Template for Class Unit & Performance Assessment Ideas

Planning Template

(p. 30 Tomlinson and McTighe)

Stage I – Desired Results
Established Goal(s) [all standards/proficiencies]: (VT H&SS7-8:14): Identifying problems, proposing solutions, and considering the effects of a course of action in the local community, state, nation, or world. INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS (National Standards for Social Studies Teachers): Social studies teachers should possess the knowledge, capabilities, and dispositions to organize and provide instruction at the appropriate school level for the study of interactions among Individuals, Groups, and Institutions. Learner Expectations Institutions such as schools, religions, families, governments, and businesses all play major roles in our lives. These and other institutions exert enormous influence over us, yet they are no more than organizational embodiments to further the core social values of those who comprise them.
Understanding (s): Students will understand that… - Local, State, and National governments allow citizens to participate in different manners, each level and branch of government serve a different purpose for the people. -When students identify the potential problems in the world, they have a responsibility to propose solutions to reconcile issues within their community. - Citizens may have competing interests, some of which people may disagree with, but that does not mean these people do not deserve a voice equal to ours in the political process. - Many decisions that are made both by representatives and citizens have profound and meaningful change to our society, and we hold a responsibility to ensure that we do not restrict the rights of others in the process.	Essential Question(s): -What purpose does the government serve? -What does a civically active citizen look like? -How can we make a difference and propose solutions?
Students will know…                                                           Students will be able to…                                            -that as the largest stakeholder in education, they do in fact have a voice,  and will find various outlets to be heard properly. -Critically examine past legislation and actions, while connecting the legacy that said legislation has carried. -Defend their own personal convictions in an academic manner while maintaining decorum appropriate for the intended audience. -Become active citizens that take stake in their lives through creating projects and volunteering in their community to ensure that they are leaving the world a better place.

Performance Assessment Ideas

Performance Assessment Map

One of the most basic functions of education is to ensure that students are actively engaged citizens within their local, state, and national government. The youth population (10-19) makes up nearly 42 million Americans, or 13% of the total population. These 42 million citizens are going to become eligible voters, and participants in our society, yet oftentimes, students are not necessarily taught how to make a difference within the government and their communities. Most civic classes (if they are even offered) merely teach about the branches of government and the history of government, as opposed to how one can be an agent of change in society. As a future educator within this field of study, I feel it is my obligation to ensure my students know that they matter in our world, and they can in fact, make a meaningful difference.

My unit is geared towards proposing solutions to the problems that students face in the world. This reflects with the VT Proficiencies (as seen in the Ubd table), students should be able to make critical inquires about our government and sociopolitical issues and discuss how they can resolve these matters. The first performance assessment idea I had is to have students create a TedTalk like presentation, in which students choose an issue of their choice and present to the school. Members from outside of the school will be invited, including the school committee, and local representatives. Considering that 7th grade is an age where many students are unsure about their identity and their self esteem is typically lower than at other ages in life, it is important that students will feel comfortable enough to present to the school, and that starts with two factors: Creating a positive, and supportive community in the school, and also having periodical practice presentations and reports within the class. This establishes a sense of confidence for the students to have, as well as time of honest, and constructive peer feedback.

Another form of performance assessment would be a blend of community service, or a service project involving some type of change within society (whether locally, or globally). Students would get to choose their form of community service, or advocacy work to ensure that students can properly question and inquire about their world, while simultaneously proposing solutions to societal problems. For both of these types of civic engagement opportunities, students would collect evidence of their progress through a portfolio. This portfolio would include a weekly blog/report (1-2 paragraphs), as well as having a reflection paper at the end of the unit, explaining what they have learned, and how they can make a difference. I understand that some students may not have the access after school to get to volunteering opportunities, and I would never want to add that burden to a struggling family, so an alternative component would be that students could write a paper of how they would propose a solution to common problem in the community, and what avenues they could take to resolve said issue. Providing choice for learning styles is an integral component towards fostering high levels of engagement for students. Every student has different learning personalities, and I want to be able to harness their preferences so they can build their confidence of making change in our world.

I would connect this unit with PC 7.1: Knowledge of Content Area, because this incorporates my prior knowledge of history and political science in order to establish a rigorous learning experience. In high school, my sophomore history teacher had us take the time of learning how to send a letter to our representative, and ensuring that we would get a response. Representatives (or their staff) are legally obligated to write back to people if they end their letter requesting a response. In addition, my teacher had our class research a subject that we were writing about, and he had us explain to our class why we chose a topic, and what we learned about this concern. This helped us look into research, and dissect policy that can seem foreign and not very intuitive to most readers. I am also adamant as a political science major, that we need to inform everyone of how government officials are public servants that work for us, and are meant to serve our interests. The apathy of our current government and lack of voter turnout has been deeply concerning to me, and I am more frightened by the negligence of our school systems not teaching how students can be civically engaged.

My proficiency in being civically engaged has been mostly experiential and having the privilege of merely being in the right place and the right time. My past experiences have included serving on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, where I represented the concerns of my peers, as well as working with the National Association of State Boards of Education, where I was able to advocate for how policymakers could incorporate student engagement as a part of best practices. I am currently working with the Vermont Agency of Education, the D.C. State Board of Education, and Apple to work on creating meaningful student constituencies that have a voice in their education, since students are the largest stakeholder in education. Through these experiences, I have learned how people can participate and advocate for themselves to create policy that benefits their demographic. I vehemently oppose the notion that I can ever learn enough to be an expert in a field. Instead, I believe that I am the least important, and least knowledgeable person in the room, because that allows me to learn from others. Learning about government participation is constantly evolving, meaning that I will be forever learning more about how we can become advocates for our concerns in government.

Explain Everything/Shadow Puppet Reflections

One of the quintessential aspects of being a quality educator is the ability to digest complex information within one’s content area, and be able to illustrate the central themes in a way that makes sense to all students.

I am taking two ED classes currently (Literacy & Curriculum), and within these two classes, we have recently worked on creating a visual tool to display our content areas, as well as our preferred content theories in a way that demonstrates our comprehension of the material. For my literacy class, we were assigned the task of making a Shadow Puppet presentation with a partner, to demonstrate collaborative efforts, as well as presenting our content areas in an engaging manner. Additionally, for my curriculum course, we were designated the responsibility of designing an Explain Everything presentation that shows our ability to both navigate through multiple apps so we can utilize programs effectively with our future students, and to display our understanding of what content theory we best align with.

Within my study of political science, ideologies and texts is continuously expanding since it is very much a study of the human condition. When Katelyn Crandall and I worked on our Shadow Puppet Project, we both collaborated and discussed what might be our central themes within our respective disciplines (Katelyn is a math major). We both were working together to firstly figure out what essentials can we pick out from our other majors to ensure that we convey the key elements to both math and political science. We both had a conversation, and drafted an outline of a script to ensure that we could attempt to condense the breadth of our studies into a five minute presentation. When we both finished our script, we provided evidence for P.C. 5.2  to show our collaboration efforts and that link is provided HERE:

Through this collaboration, we were also able to articulate the primary ideas within our respective fields of study, which connects P.C. 4.1. Being able to condense an augmenting field of study and showcase the provisions within a content area demonstrates a high level of comprehension in regards to working with the material. Within our Shadow Puppet, I discussed how civics and history are more than just text oriented documents, they are living breathing accounts of the world in which we currently live, and to better understand who we are as a society, and as the human race, it is pivotal that we understand the major events and socio-political movements that preceded us.

In addition to history being a study of the human condition, it is necessary to break the barriers between your students and your audience when dealing with the misconceptions of a particular study. In our shadow puppet, we both described common misconceptions of the way people view literacy within both math and political science which connects to P.C. 4.2.. For example, people may assume that history deals with primary and secondary documents. Though this statement is true, it is also misleading in the useage of the word, “documents.” Documents can be more than text oriented artifacts, the discipline of history and political science deals with all aspects of human life, whether this is artwork that demonstrates personal or societal struggle, or perhaps history is analyzing Star Wars, and viewing with a critical eye and connecting parallels between the fictional Sci-Fi Thriller, and World War II. There is tremendous brevity in regards to how an educator could demonstrate that history and political science is more than books, history is the culmination of our lives!

Furthermore, I utilized Explain Everything, an app that allows people to make tutorials of presentations to educate others. For example, my Explain Everything was about Humanism, which is an educational theory that promotes personal choice, and having an educator act as a facilitator in order to best engage the students which instills the desire to learn. Within this Explain Everything, I discussed what drives me to excel as a future educator. We have a substantial population of youth in the United States, yet the interactions between adults and students are so sparse, in terms of having a meaningful dialog about what future do we envision for ourselves, whether it is a vision of government, education, or how we treat others. When the current education system has largely (not in all cases) decided that education is a top down process in which no experience or learning can be received by educators, administration, or policymakers when students are talking, we completely shut off and hinder how successful our society will be. I vehemently oppose the notion of having a classroom be a top down process, when we have the ability to learn from each other and grow as citizens in our world. I don’t merely want to teach my students, I want to learn with my students and ensure that we are doing our part to create a better world and better community. I believe this aligns well with the Saint Michael’s Education Department and their mission statement including the section on having passionate educators.

Outside of school, I have been working closely with high school students in Vermont, and Washington D.C. to create student advisory councils, or an entity of students that can present information to the state boards of education. These two boards also have student members that preside, and by allowing the student representatives on the board to have a constituency, they can work together to implement and promote well-constructed educational initiatives that will better the lives of all stakeholders in education. When I work with these students, I do not simply tell them what they should do, nor am I trying to teach them a lesson. To the contrary, I believe that the only way one can truly learn is that one must genuinely believe they are the least important, and least knowledgeable person in the room. When I work with these students, I ask them what they want to do on a local, state, and national level and what their short term and long term goals are. From here, I do my best to suggest the best practices involved with making their goals an actuality. Through my political science, and secondary education program at Saint Mike’s, I have learned both theories and strategies that help me take my content area and apply it to meaningful issues on a local and national level, to ensure that all students can be heard, and I believe this connects with P.C. 5.1.

In the future, I do want to be an educator, but I feel that I would be better suited for working at an educational agency, or consortium, in which I could do field work to learn more about what is going on in all of the classrooms, and what experiences are missing in schools, in order to enhance the quality of learning within school systems. I want to continue to work with secondary students from across the country to build the largest stakeholder in education and to affirm their role and solidify their voice so other stakeholders will be able and willing to hear their voices.

The Digital Literacy Disconnect: Ignoring the Elephant in the Room

The Disconnect: Policymakers & Educators

Recently, my education courses have inadvertently highlighted a significant discrepancy between how digital literacy is being implemented and what students actually need to learn. In the past week, I was assigned to read an article from The Atlantic, entitled: “Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web, which can be viewed below:

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/  

This article offers compelling insight into the fact that the fears of adults have largely driven what students have been learning in terms of digital learning. This article poses both an intriguing and engaging question in regards to whether or not our school system is adequately teaching students how to integrate technology into their lives in a meaningful way.

This skepticism can also be validated with substantial research that has been conducted by Digital Learning now, an initiative with the ExcelInEd Foundation. Digital Learning now has 10 different metrics in terms of how to measure how a state manages digital literacy/digital learning, some of these metrics include, but are not limited to: Quality content, instruction, eligibility, and accessibility. As of the 2014-2015 school year, out of the 50 states within America, 24 states have received the grades of a D or an F. In other words, this means 48% of students in America are receiving below normal, or even abysmal services in regards to digital learning, which is not only incredibly disadvantageous to our students, but it is a complete disservice to any other stakeholder in the education system (for more information, please visit: http://www.digitallearningnow.com/report-card/).

The Elephant in the Room: Students

Stakeholders have been working diligently to resolve the daunting issues pertaining to the technological boom, and how students can learn effectively with technology and instruction of technology, yet nearly every policymaker has completely and utterly disregarded the elephant in the room. In fact, this elephant happens to be, by far the largest stakeholder in education, the students. Why haven’t we engaged our students in the discussion of technology? Why aren’t we tapping into the first generation of students that have been born in the age of the internet or the computer? Why aren’t we asking what they think is the quintessential aspect of digital learning? The boards of education are silent in this country, and so is the state legislatures when it concerns the inclusion of students in the conversation, and that is the greatest disservice of all within this potential educational crisis. That being said, there are some state agencies, such as Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education that have a student serve on a Digital Learning Council, but a sporadic instance of a couple of students serving one some agencies is not enough to engage the 14.8 million high school students within these United States. Let’s change the conversation and ensure that all stakeholders are being engaged and invited to policy discussions. This can be accomplished through existing student advisory councils across the country creating a digital learning task force that reports to their respective Departments of Education.

Why I Became an Advocate for Students (and why you might want to become one as well)

Intro

For over five years now, I have been acting as an advocate for students rights, and ensuring that the concerns of the student are heard by both policymakers and legislators. It has been my purpose in my adult life to do what I can to ensure that the largest stakeholder in education is represented. It’s been incredibly humbling to witness passionate high school students who are concerned about their school district, or their state who are able to take the initiative to become noble and determined liaisons for all of the students. To be able to read the examples of young people who are able to create an improved world for future students is extraordinary and should be admired.

The events that have transpired over the last five years have shaken me to my core. This has led me to a great awakening in which I have harnessed the tools and experience necessary to be an ally and create pathways of access for students to become empowered. I want to die knowing that within every single state in this country, there is an open seat for a student to be able to represent the concerns of their constituents. I am so grateful for the students that continue to push and make strides for our future, and I would not be here today, if it weren’t for the students that originally pushed for representation in education some forty years ago on the Massachusetts State Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, and the first student council created in New Jersey nearly ninety years ago.

School Committee

I thought it would be important to share my story of the very instance in which I knew I was going to be a student advocate. As a preface this is not meant to glorify how I tried to take a stand, but rather, highlighting the inherent flaws within the ways stakeholders of education interact with each other.

It was my junior year of high school, and I had been recently appointed as the student liaison for the school committee, I pushed my principal for instead having an election but he said it was too late in the year to do that since there was a vacancy in the position. During my time as a student liaison, there two most pertinent concerns were the following: The cost of the $1 million iPad initiative our school was taking, and that the students felt there was a disconnect between the administration and the students. I worked with the students that were experts in the field of computer science to propose a much less costly alternative to the iPads, which would have been the Google Nexus pads. It would have saved the school $600,000. When I originally advocated for this alternative on the school committee, it was met with mixed reviews ranging from, “this is a great idea and we should take the time to look into all solutions,” to, “we are too far along in the iPad initiative, and Apple provides a better tablet device.” When this occurred, I was called into the principal’s office where the district’s IT department held a surprise visit where they wanted to talk logistics about my proposal. Though I trust to this day my superintendent had the IT department visit me out of good faith and respect, because she wanted to take the time to hear what the students were thinking, the meeting instead felt more like an ambush, they knew in advance when they were going to meet with me, whereas I had no idea that such a meeting would occur, leaving my underprepared.

The school committee ended up continuing with the iPad initiative, which the public also initially had mixed reviews as well. I was glad to see that at the very least a discussion was set up with a student to ensure that there was some level of agreement (we both agreed that digital literacy was important) but I was offended at the way they approached the discussion in an interrogation-like manner. This was not the particular instance to which I was referring about wanting to dedicate my life to student advocacy, but it is an essential precursor to my story.

Later in my junior year, there was a public evaluation being done on the impact the superintendent had on the school district. As the student representative, I did not have a vote in this evaluation, but I asked for the materials to see what criteria was being evaluated for the superintendent. During this evaluation, each school committee member publicly announced where they superintendent was strong, and what issues she could improve upon. As a school committee member, I felt it necessary to represent the concerns that the students had, and I discussed the issue that attendance is low during these meetings, and ways that we could engage parents and students more. Before I was even allowed to speak, the chairperson said that, “I want to make sure that you understand that you are not a part of this,” to which I responded, “I want to be able to add my opinion,” [on behalf of the student perspective]. Following this meeting, I couldn’t stop thinking in my head, “if I am not a part of this evaluation, or if I don’t have voting rights, then, what is the point of me even being here?” Even though I had been working with State Student Advisory Council for the previous two years, this was the moment that I knew that the way we interact with our stakeholders had to change. Over half the states in this country forbid having students even be on school committees, and even more so, there are only four states with full voting rights on state boards of education. Additionally, there is not a single state that explicitly states that students on school committees should have full voting rights.

Addendum: Why Stakeholders Matter

As an addendum to the iPad initiative, the following year, the school’s budget was $600,000 in the red. This was not due to the iPad’s in of itself, but it had to do with students leaving the district, and special needs students needing out of district placements. Due to this shortfall, the school committee made the painful decision to lay off 42 employees in order to balance the budget. This may look like a case of, “I told you so,” but I can assure you that is not the intent of telling this story. This story highlights what happens when all stakeholders are ill informed of what is occurring within the school budget, and if stakeholders were better engaged, other solutions could have been made before reaching this decision to make mid-year layoffs. When we give stakeholders the ability to speak and find ways to engage the stakeholders, we allow for a robust dialog to occur, and not continue hiding potential concerns from the public.

I cannot stress enough that this story is not meant to lambaste the school committee I had the privilege of working with. To the contrary, I believe they all acted with the best of intentions and did not see engaging stakeholders as an option (I believe they were unknowing of that opportunity, as opposed to blatantly disregarding them in the decision making process). I only tell this story to provide insight to other school districts of how incorporating stakeholders could save people's careers, as well as creating a healthy community and culture of honest decision making.

Where's the Data?

I am currently working on a publication that highlights the evidence of how students being included as stakeholders with voting rights benefits educational policy, but I am not allowed to disclose my findings due to publication rights. My policy report pertains to the factual evidence and pragmatic approach to why we need students as stakeholders, whereas this blog will continue to be the emotional, or personal reasons why having students as stakeholders is both necessary and moral.

The Largest Stakeholder in Education

For the last five years, I have worked towards student representation in education. I’ve been perplexed by how often schools and government bodies around the country do not permit students to either sit on the Board of Education, have an active student constituency that can meet with government officials, or even something as simple as having a student sit on a local school committee. Policymakers have made the assumption that students aren't responsible enough to have a say in their own education, therefore, students have been left out of the table where all the other stakeholders in education get to decide how the students are directly impacted in their schools. This impact could be a change in community and culture, a change in the way they are assessed, or even what classes they must take in order to graduate. These are significant decisions being made without any student consultation. I’ve always said that students are the largest stakeholder in education, and I am an avid believer that they have a voice and they should be empowered to use it. Yet even today in 2016, there are only 4 states in the country where a student is invited to their State Board of Education, and they have full voting rights (MA, CA, TN, VT), and even more abysmal, is that there is only one state in which students get to elect their student advocate onto the Board of Education (Massachusetts).

This blog isn’t meant to be a sorrowful read of how students are heavily underrepresented in decisions that are changing their livelihood, rather, this post, and this blog in general is meant to highlight how student organizations across that country have taken action and have created/advocated for meaningful legislative changes that have brought a beneficial impact to the community. As of today, there are over 15 states in the country (more than 25% of the U.S.) that have had serious legislation/policy created or advocated by students that has been approved either by the state legislature or the State Board. Some of the issues have pertained to student homelessness, sibling custody rights, and anti-discrimination laws of LGBTQ community. My research is based on the notion that students have shown integrity, dedication, and passion towards their work and can be taken seriously. As the Massachusetts Student Representative, Donald Logan-Willyard said to me, “the burden of proof has shifted from the students to the policymakers now.” These instances of policy changes are puzzle pieces scattered across the country, and until now, they have never been connected. My blog will help in understanding how these puzzle pieces connect, as well as solidifying a case for people who doubt that students can actually change the world in which we live.

2016 South Burlington High School Case Study

Summary

For the 2016 Spring Semester, I have had the genuine privilege of not only working with an ELL student, but I have had the opportunity to grow with him as well. The student I tutored (for purposes of privacy, he will be referred to as, Walter), has only been in America for 8 months, but amount of sincere effort and passion he places into his academics is unprecedented, and truly admirable. As I have discussed in my attached case study, Walter has experienced serious trauma this semester, and my fellow tutor and I have worked closely with him to ensure that his well being is intact, as well providing him with the opportunities to cope and take time to take a step back from academics to find hobbies that bring him happiness (such as music). I have maintained regular contact with his ELL Instructor throughout the semester to report on Walter’s progress, and how he seems to be doing (in terms of well being). The ELL instructor has also provided me with valuable information in order for me to better engage him academically (his favorite subjects, or favorite movies for example). Growing with Walter is an experience I will never forget, and this experiences has validated my passion to be an educator.

In addition to the Case Study, I have also provided resources that pertain to Walter. I have attached a Developmental Matrix, which showcases some of various forms of adolescent development and how they have applied to my personal experiences, as well as to general experiences. For my Adolescent Development Course, I also constructed a lesson plan that I had the opportunity to teach to my fellow peers. My lesson plan also includes elements of scaffolding to ensure that all the various needs of the students are being properly met.

This experience of taking Adolescent Development has made me grow exponentially as a person, and as a future educator, I feel significantly closer to the information I need to know and implement throughout my future career. Being a tutor for an ELL student has been a rewarding and humbling experience in which I worked to impart Walter with the desire to learn more, and discover personal interests and aspirations, and I would gladly do this all again in a heartbeat.

Case Study Resources:

Case Study

Developmental Matrix

Lesson Plan

Music as Problem Solving

Balancing Passions

Outside of education, my biggest passion in life is making music. For me, music is the greatest equalizer there is, because it does not matter what your gender, race, is, or what language you speak, because when musicians are in the same room, the universal language of music is being spoken and performed. Music has been something I hold so dearly, because it allows me to vent, it allows me to find inner peace, it makes me smile, and it makes me think. As with many forms of art, music can be passed off merely as a form of expression and not a “valid or lucrative field of study.”

One of the greatest conflicts I have in my life is trying to balance my passion for education and my passion for music. Up until recently, I have thought of these passions as mutually exclusive with no possibility of aligning with each other (outside of instruction of an instrument, or having concert band). Lately I have been thinking about my experience in Marching Band, and some of the best lessons I have learned in life have come from our band’s drum instructor, Mr. Jamison.

Our Performance of "Open Seas" in 2012

Lifelong Lessons

Mr. Jamison is a man that was constantly able to pull the best performance out of every single student consistently. He raised the bar so high, not because he wanted to break us or demoralize us, but he truly believed that we had something in us, a talent, that we couldn’t see in ourselves. One of the best lessons that he taught me is that no matter what I end up doing, I can always carry music with me, whether I were to choose a path in music, or that I become an educator, there is always the option of keeping music close to my heart. That is something I have been contemplating a lot recently, and I can’t get that lesson out of my head. During this semester I have worked on making my first official album as a musician and the positives and detriments that come with putting my time into a passion project during a rigorous academic semester. While I had been working on this album, two thoughts came to mind: the first being that Mr. Jamison not only gave me reassuring advice, but he gave me the truth. I was nervous that I would lose one of the things that make me most happy in college, playing and making music. Thankfully, I have had the privilege of performing in three bands on campus as a drummer, and I have also had the time to make an album in which I could create music beyond my comfort zone of drumming. The second thought I had is that college, and education in general, is about exploration and stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and that is something I constantly tried to accomplish while making my album (Existential Happiness).

Time Management & the Process of Song-Making

The biggest lesson I learned when balancing music and academics is time management. It is so incredibly easy to have four hours go by in an instant when you are working on something you are putting your full, undivided attention into. When I start from scratch, I see an empty template in which there is a solution, either like a puzzle or an equation. I break down the components I need in a certain song, whether that is the instruments, the mood I want, or the samples I may choose. I now have multiple concepts, but they are not necessarily in the places they need to be in order for this song to be “solved.” The idea of a song being solved is when I am able (from my perspective) to place the elements of the song I want into the places where I think they need to be, and this process involves serious tweaking and attention to detail. This component also is impossible to do incrementally for me, because I constantly feel like I am on the brink of solving the problem, or the song. If I stop, I fear that I might lose the process of spontaneity and creativity. The hardest part of making a song is thinking where one wants to start, because it is the least creative part of song making, because you aren’t necessarily allowing yourself to be spontaneous, this is a very premeditated part of music making, and doesn’t allow for the stream of consciousness to flow as much. The issue here is that on any given night, I typically have five-seven hours of homework to complete, as well as trying to sleep, go to the gym, and see my friends. Being able to balance all of these aspects was near impossible for me, but I learned to let go of the song by a certain time. If I wasn’t done with a song by a certain time in the night, I would breathe, and stop. When I came back to the song the next night, I would remind myself what key it is in, and I would allow myself to improvise from there (I refuse to keep in my head what ideas I should put into my song next, because there is a disparity between a sound in my head, and how it actually sounds on a particular instrument). Time management is the greatest virtue of all.

This semester, I worked on a song entitled, “Cape Cod Heroine.” This song pertained to the heroin epidemic that has plagued my hometown. I wanted to do something in order to advocate for better treatment facilities on Cape (since we do not have long term rehabilitation clinics) and also the dangers of heroin. I acknowledge the fact that I can’t sing, but I solved this problem by finding pieces of a documentary and constructing a narrative with a melody behind it in order to intentionally set a mood, and create an environment in which the listener is able to engage their self with the material, or the song in this case. As a future educator, the quintessential aspect of teaching is engaging students with the material, as a musician, the goal is quite similar. I want to immerse the listener and make them think, while also enjoying the melodies. A lot of conventional songwriting will be delivered in a processed format (intro, verse, chorus, refrain etc…) and that might be a wholesale approach towards sending a message or an idea out to people, but this is not necessarily the most engaging way of doing so. I wanted to avoid the standard format, because I believe that trying something different catches the listener’s attention much more. I have provided below a link to my artist page (Uncle Ephrum) and the song I made (Cape Cod Heroine).