Jacob's Blog

Throughout the pandemic in 2020-2021, I was striving to find ways to reach students through the computer in ways that I had never had to do before. Not only was I trying to teach hundreds of students music through a screen, but also trying to help students through an emotionally difficult experience. Every Wednesday over twelve weeks, students met a dozen music experts who have found their niches in the music world. I was hoping to inspire students to think about the amazing opportunities for music after high school and receive professional advice from experts. We had many experts that Zoomed into the class, while some prerecorded some amazing videos. Some of the twelve experts included a local music store owner, the composer for Minecraft, and a famous music journalist.

For more information about each expert, click here:

https://sites.google.com/site/kaukaunahighschoolband/meet-the-experts

For the winter concert in 2019, the concert band performed a piece called Paper Cut by Alex Shapiro, which utilizes rhythmic paper and will be teaching the importance of ecological footprints, including cleaning up after ourselves in the band room. On December 4th, 2019 Kaukauna High School Band members went on a trip to the Ahlstrom-Munksjö (Thilmany) Paper Mill in Kaukauna. Ninety seven members of the concert band were invited to perform at the headquarters for the mill next to the public library.

After performing at the library, the students were bussed over to the mill to learn about the history of the Thilmany Plant, how paper is made, and about the specialty paper that they make. The staff at the mill were extremely generous. Well over 30 staff members helped answer any questions the students had. Things that stood out to students were that Thilmany is the largest plant for Ahlstrom-Munksjo, that the trend is plastic to paper and white to brown, that the plant makes paper for products that we use every day, and the plant makes paper products that is more than 8 ½ by 11 sheets of paper, like wrappers, sandwich wraps, burger boxes, air cooling filters, paper straws, and over 500 other products. The leader of the group challenged students to think through out the fun presentation, and even gave away gift cards to various businesses they served for correct answers.

After the presentation, the band was split in half. One half of the band was put into groups to take a tour of the paper mill. This included seeing the paper machines and being walked through the process of how the product is made. The other half of the band went through a mini career fair. The choices were to talk with people in the following professions: Production Operators, Skilled Trades, Engineering, Business Management, Human Resource/Admin Support, Sales/Marketing, Procurement/Supply Chain, IT, Finance, and Safety/Nursing.

At the end of the day, students were given the safety glasses, earplugs, and a brown paper bag of things that Ahlstrom-Munksjö have a hand in making with Pringles, Starbursts and Peanut Butter Cups. The students had a great time, and for a company that almost never opens its doors to the public, it was great to be able to have students see what happens downtown in their city.

For more information about the piece, including a paragraph from me on the composers website, click here:

https://www.alexshapiro.org/AS_Paper_Cut-Materials.html

During the time of COVID, our educational system has had to adapt. In the fall of 2020, we were unable to perform for football games and perform our halftime show for an audience. While we were not able to perform live, we were able to host a drive-in theater showing what we learned in class and virtually. I was able to build a 40 foot screen, learned how to use a radio transmitter, and created a video of all of our performances. Those that drove into the parking lot were able to safely sit in their cars in the high school parking lot, turn their radio to the correct radio station, and watch the students perform and showcase what they learned on the large screen on the school. This event went so well that other teachers and schools contacted me about how they could recreate the setup.