A Man, A Plan....Or At Least A Proposal

Below you will find the most current version of my initial proposal for a plan to implement an online version of the high school Technology-Assisted Music course that I currently teach, with an eye toward helping both students and teachers in all disciplines develop and promote collaborative learning, critical thinking, and a growth mindset, as well as fostering creative skills.


Dr. Robin Yohe
Curriculum Instructional Specialist, Performing Arts
Chesterfield County Public Schools

Dr. Yohe,

The PA556 Technology-Assisted Music course is currently in its fourth year as part of the county’s high school curriculum. Ever since the initial establishment of the course, the idea of creating an online version of the class has been discussed. I believe that, with all CCPS students and faculty now having access to Soundtrap digital audio software via their county Google accounts, the time is right not only to fully implement this online course, but to use it to benefit our teachers as well as our students.

The benefits of an expanded offering of the PA556 class are multi-faceted. From a practical standpoint, it offers a one-stop solution to two state mandates: one, that all students take at least one online high school course to earn a diploma, and two, that each high school student take at least one fine arts or career/technical education course. While Chesterfield County students have a variety of options in satisfying the first mandate, the second can be harder to achieve, and we in the performing arts have not always made it easy for our students to do so.

CCPS students face an obstacle when it comes to enrolling in performing arts courses at the high school level; namely, it is difficult for a student who wants to begin a performing arts program in high school to do so. Beginning band and orchestra courses are not typically offered at the high school level, and furthermore, students in middle school who are interested in such courses usually have to take them beginning in 6th grade--the tracking of middle school electives by grade means that a 7th or 8th grade student with a new interest in instrumental music is unable to pursue it. While it is typically easier for students to enter a choral or drama program in later grades, we nonetheless are closing off opportunities for students who are interested in music but may not be comfortable with or interested in vocal performance.

Since its inception in 2015, the PA556 class has certainly attracted current performing arts students, but increasingly it is also drawing in students who, for whatever reason, had never before been involved in the performing arts in a school setting. Some of the latter have even gone on to seek out performing arts opportunities at school after completing the technology course. While the class is currently taught in 3 of our 10 high schools, establishing an online version would open the class to the remainder of our high school students. This is a low-cost method of expanding the availability of music classes across the county, in ways that would not be possible with traditional performance-based classes. 

In a broader sense, making the PA556 class more widely available would also promote some ideas across the county that would bring benefits beyond the performing arts. Two of the most important elements of the traditional course as it now exists are its promotion of the growth mindset (the county has recently begun advocating the “infinite learner” mindset, which uses slightly different language to convey many of the same ideas) and the use of e-portfolios as a method for students to demonstrate mastery. As members of other disciplines have begun looking to those of us in the arts for input on expanding these mastery-based assessment ideas across the curriculum, I believe offering instruction that is overtly centered on these concepts can be nothing but beneficial.

The first element in this proposal is relatively straightforward; as I mentioned, the idea of establishing an online music technology course has been discussed for some time. The online infrastructure is in place via Blackboard, and beginning this year all students have access to Soundtrap on their Chromebooks. (Previously, software options were limited due to the relative lack of audio software available on the Chrome OS compared to Windows and Mac systems; students in the standard PA556 class have been using Soundation, a subscription service that required a yearly fee.) Additionally, the file-sharing features of Soundtrap make it possible to easily maintain the student collaboration aspect of the face-to-face course, something that Soundation does not readily provide. Implementing the course online would essentially be a matter of formatting and uploading existing content.

The second element is more involved, but potentially more rewarding and more wide-reaching. Soundtrap makes a great effort to demonstrate how its software can be used beyond the music classroom--the company heavily promotes use of its product in language, history, and science classes, to name a few. I believe that, if we make an effort to educate our teachers in the creative-based approaches Soundtrap encourages, we will benefit teachers and students alike. I am proposing that we present a teacher-targeted version of the PA556 online course, in which teachers are introduced to the same elements that students explore in the regular course. This version would be shorter in duration (but self-paced) and would place added emphasis on the course’s creative aspects. Special attention would be paid to the concepts of the growth mindset and the ePortfolio, and to methods of implementing these ideas in disciplines beyond the fine arts. Teachers completing the course would be eligible for recertification points and/or Impact hours, as applicable, and more importantly, would be able to bring these ideas to students who do not, for whatever reason, have the fine arts as part of their course load.

In many ways, the discipline of fine and performing arts is a model of the authentic, real-world learning and competency-based assessments that the county is increasingly trying to promote. By implementing this two-pronged approach, aimed at both our students and our faculty, I believe we can achieve two important goals: expanding the fine arts offerings available to our students at a time when government mandates are increasingly crowding those offerings out of the traditional school-day schedule, and helping our teachers bring the vital elements of the fine arts into every classroom, in every discipline. I look forward to sharing my research and more detailed proposals with you.