Reflection #9

What: During the process of creating this lesson I learned that writing lesson plans is much easier than writing lyrics. I have always loved music and have known of the great power that music can have in teaching. I learned from the presentation that you should always have a back up plan incase what I am doing doesn’t work. The only good thing I can say about our presentation is that we were the only group that did the beat and the rhythm separate as a class before we mixed them as a class.

So What: I have seen the importance of whole to part. I want to use music as much as possible in my classroom. I am curies to see how often our cooperating teacher will use music in her class. I need to start using music to teach write off the bat. Like anything else if I don’t use it now it will be harder to use later on.

Now What: In order to get better at writing lyrics and teaching music I need to practice and use it as much as possible and I need to start now. I hope to expose my classroom students and my own children to many of the arts. My own children listen to classical music and watch musicals. I need to sing with them much more than I do. I need to use every opportunity I can to introduce children to all types of music.

#8 Music

What: For me music is the spice of life. It is what gives life flavor, emotion and feelings. As the book states “Music is totally integrated into our lives. Joggers run with iPods, music is piped throughout airports, and CD players are basic car equipment.” In my home each of my children have their own music device, it’s sometimes hard to get anyone’s attention with those ear buds in. I am proud to say that my 16 year old has just about every genre, including classical. When I have a test I listen to classical music on my way to school. The reason that music should be a part of every child’s education is because of how it makes the brain work. Music brings the right and left brain together. Music also helps different hemispheres of the brain to overlap. In short music works the entire brain and can help to rewire it. Also music can help bring cultures together in the classroom. We had our primary program in church today. About six weeks ago a family in our ward adopted twins from Africa. They speak no English but they were able to sing the primary songs. It was wonderful to watch. No art form has more power to cognitively challenge and emotionally engage than music (Creating Meaning).

So What: Of the small knowledge that I have of music integration the things that I do plan to do in my future class are play classical music in my room before class starts and work closely with the music specialist in my school.

By playing classical music as the students are coming in, the music can create a mood of calm and an environment ready for learning. I once had a teacher that would play soft music in the background while he taught. When we had a test he would have us lay our heads on the desks and listen to the music, as he gave a review. We would then take the test with the same music softly playing in the background.

In working closely with the music specialist I can help integrate the things that she is teaching and she can help integrate the things that I am teaching.

Now What: To help prepare myself for music integration in the classroom I first hope that the three cooperating teachers I get to work with will use music so I can learn from watching them. I will take as many music integration classes as I can and I will practice on my own children. I think the most important thing I learned this week in class was how to teach a song to children. They do it completely wrong in primary. They always teach the children by having them repeat and say the words after the chorister. I actually hope I will get called to be the primary chorister now. I am also exited to use the resources that were shown to use on the website.

Reflection #7 Creative Dance Wk #2

What: Nothing has really changed about my feelings or knowledge about creative dance in the classroom. I took The Creative Dance for Elementary Students class a year ago. I know that creative dance can be used for any subject and any space. I know that creative dance, if done correctly, can reinforce new material and we need to be careful and not turn creative dance into drama. If not done correctly they may seem very similar or even the same, but they are different and bring different aspects to a lesson.

So What: One of the things I will take with me from this experience is that you need to look closely at the core. Don’t just look at dance or science, but look at both. How can you cover objectives in multiple subjects at one time? My favorite lesson was the one that Crissa, Ashley and Jason did on germs. They covered both science and dance using appropriate language for both. The activities were fun and engaging and really helped us remember haw germs can spread.

Only one of the lessons had music. I feel very strongly that music is an important part of creative dance. Music can help with the mood and feeling of the dance. It can help students learn about motion, emotion and counting. Music can help enrich the experience.

Now What: When starting out in the classroom I will start with the basic fundamentals of dance and dance language. So when I say something like “explode small and low” the students will understand what is being asked of them. Then as the students dance vocabulary increases we can more effectively integrate dance into other core curriculum. I may at times read strait from the lesson but as I become more comfortable with my lessons and abilities I won’t need to read. With practice I know that I can become not just comfortable but proficient with dance integration. I will also buy my own copy of Dee Winterton’s DVD Moving to Learn. He was amazing. I hope to use dance in my student teaching so I can start to get use to it now.

# 6 Creative Dance Wk 1

I cant believe I forgot to blog yesterday. I was so busy with conference, family in town and working on a key assignment for another class that it slipped my mind. I woke up at 2:30 this morning in a panic. Creative dance is my favorite of the arts. I have seen first hand how it can change a persons understanding including my self. When I had EDEL3400 we took a test at the biggng of the year on all the elements of dance. I bomb it so the teacher let any of us that had scored below a 60 something take it again. This time I made up a dance that I could do sitting down to help me remember everything from the test. This time I passed with flying colors.

What: When I first took the Dance for Elementary Teacher EDEL 3400. I thought it would be doing specific dance steps that the teacher showed the students. I was surprised and scared to learn that the teacher is a facilitator and the students use their own creativity and problem solving skills to create their own dance. That is exactly why creative dance is so important. It helps the students to develop the skills of problem solving, working together, it gets their creative juices flowing and helps them to more deeply understand the concepts being taught.

So What: In my preparation for next week I will get ideas from both our creative arts book and my dance for elementary teacher’s books. I will find a picture book that works well with science. Math and Science can sometimes be the hardest concepts to grasp, but when I child uses all their senses including touch and movement the ideas can penetrate more deeply. For field work it will be a little more difficult because we don’t know what the teacher wants us to do. But thank goodness creative dance just like all the other arts can be used for any subject and any grade.

Now What: To incorporate this knowledge and skill into practice I will first practice on my own children and their friends. My nine year old and twelve year old are always brutally honest with me. I love practicing on them. I also ask them what kind of things their teachers are doing with them. Finally I will ask my corporative teacher what kind of things has worked for her.