Feather Theme

Last Saturday morning, I attended a workshop put on by the St. Louis chapter of AOSA (Orff-Schulwerk Association) All the teachers there were very nice and I learned so much about music education. The Orff-Schulwerk approach to music education is very focused on movement and having the children actively engaged in the music.
I was chompin' at the bit to teach the new lessons I learned at the workshop. I decided to teach a lesson on dynamics in music using  "The Feather Theme" song from Forrest Gump. I found a fabric outlet store and purchased 5 yards of different colors of chiffon and cut them into small scarves. The key concepts of the lesson were Listening and Movement. I told the students to imagine that the scarves were feathers floating in the wind. The music from the song is divided into three sections. We started out kneeling on the floor in a circle making the scarves float along the ground. Section 2 the students stood up and began to walk slowly around the room floating the scarves at the medium level (about waist high) The third section the students billowed the scarves up above their heads when the music crescendoed. All the classes loved it. I could tell they were listening carefully for the musical cues to switch levels. It looked really cool too, all the different colors and the children spinning around to the music with huge smiles on their faces. This is one of the reasons why I do what I do.

The Competition Key

In a spontaneous moment of inspiration I decided to have a competition for my classes. There is a classroom management practice from Uncommon Schools (a charter school group) called 100%. It boils down to this: 100% of the time 100% of the students are on task and engaged in the lesson. I decided to try to implement the 100% idea with my "les pieds contre le gris" flip form procedure. Periodically in each class I did a flip form check, if 100% of the students had their feet against the gray part of the flip forms, sitting up straight and quiet, the class earned a star on the board. For a 50 minute class period some of the classes only earned 3-4 stars. But (drumroll please...) on Thursday my most challenging class of all earned 5 stars and on Friday another challenging class earned 6 stars! I have found one of the keys to good behavior for some of my classes-competition! It is not very surprising considering our American culture is highly competitive. I told both winning classes that next week I will give them a surprise in music class. They were so thrilled that they won! I can't wait to give them their surprises too. I have to fork out a bit of cash (~$25) but it is worth every penny to have two of my most challenging classes competing to be good.
The kindergarten classes are learning about the planetary system this quarter so I played for them the BBC Philharmonica orchestra youtube videos of Gustav Holst's The Planets. Each class loved hearing the differences in each movement and several of the boys piped up to say that Mars sounded like Star Wars! They all asked to hear and see more of the music next week. This is one of the reasons why I do what I do.
Holst: Mars http://youtu.be/AGGlL1wexQk

On partage (We share)

When I started my position as music teacher, I was thrilled to find that the former music teacher had not spent any of the music budget yet. I asked my mentor what I should buy. She suggested rhythm instruments such as tambourines, finger cymbals, maracas and wooden rhythm sticks. So I promptly spent about $400 on instruments! The students really enjoy playing them and I know it has made music class more meaningful. However I tried to stretch the budget, we still ended up short on a few instruments. For example I only was able to order 10 sets of finger cymbals and 10 pairs of large maracas. It has been a bit challenging to explain to the younger students that they have to take turns and share some of the instruments. I finally figured out a system of rotating the instruments around the room clockwise so everyone gets a turn. It takes longer but prevents (some) of the drama.
So in the spirit of sharing, I'd like to share some French music with my readers! Here's how the giveaway will work: you have to "follow" the blog and comment on this post telling me your favorite genre of music. Then I will send you a French CD of that genre. I have pretty much every genre from childrens songs (naturally) to rap, pop and classical. Let the sharing begin! On partage!