I haven't had time to write!
I've been busy preparing for three, count them THREE PTA programs, two grade level field trips, North Texas Children's Choir rehearsals, All-Star Choir rehearsals and on the horizon: Mesquite Fine Arts Festival, recorder season and another PTA program in the spring.
It's more difficult this year than ever before to remember the difference I'm making. In many respects year three has been the more difficult in general than ever before. First of all, I know what I want my product to look like. I have extremely high expectations for myself, and now have the knowledge to be excessively critical of myself at times.
I know, however, that I am so much better at lesson planning this year, it's almost ridiculous. Again, I have every bit of that to owe to my Kodaly training. Level III is the most amazing thing that has happened to my teaching! And every week it continues to get better and easier. I get so excited when I have time to organize the next teaching element. If you're a Kodaly friend reading this and you're still working on your retrieval system (indexing): KEEP WORKING ON IT! Again, the most amazing tool ever--has completely changed my teaching life this year.
I have many friends at work that I care immensely about. I want them to stay motivated and positive. I so much want them to have the support they need. They deserve so much respect, so many kuddos for all the hoops they have to jump through every day. If you are my co-worker and you're reading this, I love you and I pray for you. Each and every day.
And my students, oh my gosh, my beloved students: I have children that continue to amaze and astound me every day with their emerging talents, dedication to musical learning and choir rehearsals and most recently, their generous hearts. My sweet tiny choir (of 36 members) will perform their first concert next Tuesday. I am so excited for them. I know that once they get that first opportunity together, they're gonna get it finally. THIS is what making music is about! Last week they donated items of clothing, toys, games, books and movies to two "angels" from the Angel Tree. They were so generous I know that Mesquite Social Services is going to HAVE to split the items up...meaning my choir will make the difference in the lives of even more children.
Is everything wonderful and peachy and just hunky-dory in the land of Miss Lippold? Absolutely entirely, completely NOT. However, this is what I have to say about it:
God has been gracious, patient and extremely faithful this year to me. There have been so many days I've driven to work telling him all about how "there's absolutely no way I can do this alone today, God" and somehow, I've not only gotten through the day, but I've been productive in some form or fashion. I've had coworkers who are faithful remind me to trust in the Lord and I've had multiple opportunities to share my faith with others as well.
I have so much excitement for my students. For what they're learning and for the experiences they'll have in the coming months. That has to be the greatest part of teaching children--the opportunities I have to step back and see things through their eyes with a kind of excitement and wonder that fades so quickly after childhood. I still love what I do. And I hope to retain that passion and excitement over the coming years and have opportunities to share that with others as well. As for tomorrow, it will be another day with another morning car ride filled with prayer. It will be another day completed with the help of a good and faithful God who is watching over every moment and hopefully working through me to change this world, maybe one moment, one child at time.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
There are only seven days left!?
I can't believe an entire half a school year has flown by without a blog posting. Highlights from the semester include a successful Fine Arts Festival performance by a select group of fifth graders, amazing and unprecedented success and motivation through my adaptation of Recorder Karate, an amazing tikatika preparation sequence and thus presentation in third grade (the best yet), and overall excitement for the future of my program here.
Since no kindergarteners come to music in Mesquite and my school is too large for me to see most of first grade, I don't actually start my own curriculum until my students are in second grade. This year, however, I feel like second and third grade are "caught up" in a sense to where I feel they should be (finally!) I feel like I have a shot at getting fifth grade to a satisfactory place by the end of next year as well. It's amazing that it takes three entire years to really feel like I have my feet on the ground curriculum-wise; however I know I won't regret taking my time and making sure my students have a good grip on the concept at hand before blazing through to the next one.
There are so many things about curriculum and lesson planning, incorporating a diverse array of activities in every lesson, and using only the highest quality literature to access each concept that I am finally feeling a better grasp on. Also amazing the time it takes...
My PDAS report was good for the year. I improved in some areas I didn't expect to. The comments that especially meant something to me were the ones about my relationships with coworkers and students, something that has been a priority for me this year (see earlier blog titled "Relationships"). It was nice to see that my efforts are having an impact. Now for the challenge of continuing that without growing weary!
I am so looking forward to finishing up Kodaly this summer. I have a lot more work to do master copying and analyzing before the end of June, but I know I still have time. Once I get on a roll, it will get done. And I'm also really excited for Orff Level I...a chance to see things from a different angle and start looking at ways to continue expanding what I'm already doing.
As for next year, I plan to start a choir (finally) and do another musical with fifth grade, this time "School House Rock". Search YouTube for clips of these classic academic cartoons! Although there aren't a lot of postings throughout my second year (far fewer than of course I intended) I hope that you have enjoyed my journey. I can tell you I'm already excited to see what year three will bring: all the challenges, all the highlights. Thanks for reading! SEVEN MORE DAYS!
Since no kindergarteners come to music in Mesquite and my school is too large for me to see most of first grade, I don't actually start my own curriculum until my students are in second grade. This year, however, I feel like second and third grade are "caught up" in a sense to where I feel they should be (finally!) I feel like I have a shot at getting fifth grade to a satisfactory place by the end of next year as well. It's amazing that it takes three entire years to really feel like I have my feet on the ground curriculum-wise; however I know I won't regret taking my time and making sure my students have a good grip on the concept at hand before blazing through to the next one.
There are so many things about curriculum and lesson planning, incorporating a diverse array of activities in every lesson, and using only the highest quality literature to access each concept that I am finally feeling a better grasp on. Also amazing the time it takes...
My PDAS report was good for the year. I improved in some areas I didn't expect to. The comments that especially meant something to me were the ones about my relationships with coworkers and students, something that has been a priority for me this year (see earlier blog titled "Relationships"). It was nice to see that my efforts are having an impact. Now for the challenge of continuing that without growing weary!
I am so looking forward to finishing up Kodaly this summer. I have a lot more work to do master copying and analyzing before the end of June, but I know I still have time. Once I get on a roll, it will get done. And I'm also really excited for Orff Level I...a chance to see things from a different angle and start looking at ways to continue expanding what I'm already doing.
As for next year, I plan to start a choir (finally) and do another musical with fifth grade, this time "School House Rock". Search YouTube for clips of these classic academic cartoons! Although there aren't a lot of postings throughout my second year (far fewer than of course I intended) I hope that you have enjoyed my journey. I can tell you I'm already excited to see what year three will bring: all the challenges, all the highlights. Thanks for reading! SEVEN MORE DAYS!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Things are Going
I haven't posted a blog in a while and to be honest, there hasn't been a whole lot to say. Planning is going well and just as soon as I think I've run out of songs, I come across another slew that I'm excited about. My students are loving nearly every activity I pick out and my transitions are becoming a more natural part of how I teach (instead of just an exercise to plug into Brenda's format). I don't feel choked up to teach a new concept I've never taught before but instead say, how is this like the previous one and how is it different? And I also trust that some stroke of luck with present another new way to explain it that makes even more sense.
I am SUPER excited about TMEA. My principal is helping me out with it and her support is INVALUABLE (and has been since day one). It will help especially with the $1400 that Kodaly III and Orff I this summer will cost. Somehow that doesn't matter. If I have enough I will do it. I just want maximum opportunities to offer my students.
I suppose one update is my use of pitched percussion this semester. It is mainly a handy and sneaky way to manage a classroom Love and Logic style: Students who follow directions and sing WILL play instruments today. Ah man, students who don't participate won't play instruments later! Funny how a group of 20-25 students whether they are six or eleven will do WHATEVER you say when you dangle five minutes of instrument time in front of them for 40 minutes. But I've also found it an invaluable tool for reinforcing what they already know. With the younger students I've focused exclusively on solfege syllables (with neat little labels). Why is there a blank bar between so and mi? "Because it's a skip!" Now let's play so and do together at the same time: instant bordun. Now read these rhythm flashcards, memorize the rhythm, then play it on la. Rinse and repeat with core melodic patterns. If you're not playing an instrument what should you be doing? PRACTICING! That's right! Students who are singing AND showing handsigns will get a "fast pass" to the front of their line! (Thank you, Six Flags.) And walah! twenty-two second graders are suddenly sitting up as straight as a board, singing beautifully and demonstrating the pattern on handsigns. "Easy peasy."
I'm trying an adaptation of Recorder Karate as well with folk songs and my own note order. Already I can tell that more students have been practicing outside of my classroom than last year. I'm also hoping to milk solo performance and group critique and analysis where these were neglected in my first go around of recorder last year.
With our combo PE/Music on Fridays with third grade, we're also doing some pretty cool stuff. Nate went to a session at his PE conference on basketballs and rhythms. We have students reading rhythms, changing the words to basketball words (bounce bounce hand-to-hand-and SLOW DOWN). We've got several layers planned and eventually small group creation and improvisation (things I don't have time for when I only see them once a week). I am eternally grateful for a coworker so willing to team teach. It's fun to play off each other's strengths. I can see our students benefiting to a degree I couldn't have imagined. Yes, sweet little pigtails is dribbling a basketball successfully now that she can sing a song with it. Yes, little football star (already...) is singing his heart out since he now has a basketball in hand. These lessons are simply a win-win for everyone involved.
And lastly I'd like to express how excited I am now getting about grad school. Sure it's at least another year and half away. (Yes, non-music ed friends, we must have THREE YEARS of experience to start our master's.) But now that I've been in the classroom and am starting to feel more confident with the simple things (like tantrums and teacher-directed learning), I'm now inspired to see where I can take things as far as handing the creativity back over to my students. And I simply want to offer them the best that is out there to the best of my ability.
I hope this post finds all of its readers well and dreaming. Do days like today with seventy absent students and MANY sick teachers get in the way of those dreams at times? Absolutely, but its the students and what we're willing to do for them that keep up going back for more.
I am SUPER excited about TMEA. My principal is helping me out with it and her support is INVALUABLE (and has been since day one). It will help especially with the $1400 that Kodaly III and Orff I this summer will cost. Somehow that doesn't matter. If I have enough I will do it. I just want maximum opportunities to offer my students.
I suppose one update is my use of pitched percussion this semester. It is mainly a handy and sneaky way to manage a classroom Love and Logic style: Students who follow directions and sing WILL play instruments today. Ah man, students who don't participate won't play instruments later! Funny how a group of 20-25 students whether they are six or eleven will do WHATEVER you say when you dangle five minutes of instrument time in front of them for 40 minutes. But I've also found it an invaluable tool for reinforcing what they already know. With the younger students I've focused exclusively on solfege syllables (with neat little labels). Why is there a blank bar between so and mi? "Because it's a skip!" Now let's play so and do together at the same time: instant bordun. Now read these rhythm flashcards, memorize the rhythm, then play it on la. Rinse and repeat with core melodic patterns. If you're not playing an instrument what should you be doing? PRACTICING! That's right! Students who are singing AND showing handsigns will get a "fast pass" to the front of their line! (Thank you, Six Flags.) And walah! twenty-two second graders are suddenly sitting up as straight as a board, singing beautifully and demonstrating the pattern on handsigns. "Easy peasy."
I'm trying an adaptation of Recorder Karate as well with folk songs and my own note order. Already I can tell that more students have been practicing outside of my classroom than last year. I'm also hoping to milk solo performance and group critique and analysis where these were neglected in my first go around of recorder last year.
With our combo PE/Music on Fridays with third grade, we're also doing some pretty cool stuff. Nate went to a session at his PE conference on basketballs and rhythms. We have students reading rhythms, changing the words to basketball words (bounce bounce hand-to-hand-and SLOW DOWN). We've got several layers planned and eventually small group creation and improvisation (things I don't have time for when I only see them once a week). I am eternally grateful for a coworker so willing to team teach. It's fun to play off each other's strengths. I can see our students benefiting to a degree I couldn't have imagined. Yes, sweet little pigtails is dribbling a basketball successfully now that she can sing a song with it. Yes, little football star (already...) is singing his heart out since he now has a basketball in hand. These lessons are simply a win-win for everyone involved.
And lastly I'd like to express how excited I am now getting about grad school. Sure it's at least another year and half away. (Yes, non-music ed friends, we must have THREE YEARS of experience to start our master's.) But now that I've been in the classroom and am starting to feel more confident with the simple things (like tantrums and teacher-directed learning), I'm now inspired to see where I can take things as far as handing the creativity back over to my students. And I simply want to offer them the best that is out there to the best of my ability.
I hope this post finds all of its readers well and dreaming. Do days like today with seventy absent students and MANY sick teachers get in the way of those dreams at times? Absolutely, but its the students and what we're willing to do for them that keep up going back for more.
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