{"id":1160,"date":"2020-12-02T10:48:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2020-12-02T10:48:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:48:49","slug":"keeping-the-music-alive-at-millen-woods-ps-wrdsb-2020-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/2020\/12\/02\/keeping-the-music-alive-at-millen-woods-ps-wrdsb-2020-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping the Music Alive at Millen Woods PS | WRDSB 2020 Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Music is in the air, classrooms and hallways at <a href=\"https:\/\/mil.wrdsb.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Millen Woods Public School<\/a> in Waterloo thanks to the dedication of music teacher Niki Kazemzadeh. Her work caught the attention of Heather Berry, a safe and healthy schools consultant with the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), who nominated her to be one of our WRDSB 2020 Champions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just found it phenomenal,\u201d said Berry, as she described seeing Kazemzadeh going above and beyond at a time when maintaining the baseline of teaching and learning is difficult enough. Berry\u2019s role takes her throughout the WRDSB, as she works to support staff and schools in their adaptive practices for COVID-19 safety. She explained that, in her travels, Kazemzadeh\u2019s work truly stood out and made an impression on her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo find time to do something like this when the day to day is hard enough \u2013 that&#8217;s a champion,\u201d she wrote in her nomination.<\/p>\n<p>Kazemzadeh\u2019s relentless determination to finding a way to make teaching music and participating in the CBC\u2019s 2020 Canadian Music Class Challenge a reality, while abiding by COVID-19 guidelines, was \u201csuper inspiring\u201d for Berry.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ujKarc_Emhs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>When asked what it felt like to be nominated, Kazemzadeh was grateful to be nominated by someone she had only worked with briefly. She was quick to remark how much she enjoyed working with Berry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was super kind,\u201d said Kazemzadeh of Berry. \u201cShe was so encouraging and validating of my work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a really tough year, I think for everybody,\u201d said Kazemzadeh, as she explained that the nomination was a spot of joy and recognition during a difficult time.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9z0AdLKRZBk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Abiding by COVID-19 regulations is something Kazemzadeh takes seriously. As a music teacher, Kazemzadeh works with classes throughout the school, having contact with every student and staff member at least once a week. As a result, she takes every precaution to mitigate the risks.<\/p>\n<p>When taking on the project for the CBC 2020 Canadian Music Class Challenge, she reached out to Berry to ensure she was considering every health and safety angle possible. With the plan they created, each student was assigned their own instrument, stored in their own classroom for the duration of the project.<\/p>\n<p>Boomwhackers, xylophones, bucket drums and egg shakers were just a few of the instruments available for students to choose. The buckets, initially purchased to act as added storage and improvised seating for students, were temporarily repurposed by Kazemzadeh as musical instruments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d been given a school set of bucket drums, as far as I was concerned,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COVID-19 health and safety guidelines restrict the ability to have students sing, chant or hum at school, but Kazemzadeh didn\u2019t let that stop her from adding vocal components to the classes CBC submissions. Students recorded themselves singing individually while at home, and she stitched them together with the classroom recordings to create the final pieces.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3n6_SZ6GML4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>With the videos now complete, Kazemzadeh has a moment to reflect on the work that led her to this point. \u201cI was pretty close to giving up at certain points\u201d, she shared, and there were moments of self-doubt as she questioned whether or not she\u2019d be able to bring it all together. She\u2019s grateful for her colleagues at both Millen Woods and throughout the WRDSB who helped her to make this a reality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have an incredible group of colleagues that I work with,\u201d said Kazemzadeh. \u201cThey were nothing short of amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kazemzadeh shared her guidance for other educators or staff who may be experiencing the same self-doubt and anxiety, with the simple advice to focus on finding the joy in being with students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe joyful, have fun, don\u2019t put too much pressure on yourself or the students and just enjoy your time together.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>WRDSB 2020 Champions<\/h2>\n<p>It has been a year unlike any other in public education. All that we have achieved together as the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) would not have been possible without the individual contributions of our staff to support our students, staff and community.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve received hundreds of nominations for WRDSB 2020 Champions from our internal campaign. We will be sharing a selection of these stories with our community in the lead-up to the winter break to help end the year on a bright note of positivity in a year when these are too few and far between. Join us by sharing these stories and more on social media with #ShareOurGood.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music is in the air, classrooms and hallways at Millen Woods Public School in Waterloo thanks to the dedication of music teacher Niki Kazemzadeh. Her work caught the attention of Heather Berry, a safe and healthy schools consultant with the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), who nominated her to be one of our WRDSB [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\" role=\"complementary\"><a href=\"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/2020\/12\/02\/keeping-the-music-alive-at-millen-woods-ps-wrdsb-2020-champions\/\"><strong>Read more about<\/strong> <cite>Keeping the Music Alive at Millen Woods PS | WRDSB 2020 Champions<\/cite> &#187;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15985,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15985"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/continuing-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}