- [Jody] Good evening, thank you for joining us tonight for our fourth webinar in a series on New Orleans music and art in special education. Tonight, our topic is "Thinking Outside the Box: Adapting New Orleans Jazz Instruments." So before we get started I want to go over just a few features of Zoom and then we will dive right into the content. So thanks for being here tonight. We are so glad you're here to learn with us. All right, so just to go over some of the features of Zoom, we've got the mute button. This evening, if you could stay muted. There will be opportunities to ask questions and moments for participation, but while the panelists are speaking, please keep your microphone on mute. There were also moments where you can turn your camera on and say hi, and we'd love to see everyone's faces from wherever you are just to make the experience just a little bit more intimate and get to see everyone. In the chat box, there will be opportunities to engage with other participants as well as the panelists, so take advantage of that chat box. And Mary will also be including some links in there of some of the topics we're discussing so you can dive deeper into some of these things that we're discussing. You can turn on the live transcript option. And you can also expand your screen if you are on a desktop or laptop device. All right, so we're gonna do some stage introductions. My name is Jody Scissors and I will be your moderator this evening. I am a Caucasian woman of Northern European descent. I have my hair in a bun. It is brown with wisps. And I'm wearing a striped shirt. And in the background, there is some abstract art. All right, so tonight before we get started, I do want to acknowledge that I read over all of the challenges that you listed in the signups and noticed that time, administrative support, embracing the arts, multi-discipline arts integration, finances, and disability service were some of the challenges that you feel that you have in your workplace where you're working with students with disabilities. So I do believe that much of our content will help you solve some of these problems. It won't solve all of them, but it will help you figure out how to integrate arts into the classroom to coincide with content that you already teach as well as ways to create instruments with just resources we have around our homes and also helps you become a champion and advocate for students with disabilities. We hope we can equip you with some of those skills and strategies to champion for our students. Okay, so over in the chat box, this is your chance to turn on your camera and engage in the chat box, say hi to everybody. So in the chat box, just let us know your name or a nickname or a stage name if you're an artist, the city you're representing, and what was the first instrument you were introduced to as a child. So for example, I am Jody or most of my family calls me Jo, I'm from Washington D.C., and my grandmother introduced me to the piano and we still to this day have her piano in our family home. So let's hear it in the chat box. What instruments were you first introduced to as a child? Sorry about that. Okay, we've got Bonnie over here from Kensington and hers was the Fisher-Price xylophone. I love that. And we have Ashley from New Orleans, and "In Kindermusik, I was introduced to the recorder," okay. The recorder is a very popular instrument in my household right now. Okay, we've got Tucson. Hey, Jim. Piano, nice. All right, Pam. I was, let's see, the piano, but the trumpet was the first one you played, awesome. Mary, the good old recorder. I have a feeling a lot of kids will grow up and say that same thing. All right, Greg, hey, from Canada. Nice to see you here tonight, and the trumpet, all right. Thank you all for sharing that in the chat. I'm so glad you're here tonight and we can get to know you just a little bit. Okay, so some of our other stage introductions tonight, we have Laura Sicignano and she is our ASL interpreter this evening. So you can pin her. I do have her spotlighted, but if you'd like to pin her, go ahead and do that. Okay, and this evening our webinar will be led by some wonderful panelists who are very knowledgeable about the topics and we hope that you have many takeaways from each of them. So we have Will Smith tonight and he is a self-contained special education teacher and trumpeter. Meredith Sharpe, she is a neurologic music therapist. Louis Ford, he is a music educator, curriculum developer, and artist liaison. And we have a special guest tonight this evening. Kate Lacour is an art therapist and she will be discussing with us specifically about students on the autism spectrum. So thanks for being with us this evening, panelists, and we can't wait to dive into the content with all of you. All right, we're gonna let Will take it away with our welcome note. - Well hello, everyone. Like to first of all thank each and every one of you for being a participant and welcome you from the historic French quarter and Preservation Hall, also historic place, and not only of historic significance but also very in tune to what's happening today as we present live performances of authentic, original New Orleans jazz. So welcome, all of you guys. Thank you all for being a part. Today's agenda, we'll talk about adaptive instruments. Then we have an experiential where we're gonna discuss the STOMP Troopers. We're gonna be creating instruments in a second experiential where we'll be making Afro Cuban rhythms. Then we have resources and strategies and a moment for Q&A. So we hope you stick around and enjoy. - [Jody] Thanks, Will. All right, Will, so let's get started on just describing what exactly are adaptive instruments. - Well, adaptive instruments are instruments that are designed to accommodate people with all sorts of disabilities so that they can participate independently in making music. These instruments come in a wide range. There are many of manufactured, adaptive instruments, and some have supports such as VELCRO or elastic bandages, and some are simple switch-operated devices. Many can be made at your home or in your classroom. - [Jody] All right, thank you, Will. And so I'm thinking, I'm wondering what does that look like? So Meredith, could you take us through what are examples of adaptive instruments? - Yes Jody, I'd be happy to show some examples. First, I'd like to introduce myself to our guests this evening. My name is Meredith Sharpe and I am a Caucasian female of Northern European descent. I'm wearing a floral shirt, glasses, and my hair is pulled back in a bun. My Zoom background is a light blue wall hanging. I'm a neurologic music therapist and I work with students with disabilities in various settings, including schools. So when we talk about adaptive musical instruments, there are many different kinds as Will mentioned, including different tools and accessories. And you can see here several examples on this slide. I'd like to highlight just a few. Enabling Devices is a company that makes several instruments that are activated by a switch, making traditional percussion instruments accessible with just the push of a button. They're also recorders with flaps instead of holes and moveable sections, making this instrument customizable. VELCRO wrist bells and VELCRO shakers can be used on the wrists and ankles so that students can shake or kick with music. And I have here with me actually today a few examples. This is a foot tambourine that you can attach to a student's shoe. So it can be successful, especially if they have great coordination with their feet or to help strengthen their legs muscles and they can along. I also tend to use a lot of times these desk bells that offer two different ways of playing. So a student can be successful at either shaking a bell or by pushing the top. So it allows some versatility in how the instrument is played. I also have with me tonight an adaptive mallet cuff which allows a student who has difficulty gripping to simply have an open hand and they're still able to use the mallet on a drum. I also have here tonight was called a T mallet which allows a student to grip in a different way as well, allowing for more successful playing the drum. Many of my students also enjoy this extra large guitar pic which allows them to use more gross motor movements to produce a full sound on the guitar or autoharp. So in addition to these examples, we see on the slide various instrument supports and wheelchair clips. And then there's some great technology out there as well, including the Skoog which allows different programmable music to be played by pushing different buttons on the sides of the cube. Jamboxx is another wonderful inventive tool that is programmable and allows students who may only be able to use their mouths and breath to play many different instruments through a type of adaptive wind device. And we have the websites where you can find these adaptive instruments and tools, and they're listed for you on our resources and references slides. So Jody, I like to go on to the next slide as well where we can all talk about some really helpful apps that are out there to create some successful music experiences for our students with disabilities. There are many listed here and I'd like to highlight just a couple. Keezy Classic is a great app that comes with eight tiles of different colors which you can program to play different sounds, rhythms, melodies, words, or anything that you want to record. A student can then play these parts of a song by simply pressing the colored tiles. You could even set up a page of music with the same colors so that the student follows the colors as they play app. And you can also decrease the number of tiles if the student will be more successful with only one or two tiles displayed. So the app is very adaptable and very easy to use. ThumbJam is another app you see at the bottom here that consists of customizable instruments and scales so that a student can solo on an instrument without any fear of making mistakes. This is one I've used with students with visual impairment, students with autism spectrum disorder, and students with Down syndrome. The other apps listed here include opportunities for students to create beats, loops, and art along with music. So Jody, I hope this helps and provide some good examples of various instruments and tools that can create these successful experiences for our students. And I'd love to ask our audience too, perhaps you know of even more apps, and I'd love if you could share them with us in the chat. - [Jody] Thank you, Meredith. It looks like Greg here asked us to check out Drake music. So I'll check that out after the webinar. And if that looks like something we could add to the resources, I'll definitely include that in our selection here. - Wonderful, thank you, Greg, so much. - [Jody] All right, so moving on, we know what adaptive instruments are. We have some options for tools and adaptive instruments in applications. So Louis, can you tell us how teachers would integrate these into the classroom in the classroom setting? - [Louis] Yes, I would love to, but I like to introduce myself. My name is Louis Ford. I'm a native of New Orleans. I'm wearing a white shirt with a kente bow tie which represents the colors of the motherland of Africa. Background is a pale beige wall with glass mirrors. I'm a clarinet saxophone player born and raised in New Orleans, fifth generation, and I'm very happy to be here with you all. So what we consider integrating in the classroom, we're talking about the music experiences, independence, abstract music concepts, self-expression, motor skill development, non-verbal ways to communicate, social interaction, creative expression, sense of accomplishment. What we mean by music experience is develop music concepts and skills appropriate to each individual's level. Independence, meaning student's choice for selecting tools and instruments. Learn abstract music concepts, rhythms, rhymes, sound, and pitch. Self-expression, we're talking about songs, poems, writing demonstrations of music feelings using dynamics. Motor skill development, fine, gross motor skills to drumming, clapping, hambone, stomping. Good example of the stomping is the song "We Will Rock You." ♪ We will, we will rock you ♪ So the kids love that. Nonverbal ways to communicate, obviously eye contact, gestures with your hand, conducting, touch, body language. Then we have social interaction, creating musical instruments and joining organized music groups, choir, band, orchestra, chamber music. We have a sense of accomplishment, self-rewarding, new skill, pleasure to perform. And creative expression. The creative process can lead to a musical experience. - [Jody] All right, thank you so much, Louis. And so when we want to integrate these tools into the classroom, how do we go about making, how do we go through the selection process? How do we know which instrument is appropriate for which student? - [Louis] Basically, we want to consider interest of course, right? Level of instrument understanding, ability, developmental age, physical range, and also their mental well-being or their mental attributes. I look at each individual separately. And pending on their disability, if it's someone who's not able to hear fully, if someone is maybe losing a finger or fingers, what instrument is appropriate for that individual, someone who's bound to a wheelchair. So it's different for each individual. And by that, then that's when I go into adapting instruments for each individual. For example, if I have, and this is from true experience, when I had a young kid, he did not have fingers. But he wanted to be a part of the band. In the beginning of the school year, I would go to each class and begin my recruiting exercise. My band program was open to all kids and it no difference if they had disabilities or not. I did have the fortunate opportunity to have some very gifted, talented kids that had disabilities and did everything possible to be a part of the band. I've always instilled with the kids that when I do my recruiting, 19% are higher in English, 17% is higher in math. And to use more of their brain, they are likely to be more ahead of those without music education. So with that being said, he didn't have fingers. So what I did was I improvised and I used an ACE bandage, wrapped it up, his arm, right above the wrist. Underneath the wristband, I would slip in what is called a drum mallet, a tenor drum mallet, and tighten it up and there you go. We have a tenor drummer. And he just loved it. So again, based on their physical and mental abilities, that's how I decide what instrument they can play. - [Jody] If the student is new to you, who would you go to to discuss their abilities and interests? - [Louis] First, I would go to the counselor. Then I would have a sit-down with the parents. After all is said and done, once all that has been done and establish, then we're good to go. - [Jody] All right, thank you so much, Louis. - [Louis] You're welcome. - [Jody] So Meredith, can you help us understand how as teachers we go about integrating these tools into the classroom from a pedagogical perspective? - Sure, yes, so whenever I'm creating musical experiences or activities to integrate adaptive instruments, I like to ask myself a series of questions that guide my planning and these questions are outlined here for us. And as we think about each one, we need to ask the overarching question of how will my student be most successful? So it's important to consider how my student feels most comfortable playing. For example, I have a student who when it comes to performances does not feel comfortable in the spotlight but enjoys sharing his music as part of a duet or group. Some students are able to play an entire composition while others may be better playing a certain part or a particular time within the composition due to attention or stamina abilities. And it's wonderful if you can structure the music so that the student's natural way of playing is highlighted in the overall group composition. So for example, creating a musical rainstorm with your students allows those students who enjoy playing softly to perhaps begin the rainstorm while those students who enjoy playing loudly can come in later as the rainstorm grows. All the while students are having to work together, develop impulse control, and learn taking turns. I've also done adaptations of pieces like "Peter and the Wolf" where each student's natural way of making music is highlighted by the part that they play. Deciding what they will play goes back to those considerations that Louis just shared, making sure to create successful experiences for our students. And lastly, it's important to consider where our students feel most comfortable and where they can feel part of the group. So making appropriate space for a wheelchair, allowing a student to sit on the floor or on a certain chair are important factors to consider. Are there certain students that are more successful if they sit together or is a particular student more successful if they sit close to you as the teacher? And as you go through these questions, your planning I think will become more clear in order to help your students to be more successful. - [Jody] Thank you, Meredith. - Sure. - [Jody] So Will, when it's time to introduce some of the adaptive equipment to students, how would we go about that? How do we make adaptive instruments inclusive? - About myself in the beginning. I am an African-American man. I have very short-cut hair. It's mingled gray. And I'm here at the bandstand of Presentation Hall in New Orleans. And for me, my experience with introducing kids to adaptive instruments always came with what Louis initially talked about which is the individualism of each kid. You've got to really make an assessment of that kid's ability and their interest. But I think that what I found universal was that the younger kids love things they can bang and shake, and that's what I start off with. The smaller the kid, the more shaking kind of instrument. Then as they get a little older, they like things they can beat, maybe a drum or a cymbal, maybe the little plate xylophone. And then after that, anything from third grade on up, I think you have more success by introducing all the musical families. Like you'd introduce the brass family, the percussions, the strings, and then you would give them examples of each. Play some music by each one of the families. And then to enhance that, what I did to help my kids was I invited members from the local school band to come in and perform something for them just so that they could hear it and help to hone what their interests were. And so my main thing is that you need to be very aware of what your child's ability is and how to approach them. And a lot of that you'll find out from just experience from being with the kid and also from reading their IEP. You can get a lot of information on what a kid does and what he likes from what's in his IEP. - [Jody] Excellent, thank you so much, Will. So Louis- - [Louis] Yes? - [Jody] Can you a little bit about when you use an adaptive instrument? When would we introduce those? Why would we use them? When would we use them in the classroom? - [Louis] Well, I would say from the beginning to the end. It takes a child three years to develop on any given musical instrument. So I would start fresh soon as school opens up. Whether it's music, choir, band, orchestra, it's important to get a very quick start on learning music, dealing with the academics, dealing with testing preparations for the core. So with all that in mind, you don't want to cram the kids. So you want to try to start early as possible. And I would normally start my band program during the summer before they get deep into school when they have to definitely focus on obviously the content area of math, science, reading, history, et cetera. So that is the best time for me to begin with the kids. I normally start at the grade level of third grade. That is a good time for them to really focus, able to pick up the instruments like the recorder, using Orff methods, O-R-F-F, learning percussion instruments, xylophones, triangle, bells, bongos, you name it, the guiro, shakers, maracas. So that is a good time for me to begin implementing these instruments to the kids. - [Jody] Excellent, so I'm thinking about the Preservation Hall lesson "Congo Square." So if I'm just a general content teacher in elementary and I'm teaching about Congo Square, is there a chance for me to integrate an adaptive instrument into that lesson even if it doesn't call for an instrument? - Oh, no doubt about it, no doubt about it. I mean, Congo Square, it's known during the days of late 1800s when folks or the people from Africa migrated here, from the Caribbean migrated here. Their way of language, of communication, as we call it the cell phone nowadays, their way of communicating was percussion, the bamboula, bongos, tambourines. So that is a good way to associate Congo Square with percussion and also with history. And so I instill that in all the kids. Whenever I teach them music, I also bring to their attention the history or the orient, the origination where these instruments came from and why. - Thank you so much. It seems like you can, no matter the subject area, there's an opportunity to integrate music that adaptive instruments- - No doubt about it. - Thank you so much, Louis. Okay, so we're gonna move on to our first experiential where Will will discuss the STOMP Troopers and his experience in working with adaptive instruments with this organization. So take it away, Will. - [Will] So for those who aren't familiar with it, STOMP Troopers are a group of young people who all have autism, and they meet in particular to take part in a Mardi Gras parade. Mardi Gras is a huge part of New Orleans tradition, and parades are a really big thing here. So what their purpose is is to be participants in the parade. And you've gotta think kids with autism have lots and lots of different things that are shall we say excitable to them or that they may be extra sensitive to, especially loud noise, lights, crowds, lot of action. All of this goes on constantly in the Mardi Gras parade. So what we do is we meet for a couple of times a week for a few months before the parade, and they create their own homemade uniforms, outfits. The STOMP Troopers is a sort of a spin on the stormtroopers from "Star Wars." So they create their own outfits. And you can see on some of the photos there, one of the things that they created last year was their own five-gallon bucket drums which they used in the parade. They practiced playing with the Preservation Hall Brass Band so that they were used to actually playing organized music with a band. And we made sure that it was lots of distractions so that they were getting used to the fact that they'd be in that type of environment. So my experience with them was very, very unique in that I got to spend time with each kid and help them work on their outfit, help them develop and make their own drums. It's really an exciting experience for them to create the things themselves. It's a great chance for them to integrate art. The art of it is really good, the craft, arts and crafts component of it. Their comradery is a really big part of it. They have to work with each other and with different people. And so I think one of the main focus of that group was for them to be ready for the parade, but it was also all the social interaction that came as a part of it. - Thank you, Will. It sounds like contrary to some beliefs that they may want to avoid crowds or loud noises, that this is an opportunity for them to engage and express themselves musically with the adaptive instruments and be a part of the community since it's such a huge moment in New Orleans. - [Will] It is a huge moment, and- - Yeah, yeah. - [Will] Yeah. - That's really exciting to know that they too can be included in that. - [Will] And I also think it helps to help desensitize them in some regard as well. - Okay. So we have Kate here who is our special guest, and she's gonna elaborate a little bit more on STOMP Troopers program and tell us a little bit, dive more into the programming and the behind-the-scenes planning and rationale and what she sees from working with these students. - [Kate] Thank you so much, Jody, the Preservation Hall Foundation, and everybody who's attending out there. I'm Kate Lacour. My pronouns are she and her and I'm an art therapist. My appearance is that of a 40-something white female with very short dark brown hair, a white and gold set of glasses, and I am framed by a virtual background of the outside of Preservation Hall. So the STOMP Troopers as Will was saying, group of teens with autism spectrum disorders, and we take several workshops to prepare them to participate in this parade. It's called the Chewbacchus Parade. So it's sci-fi parody, very arty, very funky, a little chaotic, and a lot of fun. And if that sounds crazy, it kind of is, but it's also a real source of joy for everyone who participates in it. And as Will was saying, it serves a bunch of important functions. Social, absolutely. As you were saying, Will, there's a lot of team building that takes place when you're working towards the common goal of preparing for this parade and sharing the common interest of music and crafting, possibly nerd culture. So people do develop friendships that carry on outside the room. Then you're also learning to play music as an ensemble. So that requires some really foundational social skills to be exercised, like you have to listen to others who are playing. Then you have to modulate your own volume, your own tone, your own rhythm to be more in sync with the group. And you have to be aware of the physical and maybe temporal space that you're taking up to make room for others. As you were saying, Louis, music's a really great channel for self-expression really for anybody, but especially this population because in autism spectrum disorder there's usually some level of expressive verbal challenge. So when you've got a non-verbal outlet like art or music, that's fantastic and allows you to really bypass some of those barriers. And all teens I think really naturally gravitate towards music. It's intense, it's physical, it's experiential. It's just a fantastic outlet for that kind of energy. So I think it automatically gets people on board and willing to try something new that they might not have approached otherwise. Another thing that I think is really important is the type of music that we're doing, doing music with Preservation Hall, jazz, brass, music that's funky and improvy. And then also combined with the nerdiness and wackiness of a sci-fi, art party, parade atmosphere, it's just this really great context for reframing weirdness as coolness. I think fitting in versus standing out are two parallel kind of conflicting urges that all teens deal with, and people on the autism spectrum tend to frequently be eccentric, out there, unique, maybe a little obsessive. And this kind of performance really invites you to celebrate that and just be odd and proud. And that's normalizing. That's a huge self-esteem boost being in the spotlight for those qualities. It makes you feel like a welcomed and valued part of the social community, the cultural community, being a culture maker. And that's in turn gonna make you feel more comfortable participating, I think, in concerts, festivals, meetups, anything that the culture has to offer. And it's fun. - Does, sounds like a lot of fun. So when we think about students that are on the autism spectrum and we have concerns about something, whatever it might be, how would we address that if we were going to have a musical experience with them? - [Kate] Yeah, I think those are really valid concerns. And especially going into an environment that can be loud and chaotic, not just a parade, but very frequently with music, those are all things to be really thoughtful about, both in planning and in the moment. I'm gonna jump around a little in talking about this, but when earning the STOMP Troopers, we're always thinking about showing respect for participants by meeting them where they're at socially, cognitively, verbally in terms of their interests or musical experience, the whole thing. Now of course the main thing to keep in mind throughout is that autism's a spectrum. So not only is each individual different or affected to a lower or greater degree, but in terms of their social, verbal, sensory needs and strengths, each one of those levels is going to be different. So really staying on your toes and attuned to who you're working with. Sensory obviously the biggest concern in a music group of course. I think as you probably know, people on the autism spectrum can hear tones and volumes as either way too much or too much to tolerate or so little that they're difficult to make out and attend to. So a good way to accommodate that is to provide both loud and quiet instruments, instruments that are either naturally loud or naturally quiet or ones you may have adapted by, say, muffling a drum slightly. Providing loud and quiet spaces within the room and space to move around, pace, fidget, bounce if you have those kinds of sensory motor needs. And letting individuals choose what they can best handle or what they need in the moment is key, trusting that people can mostly self-regulate. And making noise-blocking ear protection available. Always in our workshops, but especially on parade night, those noise-canceling earphones are . Communication is probably the other biggest barrier we face. Our participants sometimes have a delay in between hearing and processing and responding to either a question or a cue. That's delayed processing and that just needs to be respected with some extra time for them to generate their response. They may also may not pick up on nonverbal messages or indirect messages. So just when you give instructions, be really, really clear in terms of your expectations and feedback. And that can be a real challenge in teaching because being so direct and so head-on in addressing other people is not necessarily what we as teachers are used to and it may feel a little awkward at first, but it's such an important way to show respect to the participants and make sure they're getting the information that they need. And another part of that is using words as little as possible or at least supplementing those with demonstrations and modeling along with your explanation. So in our workshops, I use PowerPoints along with texts and pictures and video clips since a lot of participants find it really easy to process pictures, to read text more so than to listen to me talking. And that's especially true if you're working with folks with a limited attention span. That's gonna be petering out as the workshop goes on anyhow. So just making it as easy as possible to tune in. I think we all find experientials more engaging than passively having information put at us. And fortunately, with music that's really easy to do. So I try to tell less and show more. And finally, I think something that doesn't get a lot of consideration but is a really big deal is social anxiety. Again, really common with teens across the board, but in particular with individuals who have social skills deficits and are aware of that. You cannot overdo it with the positive feedback, reassurance, praise, especially when you're trying to build self-confidence and foster those personal connections as one of the main goals of the project. So I would really encourage anyone who's doing a similar project to encourage the heck out of everyone, and then encourage them to encourage one another as well. - Thank you, Kate. I'm really particularly glad that you touched on that time piece because I know it's always a part of a student's IEP. And sometimes that just means extra time for a task, but making that point about extra time or responding. So thank you for pointing those details out. And Louis? - [Louis] Yes? - Could you tell us a little bit about, so the STOMP Troopers, they create instruments. Will told us a little bit about his experience making instruments with them. What are the benefits when we think about versus just giving them a manufactured instrument? What does the student gain from actually creating one? - Oh, I'm glad you brought that up, yeah. Well, in addition to what Kate just mentioned, we're talking about brain development. We're talking about physical development. And as I mentioned before, the benefits, those who have a background in music 19% higher in English, 17% higher in math. And they use the majority of their brain and advance more than those who are not into music. With brain development, we're talking about language. We're talking about speech. We're talking about listening, reading, social and emotional perspectives. We're talking about creative thinking. It's all about multitasking when you're dealing with music. So that brain is working nonstop. We're dealing with physical developments, gross motor skills. We're talking about fine motor skills, complex locomotive skills. We're talking about endurance and spatial reasoning. So there's a plethora of benefits dealing with kids who are interested in learning music. - Thank you so much, Louis. And so Meredith, - My pleasure. Louis mentioned social and emotional. Can you tell us, social and emotional learning is a really hot topic right now and we know that it has huge, immense benefits. So when we bring music into our classroom alongside social-emotional learning, what do we learn from that? - [Meredith] Yes, it's a great question, and Kate and Will have sort of touched on some of these points. But when we dive in a little deeper, the creative process, just as Louis said as well, where we're using both our bodies and our minds in a very integrative way. And so as we see from this table here, social-emotional learning involves several aspects including self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. So when a student is making an instrument, it is the process that brings some of these lessons to light. So a student must organize their thinking, plan, manage time, make constructive choices, communicate, and listen. As a student becomes involved in the creative process, they may have the opportunity to learn from mistakes and then learn the skill of seeking help as well as helping others. And the act of becoming involved in a project like this can also be a great way to help a student regulate their emotions, bodies, and minds. Just the act of creating itself can be a great regulation tool. They become aware of emotions that they're feeling and can learn how to talk about and process them. And then sharing their final creations can promote a sense of success and accomplishment and celebrate diversity in the classroom. Studies have shown that promoting creativity in the classroom leads to increased social and emotional learning which in turn helps students to grow in confidence, flexibility, and social skills. - Thank you. So I'm just wondering, how do I make an instrument? Where do I start if I'm working with a student? So here we have Louis and Will were able to provide us with some really great examples to get you started with your students and how to make a whistle, body percussion examples, coconut shells, Mardi Gras beads, how to utilize those. What do you do with the beads after Mardi Gras? Here's an idea. So, and I believe Will, you made some original instruments for us tonight. Is that right? - I did indeed. And initially when some of the concerns were finance and delving into the art, a lot of this is gonna help that because the process of making this is art, is socialization. It's a chance for them to address all of the other social-emotional needs that we just discussed. One of the things that I did, and I got this idea from Meredith's daughter, is just a simple, empty Kleenex box around which we've put rubber bands. I don't know if you can hear it very well, but like we said, it's the process of making it that it really engages the kids and gives them a chance to develop in many different ways. And so this is, it can be played different ways. They can pluck the rubber bands. They can strum them. And what I've found is that if you ever do this in a group of kids, it's really, really fun. Also very inexpensive in terms of finance. We also created a can drum which is made from just an empty can that we took the lid off both ends. And on the top, the skin is simply packing tape. It's just packing tape. It becomes your homemade drum. Then I have a beater here, but it can also be done with just a pencil, so... And you can make them of varying sizes. Depends on what kind of cans they have. And like I said, the process is what makes it so interesting for the kids. They take more of an interest in it and they claim more responsibility when they've made it. So here's a smaller can. Neat. There's also ridges on the side. - [Jody] Oh, wow. - So it can be used in several ways. We talked about the claves, right? These are actual claves. These are my homemade claves that came from an old extension pinch stick. So if you're painting a room, you finished painting the room, well I just took the stick and I cut it. So we've got homemade claves. And depending on what kind of wood you have available, if you got small... You can use any type of inexpensive pieces of wood that you have at home. And depending on the advancement, what kind of level your kids are on, they can go to bigger things. Like this one was made from a coconut shell with a stick straight through it. That's a shaker. This is a much more advanced model of the same thing. This was made by high school kids, and it's an actual much bigger coconut shell. They went to a lot of detail with it. But it took months for them to make this. This was an ongoing project. It's filled with BBs. Also a simple, empty vitamin C bottle, you can fill it with beads, BBs. I've actually put a few pennies inside. - [Jody] All right. - So those are just a few examples of things that you can do that are very inexpensive, gets the kids very involved, helps to develop them all sort of social-emotional ways. And I think it's very rewarding for the teacher and the student. - [Jody] I can definitely see the value in all of this. So Will, before we hop into the Q&A, because I know we're running out of time, can you take us through a musical experience? - Absolutely. My homemade claves, right? Claves came from Africa, right. They're also referred to as rhythm sticks, right, and they're the basis of a lot of Afro Caribbean rhythms. You can hear it in almost any Afro Caribbean music that you listen to. The clave rhythm is what it's called. Can be played in many ways. Normally three, two, three, but for my kids, I found that they enjoyed it better when I had them do one-two, one-two-three, one-two, one-two-three, one-two, one-two-three. I've got an example of that and how it sounds with an actual live performance. If you could key that for us, Jody. - [Jody] Sure, yes. - And you'll hear that rhythm right in the beginning. You lost the clave. You lost it. Can we do that just once more, Jody, and have everybody at home join in? - [Jody] Sure. - So you can grab any household instrument you have. You can clap. You can find two pencils. - [Jody] All right, I've got a pencil and my glass of tea. How does that work? - That will work fine. - [Jody] Okay, let's jam together. - That's an excellent way to let the kids enjoy participating in it just in class. And you can pick any type music. There's all sorts of rhythms that you can even make your own rhythm up and have them participate in. - [Jody] Thank you so much. I'm gonna share the link here. Greg's asking for the link, so I'm gonna share the link with him to that video. And we'll also be sharing this slide with all the participants. So you can have all the resources after the webinar's over. Thank you so much, Will. That was awesome. So we're gonna hop. I'm gonna skip on over to the Q&A. Stay if you can. We understand, we want to honor your time. So we hope that you can make a musical experience with your students or your family or try it on your own. And you can always head over to the Preservation Hall lessons where we will be adding this resource so you can use adaptive instruments with any of the lessons that cover culture, history, music concepts from elementary to high school. So give it a shot. Okay, and then we'll have our July webinar. So if you want to join us then, we have an amazing lineup as well. So let's head on into the Q&A. In the chat box or if you want to turn your microphone on, we have our panelists here and our special guests who are glad to answer any questions. So turn your mic on or type it in the chat and we'll take it from here. Thanks, Alan. Alan says, "Thanks so much for the great ideas." Thank you, we're so glad you could join us tonight. Keep an eye out for another email from Preservation Hall because we will share the recording of the video as well as a transcript. And you can have access to all of the resources on here. We want you to be able to have them and share them so we can build a longer and stronger community to support learners with disabilities. Thank you, Bonnie, for that nice note. Thank you, Greg, for coming out tonight. Not a lot of questions tonight. A lot of thank you's, but that's all right. Okay, well, if you do have a question, email us. In our follow-up email that you all will get next week, we will reply to any lingering questions that come. When you're making your breakfast and it pops up and you think of something, just shoot us an email. We are here for one another. And if we don't have the answer, we will look for the answer and reach out to all of our other learning community to find it for you. So Mary, thanks for sharing the email there in the chat. And so our next webinar will be about adaptive movements. So we had adaptive instruments this evening. And so in July, we'll be talking about adaptive movements with not only our body, but also with mobility devices. So love to see you join then. All right, I think we're getting a lot of goodbyes, so thank you, everyone, for joining tonight. We're so glad you could be here with us this evening. And thank you to our panelists. You are fabulous, just so amazing. Thank you, Kate, for being here too as our special guest on such short notice. You all are really incredible. All right, enjoy the rest of your night. - [Louis] Thank you, guys. It was a pleasure. - It was a joy. - [Louis] Goodbye. - Very good, thank you.