On Monday, October 30, my music education class at Western University went on a trip to St. George Catholic Elementary School. There, we participated in a music class for one hour amongst a class of third and fourth grade students. Overall, I had a very enjoyable experience as it was interesting to be in a class as a potential future educator. I noticed that I was critically analyzing why we were doing the activities we were doing and I found that I was cautious of how I was acting around the children. It was interesting for me to see how I was thinking differently and more critically.
Before we even got into the classroom, one thing stood out to me that really spoke for what this school is about and the character of the school. That is, the way that the administrators and teachers greeted us. As soon as we walked in, the secretaries welcomed us into the office and greeted us. Then, the principal took time out of her schedule and day to come and shake all of our hands and individually welcome everyone of us to her school. This really spoke volumes for the character of this school because as Cathy said, it is not everyday that the principal of the school will take time to greet everyone that enters her school. This gave me the impression that the school has a very welcoming environment and the staff gave me a positive first impression. When we entered the classroom, it was obvious that the kids in the class were intimidated by a large group of adults coming into their classroom. They were very shy and reluctant to make any kind of conversation. That is why I think that the icebreakers we did at the beginning were so beneficial. We started off by greeting one another by doing things such as shaking hands, waving, and fist pumping each other while singing a song and moving around the room. This was a great activity to start the class off with as it got us familiar with one another and moving around the space in a way that made us comfortable with the new group of people we would be working with for the next hour. In my opinion, it got rid of any awkwardness and tension that was present when we first entered the room. Next, Kelly led us through the game called “human orchestra.” In this game, each person creates a short rhythmic pattern or melody and the conductor stands in the middle of the circle and controls who is “on or off” by tapping them on the shoulder. I noticed a few things about how Kelly led this activity. The first was that she gave many examples of different rhythms or sounds you could make. This was good because it gave the kids an idea of what she expected for the activity and if the kids were too scared to take a risk ad create their own rhythmic pattern or sound, Kelly gave an example of what they could use so that they could still take part in the activity. I also noticed that Kelly was the first conductor. I also thought this was a great teaching technique because again it gave the children an example of what to do as she showed how to play the role of conductor. I think this made them feel safer as they had an understanding of what to do and weren’t just left to figure it out by themselves. She then asked for volunteers from the third and fourth grade class to act as conductor and allowed the child to be creative and be the conductor with no help from her. After two children conductors, she let kid choose one of us university students to be a conductor alongside them. In my opinion, this connected the two groups together and showed that we were working together and not two separate groups. After this activity, Cathy took over the class. I do not know the name of the song that we sang but I will describe it as snap, clap, pat, stomp. The activity first began with Cathy demonstrating the actions. She went through the motions a couple of times by herself and then invited us to join her. Like Kelly, Cathy demonstrated what she wanted first and gave us time to process what she was doing and then try it out for ourselves. Cathy then, began singing a melody to go along with the actions. She sang through it a couple of times before we joined in. This is a great teaching technique because musically, it develops the children’s ear. Being able to sing back what we heard is an essential skill to have in music and by Cathy singing to us and then us repeating what she sang, we develop our ear without the kids even realizing that they are doing so. After this, we ran through the song a couple times altogether combining both the melody and lyrics with the actions. This got the kids to think about multiple things at the same time; ie the lyrics, the pitches/melody, and the actions and gestures. This is an important skill to have in music as we have to constantly be thinking about so many things at the same time when performing or practising. Again, this activity taught this skill in a fun way in which the kids would not even realize that they were learning this. Then Cathy performed the song at a different time than we did, in a canon. The kids did not know that this was a canon but were able to identify that Cathy had started her song after we had and also finished it after we did. The kids were able to define what a canon is without knowing that it was a canon that they were defining. This activity taught what a canon in a much more exciting way than sitting at a desk and writing down what the definition of a canon is. It was a very hands on way of discovering what it is. Cathy really let the kids discover hands on and let them speak freely of what their observations were. After this the large group, split into two groups where again we did this song in a canon. After every run through of the song, I spoke to the third grade girl beside me. Through my conversations with her I realized a couple of things. One thing was that I really had to be a good listener. She was very shy and I found that I had to try extra hard to be an active listener as she wasn’t confident in her ideas and me to reassure her. Being an active listener was one effective way I discovered of doing this as it showed that I cared about what she had to say and that I was actually processing what she was saying. Going off of that, I also found that I had to prompt her to talk and encourage her to say her ideas. It was evident she knew the answers to simple questions such, I just had to urge her to answer. Many times she said, “ I don’t know”, and I either offered up a bit of information or stated, “I know you know.” I found that by either starting the sentence off for what she had to say or bring more strict and saying that she does in fact know, urged her to talk. After this we sang two halloween songs. Again, Cathy would start off by singing through the song by herself and then got us to repeat by saying lyrics after her and then eventually by singing lines after her. Like I said before, this developed the kids ears and ability to sing back what we heard. A couple things stood out to me while doing this activities. One being that in the songs we sometimes split into different groups so majority would sing the melody and then a smaller group would maybe hold a note and then another would sing a descant on top of the melody. From an educators perceptive, this would great as it exposed the kids to so any elements of music. Already we have them singing a melody with a more complicated rhythm, lyrics and pitches and now we are introducing them to harmony by adding other notes that they are not singing in the melody. Again this is done without them even realizing it which to me is an extremely smart technique as they are exploring harmony and hearing it first hand. A second thins that stood out to me was when we were leaning the second song, we focused a lot on pitch and so Cathy used very specific hand gestures when teaching the melody of the song. When the lyrics stayed on the same pitch she would move her arm in a straight line across her body and then her arm would get higher when the pitch raised and then lower when the pitch also lowered. This was a great technique because it helped the kids to connect what they were hearing with a visual. In a way, it notated the piece without it being in a traditional way on a score. It helped the kids to realize that when her hands went up, they ended to sing higher and when she lowers her hands, they needed to also lower they pitch. Connecting a visual with audio is an excellent way to learn music. After this, we did an activity about a skeleton. This activity in my opinion had the most involvement and enthusiasm from the kids and I think the reason for that is because Cathy allowed the kids to take part in the creation of the song which allowed for a large amount of creativity in which the kids seemed to really enjoy. Cathy chose volunteers from the third and fourth grade class to pick what adjectives to describe the skeleton would be included in the song. I think that the fact that the kids got to be involved in the creation of the song sparked such enthusiasm because the kids enjoyed getting to sing what they had created. They got to sing their lyrics which to them is extremely cool because they feel almost as if they are the composer. I could tell that they felt as if they were truly part of something. This activity is excellent because it encourages creativity and allows the kids to take part in the creation process which is essential to music as it is where music begins. This activity taught about the creative process and taught about the creation of a song in a fun and interesting way. Lastly, we ended the class on a very nice note with little song about peace. I especially liked how Cathy modified the song to included the word God as it was a Catholic school. Even though it is a such a small thing, it is important because Cathy was able to relate the song more to the class in which she was teaching. It was also a good way to end the class because the song had a very good message and unified all of us before we went our separate ways. Two other things that I am taking away from this classroom visit stem from the way in which Cathy taught. Firstly, I loved how Cathy related about of her activate to Halloween. This trip took place the day before Halloween and I think that the kids were so engaged in the activities because they were about something that was of interest to them. I don’t know a single kid that doesn’t like halloween and so I thought it was extremely smart of Cathy to include actives and stings about Halloween in her class.Secondly, we spoke very briefly of this as a class after the visit was over, but I learned a lot from the way Cathy handled the children. Through her teaching, I learned that you have to be strict with the kids and strict in stating what you expect from them. Being too friendly will not benefit me as an educator as it will allow the children to walk over me if they think that I am their friend and can negotiate with them. Obviously being too strict would also be a problem but Cathy was never mean, just strict in stating her expectations which earned her respect from the kids and made them listen to her and follow instructions. Overall, this was a very successful trip that I am lucky to have gone on. I learned a lot about how to teach children and what sorts of activate to do that would be engaging and fun for them while also teaching them about the elements of music. I enjoyed getting to see what it would actually be like to teach a class at an elementary school as prior to the this point I had never analyzed a class in an educators perspective.
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Dr Deborah Bradley
University of Toronto Guest Lecture On October 18th, Dr Deborah Bradley came to Western University to speak about her article, Music Education, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism: Can We Talk? I appreciated her lecture as it helped me better understand terms included in her article and clarified the article as a whole. I found her article difficult to read as it had a lot of tough language, however after her lecture, I feel as if I have a better grasp on the terms and the whole idea of why she wrote it. One thing that Dr Bradley said that stuck with me is, “first and foremost, music is a social and cultural experience.” This particular quote stuck with me long after the lecture because I thought it was very interesting that she chose social and cultural as the defining factors of a musical experience. I realized that she is right. Before we obtain things such as musicianship skills and performance experience, music begins as a social and cultural activity. Through music we meet different people and learn about different cultures and ways of life. I am glad that she said this as it made me think about what I get out of music and has stuck with me since she said it. I really enjoyed how Dr Bradley spoke about the difference between non-racist and anti-racist. The term anti-racist was used quite a lot in her article and her speaking about it really helped me to understand this term. I got a lot out of the video that she showed because it reiterated the fact that we need to stop being non-racist and start being anti-racist. Instead of just not being racist, we need to be making conscious efforts to stop racism. That is anti-racism. The video compared anti-racist to anti-rapist and also made ties to climate change. These comparisons made me realize that being non-racist just isn’t enough and we need to be taking action, particularly in the classroom and education setting to stop racism. Even though we don’t support racism, being a bystander and watching it happen is not the moral thing to do. While I enjoyed how Dr Bradley spoke about the previous topic, I also enjoyed how she talked a bit about the history of the world and certain turning points of racism. However a couple of times, I found myself wondering how this relates to music education. I came to my answer when Dr Bradley said, “how can we use our tool of music to get people to know other people without making assumptions.” I love this particular quote because it helped me realize that as an educator I have the ability to use music to make positive changes in the way people view others. This quote was very powerful and I took a lot out of it and I think it poses an excellent question, worthy of thinking about. Another thing that I am taking away from this lecture is the importance of teaching our students what the music is about. Dr Bradley stated the importance of teaching the history of the repertoire that we choose our students to perform. Even though it make take more time and we may have to chose less songs to teach, knowing the background of a piece is essential as students have to know what they are singing or playing about. I can relate this to my own experiences as in the Hamilton Children’s choir, my conductor Zimfira Poloz, always made sure we knew extol what we were singing about and would even bring in people from the countries to talk to us to make sure that we had an understanding got their culture and were able to perform the piece in a respectful way. On the other hand, in my high school choir we were always very rushed for time and so my conductor focused only on learning the notes and being performance rather than taking the time to speak about the music. Knowing where the music came from and what I was singing about was a much more enjoyable experience and much more rewarding. It is just not right to not teach what the music is about and as a result many people in my school choir did not have respect for music of different cultures than their own and were actually very negative when we were presented with a piece in a language other than English. Furthermore, in addition to all of that, I also really enjoyed how Dr Bradley spoke about teaching and music education. “Our duty is to help students see how the music fits into the world we live in and to help students view people differently.” I really appreciate her teaching style and I hope to be able to employ some of these extremely important philosophies into my own teaching someday. Lastly, after attending this lecture, there are a couple of things that I am particularly going to try to not do. The first being “othering” people. Dr Bradley spoke a bit about the term “othering” and how if they don’t live the same life as we do, we group them and call them an other. This is unethical and immoral and I am going to focus on not using this term when addressing those from different ways of life than my own. Another take away from this lecture is not making assumptions. Dr Bradley spoke about how many are so quick to jump to conclusions and say things about their peers without knowing what is really going on in their lives. I should focus on getting to know the person before making any kind of assumption and I am going to make a conscious effort to do so. Near the end of the lecture, Dr Bradley said, “the affects of colonization are still happening.” Even though in many ways, as a country and society we have come a long way in terms of racism, it is still happening and the effects of colonization are still very prevalent. I need to pay more attention to the more subtle acts of racism and remember that as a country, we are not in the clear yet and still have long ways to come. All of this relates to music education as through the teaching of music, we have the ability to be anti-racist and create an environment where all cultures are respected, appreciated, and talked about. This lecture was meaningful and significant for me personally because racism is a serious issue and through Dr Bradley’s lecture, I realized that as a music educator, I have the ability, through music, to teach in anti-racist ways that will make a change and impact on students lives and to me, that is extremely powerful. Therefore, I am very glad I got to hear Dr Bradley speak. Leslie Dawe
Skype Call On Wednesday, October 4th, early education teacher Leslie Dawe spoke about her experiences and challenges as a young music educator. Prior to this Skype call, I had read Leslie Dawe’s article about vulnerability in the classroom. I enjoyed this article and was excited to learn more about her teaching philosophy that encourages a co-learning environment in which students have more freedom to self direct their learning. I took a lot away from our visit with her. Firstly I really enjoyed how she talked about what she wants her students to take away from her class. One quote she said that I still remember is, “I wanted to make music have a lasting effect on my students.” It was very evident that she has a passion for teaching music and it was great to hear her say that because it is evident that she is teaching for the right reasons. It is not just a job for her, she truly does care for her students. This particular quote made me think about if I were to become an educator, what would I want my students to come out of my classroom with. I don’t have the answer for that yet, however I am glad Leslie put this idea into my head as moving forward it is most definitely something I want to think about. Another thing I am taking away from Leslie Dawe is the concept of co-learning and self directed learning. I really enjoyed listening to Leslie as she talked about how she teaches because it is extremely different from the way I was taught music in elementary school. Her style of teaching is very much focused on creativity and is very different from the more traditional way of teaching music that focus on the elements. I am very interested in this newer and more creative way of teaching as it still teaches the elements however, in a much more creative way in which students are able to self direct their learning and decide what they want to learn. I remember Leslie saying that she would encourage her students to chose themselves what song they wanted to learn or what piece they wanted to play and if they weren’t ready to direct their own learning, she would assist them in the process. Leslie realizes that all students are different and are on different levels in terms of how much freedom they are ready for and I really enjoyed how she never tired to group all of her students into and realizes that everyone is different and needs different things. One thing that Leslie said that has stuck with me thus far is, “teaching can be challenging because success is usually measured by the gold plaque on the wall or the grade at Kiwanis.” I found it very interesting that she mentioned this because I have had experiences where teachers have only cared about winning or receiving an award and have lost sight of everything else and I have also had teachers that couldn’t care less about the end result but rather cared about the learning experience. I can understand why it can be such a challenge because obviously you would want your students to succeed and receive awards, however it is worth abandoning everything else and just focusing on winning? Leslie really made me think about this when she said that and I think it is all about balance. Sometimes we became enwrapped in this idea of success being an award or prize and the way she talked about her newer style of teaching made me realize that success can be measured in so many other ways. In my opinion, having a classroom where students feel confident enough in themselves to be able to self direct their learning and have independence is just as successful as having a gold plaque on the wall. Leslie made me realize that and I am glad that she put this idea into my head. Lastly, after this Skype call, I feel less scared of the first year of teaching if I decide to become an educator. This is because Leslie spoke quite a bit about how there are going to be moments of success and fear during your first year of teaching and many times you will feel unsure and question yourself. However, when she said, “as long as you can justify the decisions you are making, then you’re doing the right thing,” I knew that I would be okay. Obviously there will be challenges and moments of insecurity however Leslie inspired me. It is obvious that she overcame many difficulties and always stuck by all of the choices she made, even if not everyone agreed with them. I hope to be the same way and be able to make teaching choices and remain confident in the choices I made. Listening and Creating
Sandy Stauffer Arizona State University On Saturday, September 30th, Dr. Sandy Stauffer lectured about listening and creating. To be quite honest, at the beginning of the lecture, I did not know what to expect however I got a lot of of this lecture and I enjoyed myself while learning immensely. I think that the biggest thing that I got out of this lecture and hope to remember is the concept of letting students make decisions. In all of the activities that Dr. Stauffer did with us she directed us in a way that we were able to complete the activity successfully while leaving room to allow us to be creative. In other words, she didn’t dictate the group so that we were only doing what she said and also didn’t leave us hanging so that we were confused and did not know how to do the activity. She had the perfect balance and this really stuck with me because it was extremely effective. I found myself being very creative and I wasn’t afraid to be creative because her instructions were clear enough that I felt as if I knew what to do. In the very first activity, we sang a song called “Ram Sam Sam.” This activity was extremely creative because we got into small groups and created actions based on our interpretations of the lyrics. I thought that this activity was very interesting because it was neat to see how different people interpret things differently and we all had the freedom to be as creative as we wanted. There were no rules as to what we could and could not do and this made it extremely fun. Another thing that I remember thinking about after the lecture was over was two of Dr. Sandy Stauffer’s personal principles. They are; “all people are musical. Everyone has a musical self,” and “all people are creative. Everyone has a creative self.” I think that many people are turned away from music because they assume that they aren’t musically talented enough or have enough creativity. I really liked how Dr. Stauffer talked about how every child is creative and musical because it is evident that she believes every child is has it in them and that inspired me because I have aways hated how kids are turned away from music because they aren’t necessarily as talented as their peers. I think that her philosophy and principles support an idea that everyone is different and unique and I really like that idea. Another concept that stuck with me is “musical creativity does not equal notation.” During the three hour lecture, there was only one activity where we were actually notating things done with pen and paper. I think that too many times people assume that you are only musically creative if you are composing and writing things done and Dr. Stauffer really preached the opposite of that. Her activities were very hands on and stemmed from creativity proving that it is not all about notation like many teachers try to teach. I feel as if I learned more about myself and how creative I can be by doing all of these hands on activities than if I would have been sitting down notating things for three hours. My favourite activity from this lecture was the Kangaroo one. This is because I thought it was an extremely genius way of teaching about the elements of music in a non-traditional way. Instead of just talking about the elements of music and defining terms such as staccato, legato, and pitch, we learned about all of these elements without even realizing it. By allowing us to move our fingers creativity to the music we were able to learn about music in a fun way. I will take this particular activity away with me because I thought it was effective in the sense that children can discover and explore hands on what things such as staccato feels and sounds like without even realizing it. This activity really connects listening and creativity in a way that teaches children about the elements of music in a fun and interactive way. One thing that Dr. Sandy Stauffer repeated time and time again was the concept of the “I can…” statement. This really impacted me and changed my thinking. This is because these I can statements are all about a child walking out the classroom saying that they can do something. This impacted me a lot because it promotes a much healthier and safer learning environment in my opinion. It’s about teaching children in a way that they feel proud of themselves when the class is over and they walk out of the classroom feeling as if they are capable and worthy. Dr. Stauffer touched on the idea of evaluating students for what they can do rather than focusing on what they cannot do and this changed my thinking on evaluations and marking students. Prior to this I remember thinking about how it must be hard to mark and evaluate children on music as it is supposed to be creative so how do you mark fairly and make it an even playing field when it is about creativity? After she mentioned “I can.,” my thinking changed because I realized that it should be about what that child was able to do and accomplish rather than what they weren’t able to do and you should be evaluating children on their accomplishments. The idea of a group rehearsal is one thing that I know for sure I am going to take away from this lecture. Doing a group rehearsal is a very smart idea as it allows everyone to perform their piece or activity in a setting that is safe. There is safety in numbers and by doing a group rehearsal, it makes performing seem less scary as everyone is doing it and you are not alone. It also gives groups the time to practice and feel confident in themselves so that they are no longer afraid to present in front of the large group. I think that in many instances, had there not been a group rehearsal, my peers would not have wanted to present in front of the whole group. I would most definitely use a group rehearsal in my classroom and I am very glad I learned about tis technique. “Ask rather than tell” is another technique that I learned from Dr. Stauffer that really made me think. This idea is all about asking students the right questions that allow them to come to the answer themselves. Instead of just telling them, ask them deeper questions that allow them to think and come to the solution by themselves. This goes hand in hand with allowing students to make decisions. A teacher should not be a dictator and just telling students what to do is not going to make them grow as students or people. Dr. Stauffer really instilled this concept into my head. In addition to learning about excellent teaching techniques and concepts, I can honestly say that I learned about myself during this lecture. I learned that it is okay to take risks and I don’t have to be afraid to do so. It takes courage to be creative and I found myself proud of myself when I fully immersed myself into an activity and allowed myself to be creative. I learned that allowing myself to think outside the box and be creative is fun as well as rewarding. I feel fortunate to have attended this lecture as it did not necessarily change my thinking but made me think more critically and deeply about creativity in the classroom, and because I experienced how to listen and be creative, I feel as if I am on the right track to being a good music educator. |
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