Professional Contributions
Celebration despite COVID
Our 2020 stepping up ceremony was one of mixed feelings. After spending the majority of the year in-person together, it felt difficult to end the year without saying goodbye in person. I felt it pertinent to celebrate our students' accomplishments in the midst of so many difficult things in our country and around the world.
Everything is awesome
Admittedly, everything was not awesome at the end of our 2020 school year. But this song is about appreciating the little things and appreciating each other. Thus, I began the long process of building a virtual capstone musical performance of our site.
"Everything is better when we stick together. Side by side, you and I, are gonna win forever."
This video took many hours of editing along with many hours of communication with families. But in the end, it was worth it to see and hear every student contribute to our virtual celebration of us.
CORE VALUE SONGWRITING
Two of my classes at MS 88 participated in a songwriting unit that incorporated the school's core values into a song that fit the theme, "A Time Like This." These songs were written and performed entirely by the students, with my role solely as a facilitator, then submitted to Carnegie Hall for consideration in a concert.
From Carnegie Hall's committee feedback:
RE World Of Change (True Story): "Great energy and focus for this song. Really appreciated the idea of the 'true story', something that gets overlooked on a lot of songs that pretend to be straight talk."
RE Rise Back Up: "Loved the group effort on these songs. Lots of strong ensemble performances. We also really appreciate the directness of the message that you are looking to convey."
This songwriting opportunity not only gave the students agency over their learning, but gave them the opportunity to share their musical work with the community. "Rise Back Up" was shown to the school in their annual "Shine The Light" celebration. The students scripted, filmed and edited themselves.
CONCERTS & CELEBRATIONS
Students at the Little Brooklyn Pre-K Center perform bi-annually for a winter concert and stepping up ceremony.
In addition to the live performance, I work individually with each child to create high quality songs to take home to their families and community. I record and edit with the students and post each track on our soundcloud page where families can share and download their child's work.
Click the icons to hear selections from our Soundcloud.
STUDENT & PARENT FEEDBACK
Finally, a few notes from students and parents.
Email from Madison (17-18)
hi Ms chung thanks for teaching me piano I LOVE IT ONLY IF YOU CAN SEE ME NOW. IM IN ROCKERSTRA and I PLAY piano and sing. IM trying to get other kids to join it from my class. do you remember ADRIAN the one who use to hang out with Jayden and Minhaz. yeah Adrian is signing up for ROCKERSTRA!!! your teaching has inspired me of how I can learn and play different INTRAMENTS. IM SOOO HAPPY.....THANK YOU...THANK YOU SO MUCH. - Madison 622 now in 722
A Video Message from Corey (19-20)
Corey's parents sent me multiple messages about how he loved a lesson I gave on Beethoven's 5th "short short short longggg." He actually began singing it all the time on his own and even had a video music lesson with a musician friend about it!
A Video from Ava (20-21)
Ava is a fully remote student who has managed to get my mannerisms and procedures down! I always begin echo songs by singing "be my echo" and that is exactly how Ava begins her own echo song.
"Today Ava wanted to make a video and it turned into some impromptu singing and I thought I’d share it since it seems she has really enjoyed all of the echo singing and using her “calling voice” in music class." - Ava's Mother
