Journal #12

I think that this Children's Literature Project was a really good idea although, I wish that we would have had a little bit more time... Sometimes I felt like people were a little rushed to get everything they wanted done. I really enjoyed working with me group. I think that we each had great ideas and all tried to contribute as much as we could to the group. However, I believe that the groups were a little bit to big to have everyone equally present the lesson. My group chose to do the Grouchy Ladybug because we saw the number of different animals present in the book and therefore believed that it would be great to get all the kids involved. We then tried to think about the different concepts and skills that we could teach the children and I think that we had many wonderful ideas. We decided that as a music concept we would teach dynamics because that went side by side with the different sizes of the animals and which would present louder or softer noises. For a non music concept we wanted to teach the children about respect and friendship because during 2ND grade is a very crucial period for them to start making impressions of other people and we really wanted the children to start understanding the concept of "Treat everyone how you would like to be treated." When looking at the skills we wanted the children to understand how to play the different instruments and understanding which animals they belonged to as well as being able to identify the different animals. We tried to make this story and lesson as interesting as possible and that was when we found a little clock in the story that was on each page. We decided that we could incorporate this into the lesson by reviewing time in the beginning and having a giant clock that as the story was being read students could come up and change the clock to the time that was being talked about. I think that one of our biggest challenges were really just choosing just one thing to teach the kids about because there was just so much that we could teach from this book. Another challenge that we had was trying to make sure that everyone had an equal part in the lesson plan. That was why when I was making the lesson plan I tried to split it up for everyone to have something to do even having two people read the story, another person assigning instruments, etc. Like I said before I think that we worked really well as a group because we all wanted to succeed and each had good ideas to contribute to the group. For me I think the most exciting part is going to be when we actually present the lesson plan just to see how the students related to it. We have yet to present the lesson plan so I just hope that it will go really great and people will like the ideas that we have. However, I also hope that we will get feed back on how to improve our lesson plan. Nevertheless, I think that students really benefit from these types of experiences by being able to just get creative with many different things that can bring a story to life for the kids. Many children learn when they actually work with their hands and I think that even though this music is not a necessity, it really helps to connect it to those students. Students like to have fun and if we as teachers provide them with that comfortable environment then hopefully we will see that creativity come to life.

Journal #11

We have mainly been focusing on a creativity this past week in preparation for our children's literature project. There are many different things that can be done with music when reading a book. It has been said that many children learn better and remember information better when that information is associated with music just because they are able to connect with the music that they are listening to. I think a very positive aspect that we focused on this week was that there really is no right and wrong for children when they are trying to incorporate music. We were given many different examples of how to do this. For one story we read about Chicken Little we decided what words and expressions would be good to enunciate and focus on by adding music. The teacher also showed us how to take it to another level by adding a melody into the song. It really had nothing to do with the story but it gave us a simple way to add music to the story just to make it more interesting. However for another story about Thunder Cake we were given the expressions that the teacher wanted us to look it but we were allowed to create our own sounds... It was really interesting because we looked at another factor and that was recycling and the environment. Children can really benefit from this because it allows the children to express themselves in a way that like and they know can show the real person that they are. Allowing students to be creative gives them the chance to feel like they are in a safe environment. I also think that we as students are benefiting as future teachers when we are given the chance to read the book to the class because it is allows us the chance to work on our creativity by expressing ourselves as we read the story. We learn how to change our voices and make it much more interesting to the class. Earlier this week, we learned a new concept and that is called Binary Form. This means 2 and it usually focuses on the pattern of AB. A is known as the chorus or refrain and that is usually what we remember most in a song because we hear it so often. The B is known as the verse and that is the melody, what changes in a song. An example of this was when we listened to the song and incorporated the hand jive into it. We performed the Hand Jive during the chorus of the song so we were able to remember it more so. Another example would be the story/song, Chicken Little because every time you introduce another character we repeat the song, "It hit me on the head." The songs however, Rock-a-bye baby, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider to not demonstrate this Binary concept because they do not have any part that repeats, they ave no chorus. I am excited to see how people incorporate music into their literature book because I think that there are so many lessons that can be learned from these stories as we saw with Thunder Cake, it looked at math, social skills, science, etc. It should be really great.

Reflection #10

This week we really focussed on creativity and how to get students more involved with in it. We read stories and played music to begin to understand how our students are going to be thinking and looking at things. Some of the different concepts we learned this week through the process were a certain form known as binary, which includes an "A" and "B", the verse and chorus. Another concept is timbre which is, tone quality, letting us know that everyone has a different sound to their voice. I think that this is important because as teachers we are going to need to realize that each of our students are going to have different qualities in both voice and other things and we need to understand how to bring about those qualities.
Part of what we did this week was story telling. One of the first stories that we read was about the three piglets. I don't exactly agree with the way this story was taught because the first time a single person read the story which was fine because the teacher said she would chose different people to read stories at different times. However, the next time we went through the story she assigned sounds in the story to people in the classroom. I feel though that if that is the case then you need to make sure that every student in the class is involved at a time because once you have students who feel that they are not needed in the group you will lose their attention and that is something hard to get back. Another story that we went through was about a girl who went on a listening walk and made sure to just listen to the sounds as she passed by and really look at the world. I think this was a fun story to learn about creativity with children because it had so many different options of sounds that children could learn to play with. One of the things that I believe is important to make sure that children understand about creativity is that there are no limits. Each child has different opinions and visions on things. There fore although to the "normal" world a pig may make a distinct voice different children may have different adaptations which is okay.
This to me is where student-centered learning comes into play. Children deserve to have all the freedom in the world to express themselves. Although children do need limitations and boundaries to clearly understand right and wrong at times it is a great thing when they chose to show their emotions. Creativity is one of the greatest gifts you can give a child and it has to be developed to the extreme how that child choses to because creativity is something that will always let them enjoy the world. I believe that student centered learning was greatly enhanced in this activity because children were given a specific sound they had to make however, they were able to use their voices and body parts however they needed to make the sound as real as they wanted it to be. Another way that it was enhanced was by having the different music instruments and allowing children to chose which one they felt best suited the sound intended. This allowed the students to best express themselves and it lets them feel like its okay to chose something that other people may not see as typical because they understand that other peers in their group may also chose something not typical as long as it is real to themselves.

Journal #8

This past week in class we mainly talked about the final project for this class as well as dealing a lot with creativity. I think that this music project although incorporates a great deal of information is a way to increase our ability to be creative. This is because we have to chose a culture to talk about, the exciting part is that it doesn't have to be a culture that you relate to just one that you are interested in. We also completed an assignment on the use of musical instruments to help student's creativity.
I think that it is very important for students to be creative because that is something that will greatly help them in every aspect of their life and in any career that they chose. For example if they want to become teachers then they need to understand that sometimes a lesson might not go as planned or that a child is not understanding the material in the way that it is being presented and therefore they have to use their creativity to work with the challenges they are given. Or for instance if they want to become a doctor they might be faced with a power outage in the middle of surgery and need to be creative to keep their patient alive.
Creativity is something that increases the brains capacity to be able to understand information. It also helps students create connections between what they are learning in school to their real lives so that they can better retain that information. We learned in chapter 5, the different ways that instruments can be used to increase the student's creativity. Through instruments such as the piano, guitar, claves, melody bells, etc. students can learn about pitch, melody and harmonies. I believe that it is extremely important for students to expand their creativity as early as possible because they will be able to better express themselves later on in life and realize the person that they really are.
As for my cultural project I have decided to study the Israeli Culture. I feel that it is close to my heart because my entire family is Jewish and many of them come from Israel. I hope to learn a lot about the culture and customs to better understand where I cam from.

Journal #7

Studying for tests for me vary depending on the class that it is. I honestly thought that for me I would have to prepare a little bit less for music because I have such a musical background and understand things such as the different note names and values and the definitions of different terms such as melody and steady beat. However, this past year I have learned to review for tests by actually completing the study guide. For me I can understand it much more if I actually take the time to make notes about each concept as well as writing down what I don't understand and then looking back at those terms. Like I said, it was really easy for me to understand, note names, times signature, note values, and definitions because being a piano player that comes naturally to me. However, I felt that it wasn't necessary to put such an abundance of information on the study guide because taking a look at the children's vocal ability and characteristics, and their song interests for example their is such a wide range to know of that and we had no idea what would be on the test and it turned out to be only one question and I know that for a lot people that was something that they spent a long time learning when they could have been putting their time into something that was emphasized much more on the test. It was also difficult for me to remember the half step, whole step sequence because since I can remember every music teacher I have ever had has explained to me that a white key to a white key is a whole step even if there is no black key in the middle so I had to relearn that. Although, I understand what staccato and legato is I think it was completely wrong to suddenly add that to the test on the day that we were reviewing for the test not learning new information. I think that a lot of the test was confusing, for instance no one remembers at all when during this class we learned the notes that correspond with solfegee.
Some of the things that we have learned during the semester were the definitions of steady beat, the constant repetition of one sound, rhythmic pattern, the combination of long, short, and silent sounds, melody, combination of various pitches. We also learned about a C major scale as well as G major. We learned that in order to be considered C major, the notes have to go from C to C and that in a G major to follow the sequence of WWHWWWH there has to be an F#. We learned about the way the way a lesson plan should be written in this class and that some of the important factors it should incorporate are concepts and skills both musical and non musical, objectives, closure and assessment. In talking about lesson plans, we also talked about a man named Kodaly who believed that every child should be musically educated. He felt that in order to teach a child music you need hand signs such as Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do. He also came up with rhythmic duration patterns to refer to the different notes such as quarter, half, eighth, whole, and sixteenth. He referred to them as Ta, Ti-Ti, Ta-ah, Ti-Ri-Ti-Ri, and Ta-ah-ah-ah. Speaking of the different notes, we learned about their values, for instance, quarter note is 1 beat, half note is 2 beats, whole note is 4 and the eighth note is 1/2 beat. We also learned the corresponding rests. On Fridays we began playing the recorder and in doing this so far we know the G, A, B, C, and D notes and their fingering charts. One of the last things that we have learned so far is how to transfer a song into both a rhythmic notation and a melodic icon.
Although this is not everything that we have learned it is a very big majority and the basis of what most information stems off of. I hope that as the semester progresses and the information gets harder we will be better prepared both before and during the test.

Journal #6

This week was set aside for our lesson plan presentations. I was very nervous about this lesson plan because there were so many aspects to look at. I didn't really know if I was going to be able to incorporate music into teaching a concept the correct way but all I could really do was give it a shot and just try because thats all anyone can really ask for. It is always difficult to evaluate yourself but I think because I was able to talk to Linda and have her point out my strengths and something I could have worked on makes this a lot easier to do.
Now I am going to look at the yellow sheet and do a self evaluation:
The song that I used was "Going on a Picnic." When looking at musicianship I do believe that I got 5/5. Musicianship looks at being in tune, having correct pitch, accurate rythem, appropriate tempo, correct enunciation, and good facial expression. I think that I was able to use my head voice so that the students were better able to match my voice, and I also think that it was appropriate of me to admit when I made a mistake on the piano and instead of ignoring it go back and redo it so that the students are learning the correct way.
For leadership I would have given myself either an 8/10 or 9/10. This looks at body language, facial expression, voice tone and volume, eye contact, and intensity (energy). I feel that I was able to really get the students excited about this lesson. I really loved when the students were participating and really congratulated each on the feed back that they gave me. I would however take a point or two off for standing to much behind the piano. I didn't really pay attention to this until Linda pointed it out and I am thankful that she did. When teaching the students the dance and having them do it piece by piece I was standing out with them and doing it yet when it was time for them to do the whole thing, I stayed behind the piano to keep them on tune versus standing in the circle and performing with them.
For preparation which looks at knowledge of music and plan, having a written plan, and recordings ready I think that I deserve a 15/15. Although I didn't have instruments for the students to play or chart for them to look at I think that was for the better because I gave them a lot of movement to keep them from getting bored but also the balance of not having them distracted. I had my lesson plan and music ready to go and I think that I was able to adapt the lesson plan as well if the students needed a little extra work on something or if they were really excelling at a certain point.
Last but not least when looking at the delivery of instruction which really encompasses the essence of the lesson plan I would have given myself probably an 18/20 or 19/20. I feel like I said before that I was truly able to capture the students attention and keep them interested through out. I was able to get them involved both by asking them questions and looking for their feedback of words that we could incorporate into the song. I feel that the lesson plan had a great flow to it in terms of being able to teach the students the music concepts, to the question answer, to the movements that were incorporated. I think that the closure was also really beneficial because it helped bring everything back together for the students. I feel that overall my final grade that I deserved was an A because I really was able to keep everyone interested and help get all the concepts across.
When looking at the things that I found most difficult as well as things that I think I did not do very well for me go together hand in hand. I think that standing behind the piano or in my case staying behind it for to long was very hard. I have been a piano player since I was 5 years old so its only natural for me to feel most comfortable with in that area. I am really glad however, that that was pointed out to me because I believe that I would have overlooked that otherwise.
For me, the things that I thought went really well were really making this language arts concept work. It was a little abstract but I really felt that it was necessary for students to understand the 5W's because they will need that for the rest of their lives. I also feel that I was really able to grab hold of the student's attention right away and keep them focussed through out the lesson because of the different ideas that were incorporated, especially the movement because it just helped them getting moving around.
If I was given a second chance which I semi was at the end of my lesson, I believe that I would change how often I stood behind the piano to make sure that the students could really match my voice and energy as well as making the environment more comfortable with me standing out there with the students. As hard as it is to say this because no matter what we always be nervous performing something in front of a group of people especially if those people are our students because more than anything we want to make sure to both grab their attention and keep it through out.

Journal #5

The majority of class this week was based on bettering our lesson plans however, I am not sure that was the case. Although we did receive feedback from the teacher on our lesson plan I don't know if that was exactly the feedback that was needed. A lot of it although seen as correct in the teachers eyes as well as the students may not be correct to other people. I always thought as a lesson plan as something that could prepare you for what and how you were going to teach your classroom. I think that a lesson plan can be very different when dealing with different people and I feel as though we are not truly able to express that in this class. I have come to understand that the teacher wants the lesson plan a certain way and that is okay because in order to be a successful teacher you need to be able to differentiate but I feel as though much of the feedback was very negative this week and truly put the students under a great deal of pressure that could have been avoided. One of the concepts however, that we did learn this week or started to was the sharp on the recorder.
Like I said earlier I feel that students were called out this week that shouldn't have been. I truly do not think that numbering the lesson plans was a good idea because whether or not it was meant to come off that way it really made students feel bad because you are saying that if they did not receive a 1 their lesson plan was not good and that there are students that not necessarily can teach them better but our much better then them. I am not saying this because i received a 2 and am jealous of the people that received a 1 because I know that I benefited from their help but I do not believe that I should have been put down like that because the whole point of this class is to learn how to become better and a more rounded teacher. I also do not think that it is fair at all to be giving 5 extra credit points to someone who as a "good in tune singer." This class is not about that at all and that is what we were told our first day. There are many students in this class who do not believe that they have a good voice or have never really been exposed to singing in the first place and by telling people basically that if they do not get the extra credit they are bad singers really is just putting down students self confidence. I do think that it was a good idea to put us together with students not in the way that it was done but it gave us a chance to see how other students did theirs and to receive feedback from them. Like I said we only briefly started to cover the sharp, I think that it helped drawing out the keyboard, but I believe that many students are still confused by this so we need to spend a little more time on that to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
I think that it is important for us to be able to understand how to put these different lesson plans together because with out that we will not truly be a differentiated teacher and realize that sometimes we need to change things for the way certain students learn. I hope that we work more on getting the techniques that we need to really be able to be confident in our lesson plans because I feel like we were just thrown into it this week with really not a great deal of guidance or positive feed back. In terms of the sharp it is important for us to understand that so that we could progress into different and more challenging songs.
I feel that in terms of the sharp it is important for kids to understand this because it will further their knowledge in music. I also feel that the lesson plan although not important directly to the students will make us better prepared to teach them and benefit them in the long run.

Week #4

This past week in class we really went over a lot of material. We learned a variety of actual music information but a majority was also learning for our own knowledge of how to create a lesson plan. We continued to review steady beat and rhythmic beat while learning new songs so that we could experiment with different movements on how to teach the songs. One actual music concept that we learned was the rest. We went over the different types such as; whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest, and sixteenth rest. We also covered what each one looked like and possible ways to be able to remember the difference between a whole rest and a half because their appearances can often be confusing. We were taught that one of the most important things you have to know about the rest is that when you are tapping the beat however, that may be, you must always signal to your students by changing the movement that you are representing a rest so that they know that is an off beat that is not to be played. We spent a better time of the week being taught how to make a lesson plan in its beginning stages. We learned the different aspects for it to be considered both a well rounded and fun lesson plan. The different parts of a lesson plan are National Standards, Concepts Skills, both music and non music, Objectives, Materials, Procedure, Closure, and Assessment. I believe that the concept, skills, and objectives might be the most important part of a lesson because that is where you are saying what you want the kids to be able to walk away knowing and doing after the lesson is taught. We also learned on Friday the "C" note on the recorder and how to start sight reading different songs.
These different skills and concepts were taught to us in different ways. Because the week was mostly spent on the teaching of actual lesson plans the teacher went about it in a few different ways. When the week first started we really just discussed the lesson plan going down the list for explanation and using past songs as references or examples. The next day though however the teacher wanted us to see how the lesson plan was implemented so we learned another song about a dog and then we as a class were able to pick apart the lesson plan to see how it all really came together. Learning about the rest was also a part of the song being taught for the lesson. The teacher first had asked us to use different movements to keep a steady beat and then a rhythmic beat. It is very important when keeping a rhythmic beat that you do not tap when there is no note to be tapped. I believe that Friday was a very productive day on the recorder. We used our book this past week and started incorporating the different notes into songs that may have been familiar to us so it was much easier to play them. For the different songs students were chosen to go through the measures naming all of the notes so that everyone could be on track, tap the rythem, as well as possible play out what is being asked. I think that for a lot of students it was beneficial to learn this way because they in a way had their own peers going through the teaching with them at the same time.
I believe that it is important for us as future teachers to learn these concepts so we know all of the different aspects that need to be incorporated in order to make a lesson plan successful . I think that this week really showed us that there are a lot of different things that can be taught using a certain song you just have to know how to go about it and not be scared to try. I think that although people were put on the spot it was nice to have students teach the rest of the class the different notes so we were able to learn it from someone other than the teacher. It was important to go over the songs on the recorder to make sure that we were comfortable with the first couple of notes being taught to us so that we could move on and be able to learn more.
To be honest, I don't think that we really learned anything that would be useful to students at this point in time. It is important for children to be able to learn what a rest is so that they understand that there are no sounds necessary for those notes. Students need to know this because it is a part of every song that they are going to be learning and they need to know the meaning. I really think that it can't be stressed enough that in music concepts build off one another. However, I don't really think anything else was really geared at the children this week but more to us so that we would start understanding the basics of teaching.

Week # 3

This past week I felt that the classes were really based on our own creativity and how we can incorporate that into our own classrooms. Some of the different musical concepts that we learned about were melody, scale, C major, and last but not least Treble Clef. We learned that melody is the combination of various pitches. These pitches can be high, low, or the same. We talked about the C major scale and how it goes from one C to the next and incorporates all the notes in between. C major scale would be CDEFGABC. We learned not only what Treble Clef meant but also how to draw it. Treble Clef represents the notes of the right hand. We also learned some musical skills. For example during the previous week we learned how to add sound to different rythemes. This week we added on to that and learned how to create various movement that still keep the same beat. I believe that the skill we learned was how to differentiate between the students and keep it interesting for them. For example on Friday we learned that one thing the kids could do is to use alternate hands to keep the beat with a partner. For me the best thing we learned was on Friday with the recorder. We took a song and learned how to create our own melody just by being given the notes we could use and the rythem we had to follow.
I believe that this week because we were learning so many different concepts and creating new things a lot of the way it was presented to us was simply that. We discussed and were set off on our own to put it together. One thing that I think was very helpful was being able to see examples of other students work. For instance we learned this week how to add pictures based on the beat of the note to help the kids follow along. It was confusing to some students how to go about this so Dr. Wang gave us an example of past work and showed us that there were many different ways to represent the rythem. I feel though that in a way it was a bit like lecture this week but necessary because not everyone in the class is familiar with music and they simple needed to learn the definitions so that they could go about incorporating that into their work. I think that when we were creating our own melody on the recorder using the notes GAB, a lot of us turned to other people in the circle to both give and get advice from them. We also in a way learned by imitation this week when we were taught the name song. Dr. Wang would sing it for us and then we would sing it back but using our own name.
I feel that it was important to us to learn these concepts and skills because like I have previously said music is really building blocks that add on to the previous concept/ skill. We were allowed to experiment with our own individuality to create the different pieces this past week and I think that was very helpful because it makes us understand how important being your own person is and now we will be able to impart that knowledge into our own students. However, I do feel that some students felt bad when they were judged on their creativity. I think that a lot of what we were trying to do was simply understand what was being taught. Where the Rain song was a lot easier to be creative with our own name rhyme could really have been whatever we chose to draw. I think that also needs to be understood in this class.
I think that all of these concepts are important for children to learn. The main point that we were learning this week was creativity and at this age kids have such a great imagination that it should be and can be brought out in the work that they create. Children can draw their own story for their rhymes and it is really great to see them express themselves. I am not sure however, if creating their own song would be a little bit more challenging for them. At the same time if that was the case then no matter what song they create they should be praised for having the courage to do so. It is important for kids to be taught this kind of creativity because it is something that will be able to help them grow as people for the rest of their school aged years.

This past week in class we created various rhymes to help teach the class a little bit about ourselves while also learning how to be able to keep a beat. First we performed our rhyme to the class by means of a steady beat which we learned was a constant repetition of sound... Later we were taught how to play our rhymes using a rhythmic pattern which is a combination of short, long, and silent sounds put together. We were given even more practice with these concepts but using our hands to clap the beats of songs such as, "Hey Hey Who's in Town," as well as, "Three Blind Mice." On Friday we switched gears and began learning how to play the recorder. At first it was very hard to play together as a class because not everyone had the same sound but later on we were able to figure it out. We were taught how to play "Three Blind Mice," by using the B, A, & G notes. It was great to begin playing the recorder again because it as been so long since I last played one. I knew how to place my fingers but I was still rusty on which of the notes was what.
There were a few different ways that we gained this knowledge this past week. The past week we were shown what a steady beat was and therefore knew what to play our rhyme to. This week we were mainly taught by demonstration and discussion. The teacher would show us the beat that she wanted us to play and then we would mimic that back using our own rhyme. One student had a very interesting and unique beat to his which led us in to the discussion of what a rhythmic beat is. While we were learning to play the recorder we were shown the different positions that our fingers had to take in order to create the correct sound. Later on we were taught the song that she wanted us to play and the teacher made it very interesting by having the circle play different notes at a time. This gave a chance to see how we could come together while being given different tasks. This really also gave us a chance to get to play each note and see how they all come together.
I think that it is important for us to learn these different get to know you songs because it teaches us how to attempt to make the kids feel comfortable when they walk into the classroom. It allows us to learn how to be more diverse in keeping the kids entertained. The key concepts that we learned such as steady beat and rhythmic pattern are two of the most important when learning the fundamentals of music and serve as the basis to many things that we may need to learn later on. I believe that these ideas help to teach us different ways to expand the elementary education classroom.
I think that it is important for students to be able to learn these concepts and ideas for many different reasons... Music is something that kids will be exposed to for the rest of their lives. Without knowing these simple ideas it will be very hard to continue their music education. Many kids realize that music is something that has a great effect on them and as they get older they like to create their own music as a way to express themselves. I also feel that after seeing how our classroom interacted, I think that this would be great to have the kids be able to work together. They can help each other come up with a rhyme just as we did while also learning how to keep a beat for someone else so that person doesn't feel uncomfortable. However, they would not be able to do this if they didn't learn these concepts early on. I am a little bit confused when it comes to the recorder. Although I do believe that the recorder is a very fun instrument to learn I am not exactly sure why this would be important to have in the classroom unless you were an elementary ed music teacher.

10 Children's Songs:
1) "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
2) "Row Row Row Your Boat"
3) "ABC's"
4) "I've Been Working on a Railroad"
5) "The Ants Go Marching"
6) "Baby Beluga"
7) "Yankee Doodle"
8) "Bingo"
9) "Down by the Bay"
10)"Wheels on the Bus"

Name Rhyme

My-Name- is-Mich-elle
I-Love -Taco-Bell
There's a-song named-after-me-
Love the-Beat-les-Can't you-see

My Music History

My name is Michelle Zlatkin and I am sophomore. I have a brother and sister-in-law in the army. As far as I can remember music has always been a part of my life. I have enjoyed it since I was a child and always wanted it to be a part of me. One of my greatest achievements I have in relation to music was that I began playing the piano when I was 5years old and I continued to play for about 10 or 11 years. Still today whenever I find the time at home I sit down and just play. It's something that is really relaxing to me. I was always able to hear a song and sit down on the piano and figure it out. Although it often took a lot of time and I became increasingly more frustrated, I felt great when I didn't give up. In middle school as well as high school I was apart of both choir and show choir. It was always really fun for me and I felt great when in high school I tried out and got into the advanced choir. Really for me, music was somehow involved in everything that I did. For my entire high school career I was in a theater group, known as Reality Theater. The unique thing about this group was that the entire show was put together by us and our real stories. For that reason we were allowed to experiment with things so during transitions we would have music playing and as time grew we started having complete music pieces. One of my favorite ones was that we replicated the Cell Block Tango for Chicago and did the Teenage Tango and turned into problems that teenagers have like worrying about getting their license, graduating, where to sit at lunch, etc. It was just so much fun because it was real to us. Like most people I have an ipod that I listen to all the time that has all my favorite music on there. I must say I am a very diverse person in my music preference. I like anything from oldies to rap. Some of my favorites include The Beatles who I am completely obsessed with, David Cook, Lady Antebellum, Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood, Jeniffer Lopez, and Akon. I enjoy listening to different things depending on what mood I am in. I think part of the reason I love the Beatles is because I grew up with my dad always singing "Michelle My Bell" to me so it always had an emotional keep on me. I have about 1,000 songs on my ipod and I try to update it often to keep up with the new music that I hear. I listen to it often, sometimes walking to class, when I'm getting ready, doing homework, but most often I listen to it when I am working out. It helps me stay motivated and releases energy. I even have a play list dedicated to working out so I never lose focus. That is most of my music history.

I really didn't know what to expect when I walked into this class. I never really thought about being a music teacher so I wasn't sure how I was going to incorporate it into my class. In any class when you are with people that you don't know it is hard to feel comfortable with them right away which is why I think the exercises that we did like saying hello, different people picking movements for the whole class to do, introducing ourselves gave people a chance to open up with one another, at least know that we are all in the same position and it is new to all of us. I think that the exercise we did with the drum would be a really good way for the kids in your class to get to know each other while learning a fun thing to say so that it does not get boring to them. I do think however, at times the exercises did seem to get a little bit lengthy. For instance the drum exercise might have been adapted to standing up and walking around in a circle or something to keep the kids moving. I think that is especially important when you have a large class and need to keep the kids entertained. I am really looking forward to the different music concepts that we are going to learn because I look back and see how important music was in my life and hope that I to can give that to kids.