Thinking About Teaching - Next Year

It can be hard to get motivated to think about new ideas for my music classrooms when I won't see a student for about 10-11 months. Then I went on Pinterest this morning. I use this site for 1) general music classroom ideas 2) string classroom ideas 3) fiddle techniques 4) recorder classroom ideas 5) women's choir 5) recipes 6) some odds and ends of inspiration. So it's not like I was specifically thinking about string classes this morning, but when you hit upon a new blog that has many great ideas, then you just have to read it all.

The more I read the blog, the more I realized that I had already pinned some of the posts, but now I must follow this blog on a regular basis. It's called Orchestra Classroom Ideas. One of the things that caught my attention was that she is now selling a piece for beginning string orchestra that she wrote, and it occurred to me that I could be spending part of my sabbatical also composing music for elementary string orchestra, and perhaps figure out how to sell it.... as well as use it for my own students!

Stay tuned!

Fiddle Jam Online

On Facebook I found a link to a series of lessons on fiddling, and the first lesson on Bile 'Em Cabbage Down is free. You can find it here. Like Orff, it uses a simple song and then adds variation upon variation with some room for improvisation and creation. Like Fiddle Camp, it teaches the song by ear. Well, that's like Suzuki, too. It also throws in some chord theory.

I have my first summer private students today, and I plan to use this lesson with everyone for whatever level they are playing.

Boomwhacker Scale

I am posting this photo in my blog so that I can pin it to my Music Teaching Ideas board on Pinterest. A music teacher on the AOSA Facebook page posted it after her 4th grade students had come up with this idea themselves. Since I have boomwhackers as well as a music staff on my rug, I might just do this with my students, too!

My Many Colored Days

One can buy a pre-packaged lesson for Dr. Seuss's My Many Colored Days. I already have a supply of scarves, and I got the book from the public library, but I didn't have the CD with pre-selected music. No problem, I decided to put together my own playlist.

Here is the lesson plan. Read the book, which assigns an emotion to a color, to the class. Then put a collection of scarves in the middle of the circle and have students select one color of scarf. Read each page and have the students with that color scarf move with appropriate motions to match the mood of the book/music. At the end, choose one kind of wild piece for everyone. This is the free-for-all dance piece.

Here is my playlist:

Red - Hoedown from Copland's Rodeo

Blue - Aviary from Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals

Brown - Elephant from Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals

Yellow - Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov

Gray - First movement from Quartet for the End of Time by Messian

Orange - Circus Music from Copland's Red Pony Suite

Green - Aquarium from Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals

Purple - Gymnopodie #1 by Eric Satie

Pink - Run! Run! from Memories of Childhood by Octavio Pinto

Black - The Comedians Pantomime by Kabalevsky

All Colors - Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman

What might you choose for the colors?

Saint-Saens' Aquarium

Here are my first graders moving to Aquarium from the Carnival of the Animals. I hand out a scarf to every-other student (to the exclamations of "You forgot me!), but then I come around to those poor scarfless waifs and give them one finger cymbal. We have already moved to the music with the Move It! video, so the music is in their ears. The children with scarves are to move as the seaweed, and the children with a finger cymbal "swim" through the seaweed. When one fish meets another, they gently touch cymbals for a delightful sound. After one time through, they swim back to their regular spot and exchange with the person next to them so they have turns being both the seaweed and fish. This is always a favorite activity.

March is Hard

I keep thinking that I should write a note to myself that I pull out at the beginning of March. I need to remember how difficult this month can be. I always know that it's a long month, especially after February's 28 (or 29) days. February has 2 Monday holidays in the CUSD calendar. March has no break (although I often take off some days for myself in this month).

But I forget that it is really hard for kids. It must be, because attendance in strings classes diminishes. Things start to get harder, and the May concert is a long way off. April spring break is a long way off.  Kids drop out of strings class (especially beginning students) because the music gets harder and we start moving faster.

My patience wears thin with students who are not paying attention or showing up regularly. Today while we were passing out music I had a student leave class to go to the bathroom and come back and look perplexed when he didn't have the music.

Personally, I need a spring break in March. Perhaps the kids do, too.

Teaching Recorders

I received an email from a friend-of-a-friend yesterday. She had been referred to me as someone who could be a resource for teaching recorders. Since I love teaching recorders I was happy to be of assistance. This morning I set out my basic set-up method, including a first lesson. I typed it out since I think that I could possibly be sharing this information in the future. Then it occurred to me that I could post my thoughts on this blog to have as an easy reference.

So here goes!

Teaching Recorders

Setting Up

Have a classroom set of recorders that STAYS AT SCHOOL. If you let students take home their recorders to practice, they will invariably forget them on music day.

I have written a blog post about this here:

http://musicmotifs.blogspot.com/2013/06/nuts-and-bolts-of-recorder-class.html

Getting Started

The first day is so much fun, but it sounds terrible. Here is my lesson plan for Day One.

Review quarter and eighth notes. I have flashcards with four beat rhythms. We look at each one, say the rhythm (tas and titis) and then clap the rhythm.

Review Mi-Re-Do with hand signs and flashcards. We did this in second grade, and I start with BAG.

* Note * Some brilliant educators start with G E, and some with A C. You will find what works best for you.

Have students hold old their hand in front of their mouth. With lips pursed, blow onto the palm as though you are blowing out a candle. Ask what it feels like. They will say several things, but you are looking for “It feels cool or cold.”

Next have the students breathe onto their palm as though they are going to fog up a window. It should feel warm. Our mantra “Warm, soft air, good sound we care.”

Practice du, du, du (gentle air tonguing) with rhythms.

Learn the chant “Left hand on top, forget me not.”

Have students pinch their left index finger and thumb together.

NOW you can pass out the recorders! Hang them around their necks.

Hold up the recorder in the right hand like the Statue of Liberty to see the thumb hole on the back of the recorder. Thumbprints not tips! Cover the holes completely! Have students place their left finger and thumb on the B.

Now, have them blow (Warm, soft air…. Warm, soft air) and copy your rhythms.

It will sound like chaos. Yuck! But they will love it, and they will improve very fast.

Resources

I have used these resources and others I find on the internet. These have CDs with backtracks.

Denise Gagne – The Complete Recorder Resource Kit (Book 1) with CD.

http://www.westmusic.com/p/complete-recorder-resource-kit-1-student-book-and-cd-805001

Recorder Classroom – a Publication by Music K8

    http://www.recorderclassroom.com

Recorder Routes by Carol King

            http://www.amazon.com/Recorder-Routes-Introducing-Soprano-Classes/dp/0934017204

This is an Orff-Based approach, if you are familiar with Orff-Schulwerk.

If you do Pinterest – there is a wealth of info there. Type in recorder classroom in the search box and see what you come up with.

Recorder Karate

This is the best thing I can think of to motivate kids to practice. After the kids can mostly play their first easy song like Hot Cross Buns, they take a test on it. They play for you individually. If they can play it, they get their white belt.

For belts, I have devised this system. I get a little hair band (the little clear ones that are about ½ diameter) and put it around the bottom of their recorder. Then I take a skein of embroidery thread, cut the loops at each end, then pull out one “piece” (about 6-8 strands together) and tie it to the hair band.

I am amazed at what they will do for a piece of embroidery thread. I think it is for bragging rights.

Each song gets progressively harder. Yellow belt, then orange, green, purple, blue, red, brown, black.  This can mean adding a new note, a harder rhythm, etc. If you google recorder karate, you can see various people’s lists for recorder karate. You can tailor this to your students.

I do not take up class time with testing. The kids come to me during some recess once a week. They stand in line and wait their turn and cheer on their classmates.

Gifts for Students - Fail?

For Christmas I decided to give my students something other than candy or a pencil. I decided to buy them a gift card to buy MP3s at Amazon. Brilliant, right?

Maybe not. Not one of them has bought a single piece of music yet. I think I will get a list of suggestions together to send to the parents who may need to help the kids download the audio files....

Homework Assignments - Hmmmm!

I can't believe that I haven't done this sooner, but in my string classes I have sent home three homework assignments this year - two for the beginners, one for the second-year players. Of course, we all expect our students to practice, and some of them do. Actually, many of them do. But what exactly do they practice? I do my best to point out ways to practice during class. But unlike my private students, I do not write in a notebook for them to refer to, nor do I write in their music any helpful hints (like starring the trickier bits for "bead practicing."

So, three weeks ago, I handed out a page that said something like this:

___ 1. Play this orchestra piece three times in a row with no mistakes
___ 2. Play this orchestra piece for a parent or guardian.  Parent initial ____

Today I gave a quiz to the students, and not only did most of them turn in their homework, most of them showed a remarkable improvement from the first time they played for me independently. The only student who could play nothing did not turn in her homework. ...

I asked them if this homework was helpful, and this is what they said.

"Yes! Now I am practicing every day." "Yes, I am getting better." Then I asked them if they enjoyed playing more than before, and they all were emphatically enthusiastic about it (except for my one student...)

You can be sure that I will be fine-tuning this new procedure for future success.

El Roble and CHS music

Wow, two concerts this week. On Tuesday I heard the CHS orchestra (along with Jazz Band, Concert Band and Color Guard) and tonight I attended the similar version at El Roble. I am always so happy to see my former students continuing and doing so well with their music. The El Roble Orchestra has 45 students, and I counted up only seven that I didn't already know.

So, yeah, I will continue to teach!

Singing on Pitch

As we start in earnest this week on preparing for Winter Sing, I have been looking at videos online to get ideas for choreography for some of the songs we're performing. While I have seen some very cute costuming and moves, I have noticed that the quality of singing leaves something to be desired with kids not distinguishing between singing and speaking voices. (Or even shouting voices.)

I have noticed, though, that my own students are not particularly good at listening and matching pitches. They start singing along when I am presenting the song for the first time. Then we stop and I have them close their eyes and break down the song into small sections, sometimes just two or three notes so that we can match the pitch. It improves immediately.

So, I will make sure to have the students practice pitch-matching before working on any choreography.

Signs of the Times

The other day I was lamenting to my husband that my students seem to need a personal invitation to show up for a class that they have registered for. Not only have they registered for beginning strings, they have requested a district instrument.

He confided that his first-year college students also seem to need such an invitation. Wow.

Here are the two main excuses I've heard.

"I didn't know when class started." Really, it was on at least two pages that we gave you (including the registration form you signed), and it's listed on the district website, and you could call the school, or ask someone, or something. You need to be PRO-ACTIVE for your own life, people!

"I didn't know if my kid was in." Um... ask. Also, make sure we have your correct contact information. We sent out an email to everyone as well as a phone call. Ball's in your court.

Normally, this is not as much of a problem for me, but this year I had 20 students sign up for beginning strings, and I do not have the energy, or inclination, to seek everyone out.

Pinterest

I've been using Pinterest to get ideas for my music classroom. I'm always looking for new things to keep me fresh. This week I used these two ideas from mrskingrocks.blogspot.com with my first and second graders, and they were a hit. I was thinking about going out and buying some swimming pool noodles to cut to make these "swords" for the kids, but then I realized that I can use Boomwhackers! This week I just had kids clap each other's hands for the steady beat, as well as march in place. Next week we'll do the same thing, but add the Boomwhackers. It'll be fun!

The dancing on the newspapers was great fun, and I joined with the kids since I chose pieces I liked, from Brahms Hungarian Dance #5 to Beach Boys Surfin' Safari.

Theme for the New School Year

I always get excited at the beginning of a school year. Last year I was all gung-ho for learning every student's name, and I did okay, but this year I am going to do it better. I've already blogged about seating charts. I think I am going to go old-school on this one and have use post-its on paper inside folders.

Anyway, I think my theme for this year is IMPROVISATION. While I think it is important for kids to have note-reading basics, I really want them to work on creating their own music and feeling comfortable with it.

AOSA has a newly revamped website with a great little video on the homepage for anyone to see. (They also have videos online for AOSA members only.) This one is called "Scat, Sing, Ring-a-ding" with a great lesson for learning scat singing. I already have ideas about how to use this with recorders....

Seating Charts

I am thinking about new things that I want to do this coming year in my general music classes. Summer is a great time to let ideas roll around in your head. One thing that I have heard about that I have never done, and I know I should be doing, is to have seating charts for each class. These are what I think the advantages would be for me.

1. Getting to know all 300 kids' names. I know many names, but not all.
2. Students love to know what to expect and have some sort of routine. Knowing where to sit is the first thing that happens when they enter the room.
3. I could keep track of all kinds of information. Who got a turn, who needs a turn next time? Who should I call on? Who was absent last time? Who did a great job? Who acted out?
4. Teachers could assist me in letting me know who would sit best in what place (so they wouldn't aggravate their neighbor, or put the kid who needs help paying attention at the front or a kid who needs to be separated in the back near the classroom teacher).
5. I could have several seating charts per class - one for rows, one for circle.
6. I would like ways to create small groups from these seating charts.

Being a technology person, I would love to have an app that would work for me. I am starting a search for the best one for my purposes.

Summer Brain

This week I had two, count 'em, two students simply forget to come to their lessons. I think it was coincidence that they are my two viola students.... Summer brain....

#ritenpr

Now that I am on summer vacation, lesson plan ideas are springing to mind. NPR had a contest for the 100th anniversary of the first performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. They asked readers to create a one-minute video of the final minute of the piece, and then NPR made a montage of their favorites.

The montage is great, the variety of entries inspiring. I especially enjoy the children's version, but I am thinking about showing my students a sampling of the versions for inspiration so that they can create their own movement to either that minute of music, or maybe another piece (Carmina Burana?).

Star Light, Star Bright

This week I sang "Star light, star bright" with my first graders with the traditional sol-la-mi tune. Based on a lesson I learned from Donna Massello-Chiacos at an Inland Counties Chapter of AOSA last month. Some students played a simple bordun on C and G, some students played finger cymbals when we sang "star", others played triangles when we sang "wish" and the rest played shakers on the rhyming words. 

Students, students. Shhhhh....!

I should also say that not everything that pops into your head needs to be spoken aloud in class. Have students always talked so much, or is it just worse these days?

Extending Lessons

I don't get to see my general music students very much. I get each 4th-6th grade class once every two weeks for 45 minutes (which ends up being closer to 35-40 minutes). I used to think that I should cover as much territory as possible, so I came up with a different thing to cover each lesson. I have come to realize that it is far better to learn one concept very well, attacking it from various different directions each time.

Now we are working on meter. Last session we sang Frere Jacques to various meters 2/4, 6/8, 3/4, 4/4 and then 5/4. This session we will be playing a bordun for the song in the various meters, starting with body percussion. Then we'll be moving on to lessons from Randy and Jeff's Gameplan Grade 5 which address 5/4 and mixed meter.

Throw in singing some Beatles songs (many of my students are unfamiliar with this iconic group), and I think we'll have some good times in music class for the next few months.