Recently I started taking piano lessons. In my quest to become a better music teacher, I thought that piano would be pretty helpful. My main instrument (for about 16 years!) has been the flute. :-)
As much as I love the flute, piano is definitely a more versatile instrument. Eventually I'll be able to accompany my students in their performances instead of just being able to play scales for vocal warm ups.
This week in one of the 1st grade classes, I was blown away by one of my students. He is usually a pretty shy 6 year old but he asked me if he could play a couple songs he had learned in piano for the class. He proceeded to confidently play FROM MEMORY Ode to Joy and Jingle Bells! It was magical. By a stroke of luck, his class is singing the French version of Jingle Bells "Vive le Vent" for the Winter Concert! I asked him if he would want to play along with the class (who will be playing real jingle bells) I hope he will! I told his mom how great he was right after school. Needless to say, she was so proud! It was very inspiring for me to see a normally shy, quiet student express himself through music. This is one of the reasons why I do what I do.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Praxis Passed!
I am so happy to report that I passed the Music Content Praxis exam! Now I am a "highly qualified" French music teacher!
The teaching highlight of this last week was in a kindergarten class. I've been trying to improve transitions in my classes. It seems that after only 10 seconds of down time some students lose interest and focus! So I experimented this week. While transitioning from teaching a new song (using the stereo) to learning half notes (on the board) I decided to sing a couple songs with the kids that we have learned the past few weeks. It worked really well! I know that I probably have heard of this method before but for some reason I hadn't tried it yet. I can't wait to see how it works with all of the grades. Bon week-end!
The teaching highlight of this last week was in a kindergarten class. I've been trying to improve transitions in my classes. It seems that after only 10 seconds of down time some students lose interest and focus! So I experimented this week. While transitioning from teaching a new song (using the stereo) to learning half notes (on the board) I decided to sing a couple songs with the kids that we have learned the past few weeks. It worked really well! I know that I probably have heard of this method before but for some reason I hadn't tried it yet. I can't wait to see how it works with all of the grades. Bon week-end!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Piano Lab
After a mere 6 days from start to finish, I am thrilled that my new DonorsChoose project has already been funded! I am working on raising money this year to buy 10-12 full size keyboards for my classroom. Then for the older students next year (3rd and 4th graders) we can have a piano lab! The students are already getting excited and I am too! With the funding of this 1st DonorsChoose project, we now have a great start to the piano lab. We have 2 keyboards now, with stands and headphones.
DonorsChoose.org!
It is awesome!
DonorsChoose.org!
It is awesome!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Entertaining Exam
Yesterday I took my Music Content Knowledge certification exam. Unfortunately, I have to wait 4 weeks to find out my results. It was definitely the most unique exam I've ever taken. Since I started this blog, I've been studying (at least once a week) for this test. As my mother likes to say "Do your best and let God take care of the rest" I feel like I did that, and if I don't pass I'll review more and try try again!
The exam was unique in that there were 30 listening questions in which I had to identify composers, chords, world region, genre, performers etc. It was kind of like having your Itunes on shuffle and then answering questions about the music. :-)
In other news, my 2nd year of teaching music in French immersion is in full swing. I didn't get to go to my Level I Orff summer training course because it was canceled due to low enrollment. Dommage. Too bad. I'm going to attend all of the workshops put on by the AOSA music teachers professional organization here in St. Louis though. They are great! I always feel so encouraged and rejuvenated after them. Plus I walk away with at least 10+ interactive fun lessons! I just have to translate them into French and I have so many native speakers around at school to help me with that. :-)
Have a great week and enjoy the autumn weather!
The exam was unique in that there were 30 listening questions in which I had to identify composers, chords, world region, genre, performers etc. It was kind of like having your Itunes on shuffle and then answering questions about the music. :-)
In other news, my 2nd year of teaching music in French immersion is in full swing. I didn't get to go to my Level I Orff summer training course because it was canceled due to low enrollment. Dommage. Too bad. I'm going to attend all of the workshops put on by the AOSA music teachers professional organization here in St. Louis though. They are great! I always feel so encouraged and rejuvenated after them. Plus I walk away with at least 10+ interactive fun lessons! I just have to translate them into French and I have so many native speakers around at school to help me with that. :-)
Have a great week and enjoy the autumn weather!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Flying Solo
I am very blessed to have a teacher assistant, Monsieur Abdou. Most elementary music teachers do not have assistants and our school's teacher to student ratio is not the norm in public schools. Usually he helps me out for 5 of my 8 classes. On Thursday, Abdou's host family took him on an all day cycling trip. He really deserved the day off but needless to say, being alone with 20+ children ages 5-9 holding tambourines and maracas is tough. I am still learning a lot about elementary classroom management. That is a long way to say, I spend a lot of time trying to keep the children in control and on task. Having another adult in the classroom to manage the hyper children (or the ones having melt downs) is priceless.
By the grace of God, it was a successful instruction day. I wanted to let the students play percussion instruments to a song they knew really well. So I passed out maracas and tambourines for "Les cro-cro" It is an upbeat 2/4 song about crocodiles. I let them dance (on the red lines without jumping on the flip forms of course) and they did a great job of playing their instruments and staying on the beat. I could tell they were all trying hard and having fun too! This is one of the reasons why I do what I do.
By the grace of God, it was a successful instruction day. I wanted to let the students play percussion instruments to a song they knew really well. So I passed out maracas and tambourines for "Les cro-cro" It is an upbeat 2/4 song about crocodiles. I let them dance (on the red lines without jumping on the flip forms of course) and they did a great job of playing their instruments and staying on the beat. I could tell they were all trying hard and having fun too! This is one of the reasons why I do what I do.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
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
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
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