Students at Conservatory Lab take ownership of their learning in a number of ways including gaining confidence by celebrating what they know and can do with our entire learning community: families, teachers, and peers. During the Pandemic, our cozy Friday Finales have not been possible. Not only do they usually take place in person, but they’re usually pretty crowded because the biggest room at the lower school is the orchestra room!
However, with the whole school learning remotely the Lower School team felt that it was important to offer a platform for students to share the great work that they have been doing with their families and friends.
As the video conference Friday Finale opened, students muted themselves, and the El Sistema Resident Artists opened the floor so that every student could sing along as loudly as they wanted to from home. The digital lag makes it almost impossible for students to sing along with each other, so this is how they sing in music classes too.
After everyone got to sing, academic teachers for K1 through Grade 2 shared one project their class has been working on with pre-recorded presentations, while Academic Director Nathaniel Kaplan, and Director of Family Engagement Johnnie Kindell MC-ed. They gave context for each project and how students are learning about our world.
Following the structure of a regular Friday Finale, the last set of presentations was a celebratory video montage of each teacher giving awards to students for academic and personal growth. As teachers described what students did, everyone gave a glow-up to one another for their stellar progress. The event closed out with one more song led by Resident Artists, and an open waving and calling session for students to greet each other through the screen.