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.
