Teaching Journal - This is for my methods class, but I wanted to put it online so I will never ever loose it, and can always look back, even if my computer crashes and burns.
Subbing Experiences
Always ask yourself why... Teachers always do things for a reason. 2nd day of substitute teaching; 2nd grade classroom, teacher's room was very dark, even with the lights on. The shades were lowered and blue saran wrap covered the florescent light bulbs, so they gave off a more gentile light. Before school starts the teacher next door says I can come get her if I need any help. First half of the day runs rather smoothly. Mother's Day is coming up so the teacher had left an assignment for the students to make Mother's Day cards for their mom. One student is not on task either reading a comic book or coloring a previous assignment. Ask him repeatedly to pull out the Mother's Day card and write one or two sentences. Student still refuses, has a melt-down, yells and says he is not doing it as he rips up the sheet. I tell him calmly that he needs to go down to the office, which only causes him to start crying hysterically and yell that he's not leaving. Time for some help, I run next door and tell the teacher that I do need a little help and that a student is having a meltdown. By this time the student has mostly calmed down; she asks him whats wrong and encourages him to write the card for his mom. The rest of the day he was a perfect angel. Now that I have more 'experience' and am taking Music for the Special Student, I am able to see that this student might have been an exceptional learner on the Autism spectrum. The way the lighting was set up in the classroom should have been an indicator to me. Now I know to make note of obvious differences in classroom setup or features, and to keep an eye out for exceptional learners, and how to modify the sub/lesson plans to fit their needs.
Music - (middle and high school) having sectionals is generally a good idea when subbing, (as long as you will be able to keep track of all students). First determine if they are with you, or if they've already tuned out because you are a sub. Then ask which pieces they are working on. If you know one is particularly difficult tell them to start with that one. Tell them to work in sections, and have them separate to different corners of the room. Just make sure to keep moving and bring them back together at the end to play the piece they worked on. Ask to hear each section play, then give them things to improve on, let them know that you will be back to hear how they sound. Pair students so advanced students can help students who are struggling, especially on instruments you aren't as familiar with. Watch out for foreign objects in instruments and damaged instruments. Keep circulating to make sure everyone is on task. Strings - there is usually one "Queen Bee" keep tabs on her and make sure she doesn't prevent others from staying on task and learning.
Elementary Music - Start with the Brain Dance, everybody loves the Brain Dance! Make sure students know the rules stay within the chairs (circle) and keep your hands to yourself. Always keep an eye on the time, a half hour goes by very quickly, especially when you are having fun. Put sticky notes of when the class leaves where you can see them, like on the CD player. Have a 'bag of tricks' ready and write them on the board, use key words or symbols to remind yourself so you don't keep having to look at your plans. Have fun, but don't be afraid to be stern if a child is being extremely disruptive especially if is the possibility of other students getting hurt. Keep different games in mind like Eclipse (rhythmic telephone), passing games (pass the penguin), and Follow the Leader rhythms. If teacher had a lesson plan and songs she wants you to review with the students follow that, but pay attention to the students and when they start checking out, move to the next activity.If a student is not following directions and being disruptive, have them sit out for a song or part of one. If a student refuses to sit out tell them that's fine, but you will have to tell their classroom teacher. Try to leave a note for the music teacher as well. Make sure to follow through, sometimes it is extremely difficult to catch the teacher and let her know which students were on task and which ones weren't before the next class comes for their music class. Always remember to 'bring them down', one good way is to end with a book that features music,musicians, or musical instruments in some way. Put a sticky-note with the end of class times on the cover and give yourself 5 min to bring them down with the closing activity.
Skunk Band
First day was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I felt like more or less, a complete failure, but learned some seriously valuable lessons. First of all decide for yourself what will and will not be tolerated in your classroom. I fell into a 'teaching trap' when I decided that flying wads of paper will not be tolerated in my class and spent more of the lesson arguing with a 'student' who didn't even throw the paper than actually teaching. I should have said something like 'whoever threw that needs to make a better choice.' Instead of accusing an innocent student. It was also suggested that I move around the room so that I would be able to tell who threw it if they decided to lob another paper projectile. I also gave the impression that unidentified flying objects really bothers me, when it doesn't, giving students a 'button' to push. The only thing that bothers me about student throwing paper is I believe it sets up the precedent that flying objects are ok. While paper is harmless, pencils, rulers, erasers, various school supplies are not and have the tendency to land in other student's eyes. I just want to make sure that my classroom is not only emotionally safe and supportive, but physically safe as well. After my 3 min were up, I discovered that the projectile came from the percussion section and made sure I gave them something extra to do to keep them busy and engaged during my next skunk band lesson. I was also really disappointed in myself because one 'student' left the room without me noticing. Grr, next time I made sure to move around the room more. I have discovered one of my favorite phases is going to be "You need to make a better choice."
On the second day of skunk band, I really felt like I was on a roll. I decided that I was going to keep the percussion section busy so they would stay on task and not 'goof around'. I wrote a little solo that I was going to have them play between the repeat of the piece I was leading so it would be band, perc solo, band. I ran out of time but that's ok. While I was distributing this four bar solo to the section, I discovered one card and told the 'student' to tell me her long story after class. There were three more cards, one was for the trumpet section's posture, and I forgot the other two. But I caught them all!(Without being mean!) I was much more pleased with myself at the end of this lesson than I was the first.
10 Things I Learned in Skunk Band!
1) Be mindful of what you say! Students can and will take things the wrong way and create inappropriate innuendos for almost any sentence in the English Language. Please uncross your legs = Feet flat on the floor. NEVER SWEAR!
2) Be mindful of how you tell students what you want them to do. Can you all turn to page 3? = Everybody please turn to page 3.
3) Pick your battles: decide what behaviors you expect, what behaviors you will let slide and what behaviors are unacceptable in your classroom. If you miss unacceptable behaviors, move so you can better see, and wait; either the behavior will stop or the instigator will give you the chance to catch them doing it again.
4) ALWAYS let girls go to the bathroom if they ask, should let boys go too.
5) Ensure everybody has something appropriate, productive and interesting to do at all times, do not neglect any sections. Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.
6) Make sure to give individual students, sections and the ensemble appropriate praise and attention for good behaviors, posture, technique and sound. (mostly for beginning ensembles) Do not over or under praise their achievements.
7) Move around the room with purpose, to fix behavior or musical problems, don’t wander aimlessly.
8) Make sure to give the students something to focus on, “The tone was better, but we didn’t start and stop together, let’s play that line again.”
9) Make sure you address the true source of behavior problems. It is better to let the misbehaving student get away with misbehavior than accuse an innocent student.
10) Try to find and dissolve the root of behavior problems if you can, and don’t forget to watch out for pedagogical problems.
Roger Chase
Violist Roger Chase came to Western and gave the University Symphony Orchestra and the WMU Viola studio a masterclass, some things I learned and should remember when I teach.
1) Don't forget to remind students of simple, common sense instructions. Ex. Don't play out of tune. Sometimes we forget to say them because we think they already know, but it always helps to hear these reminders. Maybe they were focused on a different aspect of the piece and forgot about some rudiments to playing. (like breathing)
2) Let different members of the ensemble start the piece with their breath. Don't need to see the player to play with the group. Have the second or third row of musicians start the ensemble.
3) It is helpful to move the sections around from time to time so they can hear how the other sections sound. Especially when it comes to the basses. Put them in between the cellos and viola or the 1st and 2nd violins on occasion.
4) Everything is a choice and a decision. Do not let your students choose to play out of tune. Do not choose to ignore major problems in the pieces you play.
5) Always strive for beautiful sound.
Jazz Lab/Jazz Orchestra Concert
On Thursday Feb. 16th the Jazz Lab and Jazz Orchestra had a concert. It was very interesting. I have been to Jazz concerts before, but this time I looked specifically at the director and how the ensemble was lead. I noticed that the director did not conduct the ensemble the entire time, but let the rhythm section keep the beat for the group. The director's job was mostly to set the tempo and indicate when soloists were to play.
Dan Scott
Think about how you want to teach something.
Try to get students to do what you want, then explain... you just learned Bb (or whatever it is). Learning something new doesn't have to be a huge ordeal or obstacle you have to climb over. Ex: slurs - birdie sitting outside a window, trill open A and first finger B. Bird gets tired and slows down to get 2 notes on one bow. You just taught a slur.
Methods I
Practicum 1
I need to review how to play bass and learn the basics of playing cello (posture, bow hold).
Make sure you know how much time you have to present your lesson so you can at least touch upon all you want to accomplish or narrow your focus to fit the time allotted.
Get to the GOOD STUFF, make sure they get to play a large chunk of music. Fix a couple smaller sections, then play a large chunk. Always end by playing the piece all the way through or a large section of it.
Make sure everyone is on the same page, repeat measure numbers a couple times, and make sure you have everyone ready in playing position before you start. Give clear instruction, so students know where to start and what I want them to do.
Did a posture mini-lesson, once we started playing the music, I didn't mention posture again, should have returned to it and consistently reminded students.
Eye contact with students was overall good, but I tended to neglect the lower strings.
Needed to give more feedback, both positive and needs improvement. Telling students to do something doesn't matter if they don't actually do it. Ex: you guys sound very tired, like you are all senior citizens at an old-folks home, I need you to play with more energy. They played with slightly more enthusiasm, but not as much as I was hoping for.
Did not really check for comprehension as much as I should have.
This was only the second time they saw this piece, should have clapped the beat to keep them together and called out rehearsal numbers.
Make sure you know the terminology so the students understand you. Ex. bow lift? Say retake and the word pancakes means students are playing with a collapsed wrist.
Practicum 2
Make sure to look up cello and bass fingerings, made a silly mistake of copying the half position fingerings for bass instead of first position, *sigh*
Tried to keep the lesson going, even though a few students strings slipped and had to be re-tuned.
I kept better eye contact this time, especially with the cello/bass sections. I still felt that my head was too much in the score when it didn't need to be.
I felt that my classroom management skills were much better this time, I was able to be 'stern' and let students know they needed to refocus without being mean.
I need to include more positive comments and check for comprehension more frequently. I was able to include the cello/bass sections by having them pizz their part so I could still listen for intonation in the upper strings and they had something to do.
I am afraid I may have said a question when I was supposed to give a directive, maybe once...
I was much more aware of how much time I had with the group, this was mainly because my practicum partner is very nice and let me know when I had 4 min and 1 min left. The overall pacing was much better and I made sure there was enough time to run through most of the piece before they packed up.
We did accomplish the objective and the intonation improved, especially in the F naturals at the beginning of the piece.
I feel I should review my basic conducting skills? I don't know why but I kept trying to conduct the piece in 4 when it is definitely in 3.
I tried to be more clear when it came to giving directions, and waited until everyone was on board, and ready to go before we played.
I also tried to give students more opportunities to play.
I should not have let bad posture/playing position slide as much as I did. I did stop and correct it a couple times, but I really want to try the check - 'freeze, now try to stand up without moving your feet'. I also want to have them stand up hold instrument above head and bring it to them so that students do not bend down to their instruments, but bring their instruments to them.
Remember to talk less and get students to do more actual playing.
I still need to learn the student's names!
Practicum 3
7th Grade:
Today was interesting, and rather strange. I felt like I had many good ideas, but I put them in the wrong order...
First we worked with the 7th grade orchestra on vibrato. I was super excited for this lesson, and thought I had all kinds of cool ideas and ways for practicing vibrato (they are pretty cool) but I presented them in the wrong order, especially with the upper strings. My practicum partner introduced vibrato so I started off by having the lower strings do pretty much the same thing he had them do. Which was to shake their 'imaginary' pop cans. Some students had a 'chicken wing' going so their elbow was stuck to their side so I had them scratch their head with their elbows sticking straight out.
Next I turned to the upper strings and had them plant their 2nd finger on the A string then use vibrato with their thumb away from the neck. Then I had them try the same thing with their thumb planted. This is a good exercise if the students already have a decent background with vibrato. I really should have ended with this exercise if I had used it at all. It really was too much too soon. Posture reminder* Feet flat on the floor
Turned back to the low strings had low strings polish their strings (like there was something sticky on them) - I had them moving about a step and a half, but I should have had them moving the whole neck. I don't know why I didn't have them do that - also for some goofy reason I felt that teaching upper strings and lower strings vibrato were two completely different things, so I kept going back and forth (which was good) but with totally different exercises. I should have had the upper strings do the strings polishing too! *facepalm* Once they did that for a while I told them that while they were trying to get the sticky stuff off their strings their finger got stuck so their first or second finger was stuck on the string in first position. From there I had them practice their vibrato on each finger starting from the highest string and working their way down to the low strings. Posture reminder* Feet flat on the floor
Back to the upper strings - Next I had the poor upper strings try and do actual vibrato in eighth notes and moving their left arm with their right hand to encourage arm vibrato, another *facepalm*. When that flopped, I had them put their instruments in guitar position and pat the bout, first with first, second, then third fingers.
I felt like I did a pretty good job with the lower strings, as for the upper strings I really failed. I really did think about vibrato and different exercises to show them to practice vibrato, but I think I grossly over-estimated how much they have worked on vibrato before. Even if these 7th graders were masters of vibrato, I still should have started small and worked up to the big stuff. There is no reason on Earth I should have started them with actual vibrato, it should have been string polishing and bout taps for everyone! I think another factor in my lapse of judgment would have been I had unrealistic expectations of them because I personally never had a huge problem with vibrato and forgot that it can be quite a difficult thing to learn.
I also did not really evaluate the upper strings like I did the lower strings. I think I let too much slide. I spent more time trying to figure out what exercise would fit where they are in learning vibrato than observing what they were actually able to do. I felt like I did a pretty good job of getting the lower strings to use vibrato without chicken wings and kept them busy and engaged a large portion of the time.
Egg shakers - I was going to bring in 'Easter' eggs with mini M&M's in them for the kids to use to practice the right movement for vibrato while keeping their hand loose. Since I put M&M's in them I wanted to make sure that no one in the school has an extreme peanut allergy. There is a student who does have extreme allergic reactions to the oils in nuts and he is in one of the band classes so I didn't want to put him at risk for having an allergic reaction in case one of the eggs broke open in the band/orchestra room. I should have just stuck with putting rice in the egg shakers...*sigh, maybe next time. : )
6th Grade:
Rhythm games - I was going to do 'Rhythm Poison' where there are four 2bar rhythms on the board and students play the rhythm you clap back to you, unless it's 'poison'. If a rhythm is poison, and they clap/play it back then they are out. I learned from my mistake with the 7th grade and made sure to start small then work from their when introducing this game. I wrote 4 rhythms on the board then had the students clap them, a couple we had to do multiple times because we were rushing. From there we went through and played the first three on our open A strings. We only had five minutes for the game, so that's as far as I got. Also, in the last rhythm I accidentally put 5 beats in the fist measure instead of four and a student totally called me out, but I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me, so I didn't fix it. ooops... Next time, I am going to see if we can do the game again, but with a different bowing exercise, to get them more comfortable with playing at the middle and tip of the bow.
High School:
With the high school groups my partner and I each got a Bach Chorale to work with them on. My partner went first and his piece was in c minor I think and mine was in a minor. I forgot to point out to them that we had changed keys and played through the whole think with funky notes. *facepalm* I should have stopped immediately and fixed it. I was really really nervous, (it's such a big group) and my conducting style was way too timid. I also tended to follow them. Some good things; my partner got them to swell and grow on the fermatas and had them continue doing that. Each fermata was better than the last. I told them to warm up their sound and there was immediate improvement in sound quality and presence.Their balance was really good too, maybe a touch violin-heavy. Next I told them in a chorale setting they should be able to watch each other and follow the leader (whoever that may be) I had the concert-mistress, assistant concert-mistress, and first viola start the group. If I had had more time I would have liked to have all of the first stand players start the group. Also, I didn't think about the order in which I wanted to ask the players to bring in the group, I should have come up with a plan like 1 - concert-mistress, 2 - first chair 2nd violin, 3 - first chair viola, 4 - first chair cello, 5 - first chair bass. Or Violin, Cello, Viola, Bass, 2nd violin? something like that instead of choosing randomly on the spot. Also in my lesson plan I had mentioned focusing on the moving lines within the chorale, but I didn't spend any time on that.
Practicum 4
The Sixth grade orchestra had a concert that night and the High School was preparing for festival so we worked with the Seventh Grade Orchestra. The Sixth grade concerts are held in the cafeteria of the middle school, so we set up chairs and stands in the cafeteria so the students would have a chance to get used to a new playing environment before the concert. It made me think about how much equipment we deal with as music educators. It was a good thing the cafeteria is close to the band/orchestra room because there was a lot of schlepping of chairs and stands. I found it really interesting how changing the environment can affect the performance. In this case it positively impacted the performance, the students played together and were overall very focused. I chose to work with the Seventh grade on the piece they have the most trouble with, called Gypsy Rover. The lesson focused on closely following the tempo and playing in the middle of the bow instead of the frog. By the end of the lesson the students were definitely playing more toward the middle/tip. score! The tempo was still slightly erratic, and some students were 'goosing' notes by playing a little ahead of the beat on the rest, but overall it was very good and much improved. I had students play the rhythms on their open A strings to take away one level of difficulty (the notes) so students could focus on the rhythm. I thought it was interesting, I felt more comfortable in front of the ensemble, even though we were in a different rehearsal space, the cafeteria; where other students and teachers could see me as well.
Practicum 5
This one didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. I failed to watch how much time I had left and ended up using some of my practicum partner's. I felt really badly about that. : ( I also didn't get though both of my objectives. I wanted to focus a little bit on playing together and more on intonation. It took me longer than I would have liked to figure out how to help them and get them to play at the tempo I wanted. It was like they were stuck in one tempo and couldn't get out of it. I had them turn their stands around so they couldn't see the music and would have to look up at me or the section leader for the tempo. I had them play eighth notes on open G, then eighth notes on a pentatonic scale G, A, B, C#, D. I also should have been more specific about what notes were out of tune, I would tell them what measure, but not the specific note. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I was stuck in 4/4 time, the piece is in 3/4 and I kept counting them off in 4/4! I tried something different, every time I stopped I asked them, "Why do you think I stopped? What went wrong?" and each time they were able to tell me what they needed to do. Usually the problem was playing together and intonation. This time I made sure not to start until everyone was ready to go and sitting with good/improved posture. I didn't even have to remind them more than once, their posture really is improving! Overall some parts were better than usual, and some parts like the time management were worse, it just goes to show, there is always room for improvement and don't check something off your list as mastered once you have achieved it a couple times in a row. Always keep your head in the game!
MSBOA High School Festival
My practicum partner and I traveled to our practicum site. The students met inside and our Director took attendance. Once the students were at the school, our Director told them to load up the buses. Bassists first, making sure they carried their instruments up the steps backward. The cellists got on the bus next and sat with their instruments. Finally the violinists and violists went on the bus. We followed the bus to the festival site. Once we arrived, the busses dropped the students off at the front door.
We followed the signs around to the back visitor parking then met the orchestra at their homeroom room. At the homeroom rooms students are only allowed to unpack their instruments and music. The director is the only one allowed to play the instruments as he tunes them. He made it a priority to tune the basses and cellos as they were in soft cases and less protected from the weather. They lined up in the hall and our Director tuned them all individually, as well as any violins/violas that may have slipped. At 1:50 the orchestra went to their warm up room. The warm up room surprised me. It was a large classroom that is usually employed as a shop/home economics room. There were folding chairs for students to sit on and an extra folding chair on which to put their music. The orchestra is rather large, and they were crammed in like sardines, I can’t imagine how tight it would have been for an even larger group. This warm up room experience was different from my personal experience. When I went to festival as a high school student the warm up room was usually the host school's band room and the sight reading was in the gymnasium or the library and there were enough stands. I had never considered where all those stands came from though. That is a lot of stands, for the warm up room, sight reading room and performance, I wonder if the host school collaborated with another school in their district and borrowed their stands for festival as well. In any case, it is important to remember, that there may not be stands in the warm up room.
In the warm up room our Director ran through a little bit of each piece and had everyone tune very carefully. Next the set up crew left so they could set up the stage after the previous group finished. After the orchestra finished with the warm up they started lining up to go on stage, so my partner and I ran around to the front of the auditorium to watch. Once the group was on the stage, our Director played a couple measures from each of the pieces so the students could get used to the acoustics of the stage. Next, a MSBOA member introduced the group and our Director started the performance with the first piece which is rather slow. Before starting our Director had the group tune carefully on stage. After the first piece, our Director switched the conductor’s podium with one backstage because it was squeaking. After the second piece, he had the group re-tune as well.
After the performance the group relocated to the band room where they would be judged on their sight reading. They were given a once piece to sight read. The piece was passed out and students placed the music front-side down so they could not see it. An MSBOA official read the rules and instructions before allowing the student to flip the music over and starting the 5 minutes allotted to look at the piece. Once the 5 minutes had started our Director guided the students attention to the road-map and other important things they needed to know about the music like key and time signature and any changes in those elements. Next they air bowed and fingered through the piece while our Director sang the main line. After the five minutes was up, they played through the piece. Once they had played through the piece and the judge had finished writing down his comments he spoke to the group about how well they did and that sight reading is really an important and remarkable synthesizing skill. He finished his comments by wishing them good luck on their MME tests this upcoming week.
The group left the sight reading room and went to get their cases from the homeroom. There were a lot of parents there for both the performance and sight reading, after their students were done they checked them out with a chaperone and took them home. Our Director went to the MSBOA headquarters and looked to see if the score sheets from the performance were in yet. The rest of the students went to the cafeteria to wait for the scores to be posted. They ended up getting straight ones in performance and a two in sight reading. Our Director rounded up the remaining students and loaded them up on the bus and my practicum partner and I headed out as well.
Top 10 Things I Learned at Festival:
1) You have to be very organized. Make sure to have all the scores for the judges as well as yourself. Make sure the scores are numbered clearly and that the scores are paper-clipped to the right page if you are only doing one movement. The folders and scores should be labeled with your school so they don’t forget who they are judging (especially if you are later in the day and they have listened to several groups already).
2) It is also a good idea to have extra; rock stops, cello straps, rosin and a tuner, maybe even extra music, sometimes students forget things.
3) It is ultra important to keep an eye on the time and plan exactly what pieces and sections you want to warm the group up with.
4) Remember to tune and retune carefully.
5) Make sure the students are familiar with festival rules, especially when it comes to not playing before warm up and not looking at the sight reading music before the 5 minutes they get to look at the piece starts.
6) Make sure to give students a ‘pep talk’ and let them know that it’s ok to make mistakes, just be sure to move on and keep playing. Don’t let mistakes bring you down.
7) Make sure to stay cool as a cucumber, if you are nervous your students will be too, act like it’s no big deal.
8) Make sure to be clear and quick when going over the sight reading music. Make sure to find all potential trouble spots.
9) Make sure to have chaperones that students can check out with if they are leaving with their parents so you know where all students are at all times.
10) MSBOA Festival is a way to reflect on yourself as a teacher and provides evaluation for you as a director as well as your students.
After festival our Director gave us a debriefing and went over any questions we might have as well as his festival process.
-Know your ensembles strengths and weaknesses. Try to hide/support weaker sections. Ex. If you have a small/shy viola section pick a piece where the second part follows the viola part most of the time.
-Pick music in the fall and have students sightread a lot of pieces. 15-20. This is a good sight-reading experience, it teaches students how to look at the music, and play so they can move on from mistakes. This also gives you an idea of what pieces would work for festival.
-Always sightread at the beginning of the hour.
-Know all of the pieces on the basic required list.
-Practice recognizing rhythms (Middle school twice a week) this really helps with sight-reading
Music Selection
-Let the students know why you picked the music you picked for concerts as well as for sight-reading
-Pick on hard, one medium and one easy piece. OR two mediums and an easy
-Pick one piece they really like, make sure it is the ending piece
-Make sure to pick one slow piece for contrast
-Don't pick all the same style or composer/arranger
-Third time playing the piece, let students form an opinion. They need to play it 3X before they can really decide whether they like it or not. They must be familiar enough with the piece to choose it.
-You pick one of the pieces, they pick two. Guide them in picking only good pieces, let them know they need a slow piece, fast, hard, easy.
-Have two votes one for the required piece and another for the other choices.
-Start working on the hardest piece first, gives you more time to work on it.
-Picking pieces creates ownership
-Any pieces that you over-programmed or that they didn't learn in time for a fall/winter concert could be used at festival
-It is important to have a fourth choice if one of the pieces doesn't work out that is easy and you can throw it together.
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Practicum 6
This practicum my partner and I just observed. The 7th graders had festival that Saturday, so our practicum teacher wanted to work with them. The sixth grade had an assembly which was an excerpt from 'Honk Jr.' the middle school musical. We also didn't have any music for the High School. My partner and I picked out pieces to conduct with the high school for next time and observed.
Practicum 7
Today was a weird mix of good an bad. I felt I did a better job working with the 7th grade and a worse job working with the High School. We sightread with the Seventh grade. That was an interesting experience. I had a piece called Minor Variations. It was aptly named as it was in the style of a theme and variations. I introduced the piece to the students and had them look it over before we started talking about it. We went over what the key and time signatures were and I introduced them to the theme and variations style. Explaining that the first section is the theme and that it reappears in each section slightly altered. Then I sang through the theme as the students air bowed and fingered along, then we played through the theme while I called out rehearsal letters. We did repeated this process for variations one and two as well. Afterward our practicum teacher advised that next time I need to introduce a new form, I should use visual aids or draw on the board, which is a very good idea and something I should have done. The High School experience was a little weird. I was very nervous and kept dropping beats when I was conducting. I was afraid I was going to go over time and steal some from my practicum partner, so after a while I stopped stopping the ensemble when there were problems and conducted in a monotone, without much expression.
Practicum 8
Today went very well overall, we worked with the 7th grade on one of their newer pieces that we had worked on previously. I worked on Minor Variations again, this time focusing on Variations III and IV and the coda. Before playing the variations, I reviewed the form of the piece; theme and variations. There was still some confusion as first, after verbally explaining the form I went to the board and drew a diagram with repeat signs and arrows showing where to go next and where to go after each variation. The students did a very good job of not getting lost and playing with more confidence. Of course, they had spent some time on this piece already, but they were mostly recognizing the theme as it appeared in the different sections, upper strings to celli. At the High School, my practicum partner and I both conducted the pieces we had picked for our Unit Plan project. I had chosen Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. They did a very good job sight-reading it. It is not a very easy piece to play, especially for the first violins. There were two types of first violin parts, one that stayed in first position and one that was more challenging and went into third, labeled the Advanced violin part. It sort of threw me off a little, they had swapped stand order so the first chair violins were at the back of the section. It made me really nervous for a bit to hear all the mistakes up close, but that is a really good practice, also this way students get a feel for what it is like to sit up front and be encouraged to practice their parts and play out. Eine Kleine provided more of a challenge to the students than I thought it would, but that is better than giving them something too easy, which is what I was afraid I had done.
Practicum 9
This was our last day of practicum for this semester : ( In 7th grade I worked on Minor Variations again, starting at the beginning, then seeing how far we could go. We got through the first two variations, then went to the second one to clean up a bit. Unfortunately ran out of time before I could really fix the C in third position in the violins. In 6th grade my practicum partner and I introduced the scales F major and Bb major. I need to look up for myself how to introduce scales. I was trying to do it by finger pattern, but I would forget what note we were on and what the finger pattern was for cello/bass. Even though I didn't feel it went particularly well, I am sure it was an ok introduction. The first time introducing a new concept is going to be confusing anyway, just need to make sure to bring it up again, frequently and through different means and evaluate students knowledge to make sure they understand the concept. In the High School, we just observed.
Methods II
Practicum 1
This first day of practicum we observed our practicum sites; taking note of the various characteristics of the room, as well as the interactions between students and teacher. As in Methods I we are working with both a Middle and High School orchestra program. This time we are spending more time working with the High School students while last semester we mostly observed. I am really impressed with our mentor teacher, because of the disparity between abilities in both the Middle and High Schools, she is essentially teaching two classes at once. The Middle school orchestra is 6-8 grades. The higher level 7th grade and 8th grade students get together to form another ensemble and rehearse in the chamber music room. They are fairly autonomous and self-driven. They actually work the whole time on their set of music so our mentor can work with the lower level 7th and 6th grade students.
Practicum 2
This is our first day working with both groups. I felt it went really well! Each of us had a different topic to introduce/reinforce. I had shifting, which is perfect as my 'string project' was on how to teach shifting. With both groups I had students practice different shifting games that are in or adapted from Phyllis Young's "Playing the String Game". I had the High School students start out by tracing the strings with one finger up and down the fingerboard. Then we looked at what our hand/wrist/arm are doing to be able to shift. Violin/Viola elbow closes thumb moves under neck of instrument and elbow moves under instrument toward center of the body. Cello/Bass elbow opens and thumb moves under the neck and on top of the fingerboard (to play in thumb position) After these games (Air Mail and Polishing the Strings) I had the students play actual notes in third position/fourth position, this part didn't go as smoothly, I should have been clearer in what I wanted the exercise to sound like. The middle school went really well. My middle school lesson was also on shifting. I just had them do the string polishing game. Violins and violas were in guitar position so they could watch what they were doing. I just had them shift up to where the neck meets the body of the instrument (around 4th position). I labeled the nut of the instrument Detroit and had students travel from Detroit to Chicago (4th position). This exercise was great, I could see students picking up fingers as they moved from one city to another. Or moving their fingers but leaving their thumb behind.
Practicum 3
This week both lessons centered around the bow. The High School Orchestra is playing an arrangement of Badinerie by J.S. Bach. My lesson was on how to play with a baroque style bow. This included some background history of the bow and string instruments, how the sound was different, softer because they used gut strings and how the bow was build differently, more similar to a hunting bow with the stick curving out away from the hair, instead of towards it. I explained how sound production would be different as each note would decay right after it is played, and how it is virtually impossible to crescendo at the tip of the bow. I talked about how musicians would use more bow speed instead of weight to get achieve louder dynamics. After the background I had students play a G major scale with lighter bow weight and more bow speed, playing mostly at the middle of the bow. At the middle school I reviewed proper bow hold, had students demonstrate how they hold the bow while I went around and checked. I should have given them something else to do as well, while they were waiting. Some students needed more individual attention than others. I also had students do windshield wipers and rocket ships to get used to the weight of the bow and how the wrist bends as you move from frog to tip.
Practicum 4
This week we did sectionals in both High School and Middle School. I got to work with the lower strings! I was really excited about this because I feel that lower strings is where my knowledge is weakest and I wanted to see how I would do with them. The High School Bassist is really good, he has taken private lessons in the past and the music is rather easy for him. The cellos need some work. I get the impression that they aren't always reading the notes correctly, or they are just watching each other to determine what they should play. There were a couple times I caught them playing on the wrong strings altogether. They are missing the Bb and Eb's and are playing rather timidly. I reminded them how important they are to the overall sound of the orchestra. I introduced them to the sound pyramid, which I think is mostly a band concept, but they needed to hear it. There should be a good foundation in the bass, slightly less middle voices and just a little bit of the really high voices to give the group a good balance. I imitated their sound and described the type of sound I wanted them to produce as like warm caramel. They did not always play together, explained how it sounds like stuttering. When you create music, you are sharing a message with your audience everyone needs to play together so the message is clear. The middle school went reasonably well. I was also working with the lower strings. This time I ended up talking more than I should have and the students did not have the opportunity to get as many repetitions in. I did catch the basses have an odd sort of hand position. I do not remember them doing this even the previous week, but their fingers were at odd angles to the neck of the instrument. The fingers should be curved and perpendicular to the neck of the instrument. They had similar problems as the high school when it came to playing together. We worked on the articulation and accents of the passage in Afterburn by Brian Balmages. In methods class we talked in depth about the different types of school scheduling. We asked our practicum teacher and discovered that the High School functions with trimester schedule and the Middle School uses a standard schedule.
Practicum 5
This week we did sectionals again, this time I had the first violins in both High School and Middle School. The first instrument I learned was violin, I played through elementary and middle school until my sophomore year of High School when I switched to viola, so I was fairly confident that I would be able to lead the violin sectionals with no problem. It went pretty well, but not as good as I anticipated. There were a couple times where I had moments reading and deciphering treble clef, but mostly what fingerings would work best. Definitely made sure to physically practice the part before next practicum. There were a couple students who were just faking through the opening passage of Charlie Brown Christmas, especially since it is mostly in third position. I gave one student some alternate fingerings to use until they nailed down the third position passage. There was a definite lack of energy in the group as a whole, I am going to try some sort of fun activity at the beginning of sectionals to sort of warm everyone up. I was thinking of having students improvise or give them a chance to figure out the melody to a pop song they like, then work on Charlie Brown. I was really impressed by how well they could all play in tune. The middle school went much better, there was a change in the schedule that was a surprise to us and our teacher so we got there a little late. : / It was kinda nice not to have a lot of extra time before class, no time to be nervous, just go and teach. I worked on Afterburn with the first violins and it went really well, talked about how to subdivide and got through most of the piece. They had a really good energy, were really upbeat and focused on the task at hand.
Practicum 6
This week we did sectionals with the same groups from last week, so I had the first violins again. The difference between this week and last week was like night and day. I felt that I really connected with the students, particularly at the High School. They spoke without being too chatty and actually smiled or laughed when I tried to make a joke. I just felt much more comfortable and confident in front of them. They really have the Charlie Brown Christmas music down, for the most part, so I chose to spend the last five minutes on improvisation. I tried to identify with them, that it can be scary when you aren't used to it. I explained how I never really had to improvise until I got to college and I still don't feel comfortable playing in front of people. I explained how I think of improvising as figuring out a tune or song that you already know and altering it so that it becomes a completely new song that is your own. I also showed them how you can improvise on a scale, and how a descending D major scale with a different rhythm becomes Joy To The World. Lastly I had the students improvise at the same time, so they wouldn't be put on the spot or worry about others hearing them. At the middle school we worked more on the lyrical section of Afterburn, there were some problems feeling the beat and staying together. There were also intonation problems between the f natural on the E string and G on the D string and D on the A string. The G's and D's were a little too low because their first fingers are lower than they are used to. There was a lot of long tones and matching pitch to get those notes in tune. To help students feel the beat I had them subdivide the half notes and dotted half notes into quarter notes. This was particularly challenging for some students but it really helped them play more together.
Practicum 7
We had sectionals again this week, but we switched up the groups a little bit. I ended up with the second violins in both the Middle and High School. At the high school we worked on Charlie Brown some more. They were playing pretty well in tune, but rather timidly. I asked them why they were so quiet when they had the melody, they are actually playing that part in third position (which is awesome) but were feeling nervous about it. I had them play it again, but with their music turned around so they couldn't see it. They played it perfectly from memory. I explained that after you really get to know a piece, the sheet music becomes more of a guide, it's not like you are reading the notes for the first time every time. At the middle school, we had limited sectional space so we combined with the viola sectional. It was difficult to keep everyone focused and address the needs of each group. It went pretty well though, and it was a lot of fun!
Subbing Experiences
Always ask yourself why... Teachers always do things for a reason. 2nd day of substitute teaching; 2nd grade classroom, teacher's room was very dark, even with the lights on. The shades were lowered and blue saran wrap covered the florescent light bulbs, so they gave off a more gentile light. Before school starts the teacher next door says I can come get her if I need any help. First half of the day runs rather smoothly. Mother's Day is coming up so the teacher had left an assignment for the students to make Mother's Day cards for their mom. One student is not on task either reading a comic book or coloring a previous assignment. Ask him repeatedly to pull out the Mother's Day card and write one or two sentences. Student still refuses, has a melt-down, yells and says he is not doing it as he rips up the sheet. I tell him calmly that he needs to go down to the office, which only causes him to start crying hysterically and yell that he's not leaving. Time for some help, I run next door and tell the teacher that I do need a little help and that a student is having a meltdown. By this time the student has mostly calmed down; she asks him whats wrong and encourages him to write the card for his mom. The rest of the day he was a perfect angel. Now that I have more 'experience' and am taking Music for the Special Student, I am able to see that this student might have been an exceptional learner on the Autism spectrum. The way the lighting was set up in the classroom should have been an indicator to me. Now I know to make note of obvious differences in classroom setup or features, and to keep an eye out for exceptional learners, and how to modify the sub/lesson plans to fit their needs.
Music - (middle and high school) having sectionals is generally a good idea when subbing, (as long as you will be able to keep track of all students). First determine if they are with you, or if they've already tuned out because you are a sub. Then ask which pieces they are working on. If you know one is particularly difficult tell them to start with that one. Tell them to work in sections, and have them separate to different corners of the room. Just make sure to keep moving and bring them back together at the end to play the piece they worked on. Ask to hear each section play, then give them things to improve on, let them know that you will be back to hear how they sound. Pair students so advanced students can help students who are struggling, especially on instruments you aren't as familiar with. Watch out for foreign objects in instruments and damaged instruments. Keep circulating to make sure everyone is on task. Strings - there is usually one "Queen Bee" keep tabs on her and make sure she doesn't prevent others from staying on task and learning.
Elementary Music - Start with the Brain Dance, everybody loves the Brain Dance! Make sure students know the rules stay within the chairs (circle) and keep your hands to yourself. Always keep an eye on the time, a half hour goes by very quickly, especially when you are having fun. Put sticky notes of when the class leaves where you can see them, like on the CD player. Have a 'bag of tricks' ready and write them on the board, use key words or symbols to remind yourself so you don't keep having to look at your plans. Have fun, but don't be afraid to be stern if a child is being extremely disruptive especially if is the possibility of other students getting hurt. Keep different games in mind like Eclipse (rhythmic telephone), passing games (pass the penguin), and Follow the Leader rhythms. If teacher had a lesson plan and songs she wants you to review with the students follow that, but pay attention to the students and when they start checking out, move to the next activity.If a student is not following directions and being disruptive, have them sit out for a song or part of one. If a student refuses to sit out tell them that's fine, but you will have to tell their classroom teacher. Try to leave a note for the music teacher as well. Make sure to follow through, sometimes it is extremely difficult to catch the teacher and let her know which students were on task and which ones weren't before the next class comes for their music class. Always remember to 'bring them down', one good way is to end with a book that features music,musicians, or musical instruments in some way. Put a sticky-note with the end of class times on the cover and give yourself 5 min to bring them down with the closing activity.
Skunk Band
First day was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I felt like more or less, a complete failure, but learned some seriously valuable lessons. First of all decide for yourself what will and will not be tolerated in your classroom. I fell into a 'teaching trap' when I decided that flying wads of paper will not be tolerated in my class and spent more of the lesson arguing with a 'student' who didn't even throw the paper than actually teaching. I should have said something like 'whoever threw that needs to make a better choice.' Instead of accusing an innocent student. It was also suggested that I move around the room so that I would be able to tell who threw it if they decided to lob another paper projectile. I also gave the impression that unidentified flying objects really bothers me, when it doesn't, giving students a 'button' to push. The only thing that bothers me about student throwing paper is I believe it sets up the precedent that flying objects are ok. While paper is harmless, pencils, rulers, erasers, various school supplies are not and have the tendency to land in other student's eyes. I just want to make sure that my classroom is not only emotionally safe and supportive, but physically safe as well. After my 3 min were up, I discovered that the projectile came from the percussion section and made sure I gave them something extra to do to keep them busy and engaged during my next skunk band lesson. I was also really disappointed in myself because one 'student' left the room without me noticing. Grr, next time I made sure to move around the room more. I have discovered one of my favorite phases is going to be "You need to make a better choice."
On the second day of skunk band, I really felt like I was on a roll. I decided that I was going to keep the percussion section busy so they would stay on task and not 'goof around'. I wrote a little solo that I was going to have them play between the repeat of the piece I was leading so it would be band, perc solo, band. I ran out of time but that's ok. While I was distributing this four bar solo to the section, I discovered one card and told the 'student' to tell me her long story after class. There were three more cards, one was for the trumpet section's posture, and I forgot the other two. But I caught them all!(Without being mean!) I was much more pleased with myself at the end of this lesson than I was the first.
10 Things I Learned in Skunk Band!
1) Be mindful of what you say! Students can and will take things the wrong way and create inappropriate innuendos for almost any sentence in the English Language. Please uncross your legs = Feet flat on the floor. NEVER SWEAR!
2) Be mindful of how you tell students what you want them to do. Can you all turn to page 3? = Everybody please turn to page 3.
3) Pick your battles: decide what behaviors you expect, what behaviors you will let slide and what behaviors are unacceptable in your classroom. If you miss unacceptable behaviors, move so you can better see, and wait; either the behavior will stop or the instigator will give you the chance to catch them doing it again.
4) ALWAYS let girls go to the bathroom if they ask, should let boys go too.
5) Ensure everybody has something appropriate, productive and interesting to do at all times, do not neglect any sections. Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.
6) Make sure to give individual students, sections and the ensemble appropriate praise and attention for good behaviors, posture, technique and sound. (mostly for beginning ensembles) Do not over or under praise their achievements.
7) Move around the room with purpose, to fix behavior or musical problems, don’t wander aimlessly.
8) Make sure to give the students something to focus on, “The tone was better, but we didn’t start and stop together, let’s play that line again.”
9) Make sure you address the true source of behavior problems. It is better to let the misbehaving student get away with misbehavior than accuse an innocent student.
10) Try to find and dissolve the root of behavior problems if you can, and don’t forget to watch out for pedagogical problems.
Roger Chase
Violist Roger Chase came to Western and gave the University Symphony Orchestra and the WMU Viola studio a masterclass, some things I learned and should remember when I teach.
1) Don't forget to remind students of simple, common sense instructions. Ex. Don't play out of tune. Sometimes we forget to say them because we think they already know, but it always helps to hear these reminders. Maybe they were focused on a different aspect of the piece and forgot about some rudiments to playing. (like breathing)
2) Let different members of the ensemble start the piece with their breath. Don't need to see the player to play with the group. Have the second or third row of musicians start the ensemble.
3) It is helpful to move the sections around from time to time so they can hear how the other sections sound. Especially when it comes to the basses. Put them in between the cellos and viola or the 1st and 2nd violins on occasion.
4) Everything is a choice and a decision. Do not let your students choose to play out of tune. Do not choose to ignore major problems in the pieces you play.
5) Always strive for beautiful sound.
Jazz Lab/Jazz Orchestra Concert
On Thursday Feb. 16th the Jazz Lab and Jazz Orchestra had a concert. It was very interesting. I have been to Jazz concerts before, but this time I looked specifically at the director and how the ensemble was lead. I noticed that the director did not conduct the ensemble the entire time, but let the rhythm section keep the beat for the group. The director's job was mostly to set the tempo and indicate when soloists were to play.
Dan Scott
Think about how you want to teach something.
Try to get students to do what you want, then explain... you just learned Bb (or whatever it is). Learning something new doesn't have to be a huge ordeal or obstacle you have to climb over. Ex: slurs - birdie sitting outside a window, trill open A and first finger B. Bird gets tired and slows down to get 2 notes on one bow. You just taught a slur.
Methods I
Practicum 1
I need to review how to play bass and learn the basics of playing cello (posture, bow hold).
Make sure you know how much time you have to present your lesson so you can at least touch upon all you want to accomplish or narrow your focus to fit the time allotted.
Get to the GOOD STUFF, make sure they get to play a large chunk of music. Fix a couple smaller sections, then play a large chunk. Always end by playing the piece all the way through or a large section of it.
Make sure everyone is on the same page, repeat measure numbers a couple times, and make sure you have everyone ready in playing position before you start. Give clear instruction, so students know where to start and what I want them to do.
Did a posture mini-lesson, once we started playing the music, I didn't mention posture again, should have returned to it and consistently reminded students.
Eye contact with students was overall good, but I tended to neglect the lower strings.
Needed to give more feedback, both positive and needs improvement. Telling students to do something doesn't matter if they don't actually do it. Ex: you guys sound very tired, like you are all senior citizens at an old-folks home, I need you to play with more energy. They played with slightly more enthusiasm, but not as much as I was hoping for.
Did not really check for comprehension as much as I should have.
This was only the second time they saw this piece, should have clapped the beat to keep them together and called out rehearsal numbers.
Make sure you know the terminology so the students understand you. Ex. bow lift? Say retake and the word pancakes means students are playing with a collapsed wrist.
Practicum 2
Make sure to look up cello and bass fingerings, made a silly mistake of copying the half position fingerings for bass instead of first position, *sigh*
Tried to keep the lesson going, even though a few students strings slipped and had to be re-tuned.
I kept better eye contact this time, especially with the cello/bass sections. I still felt that my head was too much in the score when it didn't need to be.
I felt that my classroom management skills were much better this time, I was able to be 'stern' and let students know they needed to refocus without being mean.
I need to include more positive comments and check for comprehension more frequently. I was able to include the cello/bass sections by having them pizz their part so I could still listen for intonation in the upper strings and they had something to do.
I am afraid I may have said a question when I was supposed to give a directive, maybe once...
I was much more aware of how much time I had with the group, this was mainly because my practicum partner is very nice and let me know when I had 4 min and 1 min left. The overall pacing was much better and I made sure there was enough time to run through most of the piece before they packed up.
We did accomplish the objective and the intonation improved, especially in the F naturals at the beginning of the piece.
I feel I should review my basic conducting skills? I don't know why but I kept trying to conduct the piece in 4 when it is definitely in 3.
I tried to be more clear when it came to giving directions, and waited until everyone was on board, and ready to go before we played.
I also tried to give students more opportunities to play.
I should not have let bad posture/playing position slide as much as I did. I did stop and correct it a couple times, but I really want to try the check - 'freeze, now try to stand up without moving your feet'. I also want to have them stand up hold instrument above head and bring it to them so that students do not bend down to their instruments, but bring their instruments to them.
Remember to talk less and get students to do more actual playing.
I still need to learn the student's names!
Practicum 3
7th Grade:
Today was interesting, and rather strange. I felt like I had many good ideas, but I put them in the wrong order...
First we worked with the 7th grade orchestra on vibrato. I was super excited for this lesson, and thought I had all kinds of cool ideas and ways for practicing vibrato (they are pretty cool) but I presented them in the wrong order, especially with the upper strings. My practicum partner introduced vibrato so I started off by having the lower strings do pretty much the same thing he had them do. Which was to shake their 'imaginary' pop cans. Some students had a 'chicken wing' going so their elbow was stuck to their side so I had them scratch their head with their elbows sticking straight out.
Next I turned to the upper strings and had them plant their 2nd finger on the A string then use vibrato with their thumb away from the neck. Then I had them try the same thing with their thumb planted. This is a good exercise if the students already have a decent background with vibrato. I really should have ended with this exercise if I had used it at all. It really was too much too soon. Posture reminder* Feet flat on the floor
Turned back to the low strings had low strings polish their strings (like there was something sticky on them) - I had them moving about a step and a half, but I should have had them moving the whole neck. I don't know why I didn't have them do that - also for some goofy reason I felt that teaching upper strings and lower strings vibrato were two completely different things, so I kept going back and forth (which was good) but with totally different exercises. I should have had the upper strings do the strings polishing too! *facepalm* Once they did that for a while I told them that while they were trying to get the sticky stuff off their strings their finger got stuck so their first or second finger was stuck on the string in first position. From there I had them practice their vibrato on each finger starting from the highest string and working their way down to the low strings. Posture reminder* Feet flat on the floor
Back to the upper strings - Next I had the poor upper strings try and do actual vibrato in eighth notes and moving their left arm with their right hand to encourage arm vibrato, another *facepalm*. When that flopped, I had them put their instruments in guitar position and pat the bout, first with first, second, then third fingers.
I felt like I did a pretty good job with the lower strings, as for the upper strings I really failed. I really did think about vibrato and different exercises to show them to practice vibrato, but I think I grossly over-estimated how much they have worked on vibrato before. Even if these 7th graders were masters of vibrato, I still should have started small and worked up to the big stuff. There is no reason on Earth I should have started them with actual vibrato, it should have been string polishing and bout taps for everyone! I think another factor in my lapse of judgment would have been I had unrealistic expectations of them because I personally never had a huge problem with vibrato and forgot that it can be quite a difficult thing to learn.
I also did not really evaluate the upper strings like I did the lower strings. I think I let too much slide. I spent more time trying to figure out what exercise would fit where they are in learning vibrato than observing what they were actually able to do. I felt like I did a pretty good job of getting the lower strings to use vibrato without chicken wings and kept them busy and engaged a large portion of the time.
Egg shakers - I was going to bring in 'Easter' eggs with mini M&M's in them for the kids to use to practice the right movement for vibrato while keeping their hand loose. Since I put M&M's in them I wanted to make sure that no one in the school has an extreme peanut allergy. There is a student who does have extreme allergic reactions to the oils in nuts and he is in one of the band classes so I didn't want to put him at risk for having an allergic reaction in case one of the eggs broke open in the band/orchestra room. I should have just stuck with putting rice in the egg shakers...*sigh, maybe next time. : )
6th Grade:
Rhythm games - I was going to do 'Rhythm Poison' where there are four 2bar rhythms on the board and students play the rhythm you clap back to you, unless it's 'poison'. If a rhythm is poison, and they clap/play it back then they are out. I learned from my mistake with the 7th grade and made sure to start small then work from their when introducing this game. I wrote 4 rhythms on the board then had the students clap them, a couple we had to do multiple times because we were rushing. From there we went through and played the first three on our open A strings. We only had five minutes for the game, so that's as far as I got. Also, in the last rhythm I accidentally put 5 beats in the fist measure instead of four and a student totally called me out, but I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me, so I didn't fix it. ooops... Next time, I am going to see if we can do the game again, but with a different bowing exercise, to get them more comfortable with playing at the middle and tip of the bow.
High School:
With the high school groups my partner and I each got a Bach Chorale to work with them on. My partner went first and his piece was in c minor I think and mine was in a minor. I forgot to point out to them that we had changed keys and played through the whole think with funky notes. *facepalm* I should have stopped immediately and fixed it. I was really really nervous, (it's such a big group) and my conducting style was way too timid. I also tended to follow them. Some good things; my partner got them to swell and grow on the fermatas and had them continue doing that. Each fermata was better than the last. I told them to warm up their sound and there was immediate improvement in sound quality and presence.Their balance was really good too, maybe a touch violin-heavy. Next I told them in a chorale setting they should be able to watch each other and follow the leader (whoever that may be) I had the concert-mistress, assistant concert-mistress, and first viola start the group. If I had had more time I would have liked to have all of the first stand players start the group. Also, I didn't think about the order in which I wanted to ask the players to bring in the group, I should have come up with a plan like 1 - concert-mistress, 2 - first chair 2nd violin, 3 - first chair viola, 4 - first chair cello, 5 - first chair bass. Or Violin, Cello, Viola, Bass, 2nd violin? something like that instead of choosing randomly on the spot. Also in my lesson plan I had mentioned focusing on the moving lines within the chorale, but I didn't spend any time on that.
Practicum 4
The Sixth grade orchestra had a concert that night and the High School was preparing for festival so we worked with the Seventh Grade Orchestra. The Sixth grade concerts are held in the cafeteria of the middle school, so we set up chairs and stands in the cafeteria so the students would have a chance to get used to a new playing environment before the concert. It made me think about how much equipment we deal with as music educators. It was a good thing the cafeteria is close to the band/orchestra room because there was a lot of schlepping of chairs and stands. I found it really interesting how changing the environment can affect the performance. In this case it positively impacted the performance, the students played together and were overall very focused. I chose to work with the Seventh grade on the piece they have the most trouble with, called Gypsy Rover. The lesson focused on closely following the tempo and playing in the middle of the bow instead of the frog. By the end of the lesson the students were definitely playing more toward the middle/tip. score! The tempo was still slightly erratic, and some students were 'goosing' notes by playing a little ahead of the beat on the rest, but overall it was very good and much improved. I had students play the rhythms on their open A strings to take away one level of difficulty (the notes) so students could focus on the rhythm. I thought it was interesting, I felt more comfortable in front of the ensemble, even though we were in a different rehearsal space, the cafeteria; where other students and teachers could see me as well.
Practicum 5
This one didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. I failed to watch how much time I had left and ended up using some of my practicum partner's. I felt really badly about that. : ( I also didn't get though both of my objectives. I wanted to focus a little bit on playing together and more on intonation. It took me longer than I would have liked to figure out how to help them and get them to play at the tempo I wanted. It was like they were stuck in one tempo and couldn't get out of it. I had them turn their stands around so they couldn't see the music and would have to look up at me or the section leader for the tempo. I had them play eighth notes on open G, then eighth notes on a pentatonic scale G, A, B, C#, D. I also should have been more specific about what notes were out of tune, I would tell them what measure, but not the specific note. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I was stuck in 4/4 time, the piece is in 3/4 and I kept counting them off in 4/4! I tried something different, every time I stopped I asked them, "Why do you think I stopped? What went wrong?" and each time they were able to tell me what they needed to do. Usually the problem was playing together and intonation. This time I made sure not to start until everyone was ready to go and sitting with good/improved posture. I didn't even have to remind them more than once, their posture really is improving! Overall some parts were better than usual, and some parts like the time management were worse, it just goes to show, there is always room for improvement and don't check something off your list as mastered once you have achieved it a couple times in a row. Always keep your head in the game!
MSBOA High School Festival
My practicum partner and I traveled to our practicum site. The students met inside and our Director took attendance. Once the students were at the school, our Director told them to load up the buses. Bassists first, making sure they carried their instruments up the steps backward. The cellists got on the bus next and sat with their instruments. Finally the violinists and violists went on the bus. We followed the bus to the festival site. Once we arrived, the busses dropped the students off at the front door.
We followed the signs around to the back visitor parking then met the orchestra at their homeroom room. At the homeroom rooms students are only allowed to unpack their instruments and music. The director is the only one allowed to play the instruments as he tunes them. He made it a priority to tune the basses and cellos as they were in soft cases and less protected from the weather. They lined up in the hall and our Director tuned them all individually, as well as any violins/violas that may have slipped. At 1:50 the orchestra went to their warm up room. The warm up room surprised me. It was a large classroom that is usually employed as a shop/home economics room. There were folding chairs for students to sit on and an extra folding chair on which to put their music. The orchestra is rather large, and they were crammed in like sardines, I can’t imagine how tight it would have been for an even larger group. This warm up room experience was different from my personal experience. When I went to festival as a high school student the warm up room was usually the host school's band room and the sight reading was in the gymnasium or the library and there were enough stands. I had never considered where all those stands came from though. That is a lot of stands, for the warm up room, sight reading room and performance, I wonder if the host school collaborated with another school in their district and borrowed their stands for festival as well. In any case, it is important to remember, that there may not be stands in the warm up room.
In the warm up room our Director ran through a little bit of each piece and had everyone tune very carefully. Next the set up crew left so they could set up the stage after the previous group finished. After the orchestra finished with the warm up they started lining up to go on stage, so my partner and I ran around to the front of the auditorium to watch. Once the group was on the stage, our Director played a couple measures from each of the pieces so the students could get used to the acoustics of the stage. Next, a MSBOA member introduced the group and our Director started the performance with the first piece which is rather slow. Before starting our Director had the group tune carefully on stage. After the first piece, our Director switched the conductor’s podium with one backstage because it was squeaking. After the second piece, he had the group re-tune as well.
After the performance the group relocated to the band room where they would be judged on their sight reading. They were given a once piece to sight read. The piece was passed out and students placed the music front-side down so they could not see it. An MSBOA official read the rules and instructions before allowing the student to flip the music over and starting the 5 minutes allotted to look at the piece. Once the 5 minutes had started our Director guided the students attention to the road-map and other important things they needed to know about the music like key and time signature and any changes in those elements. Next they air bowed and fingered through the piece while our Director sang the main line. After the five minutes was up, they played through the piece. Once they had played through the piece and the judge had finished writing down his comments he spoke to the group about how well they did and that sight reading is really an important and remarkable synthesizing skill. He finished his comments by wishing them good luck on their MME tests this upcoming week.
The group left the sight reading room and went to get their cases from the homeroom. There were a lot of parents there for both the performance and sight reading, after their students were done they checked them out with a chaperone and took them home. Our Director went to the MSBOA headquarters and looked to see if the score sheets from the performance were in yet. The rest of the students went to the cafeteria to wait for the scores to be posted. They ended up getting straight ones in performance and a two in sight reading. Our Director rounded up the remaining students and loaded them up on the bus and my practicum partner and I headed out as well.
Top 10 Things I Learned at Festival:
1) You have to be very organized. Make sure to have all the scores for the judges as well as yourself. Make sure the scores are numbered clearly and that the scores are paper-clipped to the right page if you are only doing one movement. The folders and scores should be labeled with your school so they don’t forget who they are judging (especially if you are later in the day and they have listened to several groups already).
2) It is also a good idea to have extra; rock stops, cello straps, rosin and a tuner, maybe even extra music, sometimes students forget things.
3) It is ultra important to keep an eye on the time and plan exactly what pieces and sections you want to warm the group up with.
4) Remember to tune and retune carefully.
5) Make sure the students are familiar with festival rules, especially when it comes to not playing before warm up and not looking at the sight reading music before the 5 minutes they get to look at the piece starts.
6) Make sure to give students a ‘pep talk’ and let them know that it’s ok to make mistakes, just be sure to move on and keep playing. Don’t let mistakes bring you down.
7) Make sure to stay cool as a cucumber, if you are nervous your students will be too, act like it’s no big deal.
8) Make sure to be clear and quick when going over the sight reading music. Make sure to find all potential trouble spots.
9) Make sure to have chaperones that students can check out with if they are leaving with their parents so you know where all students are at all times.
10) MSBOA Festival is a way to reflect on yourself as a teacher and provides evaluation for you as a director as well as your students.
After festival our Director gave us a debriefing and went over any questions we might have as well as his festival process.
-Know your ensembles strengths and weaknesses. Try to hide/support weaker sections. Ex. If you have a small/shy viola section pick a piece where the second part follows the viola part most of the time.
-Pick music in the fall and have students sightread a lot of pieces. 15-20. This is a good sight-reading experience, it teaches students how to look at the music, and play so they can move on from mistakes. This also gives you an idea of what pieces would work for festival.
-Always sightread at the beginning of the hour.
-Know all of the pieces on the basic required list.
-Practice recognizing rhythms (Middle school twice a week) this really helps with sight-reading
Music Selection
-Let the students know why you picked the music you picked for concerts as well as for sight-reading
-Pick on hard, one medium and one easy piece. OR two mediums and an easy
-Pick one piece they really like, make sure it is the ending piece
-Make sure to pick one slow piece for contrast
-Don't pick all the same style or composer/arranger
-Third time playing the piece, let students form an opinion. They need to play it 3X before they can really decide whether they like it or not. They must be familiar enough with the piece to choose it.
-You pick one of the pieces, they pick two. Guide them in picking only good pieces, let them know they need a slow piece, fast, hard, easy.
-Have two votes one for the required piece and another for the other choices.
-Start working on the hardest piece first, gives you more time to work on it.
-Picking pieces creates ownership
-Any pieces that you over-programmed or that they didn't learn in time for a fall/winter concert could be used at festival
-It is important to have a fourth choice if one of the pieces doesn't work out that is easy and you can throw it together.
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Practicum 6
This practicum my partner and I just observed. The 7th graders had festival that Saturday, so our practicum teacher wanted to work with them. The sixth grade had an assembly which was an excerpt from 'Honk Jr.' the middle school musical. We also didn't have any music for the High School. My partner and I picked out pieces to conduct with the high school for next time and observed.
Practicum 7
Today was a weird mix of good an bad. I felt I did a better job working with the 7th grade and a worse job working with the High School. We sightread with the Seventh grade. That was an interesting experience. I had a piece called Minor Variations. It was aptly named as it was in the style of a theme and variations. I introduced the piece to the students and had them look it over before we started talking about it. We went over what the key and time signatures were and I introduced them to the theme and variations style. Explaining that the first section is the theme and that it reappears in each section slightly altered. Then I sang through the theme as the students air bowed and fingered along, then we played through the theme while I called out rehearsal letters. We did repeated this process for variations one and two as well. Afterward our practicum teacher advised that next time I need to introduce a new form, I should use visual aids or draw on the board, which is a very good idea and something I should have done. The High School experience was a little weird. I was very nervous and kept dropping beats when I was conducting. I was afraid I was going to go over time and steal some from my practicum partner, so after a while I stopped stopping the ensemble when there were problems and conducted in a monotone, without much expression.
Practicum 8
Today went very well overall, we worked with the 7th grade on one of their newer pieces that we had worked on previously. I worked on Minor Variations again, this time focusing on Variations III and IV and the coda. Before playing the variations, I reviewed the form of the piece; theme and variations. There was still some confusion as first, after verbally explaining the form I went to the board and drew a diagram with repeat signs and arrows showing where to go next and where to go after each variation. The students did a very good job of not getting lost and playing with more confidence. Of course, they had spent some time on this piece already, but they were mostly recognizing the theme as it appeared in the different sections, upper strings to celli. At the High School, my practicum partner and I both conducted the pieces we had picked for our Unit Plan project. I had chosen Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. They did a very good job sight-reading it. It is not a very easy piece to play, especially for the first violins. There were two types of first violin parts, one that stayed in first position and one that was more challenging and went into third, labeled the Advanced violin part. It sort of threw me off a little, they had swapped stand order so the first chair violins were at the back of the section. It made me really nervous for a bit to hear all the mistakes up close, but that is a really good practice, also this way students get a feel for what it is like to sit up front and be encouraged to practice their parts and play out. Eine Kleine provided more of a challenge to the students than I thought it would, but that is better than giving them something too easy, which is what I was afraid I had done.
Practicum 9
This was our last day of practicum for this semester : ( In 7th grade I worked on Minor Variations again, starting at the beginning, then seeing how far we could go. We got through the first two variations, then went to the second one to clean up a bit. Unfortunately ran out of time before I could really fix the C in third position in the violins. In 6th grade my practicum partner and I introduced the scales F major and Bb major. I need to look up for myself how to introduce scales. I was trying to do it by finger pattern, but I would forget what note we were on and what the finger pattern was for cello/bass. Even though I didn't feel it went particularly well, I am sure it was an ok introduction. The first time introducing a new concept is going to be confusing anyway, just need to make sure to bring it up again, frequently and through different means and evaluate students knowledge to make sure they understand the concept. In the High School, we just observed.
Methods II
Practicum 1
This first day of practicum we observed our practicum sites; taking note of the various characteristics of the room, as well as the interactions between students and teacher. As in Methods I we are working with both a Middle and High School orchestra program. This time we are spending more time working with the High School students while last semester we mostly observed. I am really impressed with our mentor teacher, because of the disparity between abilities in both the Middle and High Schools, she is essentially teaching two classes at once. The Middle school orchestra is 6-8 grades. The higher level 7th grade and 8th grade students get together to form another ensemble and rehearse in the chamber music room. They are fairly autonomous and self-driven. They actually work the whole time on their set of music so our mentor can work with the lower level 7th and 6th grade students.
Practicum 2
This is our first day working with both groups. I felt it went really well! Each of us had a different topic to introduce/reinforce. I had shifting, which is perfect as my 'string project' was on how to teach shifting. With both groups I had students practice different shifting games that are in or adapted from Phyllis Young's "Playing the String Game". I had the High School students start out by tracing the strings with one finger up and down the fingerboard. Then we looked at what our hand/wrist/arm are doing to be able to shift. Violin/Viola elbow closes thumb moves under neck of instrument and elbow moves under instrument toward center of the body. Cello/Bass elbow opens and thumb moves under the neck and on top of the fingerboard (to play in thumb position) After these games (Air Mail and Polishing the Strings) I had the students play actual notes in third position/fourth position, this part didn't go as smoothly, I should have been clearer in what I wanted the exercise to sound like. The middle school went really well. My middle school lesson was also on shifting. I just had them do the string polishing game. Violins and violas were in guitar position so they could watch what they were doing. I just had them shift up to where the neck meets the body of the instrument (around 4th position). I labeled the nut of the instrument Detroit and had students travel from Detroit to Chicago (4th position). This exercise was great, I could see students picking up fingers as they moved from one city to another. Or moving their fingers but leaving their thumb behind.
Practicum 3
This week both lessons centered around the bow. The High School Orchestra is playing an arrangement of Badinerie by J.S. Bach. My lesson was on how to play with a baroque style bow. This included some background history of the bow and string instruments, how the sound was different, softer because they used gut strings and how the bow was build differently, more similar to a hunting bow with the stick curving out away from the hair, instead of towards it. I explained how sound production would be different as each note would decay right after it is played, and how it is virtually impossible to crescendo at the tip of the bow. I talked about how musicians would use more bow speed instead of weight to get achieve louder dynamics. After the background I had students play a G major scale with lighter bow weight and more bow speed, playing mostly at the middle of the bow. At the middle school I reviewed proper bow hold, had students demonstrate how they hold the bow while I went around and checked. I should have given them something else to do as well, while they were waiting. Some students needed more individual attention than others. I also had students do windshield wipers and rocket ships to get used to the weight of the bow and how the wrist bends as you move from frog to tip.
Practicum 4
This week we did sectionals in both High School and Middle School. I got to work with the lower strings! I was really excited about this because I feel that lower strings is where my knowledge is weakest and I wanted to see how I would do with them. The High School Bassist is really good, he has taken private lessons in the past and the music is rather easy for him. The cellos need some work. I get the impression that they aren't always reading the notes correctly, or they are just watching each other to determine what they should play. There were a couple times I caught them playing on the wrong strings altogether. They are missing the Bb and Eb's and are playing rather timidly. I reminded them how important they are to the overall sound of the orchestra. I introduced them to the sound pyramid, which I think is mostly a band concept, but they needed to hear it. There should be a good foundation in the bass, slightly less middle voices and just a little bit of the really high voices to give the group a good balance. I imitated their sound and described the type of sound I wanted them to produce as like warm caramel. They did not always play together, explained how it sounds like stuttering. When you create music, you are sharing a message with your audience everyone needs to play together so the message is clear. The middle school went reasonably well. I was also working with the lower strings. This time I ended up talking more than I should have and the students did not have the opportunity to get as many repetitions in. I did catch the basses have an odd sort of hand position. I do not remember them doing this even the previous week, but their fingers were at odd angles to the neck of the instrument. The fingers should be curved and perpendicular to the neck of the instrument. They had similar problems as the high school when it came to playing together. We worked on the articulation and accents of the passage in Afterburn by Brian Balmages. In methods class we talked in depth about the different types of school scheduling. We asked our practicum teacher and discovered that the High School functions with trimester schedule and the Middle School uses a standard schedule.
Practicum 5
This week we did sectionals again, this time I had the first violins in both High School and Middle School. The first instrument I learned was violin, I played through elementary and middle school until my sophomore year of High School when I switched to viola, so I was fairly confident that I would be able to lead the violin sectionals with no problem. It went pretty well, but not as good as I anticipated. There were a couple times where I had moments reading and deciphering treble clef, but mostly what fingerings would work best. Definitely made sure to physically practice the part before next practicum. There were a couple students who were just faking through the opening passage of Charlie Brown Christmas, especially since it is mostly in third position. I gave one student some alternate fingerings to use until they nailed down the third position passage. There was a definite lack of energy in the group as a whole, I am going to try some sort of fun activity at the beginning of sectionals to sort of warm everyone up. I was thinking of having students improvise or give them a chance to figure out the melody to a pop song they like, then work on Charlie Brown. I was really impressed by how well they could all play in tune. The middle school went much better, there was a change in the schedule that was a surprise to us and our teacher so we got there a little late. : / It was kinda nice not to have a lot of extra time before class, no time to be nervous, just go and teach. I worked on Afterburn with the first violins and it went really well, talked about how to subdivide and got through most of the piece. They had a really good energy, were really upbeat and focused on the task at hand.
Practicum 6
This week we did sectionals with the same groups from last week, so I had the first violins again. The difference between this week and last week was like night and day. I felt that I really connected with the students, particularly at the High School. They spoke without being too chatty and actually smiled or laughed when I tried to make a joke. I just felt much more comfortable and confident in front of them. They really have the Charlie Brown Christmas music down, for the most part, so I chose to spend the last five minutes on improvisation. I tried to identify with them, that it can be scary when you aren't used to it. I explained how I never really had to improvise until I got to college and I still don't feel comfortable playing in front of people. I explained how I think of improvising as figuring out a tune or song that you already know and altering it so that it becomes a completely new song that is your own. I also showed them how you can improvise on a scale, and how a descending D major scale with a different rhythm becomes Joy To The World. Lastly I had the students improvise at the same time, so they wouldn't be put on the spot or worry about others hearing them. At the middle school we worked more on the lyrical section of Afterburn, there were some problems feeling the beat and staying together. There were also intonation problems between the f natural on the E string and G on the D string and D on the A string. The G's and D's were a little too low because their first fingers are lower than they are used to. There was a lot of long tones and matching pitch to get those notes in tune. To help students feel the beat I had them subdivide the half notes and dotted half notes into quarter notes. This was particularly challenging for some students but it really helped them play more together.
Practicum 7
We had sectionals again this week, but we switched up the groups a little bit. I ended up with the second violins in both the Middle and High School. At the high school we worked on Charlie Brown some more. They were playing pretty well in tune, but rather timidly. I asked them why they were so quiet when they had the melody, they are actually playing that part in third position (which is awesome) but were feeling nervous about it. I had them play it again, but with their music turned around so they couldn't see it. They played it perfectly from memory. I explained that after you really get to know a piece, the sheet music becomes more of a guide, it's not like you are reading the notes for the first time every time. At the middle school, we had limited sectional space so we combined with the viola sectional. It was difficult to keep everyone focused and address the needs of each group. It went pretty well though, and it was a lot of fun!