Professional Inquiry Project
"You Belong" - The Process
The Writing and Composing Process
Carson and I were working with our grade 5 classes on the health volunteer unit, and both of us needed an idea for our professional inquiry projects. Because of his passion for music and artistic abilities, Carson then had the realization that a song would be a great way to achieve both of those goals. The initial chorus lyric; "you belong right here" was the very beginning of our song. Because our goals alined so well, and I also love to play music and sing, I joined Carson on this venture. We knew our song would be a fun way to introduce the concepts of volunteerism and gratitude to our grade 5 students, therefore we included our students in creating the songs lyrics. Each week during our health blocks, Carson and I had discussions with our students about how important volunteering is, and how vital it is for people to appreciate others that spend their time doing nice things for us. Each of our grade 5 classes created two verses of our song, which was composed to appreciate and thank the teachers, parents, administration and janitors of Mike Mountain Horse Elementary School. Additionally, Carson and I met every Friday after school in the music room to discuss our classes progress on the lyrics, and to further compose the new melodies for our song together.
The Performing Process
Once our lyrics were complete and the students were happy with the final result, Carson and I booked the schools music room for our classes. This way, Carson could play the guitar, I could play the piano and our students could practice singing our song all together. After enough practice sessions, Carson brought his professional recording equipment into the school so we could create our songs official music video. The students sang well and enjoyed creating their own music video. However, due to the freedom of information and protection of privacy act, we could not post our students on our website. Instead, Carson and I created a live recording of the song and turned it into a YouTube lyric video for our website. Our Grade 5 classes also did a live performance for our school during the April spirit assembly. Lastly, we posted our video into teams and shared our song link with teachers from other schools. This way, many others can practice our song and be reminded of how important it is to express gratitude, thankfulness and positivity within your community.