2nd grade

I am so very excited about the singing going on in 2nd grade this year.  They just sing beautifully!

I'm excited about how sweetly they sing because if their sound is sweet now, then hopefully we can continue to build a nice sound the rest of the time they are in elementary school.  The best part is that these students have reached that place in their singing that is so beautiful that they notice and are therefore motivated to create more beauty.

Kuddos for 2nd grade!
I think that 2nd graders are awesome! because for the most part if you are in 2nd grade you are pleased to learn.  It has been my observation over the years that 2nd grade is the happiest year in all of elementary school because if you've made it to 2nd grade there are many things that you've figured out.  Simply put, you know how to be at school.  Also - 2nd graders are a little nicer than children of other ages.  It's in 2nd grade where I see students becoming totally enthralled in whatever game we are playing.  It's in 2nd grade where I see students being most comfortable with and most accepting of their peers.  And, it's in 2nd grade where their confidence that they can manage a task doesn't lag too far behind their actual ability.  It's a wonderful time.  I wish it would last longer :)

In any case, I'm happy that my 2nd graders will be singing for their parents at the end of the month.  It will be a pleasure to share with these parents the good work their students are doing, and the good work that the parents are doing as well!

 When you teach, things don't always turn out nicely.  Sometimes we or our students fail to meet either our expectations or the expectations of others.  However, when we have the chance to experience learning that is beautiful, like my "Second Grade Songbirds" we should enjoy it fully.    After all, it's those musical experiences that are truly beautiful that inspired us to teach music in the first place.  

Vocal Rest!

The best and hardest thing to do when you are a music teacher is to maintain a rested voice. I am happy to say that now that I'm on Spring Break, I can rest my voice for a few days. This is good because my voice was in desperate need of silence!

The best money that I've ever spent was my "aerobics instructor" microphone and amplifier. If you are a music teacher who is trying to teach without amplification go ahead and spend the money to get the microphone, no amount of unamplified teaching is worth loosing your voice over.

There are multiple reasons to take care of your voice with plenty of water, rest, limited talking, and all the other healthy things we are supposed to do for ourselves anyway.....Here are the few that come to the top of my head

1. I like to sing - a tired voice keeps me from doing what I love..... I hate that!

2. This is my job - if I can't do my job then maybe I need to do something else

3. My students benefit from a healthy vocal model not a tired one

4. Having a voice that is not my best voice puts me in a VERY bad mood and is frustrating

5. Singing makes me happy

6. Some vocal damage is permanent, why risk it!

7. Surgery is risky at best, devestating at worst

8. A $300.00 microphone and a $50.00 amp is cheaper than lost work and surgery

Spring 2011

The one thing that is never new about school is that the Spring makes the Fall seem like a leisure stroll. I sometimes blame this business on all what we refer to as the "spring testing season". So now in school we have football season, basketball season and testing season..... gross!

However, I find that I have a tendency to plan my year as a musician so that in the fall I spend August September and October preparing for November and December. Then I come back to school in January and have some how managed to plan something major in every available month.. So here is the run down of things that I already know will happen

January 25th - 4th grade recorder concert - pretty light on the concert as they won't begin learning recorder until Jan 4, but I bet by the end of 2.5 weeks we can play a couple of notes. We shall see what develops

February 20 something - Go Texas! Day - Grade level sing along and square dance

March something - 2nd grade show - I'll start in it the 1st week of January because interruptions are on the way between now and then.

April - constant testing

May - Choir concert - choir begins in January and goes until May

May - Choir Festival - still haven't chosen the music for this yet

May - Kindergarten graduation - much bigger deal than I would like it to be.... must figure out a way to tone it down

May - 5th grade graduation - I need to write a song for this to work toward a school song selection process within the next couple of years.

So Spring - HERE WE COME!

FATIGUE!

Now that we are starting school again this year.... rest becomes critical. Just the comparatively simple task of teacher inservice and room set up can over tax us when we've been "summering" all summer long.

I'm writing about this because I think the last time I was quite this tired was just after school let out in June..... and we don't start back until Monday.... I've got a day in a half to find my rest.... I wish I had two, but alas, I've spent the 1st half of today in my room....

The good news is that my room is ready.... bad news is that I am not.... so... rest is a must.... we'll see how successful I am at turning my brain off :)

Melodysoup

To me teaching and learning (or should it be learning and teaching?) feel like making a big pot of soup.

Soup

Preparation

First the chef has to chop up the ingredients into bite sized pieces, but before that they must have knowledge about what kinds of ingredients work well together - It's just me, but I don't ever plan to chop up a strawberry and put it in my tortilla soup... a bisque -for sure! .... but not a soup.

Also, the wisest chefs pay attention to the guests at their table. I enjoy spicy ingredients myself, and as a result I have over spiced my soups on more than one occasion. I didn't think the soup was over spiced, but my guests did, so no one really enjoyed the soup and no one asked for seconds. I should have selected my recipe more thoughtfully.

Choice Ingredients

Wouldn't it be nice if soup ingredients could simply appear in our kitchens? Either the chef or the folks who want to eat must go to the store, or harvest the ingredients. Someone has to plant the vegetables, raise the animals, milk the cows and make the cheese that we like in our soup. Our control over the history of our ingredients is limited at best, but we should choose carefully and remember not to forget anything. Tortilla soup would simply not be tortilla soup without cilantro.... don't forget it. Also if you ever find that you have a blue ribbon heirloom homegrown tomato on our counter, don't you dare put it in a crummy old soup! Instead, enjoy it cut into quarters with a little salt and pepper just for it's own sake.

Simmer!

The actual cooking of a good soup has an art to it as well. There is an order, a layering of flavors that when added up create a party in your mouth. The building of the soup while the pot is on the stove involves a great deal of careful watching and monitoring to see how things are going at each stage.... if you turn away for one second in an attempt to multi-task, you'll scald everything and the whole pot can be ruined. All of your senses are involved in monitoring the progress of the soup.

Growling belly or turned up noses?

Eventually, everyone else will be able to test the quality of your cooking skills by the fragrance or stench wafting from the kitchen.

Teaching

Preparation

First the teacher has to chunk the information into manageable parts , but before that they must have knowledge of the whole and what aspects of learning naturally fit together. - As a music teacher I absolutely believe that anything can be learned through the use of music and in fact some people (more people than we think) need music in order to learn the way fish need water to breath..... having said this, trying to integrate everything for integrations sake is sometimes a circuitous route and a more direct approach would be more effective.

The wisest teachers pay attention to the students in their class. Teach the student, not the content! I enjoy listening to lectures - I'm serious! I really do.... I am an aural learner, who enjoys talking and fully appreciates the art of speech. Consequently, I have over talked my students on more than one occasion. Personally, my tongue was just getting warmed up to wagging, but my students had glazed over a while back.... so I lost them. I should have selected my method more thoughtfully.

Choice Ingredients

Wouldn't it be nice if our subject content could simply appear in our classrooms? Either the teacher or the folks who want to learn ( we call them scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, musicians, explorers) must either go somewhere to learn, or harvest the knowledge itself Someone had to develop the internet, decide that it might be important to know the function of a kidney or decide how Pi works. Our control over what must be taught and how much time we have to teach it is limited at best. An American literature class would just not be American Lit. without "To Kill a Mockingbird". Don't forget it! There are standards in each discipline that should not be watered down merely in attempt to get through all the material... Don't allow the significance of "To Kill A Mockingbird" to be boiled into broth just so that there is time to read "Twilight" . (But we want to see the movie......... "To Kill a Mockingbird" has a movie too)

Simmer!

The actual teaching of a lesson is art. There is a way to layer or scaffold the information in such a way that students and teachers are excited. Constantly being aware of student progress as they move from stage to stage is essential. If you turn away for one second in an attempt to multi-task, you'll miss a cue given by your students that would indicate either a lack of understanding or the need to progress. As teache

rs we often talk about how we wish we had active learners to teach who actively participate and actively listen.... what about being teachers who actively teach? Sometimes we become the passive ones in the classroom when we are distracted by so much "administrivia" that we let the "learning soup" in our classroom burn.

Growling belly or turned up noses?

Eventually, when our students produce evidence of what they are learning from us through a benchmark, a performance, a behavior, everyone else (parents, teachers, students, the community) will be able to test the quality of our teaching skills by the fragrance or stench wafting from our classroom.......

May your classroom be fragrant enough to fill the whole school

with the beauty of the learning happening within!