Using Flipgrid to Create Musical Community
Submitted by: Angela Caswell
School: Pilot Mountain Elementary School
County: Surry
A sense of community and connection lies at the heart of music education. Distance education impacts relationships between students and teachers. To counteract this isolation, students at Pilot Mountain Elementary School, in Pilot Mountain, NC, have been using Flipgrid videos to share their weekly music assignments.
Fourth-grade student Abram Richardson expresses this best in this Flipgrid post in which he describes a guitar he made at home with recyclable materials. Abram states, “As you know we all hate to not see each other, so, we at least get to video each other and see each other…which will help with the loneliness.”
Music education paired with technology is supporting the social-emotional needs of students during this unprecedented historical event. Music helps students express their emotions through the process of creating. For many young students, the greatest impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had is isolation from their school communities. Students need peer-to-peer connection, and music education is integral to sustaining student relationships during this time. The work of music educators everywhere extends beyond the classroom to support the social-emotional wellness and psychological well-being of students.
