Air Quality, Quarantine Instructions

 Air Quality

As mentioned in previous blogs, current state COVID guidelines require us to be outside when singing or playing instruments. When the air quality is poor due to smoke, we will not be going outside. Instead we will stay in the music room and work on other aspects of music. Band classes will be working on composing. Choir classes will be learning the ukulele. Guitar class does not need to modify our lesson plans based on weather. 

What do if Quarantined

If your student is quarantined (or out for any reason) they are still expected to keep up with their daily school work. In a music class that means practicing. 

Because music is a skill the develops with repetition, most of what we do in the music room involves rehearsing our current music. We do not have many assignments that are turned in and graded. If your student is absent it is expected that they will practice our current music on their own so they keep pace with the rest of the class. I require 15-20 minutes of practice time/day, that a student is absent. 

Students on "Independent Study" (out for 5 or more days) will be asked to complete a practice log with their practice minutes and goals for each day they are absent. The practice log must be turned in once the student returns to school in order to receive credit for the missed days.  

You can find our rehearsal plan for each day in our week-at-a-glance document (WAG). The WAG can be found on the Classboard of OTUS and contains:

• Our agenda for each day - which pieces of music we are working on that day or other activities
• Resources - links to the sheet music, links to audio practice tracks, slides for lectures notes, links to online websites

If your student plays an instrument and is quarantined, you can reach out to me and I will put the instrument in the front office for you to pick up. If a student plays their instrument during a period of time when they are confirmed to have COVID, we will want to sanitize the instrument before returning to school. Reach out to me and I will provide instructions on how to safely sanitize your specific instrument.

If there is a playing/singing assessment due while a student is quarantined they may choose to take the assessment at home via a video recording in OTUS OR they may choose to wait until they return to school to take the assessment.