Written Response 5

The Goodkin chapter was a good reminder of what we are afraid to but must allow ourselves to do: make mistakes. Thus far, some of my greatest learning opportunities in teaching have occurred when I have made mistakes.

When one of my students crawled underneath the piano during a piano lesson I realized that my pacing was too fast and I was pointing out too many mistakes rather than acknowledging the things the student was doing correctly. In subsequent lessons I was more attentive to his body language to know when to push and when to slow my pacing. It has now been many months since he has crawled underneath the piano.

When I tried to use boom whackers for a resting tone activity and my pitch kept wondering I realized that I needed to use an instrument with a more familiar timbre to be successful. I taught the following lesson with pitch bells and was able to maintain my key much more easily.

Mistakes are part of the process. Let’s use mistakes as an opportunity to learn rather than attacking our sense of self worth. Let’s create an environment where both we and our students can fail and improve. Let’s make mistakes!

Field Work Reflection 4

The majority of my time at the community center was spent one-on-one with a student working in GarageBand on the iPad. The student I was working with had a very difficult time focusing and following directions. She consistently went to other apps in the iPad or played with other instruments in the GarageBand app rather than trying sing and chant fit triple songs and patterns with the percussion as she had been instructed.

This particular student often removed and replaced her headphones rather than keeping them on her head, removed the headphones from the splitter, and consistently became distracted. I had to frequently remind her of the task, to be gentle with the equipment, to keep her hands to herself, and to remain focused. With so many behavioral issues it was difficult for her to complete the desired task and I found that it was a victory if she even stayed in the GarageBand app.

This experience taught me that behavior plays a very large role in musical learning. Musical learning cannot take place until students can perform basic social and behavioral skills such as following directions, respecting others, and remaining focused. Thus, being music educator involves so much more than just music; It also involves helping students to increase their social and behavioral skills. Then once these skills have been developed then real musical learning can take place.

Some tips I learned to help with behavior are to always remain calm and kind, be persistent, and to present learning as an exiting challenge that the students can conquer. It is also important for an educator to maintain an optimistic and passionate attitude. Students feed off of our energy and will often become distracted and flustered if we become flustered. However, if we can maintain a positive atmosphere then this will help the students to remain focused and want to learn.

Assignment 2

I found one first grade general music class to be particularly effective. The activities of the 55 minute lesson are as follows:

Sitting in a circle and getting settled in the classroom (1 minute)

Discussing the objectives for the day (2 minutes)

Dancing: “Spinning Song” by Edwin Gordon (8 minutes)

Movement activity: “Pop Up” JRI Book 1 p. 7 (7 minutes)

Tonal Assessment: labeling to patterns sung by the teacher as same or different (8 minutes)

Singing harmonic minor resting tone: “The Sled” by Edwin Gordon (10 minutes)

Rhythm sticks: echoing the teacher’s patterns (5 minutes)

Listening to Mozart Symphony 41 while dancing and moving to the macro beat (11 minutes)

Drumming: drumming the macro beat, micro beat, and echoing the teacher’s patterns while listening to “Uptown Funk” arranged by Kidz Bop (3 minutes)

Lineup and leave the classroom

My cooperating teacher is a percussionist in so he tends to devote more class time to rhythm aspects than tonal aspects because it is more comfortable to teach. However, in this class he made a special effort to include multiple tonal activities in a variety of tonalities to help students further their knowledge and skills in the tonal aspects of music. In fact, the inclusion of variety in many aspects of the lesson helped it to be particularly affective. The students began with movement with choreographed dance moves in the “Spinning Song.” The pop-up activity also involved movement because the students were instructed to pop up like toast from a toaster in response to the song. After two movement activities there was a change of pace as the students sat down and had a tonal assessment. The instructor sang two tonal patterns which the students then labeled as same or different. In the next activity the students listened to “The Sled.” The instructor randomly paused to toss a beanbag to a student indicating for them to sing the resting tone. After several still activities the instructor had the students do more active activities by echoing tonal patterns with the rhythm sticks and dancing in response to what they heard in Mozart Symphony 41. The class ended on a high note as students drummed in connection to the pop tune “Uptown Funk.”

The quick pacing of the lesson was also beneficial. Often times, the instructor plans about six or seven activities but spends more time on each activity that he planned so the class is not able to do every activity. However, during this class he kept each individual activity short which kept the students engaged as they went through the contrasting tonal and rhythm activities, active and still activities, classical and contemporary music, and so forth.

Additionally, the cooperating teacher was a good model of what he expected the students to do. He instructs through both verbal and nonverbal cues and makes these cues consistent so that students can clearly understand his expectations. One expectation he consistently points out is the importance of a breath before singing to allow for audiation. If the students do not wait for his cue he has them try again, taking the breath before responding. He also gives students choices and responsibilities. He often asks students to help pass out to manipulatives and has a random picker set up on his SmartBoard so that every student can have a chance to participate. He knows the names of every student and uses their names frequently when they answer questions or when he is delegating responsibilities. This helps him to have a good rapport with the students and it keeps them active and involved in their learning.

Following my initial hours of observation, these are five questions that I would like to have answered by the time I finish my clinical experience:

1. Where do you find appropriate contemporary music to play for the students?

2. What tips would you have for creating a lesson which showcases a variety of meters and tonalities?

3. How do you keep yourself from becoming complacent as a teacher?

4. How do you determine which order you will do the individual activities in to ensure good pacing, flow, and variety?

5. What skills and behaviors do you assess and how often do you assess them?

Written Response 4

The video by Maud Hickey was very thought-provoking. She begins by describing what a visual arts class would look like if taught the way that music classes are often taught. She describes how the first day of class is spent opening a paint brush case and taking care of the paint brushes. Within the first weeks and months of the class very few paint brushes are used and students are required to paint within the lines. Over the years students are gradually allowed to use more and more paint brushes but they are still required to paint within the lines. Many students lose interest and no longer take the class.

So what is missing from this class? Creativity. There is so much structure and so many restrictions that students are not allowed to experiment. Perhaps the teacher assumes that the students have only a small musical background and so they cannot accomplish much. But what is so wrong about allowing students to try new things and make mistakes? It may not sound very good to the trained year, but failure and experimentation are part of the learning process. Furthermore, the stress on structure and lack of freedom keep students from finding enjoyment and becoming engaged in the music. Just as infants babble and make many grammatical errors in their initial speech, students will make mistakes as they try to experiment. But this exposure to composition, improvisation, and creativity will help them progress far more than “coloring in the lines.”

I do not want to limit my students. I do not want to emphasize structure over freedom and correctness over experimentation. I want students to be able to explore music in a way that interests them. My goal as an educator is to allow, encourage, and teach skills such as composition, improvisation, and creativity to help them find enjoyment and reach their full potential.

Assignment 1

I have been working with an elementary school in the southwest portion of Albuquerque. This school is fairly new and so there are a good amount of resources such as a class set of ukuleles, a Promethean board, and a class set of drums. My CT has only been teaching for a few years and uses MLT. He teaches first through fifth grade but I have only been able to observe his first, second, and fifth grade classes. My role in the classroom thus far has been to observe or to participate in the activities with the children. In the future I will teach one activity per class.

My CT comes from a percussion background and so rhythmic activities are easier for him to plan and execute than tonal activities. His students are all very good at echoing rhythm patterns, however they struggle with tonal activities, even singing resting tone. Even the fifth-graders have difficulty singing resting tone. To help his students, the CT sometimes sings in his falsetto but more often finds a student who is successfully singing to model the correct pitch for the rest of the class.

My CT’s typical schedule is as follows:

• 3rd grade 9:00-9:55

• 4th grade 10:05-11:00

• 5th grade 11:10-12:05

• Lunch and prep period 12:05-1:30

• 2nd grade 1:30-2:25

• 1st grade 2:35-3:30

He is also the specials team leader so he runs the meetings for these teachers. Outside of this full-time teaching job he also participates in the community. He is the drum tech for a nearby high school’s marching band, teaches percussion lessons before school, holds a percussion club once a week after school, and runs percussion sectionals for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony several times a week.

While this extremely busy schedule would be difficult for most, this teacher finds that staying busy keeps him from becoming complacent as a teacher and musician. By Friday he feels a little worn down, however he has found some tips to keep himself going. Firstly, he started out this job with only a six minute passing period. Over the last few years he has advocated for and received a 10 minute break between classes so that he has adequate time to re-center and prepare for the next class. Another thing he finds helpful is having a commute to his job. He is able to use time in the car to decompress so that he does not take the stress of work home.

Having such a tight schedule can also make it difficult to plan lessons. He usually plans activities in advance, but there are times when he is plans the last few activities 10 minutes before his students come into class. To remain prepared he has developed some strategies. Firstly, he uses much of the same repertoire and activities throughout all grade levels, changing the difficulty of the activity to fit the needs and abilities of each grade and individual class. Secondly, he starts his teaching week on Tuesdays, meaning that he starts teaching new material on Tuesdays and Mondays are a continuation of the material from the previous week. This allows him to ease into each work week rather than starting the new lesson plans on Monday, right after a weekend. Using the tools mentioned above, he is able to remain energetic and create an authentic connection with his students.

Written Response 3

While the entire Reimer article is packed with valuable information and suggestions on how to improve the modern classroom, there is one sentence that I found very especially thought-provoking: “those who teach music in schools tend to be people who poorly represent the musical realities of the communities they serve.” This statement refers to the tendency of music educators to have vast experience and training in the performance aspect of music, while many of their students will not likely become performers themselves. These educators may have a vastly different set of musical believes and experiences from their students. Thus, it is important for educators to have an open mind and teach in a way that they can make music relevant to a wider audience, not just those who will become performers.

How can educators make music more relevant to their students? I think that reflection can play a very important role. It is important to ask, “Am I teaching this way because it is comfortable and familiar or am I teaching this way because it will benefit this unique group of students in my class?” It is important to consistently ask questions and make little adjustments to better fit the needs of the students. Who are these students as individuals? What do these individuals know and what skills do they still need to develop? What kind of background are these students coming from? What musical genres do these students enjoy? How will these students use music in the future?

The majority of students do not become professional musicians or music educators themselves. Therefore it is important to help these students gain knowledge and ability that will be useful to them so that they can use music for their entire lives, in whatever capacity that may be. Music educators should not only help their students learn to perform but also to improvise, compose, arrange, listen, analyze, describe, evaluate, and so forth. It is my hope that as an educator I can give every student something that they can take away and use as they experience music for the rest of their lives.