Somewhere To Learn
The inspiration for Portfolio Play Date v7 came to me the way all my best ideas do… while driving!
Queen’s 1976 anthemic hit “Somebody To Love” came on the radio and the song’s desperate pleading reminded me of my own feelings of want during these seemingly endless pandemic days.
I began to reimagine the song lyrics in a way that only a teacher might... as “Somewhere To Learn.”
When I pitched the idea of a virtual sing-along to my class, the collective response was initially positive. So I took their [my] enthusiasm and ran with it.
Knowing the challenges of multi-source audio in Zoom, I reached out to our @wearemcbs audio wizard Aaron Gandia for help. As we continued to workshop the idea, I realized pretty quickly that I’d bit off more than I could chew, but Aaron was reassuring, so we soldiered on.
Day of the virtual sing-along, Aaron set us up with a multi-track session in Audition and pre-recorded a tutorial to help us produce a more professional result. Course Director @kariwhaley and I laid down a lead guide track and Aaron lent his voice to the choir.
Ready, set, sing!
That’s not how it happened though y’all.
When the time came to dole out parts, students began scatter! It’s crazy how many internet connections suddenly became “unstable.” When the dust finally settled, there were only a handful of us left.
I was already so far outside my comfort zone that I was ready to abandon ship, throw in the towel, cut my losses and run... but Aaron was still there, and so were my super supportive co-teachers, and so were 4 students who were ready to learn. And so we soldiered on together... for 6 hours on a Zoom call.
Ughhhh there was so much gold in the day.
The afterglow of these Portfolio Play Dates always leaves me in deep gratitude. How luck am I that I get to do such cool things with my students and colleagues? And how cool is it to be constantly stretching in my craft, both as a creative and an educator.
