January 9th, 2020: Who's that?
I loved teaching Emma this song! I think she had fun too, because she was singing it afterwards too! I found that I struggled to focus on both conducting Emma in when it was her turn to sing and also sing along with her. I found I forgot to sing along with her at first because I was focused on bringing her in at the right moment. I think that this will become more natural with more experience, as it felt awkward trying to find the right moment to bring her in. I also found I forgot to have the 4 beat pause between the movements the first three times I sang the song. I think that this is because I was trying to sing perfectly, interact perfectly with the student, and make no mistakes. I felt like if I made a mistake singing, then the student would fail because of me. This made me forget to act natural and to go with the flow. I think I just need to relax more and remind myself that it's not pass or fail, it's just the experience. I think that this will take time, and maybe I'll always have to remind myself this, but with time I think it will become more natural and I'll get more comfortable.
All the Woods are Waking Ostinato Patterns - January, 2020
Bee Bee - Wednesday February 12, 2020
I was pleased with how my teaching went in class today. I felt really nervous at first, but I got a lot more comfortable as I got more into it. The transition from what Amanda did to when I started my chant was a LOT more difficult than I expected it to be, even though I planned it out ahead of time and I knew it was coming. It still felt very sudden to me. I think part of this was because I was sitting behind that post in our classroom and not a lot of kids were able to see me until I stood up and moved. I felt very disconnected from the students at first. I also stumbled on the words a bit during the first repetition of the chant, but I was proud that I didn’t stop and start over again. Keeping going when I make a mistake is something that I find very challenging, I think because I was everything to do everything perfectly, and if I mess up, there’s no way it’ll be perfect. I have trouble not fixing my mistakes in a piano performance and lately my piano teacher has made me be more conscious of this. So, it was a great moment for me when I stumbled but kept going teaching the chant. I found that my plan changed a bit as I went along. I meant to have one side of the room sing the first two parts of the chant and the other side of the room sing the other two parts after, but this didn’t happen. Instead, I had each side of the room do the chant in its entirety, then I had them alternate the 4 parts. I’m not sure why I did this. I can’t tell if I was thinking on the spot that that would be best or if I just got nervous and forgot to switch to the other side of the room. Next time I’m in front of the class, I want to keep in mind why I’m doing things in that moment. I don’t want to do anything mindlessly; I need to have a reason. Also, I find when I’m in front of the class like that, I can’t hear very well. It’s like I have so many things going on in my mind that I get TV static when I try to actually just listen to the class. I think this just comes with the nerves and I need more experience, because this is also something that I experience in conducting class when I have to conduct a piece. Overall, this was a very rewarding experience and I can’t wait to do something like it again. This makes me even more positive about my career path because I love it so much.
I was pleased with how my teaching went in class today. I felt really nervous at first, but I got a lot more comfortable as I got more into it. The transition from what Amanda did to when I started my chant was a LOT more difficult than I expected it to be, even though I planned it out ahead of time and I knew it was coming. It still felt very sudden to me. I think part of this was because I was sitting behind that post in our classroom and not a lot of kids were able to see me until I stood up and moved. I felt very disconnected from the students at first. I also stumbled on the words a bit during the first repetition of the chant, but I was proud that I didn’t stop and start over again. Keeping going when I make a mistake is something that I find very challenging, I think because I was everything to do everything perfectly, and if I mess up, there’s no way it’ll be perfect. I have trouble not fixing my mistakes in a piano performance and lately my piano teacher has made me be more conscious of this. So, it was a great moment for me when I stumbled but kept going teaching the chant. I found that my plan changed a bit as I went along. I meant to have one side of the room sing the first two parts of the chant and the other side of the room sing the other two parts after, but this didn’t happen. Instead, I had each side of the room do the chant in its entirety, then I had them alternate the 4 parts. I’m not sure why I did this. I can’t tell if I was thinking on the spot that that would be best or if I just got nervous and forgot to switch to the other side of the room. Next time I’m in front of the class, I want to keep in mind why I’m doing things in that moment. I don’t want to do anything mindlessly; I need to have a reason. Also, I find when I’m in front of the class like that, I can’t hear very well. It’s like I have so many things going on in my mind that I get TV static when I try to actually just listen to the class. I think this just comes with the nerves and I need more experience, because this is also something that I experience in conducting class when I have to conduct a piece. Overall, this was a very rewarding experience and I can’t wait to do something like it again. This makes me even more positive about my career path because I love it so much.
Thank You Video and Birch Tree, Sunday March 15th, 2020:
I am so very thankful for the experience that this class has provided me with, and I'm even more thankful for the joy it's given me this semester. I learned so much about music education, children, and myself as a teacher and person in this class. I was proud of what I accomplished and how my confidence grew in front of the class. I thought the last week when Cathy just called on me to teach without me expecting it was very good experience for me. I have a habit of dwelling and worrying myself sick over things and I think knowing that something happened without my worrying and it still ended alright was a beneficial experience for me. Even though I messed up the lyrics a bit, nothing terrible happened and I think that these kind of experiences that I would have previously classified as "failures" have made me a lot less scared of not doing things to perfection. And I think this its an important hurdle to get past as a future teacher - there will never be perfection and if I want my students to be comfortable with making mistakes, trying new things and them not working out, and experimenting in my classroom, then I, the teacher, need to open myself up to this as well. It took me a LOOOOTTTTTT of takes of this video to have something I was happy with (also, my computer wouldn't let me download a video from my phone that was longer than a minute for some, unknown reason so that's why there's a little glitch between the song and my thank you comments, I had to split it and download them separately and then edit them to put it together). I also think I could have left a longer silence, but in the moment, it felt like a really long silence and it felt a lot less powerful with no one there to enjoy the silence and the music with me. This class helped grow my confidence a lot and helped me know, without a doubt, that I want to teach elementary children (which is different from when I started university, because in first year, I was questioning becoming a teacher in general).
Ding, Dong - Canon, Ostinati, Teaching: Wednesday March 18th, 2020
I chose this song to record and to teach because it can be sung in English or French, and since I would absolutely LOVE to teach in a French immersion school someday, I thought it would be a good idea to build some French music repertoire for my classroom. I had a lot of fun playing around with what I wanted to do for the ostinati. I had a lot of ideas trying to mix the French and English lyrics together. I found it a challenge to find something that worked in both French and English to fit the syllables and that meant the same thing in both languages. I settled on using the "ding dong" for one ostinato because that can be the same in French and English, then "good day" and "bonjour" for the second because they each have the same number of syllables so they would fit the same rhythm. Then, I used "morning" and "matin" for the third ostinato, again because they had the same number of syllables so they would fit the same rhythm. I had tried to figure out something using the words "church bells ring" but in French that's "les clôches de la maison sonnent" and they syllables didn't match. II thought about maybe singing the melody win English and the ostinati in French or vice versa. Eventually, I decided to keep it more simple and sing the song and ostinati once through in English and immediately follow once through in French. I thought that this way of teaching it would be less confusing and I could always introduce mixing the two later. I did find it was easier to sing French and English together in the canon. I started the first voice in English, the second in French, the third in English, and the fourth in French. This was a lot of fun to record. I taught the song to my roommate Emma (I tried to convince my other roommate Taylor to sing too but she was very stubborn). Emma seemed to have trouble with the lyrics and learning them but I think this was because she couldn't stop laughing. We had to restart twice because she had a bad case of the giggles and had to calm down. I was disappointed that the video cut off because I ran out of storage space on my phone. We had tried to do the round with her coming in first and then me joining two bars later, but this was a mess anyways because she couldn't stop laughing. I was happy she found as much joy in learning this song as I found in teaching it and arranging the ostinati patterns.
Goodbye Video: Thursday March 19th. 2020
My Elementary Education Philosophy: Friday March 20th, 2020
There are many aspects that contribute towards thoughtful teaching in the elementary school classroom. I believe that one of these important aspects that defines thoughtful teaching is the act of making every child feel valued. When I think about what it means to feel valued, I think of mindful inclusion, respect, patience, listening, kindness, and so much more. Personally, when someone shows me such acts, I feel that the person values my existence. My ultimate goal as an elementary school teacher is to let children know through my actions that they are cared for and valued in this classroom, and therefore can experience thoughtful learning.
Inclusion can be a challenge in an elementary classroom. Many people bring up valid questions on how it is possible to give a fair amount of attention to everybody within the curriculum, regardless of gender, race, ability, and learning style. I think that inclusion goes much deeper than simply what we include in our curriculum, as I’ve observed how much learning occurs outside of the structured curriculum. In my opinion, the “inclusion” that happens in the classroom occurs only out of the fear of exclusion, not due to having a genuine respect for that gender, race, ability, or learning style. By this, I mean that in many cases, inclusion occurs mindlessly, without gathering the information in order to better understand and make connections with these groups. In my experience, mindful inclusion leads to feeling valued. For example, I clearly remember in elementary school, when I was in grade three, we had a student teacher named Miss Azim. Miss Azim wore a hijab, which was shocking to many of the students in my grade three class because few of us had ever seen someone wearing one. As a result of this unknown, many of the students were timid at first. Regardless, our teacher encouraged inclusivity, so we welcomed Miss Azim into our daily activities. I clearly remember going home one day and explaining to my mother my fear regarding Miss Azim. My mom told me she wore a hijab and encouraged me to ask the teacher about it. When I inquired as to the meaning of her hijab, I formed a bond with Miss Azim. Prior to having an understanding and a connection with Miss. Azim, I was only including her in the classroom because that’s what the teacher told us to do, but after this understanding, I included her because I valued her as a person and respected our newfound teacher-student connection. My goal in my classroom is to create an atmosphere that fosters mindful inclusion in order to create these relationships based on understanding differences and leading to valuing each other. I will do this by asking questions and gathering information about gender, race, ability, or learning style so that I can make a connection with the student. I will also demonstrate thoughtful language when asking tough questions so that students can learn sensitivity and mindfulness when asking these for themselves. Mindful inclusion is at the core of making a student feel valued and important in the classroom and therefore is an important aspect of my teaching philosophy.
In order to create this environment where everyone feels valued and important in my classroom, I will listen patiently to every student. Many times, our need to help gets in the way and when a student is struggling to answer a question, we will swoop in and help them. From experiencing this, I think that this sends a message, whether intentionally or not, that the student’s thoughts are wrong before they even have a chance to think it through. This discourages them from sharing their thoughts again because the teacher will always answer for them and has the “right” answer. While I do think it is important to help students, I think that the best way to do this is to assist them when working through their struggles. I think it will take experience to know when to jump in and talk it through and when to instead patiently wait for them to collect their thoughts. Regardless of these two scenarios, I think every being feels more valued when they are listened to. This means that when teaching, I will listen to what the child has to say, even if their answer is not the same as mine, and I will not jump in to help them immediately. Instead, I will listen to them work through their thoughts or I will patiently wait while they think, showing them that I am ready to listen. Therefore, by listening and patiently waiting for the student to gather their thoughts, the student will feel more valued because they will know that their opinion matters to me and I want to hear what they have to say.
Overall, my philosophy of thoughtful teaching is built on my belief that each student needs to know that they are valued in my classroom. Two ways in which I will foster this environment where everyone feels valued is through mindful inclusion, taking the time to understand differences and making connections among them, and active listening to let the student know that their thoughts are valid and important. After considering my current philosophy of thoughtful education, I took a look back at the “My Music Education Philosophy” video that I created in the first year Intro to Music Education class. In the video, my philosophy was to “intertwine inclusivity and diversity in the classroom to create a positive environment”. I think that overall my values relating to education have remained more or less the same, but my thinking has grown deeper than I ever thought was possible. I’m thinking about the same concepts, but on an entirely new level. Overall, I’m really looking forward to seeing how my philosophy of education develops by the time I’m teaching and how much deeper my thinking is able to go in the classroom.
Inclusion can be a challenge in an elementary classroom. Many people bring up valid questions on how it is possible to give a fair amount of attention to everybody within the curriculum, regardless of gender, race, ability, and learning style. I think that inclusion goes much deeper than simply what we include in our curriculum, as I’ve observed how much learning occurs outside of the structured curriculum. In my opinion, the “inclusion” that happens in the classroom occurs only out of the fear of exclusion, not due to having a genuine respect for that gender, race, ability, or learning style. By this, I mean that in many cases, inclusion occurs mindlessly, without gathering the information in order to better understand and make connections with these groups. In my experience, mindful inclusion leads to feeling valued. For example, I clearly remember in elementary school, when I was in grade three, we had a student teacher named Miss Azim. Miss Azim wore a hijab, which was shocking to many of the students in my grade three class because few of us had ever seen someone wearing one. As a result of this unknown, many of the students were timid at first. Regardless, our teacher encouraged inclusivity, so we welcomed Miss Azim into our daily activities. I clearly remember going home one day and explaining to my mother my fear regarding Miss Azim. My mom told me she wore a hijab and encouraged me to ask the teacher about it. When I inquired as to the meaning of her hijab, I formed a bond with Miss Azim. Prior to having an understanding and a connection with Miss. Azim, I was only including her in the classroom because that’s what the teacher told us to do, but after this understanding, I included her because I valued her as a person and respected our newfound teacher-student connection. My goal in my classroom is to create an atmosphere that fosters mindful inclusion in order to create these relationships based on understanding differences and leading to valuing each other. I will do this by asking questions and gathering information about gender, race, ability, or learning style so that I can make a connection with the student. I will also demonstrate thoughtful language when asking tough questions so that students can learn sensitivity and mindfulness when asking these for themselves. Mindful inclusion is at the core of making a student feel valued and important in the classroom and therefore is an important aspect of my teaching philosophy.
In order to create this environment where everyone feels valued and important in my classroom, I will listen patiently to every student. Many times, our need to help gets in the way and when a student is struggling to answer a question, we will swoop in and help them. From experiencing this, I think that this sends a message, whether intentionally or not, that the student’s thoughts are wrong before they even have a chance to think it through. This discourages them from sharing their thoughts again because the teacher will always answer for them and has the “right” answer. While I do think it is important to help students, I think that the best way to do this is to assist them when working through their struggles. I think it will take experience to know when to jump in and talk it through and when to instead patiently wait for them to collect their thoughts. Regardless of these two scenarios, I think every being feels more valued when they are listened to. This means that when teaching, I will listen to what the child has to say, even if their answer is not the same as mine, and I will not jump in to help them immediately. Instead, I will listen to them work through their thoughts or I will patiently wait while they think, showing them that I am ready to listen. Therefore, by listening and patiently waiting for the student to gather their thoughts, the student will feel more valued because they will know that their opinion matters to me and I want to hear what they have to say.
Overall, my philosophy of thoughtful teaching is built on my belief that each student needs to know that they are valued in my classroom. Two ways in which I will foster this environment where everyone feels valued is through mindful inclusion, taking the time to understand differences and making connections among them, and active listening to let the student know that their thoughts are valid and important. After considering my current philosophy of thoughtful education, I took a look back at the “My Music Education Philosophy” video that I created in the first year Intro to Music Education class. In the video, my philosophy was to “intertwine inclusivity and diversity in the classroom to create a positive environment”. I think that overall my values relating to education have remained more or less the same, but my thinking has grown deeper than I ever thought was possible. I’m thinking about the same concepts, but on an entirely new level. Overall, I’m really looking forward to seeing how my philosophy of education develops by the time I’m teaching and how much deeper my thinking is able to go in the classroom.
Lesson Plans 1-5 and Music: Sunday March 29th, 2020
Jillian's Elementary Ed Lessons and Music | |
File Size: | 5913 kb |
File Type: |