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.