Like many other nonprofit agencies, Musical Bridges Around the World had to pivot when the pandemic hit in spring 2020.
Its educational outreach program, Musical Sprouts, received a High Impact Grant from Impact San Antonio in October 2019 to expand into 10 Title 1 elementary schools in disadvantaged areas of San Antonio. The idea behind Musical Sprouts is to provide courses of study on three countries and their cultures during each school year to show kids what a big world is out there. And along the way, what they learn is applied to a variety of subjects they are studying in STEAM classes — science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
Under normal circumstances, the students would see live musical performances during the school year and ask the performers about their cultures. But with schools closed due to the pandemic, that wasn’t going to happen, at least not in person.
“Right before the pandemic, we did deliver three concerts, and we had training for teachers and principals in February 2020,” said Caleb Gonzalez, director of educational outreach for Musical Bridges. “We were ready to roll. Then kids went on Spring Break and never came back.”
While MBAW staff were still figuring out how to continue the program with school campuses closed, “one of our Sprouts schools, a third-grade team from South San Antonio, showed us what they were doing, and it worked for us,” Gonzalez said. “We put everything on Google Classroom and converted our next concert to online.
“It was Russian artists from New York, prerecorded. The Q&A afterward was livestreamed. Kids were watching it from home.”
By fall 2020, Sprouts staffers and school teachers were working their way into the format, but Gonzalez thinks it really hit its stride this spring, with the segment on Japan being presented to students in grades 1-5.
“Everything is converted to electronic now,” he said. “Our books are ebooks and all lessons are on video, with a cartoon character that the kids interact with on email. We are already developing the classes for next year, continuing with the model we used this year because we don’t know how classes will be handled. This year really made us realize we could reach so many more kids.”
Students had to adjust to the online format and there still is a “disconnect” with some of them, but many are doing well, Gonzalez said.
“Every kid is different,” he said. “For some, online is good because they’re used to watching videos. Kids are making music online through the Chrome Music Lab, where they can create music and even see soundwaves. It’s fun for them.”
Segments for this school year were Spain; Sister Cities, which included cities in China, Germany and Israel; and Japan. Students are often surprised at what they learn about the world, Gonzalez said.
“For China, the kids were surprised that kids there do the same things they do,” he said. “We also tie the cultures to San Antonio, through mission architecture and a virtual tour of the Spanish Governor’s Palace. We have the Japanese Tea Garden at the Botanical Garden, and the Friendship Tower downtown is a gift to the city from Mexico.”
Tie-ins to subjects such as science and math make learning interesting, he said.
“During the Spain segment, when we were studying shapes and geometry, the kids got a virtual tour of the McNay Art Museum to study Cubism,” he said. “During the Japan segment, kids learned origami and made puppets with it. Then through their writing skills, they created a story to act out on conflict resolution.”
Whatever happens next year, Gonzalez said he is pleased with how the program turned out this school year.
“It’s a testament to the teachers that we were able to chug along and figure it out. Big thanks to everybody,” he said.
(210) 464-1534
