cocky, right, and then you find out that this eighth grader knows more than me. I mean, what do you do? And so now I can sit in a room with a lot bigger egos than I have and just-- it's OK. I mean, be humble. Be vulnerable. The best leaders in the world are vulnerable. Well, guess what? The best students are vulnerable.
The best everything have vulnerability. And so I've learned vulnerability as an educator, but it was through music performance. You can be the best-- you can rock a trumpet, and you can play a piece of music and then just put the notes off-- play the notes off a page. But when you go to teach it, or you want-- and you go to work with others, it changes. One person, you're always awesome in your own mind. So I think that's what it's taught me. For mine, was vulnerability and to be reflective myself, but the student is the package that it's so life changing.
Can we also add how good it feels after a performance? You've got like a dopamine rush. Like when you knew you had a good performance, it feels so good.
And the ability to share that feeling with your students, right?
Yes, and you-- whether you're in the ensemble and you together you guys are all feeling that. Sometimes I've cried after performances, or I've stayed up all night because my brain is like, oh, yeah, that was so good. But as a director, I've had those moments where I'm just like you guys did so great. And they're like, we know. We feel it.
Let me add one more thing to it that was a huge takeaway from student growth. Unfortunately, we had a student years ago when I was teaching band, we had a student that passed away. That was-- one of the most powerful things that I ever had happen was this student that passed away was one of our students in our band. She ended up with cancer and went through a battle and a young girl and passed away.
And as hard as that was, one of the most amazing things that came out of it was our students. Most of the time, kids have no way to contribute to loss other than just to mourn, and that's not contributing. That's just being part of that process. We decided as a group that we were going to make-- we performed for and in behalf of their classmate, and I didn't keep it together. I'll tell you that, but neither-- but what was amazing was the attention to detail that they put in to that piece of music, and then for them to actually say they were part of the solution when most of the time when we have loss, they are just-- they're just outside figures to it.
They're just there. So music also provides us with opportunities to celebrate and to mourn and to contribute. And as-- and I-- we don't ever want these opportunities to come to us, but when they do, having-- and then we were in a small enough school where this was acceptable. I don't know if it would even happen in a larger area, but wow. What a powerful thing for them to be part of a solution or a contributor, too, to help, to provide solace, whatever it was.
But my goodness-- and they-- and it was because they invested this time into their music, into-- and they were being taught. And they were in a system that allowed them to do that. So that was powerful, and when Katie said that, I thought, oh, well, this is an option. That's a thought that I had.
Thank you so much for sharing those experiences and your perspectives on that. We know that the arts in schools are often one of the first things to be cut due to budget and time constraints. You guys have spoken a lot about how music helps beyond school and with our social-emotional well being. But how do the arts, in particular music, support learning in our core subjects?
I mean, we've all heard about the Mozart effect and how being involved in music, there's studies where it's proven that music helps develop parts of the brain that are responsible for language, reasoning. I feel like learning an instrument helps with fine motor skills. I know that in our music class in fourth grade, we learn recorder.
And instead of teaching it like I did, let's say, even when I learned it a few decades ago, teaching it now to our fifth grader-- or my fourth graders, they have dexterity in their thumbs from texting all the time or playing video games. But having individual finger fine motor skills, I have found that they're lacking. So we're helping with that, fine motor skills, pattern recognition, fluency. Music helps associate symbols and sounds, things along those lines.
I think that some of the great ways that we can use music is that cross curricular. I'm going to talk about that in a minute, but first of all, let's talk about elementary. We have a huge-- I think there's a huge problem across the nation when it comes to student wellness and student-- well, obesity. When we talk about student active-- students being active nowadays because we used to get done, and we would go to the playground. We'd go to the park.
Well, now, they get done, and they go home, and they get on their computers, or they play their Play Stations or whatnot. And that's just the nature of our technology that's placed in the home, and many of our parents are single parents or they're two working families, and they go home to an empty place. Well, we've got to take every opportunity we can to for movement and music. And there is-- the core for elementary is music and movement, right? That's part of the core.
And when you think about opportunities to, one, entice students what music can do for you, we all know that it's got this-- it's an innate ability to just make a student move their bum and move their shoulders and just get jiggy with it. But the bottom line is we-- good elementary music teachers are saying movement and music is part of our core, and we're going to instill that. There's also that whole discovery of, like Katie said, tracking.
I mean, I remember when I did do elementary music, In the Hall of the Mountain King, having those kids follow that music along, and then they had to identify every time that the music rose and every time the music fell. And it really was connecting them to the purpose of it, but movement and music is huge. I think it's a way-- if you're not doing a Zumba of some sort in elementary, you're missing the boat because you should watch third graders do that stuff. It's magical, and it's just fun, and you'll be happy for a week.
Then we go into the secondary world, and we're talking cross curricular, and I've had a lot of conversations with teachers that get stuck in the mud. The English teacher that is doing poetry over and over and over, and you say, you know what else is poetry? Music. Music is poetry, and you may not like country. Well, it doesn't have to be country. Guess what? Pull any rock song and take off the music and just pull out the lyrics.
Go through that with your students, and then you tell kids, we're going to talk about poetry. Oh. You're not going to talk about poetry. And then you tell the students, OK, no, no, no. We're going to talk about poetry that you know. Tell me a song, and I had-- I did this with an English teacher once, and I said I want to-- I was doing it with my music appreciation class, and she was doing-- and I said you talk poetry. I'm going to talk music, and they're going to make this slide deck with it.
That was funny. They didn't have to do poetry from Shakespeare. They were finding poetry within the world that they lived in. And then we put the music on top of it, and it was amazing for them to say, oh, well guess what-- where this music came from? And then the English teacher was able to go back and say, well back in 14-- you know, and this was this cross, right? Then you go to the history teacher, and I remember as a history teacher, we had another cross thing. It was years and years and years ago.
And they're speaking about a war. Well, how many movies do we have made about the wars? And I remember saying, OK, this is a great movie. What makes the movie great? Well, in my opinion, the movie made-- the music made the movie great, and then all of a sudden, we showed this very dramatic scene as they're storming the beaches of Normandy. And of course, it's a junior-senior class. We're not going to get too graphic here because movies are sometimes a little bit dicey.
But it's-- that music captured those kids. It wasn't the soldiers on the beach that captured those kids. Then you turn it off, and the history teacher and I were talking. The history teacher, they turned it off, and the classroom went silent. And the teacher said, how do you guys feel? And this one girl was like, I feel terrible. There's people dying, and what they would have-- he could have given a lecture about that, but that movie and that segment-- or that segment of the movie and that music tied it all together.
And it was a conversation of saying, we recognize that how can we make it more powerful? Music makes it more powerful at every turn. And I don't think there's a realm we can't tie that to. And so I-- the elementary, you've got to take those opportunities and stretch those kids as much as you can with the use of music. And in the high school, you've got to use it crossways so that it's not so dang dry. Because I hated some of my classes, and so I always think about how can I pull music into that class so it's not something boring and dry?
Now, if there's an English teacher that listens to this, I apologize, and I think you're awesome. Just use more music. So that's it.
I think a lot of times that is a direct result of people who make those decisions, maybe they didn't have that intensive, positive experience with the arts. Maybe it was a babysitting situation when they sent their kids to art, or when you're looking at the data and you're making those decisions, if you haven't seen it done well, I don't really blame you for not looking at the arts as making a solid contribution to education. Because a lot of times, it's not done correctly, but I would say really get an understanding.
Go-- one of the most powerful things that I have my teachers do is I require them to attend art and music once a week with their students. And they go in, and they see what my teachers are doing. Now, I have fabulous teachers, and so that's a really good use. It's a professional development opportunity. It's a collaboration opportunity, and it helps my teachers see what it really looks like to do arts integration effectively.
And so I would say really giving opportunities for teachers and legislators and district administrators to see the impact that the arts can have on your test scores and on your core curriculum. But additionally, I don't think we train teachers to do this well. And in Utah, we are trying the Beverly Taylor arts-- Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program is really focused on teaching educators how to do this effectively. And we're so lucky to have that, but it doesn't always foster opportunities for classroom teachers to utilize those skills.
And so as much as I love and value specialists and what they bring to the table and I don't think we should sacrifice that, I just think when we're looking at, yes, and can we also give classroom teachers those opportunities to increase their own engagement in class? I had a student last year who-- I think especially in Title I schools, we get frustrated with students who struggle to even attend school. You can't teach a student who isn't in their seat, and we had a kiddo last year who hated to come to school.
He fought his mom every single day, and last year was our first year as an arts integration school. And by the end of the year, his attendance wasn't perfect, but it had increased by 30%, 40% because he liked coming here. He really liked art. He really liked music, and so he enjoyed coming to school which meant we had more opportunities to access that student.
But if you don't know the impact that that can have, why would you spend money on it? Why would you make executive decisions to keep it in place? And so I would say if you are an educator and you believe in the arts and you want to support them being in the classroom, go with your students to music. And if it's ineffective, do something about it. But if it's effective, take that back to your classroom and use it and talk about it.
We had, in fact, just a couple of months ago our board was looking at closing another elementary school in our area, which is a hard decision to make. I don't envy them that choice. But they had a lot of questions about why my school needed funding, or why-- as they're looking at all of the surrounding schools, they're making some hard choices. And they came out here, and we gave them a tour, and then they realized, oh, that's what this arts integration looks like. And then they were on board, so I just think opportunities for people to see it. I don't blame people for thinking that it's fluff if that's all they've ever seen. I think we just need to create opportunities and make it more visible.
Kind of wrapping up here, we've talked a little bit about the Beverly Sorenson program. Katie, you're part of that program. If there's teachers out there that are listening to this right now in the state of Utah, what are some of the programs that you love as an educator that teachers could incorporate into their classroom or that they could rely on for outlets and ways to incorporate music and arts into their education? This could be either as a full fledged program for arts education or music education or like we just spoke about for teachers who are in specific disciplines trying to bring more music into their classroom.
I think first and foremost, a lot-- the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program is-- it is statewide. So if you are-- I don't want to say lucky enough to have a BTS teacher in your elementary school because I feel like everybody could. We just-- I feel so lucky that we get to have it in so many schools, but there are districts who don't have the BTS program yet. So if you are a teacher in Utah and you don't have the BTS program, reach out to a district that does because we all want to help.
Like I can't tell you how many times I've reached out to people where I'm like, let me help you. I have-- I don't just have music ideas. I have drama ideas. I have dance ideas, and that they are just open to those-- the ideas of putting that in their classroom, that to me was just the biggest thing. Because a lot of the times, I feel like teachers can either enable your students to be art forward thinkers and art thinkers, or you can really hinder your students. If you have a negative attitude about the arts, or you're like, oh, I'm not artsy. So I suck at this, or I'm not musical, then your students are probably going to start thinking that, too.
So just having a positive attitude about bringing the arts into your classroom is my biggest soapbox that I stand on, especially teachers that-- because right now a lot of the university partners that we have for BTS are teaching an arts integration course. But when I was in college, I didn't have an arts integration course, and I'm not that old. So I'm thinking of the teachers that got their college degrees 20, 30 years ago who are still teaching, my best advice is just to keep your minds open to this new-- quote, unquote, "new" arts integration thing that's happening is great for your students.
And there's a bunch of resources on the BTS website-- btsarts.org. There are a bunch of lesson plans that are available for free. I know the BTS arts website has them. The BYU arts partnership website has-- which is the region that I'm under. So I know a lot about that program and the arts partnership there. We have a lot of resources on our website, too, blog posts that are just there to help classroom teachers integrate the arts into their classroom. Not to mention, if you do have a BTS teacher in your school, they are there to help you, too.
They are integrating the arts in their art form. So at my school, I'm integrating the core content into my music classroom, or the dance teacher is-- the BTS dance teacher is integrating core content into our dance class. But we are also trained to help get arts integration into the classroom, too, to help you be comfortable doing it. So I'll step off that soapbox.
Yeah, I'm going to add to that, too. That arts integration, it's a huge change in education over the last 10 years. But I've also seen a softening of what we used to do, too, because if you think about, we get so-- and this is probably a plug for administrators because we get so focused on our data. We get so focused on our instruction time, which is all-- everything is so valid and essential to the growth of our kids, especially in our elementary schools. But we get so tied into those components, into our instruction time for literacy and for mathematics that we often pull back.
And so when we were all in school when we were younger, there were-- holidays were celebrated. And now, if you don't have a special in your school, as a BTS specialist or someone that comes in and pulls your kids out, it's almost like this void. And I encourage administrators out there to really think about arts integration and taking their instructional time and being strategic about using it appropriately alongside with your art and your music.
That's what I think we've lost, and it's because of what Katie said. Our universities for a time didn't even provide any sort of training for teachers to say, while you're teaching your literacy fundamentals, throw these-- sprinkle this on there and make it so much more integrated with arts and with music. And so we're now-- we pulled that back, and we're reassessing that as a state, as a nation in a lot of ways. But that's a huge one.
And administrators-- and it's because of school grading. It's because of all these hard things that come at us as administrators and then the teacher. The classroom teacher is going, oh, my gosh. I need to get-- they're just not to that-- not to reading level where they need to be. And I don't ever want to have that pressure and feel like I don't support that teacher, but we've got to be open, like Katie said, to find ways to have that arts integration and solve one problem with the compliments of the other avenues.
And along with that, too, is just making sure that they feel safe to do so. And anybody that-- and there's a lot of resources out there from BTS, but also YouTube's your friend. I'm telling you. There's some great things out there. There are some fun, fun things out there.
We have so many talented teachers in our nation that are doing some amazing things, and they've already connected the dots. I'm not going to say that I know the dot for a second grade reader and some songs that happen at Halloween, but I'll tell you what. Somebody else has figured it out, and they've taken that, and they've drawn those connections. And they're teaching literacy within a Halloween lesson. It's out there, and to think-- and it's sad that we don't have it all collated somewhere.
We will someday because we have amazing people doing those things, but administrators need to encourage and implore this to happen. Teachers need to just be vulnerable and look and search and find those things. And I think they'll find that they make greater leaps and bounds in literacy and in mathematics in that elementary world by finding those key connections for kids. And there's just-- there's resources out there. I wish I could give you a dot come right now. I just can't, but I'm telling you, they're out there. But it's twofold. It's not teachers alone solving problems. It is an administrator allowing and encouraging that connection for that arts integration, too.
Can I piggyback off that, too, where I feel like we've gone for so long with every subject in its own little box, and we do math time. We do literacy time. We do science time, and they've been in these boxes. And that's just what we're used to. If it's not broke, don't fix it, but what's happening now is we're in this new age of teachers that are coming up with this arts integration endorsement, or they've got the training, or they've been going to trainings, or we have the BTS teachers-- the Beverly Taylor Sorenson teachers, specialists-- in the school. Or we have at the district level. We do have some coaches at the district level.
And I really want and I really hope that those boxes are being broken down and we can teach literacy through some science standards. Or a lot of our science standards are now going to performance-based standards, and I feel like in a few years, that's just going to be the norm. And I think-- I know there are some teachers that have come to me already saying, when we go more to performance-based standards, we can integrate the arts more. And I-- it makes me sad that they feel like they can't do it now, but it makes me happy for the future.
But I just-- really, like Kodey said, making the time to just sprinkle-- that is my word that I use all the time to describe what arts integration is. If you just have the time to sprinkle, like just sprinkle a little bit in, or if you're doing an art activity in your first grade classroom, use some art terms. That's integration. Or instead of-- in my music classroom, instead of teaching quarter notes by using a random-- I don't know, a random song that I have in my book, I'm using the muffin man to teach-- we have some-- I have some rhyming activities, and I have these things that are integrated.
All I did was I just changed a couple of my words, and I integrated it. And it's just-- find what you need to help sprinkle those integration activities. And once you get started, it just-- I feel like it just starts to snowball, and you just end up with more and more ideas. And definitely use the resources that we have out there that are there for you to use.
Absolutely. And if anyone listening wants to see what effective arts integration looks like, can they reach out to you and come to your school and see it?
Absolutely. We are happy to offer tours anytime. We always have cool things going on.
That is fantastic. We'll make sure to put your contact information in our show notes. All right, our last question, what can teachers do if they do not have an effective music program in their school and they want to incorporate music into their classroom? Do you have any favorite resources or programs?
So the Utah State Board of Education several years ago actually created a songbook, and it's a whole collection of songs. And it ranges from kindergarten to sixth grade, and so that's kind of the one thing with it is you have to just kind of dive in and sift through what songs are probably most appropriate for your grade level. But you can-- if you just Google USOE songbook, it's usually the first thing to pop up. I think it has 50 songs there, and each song comes with a lesson plan.
And so even if you have no musical background, no musical experience, there's a vocal track. There is an instrumental track, and then there is a lesson plan. And in that lesson plan, it talks about how to teach the song, how to let the students have an opportunity to create with that song. There's always a core curriculum connection, and it recommends like different instruments that are probably floating around your school.
I guarantee in a dusty closet somewhere, every school has a set of triangles or jingle bells or little drums or something along that line that the students can use to create and really engage. And so that would kind of be a really good baby step. I would also highly recommend looking at resources through the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program. The University of Utah, Kelby McIntyre Martinez does some amazing professional development, as does Kelly [? Flax ?] down at BYU, and I know that there are others throughout the state, so jumping on those opportunities to have professional development.
Administrators can invite them to come out to your buildings, and I guarantee that they will be the most engaging professional developments that you've ever done. And your teachers are going to enjoy their time probably a lot more than sitting and listening to a PowerPoint for three hours. And so those are some, but they offer classes, but they're also like you can go to their websites. Like BYU Arts Learning Program website has resources and ideas that are completely free, and they're well done by people who know what they're doing.
That's incredible, and it's so cool to see resources like that out there for Utah educators. Thank you so much for your time today. This has been a fantastic conversation. I think a lot of teachers can take away-- if they're music teacher or they're a content teacher, an elementary teacher, or an administrator, as you both pointed out very astutely, they can all take something away from this conversation and take it back to their schools. So we thank you so much for your time and your wonderful thoughts.
Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a pleasure, and clearly, I can talk about this all day. So thanks for giving me a platform.
Thank you for having me here. I appreciate the time and the opportunity. I have to give a plug. If anybody wants a concert, Superintendents of Rock are willing to just come show up and play, and we will promote any initiative you have in your school district. We're just here to have fun, so check us out on Instagram. It's awesome.
I love it. You guys are wonderful. Thank you so much. You guys did an awesome job.
Thank you.
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So one thing that I loved in this conversation, I don't know if you picked this up. I think you did because we were both kind of cheering this on was how deeply each person talked about the integration of music into every content area. I just absolutely love that because if we think about music as it's just its own subject, that's when we start seeing the disappearing. But when it's integrated in everything, it helps to boost everyone up.
Absolutely, and I think if it's kind of out of sight, out of mind. it's not tested, it isn't-- not everyone has to take a music class. And so if you're one of those people who maybe don't appreciate music or haven't had an opportunity to appreciate music, it's easy to write it off. But I just-- I love not only the curricular ties but the ties on how this helps all levels of people at all levels of their life. And so I thought these three were just wonderful to bring that to the forefront of this conversation.
Absolutely, and I love how-- and I seem to see this every-- and hear this every time I talk to somebody who is deeply embedded into music and music performance is how important it's been to them over their lifespan. You had Katie talking about playing in the NFL stadiums and in London. You had Kodey talking about his picking up a trumpet and all of a sudden being able to be integrated into the school experience.
It's so beautiful to see over the lifespan how music and music performance changes perceptions about learning, about education. And so I just-- for that bit of the conversation, if not the whole thing, this was just such a fantastic conversation. I loved hearing everything that had to be said.
Yeah, it was great to hear from these amazing educators and just how passionate they are about arts education. And then I just want to give another plug that we put all of the resources that they were talking about into the show notes because I think that's really important. I think a lot of people maybe want to put more arts into their classrooms but maybe don't know where to start. And so they listed some great resources.
Absolutely. Make sure you check those out, particularly if you're a teacher who's looking for better ways to integrate the arts, specifically music, into your classroom. And as I think all of them would echo, just give it a try. See where it goes, and try something new.
Absolutely, and just one more thank you to Kodey, Katie and Marianne. That was a really special conversation. I'm glad we were able to have it.
Absolutely. We'll see-- or we'll hear you next time on your homeroom.
Yes. Bye, everyone.
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