Teaching Notes, 20091207

Yay! It's a class one week after the previous class. With only two more classes before the break, I really wanted to get into some more holiday songs while building on things from the last few classes.

Originally, I wanted to open with "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth", but it turns out that 2nd graders aren't losing their first teeth, let alone their two front top teeth. (For the record, I lost my first tooth in 3rd grade, and it took someone hitting me in the mouth for that to happen.) And so, I had to change things around on the fly, and that, for better or worse, set the tone for the whole class.

Everybody Oughta Know	Use as an entrance song.
Again, I found myself holding the door for both classes, so students were already milling around and fighting for mats. If there's a system that the students have in determining the "best" mat (irrespective of the location of their friends), I sure haven't figured it out. Anyhow, I ended up singing Everybody with people half-seated, half standing, which wasn't the best-organized start. While students remembered the song, their energy was best described as distracted. I had to remind students that at the end of the song everyone was to sing, and so we iterated over the song about 2-3 times.
Let It Snow	Teach the song from scratch, by rote
I transitioned to this song mostly by remarking about how cold it was (it was close to freezing, and there was a big rainstorm the other night), and how I was hoping for snow. Many students chimed in on how there was indeed snow on the ground where they lived or where they were over the weekend. I sang the song went through, and then started to have them repeat each line individually. I goofed up one of the lines ("and since we've got no place to go") by giving "and" and "since" eighth notes, which threw off the meter of the song. For the first class, I couldn't come up with a good substitute, and so I fumbled through that line each time. :( Students seemed to know the song once I sang "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow". The students seemed comfortable enough such that I sang the second stanza, but I didn't teach them it; instead, after 3 lines of the second stanza, I motioned to the students to sing "Let it Snow" with me, which they did.
Sleigh Bells	Pass out bells, have students sing and play bells at the same time
I asked the class what instrument they associated with snow, and a few suggested bells, fortunately, as I had a bin of wrist-sized sleigh bell bands handy. I passed them out while singing the first stanza of Let It Snow again. Montclaire's music room is still amazingly well-stocked (especially for a school that relies on MFM for music instructors) and there were enough sleigh bells for everyone. With the bells in hand, I had students shake them for a bit, and then I had them try to cover up the metal balls as much as they could, and then give them another shake. I then had the students characterize the difference that they observed, and we discussed the importance of letting them ring unabated, unheld. I tried to make the point that sound needed space, and I then tried to tie in how people, in order to sing, also needed space, and that meant sitting up when singing, not slouching down. I then had the students sing Let It Snow one more time, while shaking the bells during the 4th line of each stanza. I pretty much sang the first three lines of the second stanza solo.
Austrian Yodeler	Sing, with instruments!
I asked the students what song regarding snow (and lots of it) was sung during the last class, and only a few made the connection to the Austrian Yodeler (avalanche -> snow, etc.). Anyhow, I went ahead and had the students sing the song, with sleigh bells as the sound that interrupted the yodeler. After singing the song with bells once through, I had about 1/3rd of the class give up their sleigh bells for tambourines, and then we added tambourines to the song. After another time through, we replaced 1/2 of the remaining sleigh bells with shakers, and then we sang the song with all 3 instruments. Then, we proceeded to add back the original three interruptors from last week (avalanche, grizzly bear, Santa Claus), and the kids really had a blast. I kept one set of sleigh bells which I always used to kick off the rash of instruments, and that seemed to help each time.
Zemer Atik	Review song, dance it one time through, and then add the hand connections
Students mostly remembered the steps from the previous class, and so going through the song with the music was pretty good. This week, however, the students seemed a little more rowdy that the previous week, and students started to crash into each other or slip on the mats during the dance. I tried to use the hand connections to keep the circle mostly sane on the outside. (Plus, it's really part of the dance.) The first class was able to use the hand motions somewhat successfully, but the second class mostly broke down after a while. I think I was trying to also rush in the hand connections for the second class, thinking that I wouldn't have time to do anything else, and I really wanted to give it a shot, even though the class attention span wasn't at its greatest.
Tuwe Tuwe	Teach song
I asked the students what language they thought Zemer Atik was sung in - after several guesses, the first class correctly guessed Hebrew, while the second class was unable to guess an answer at all. I talked very briefly about Hebrew, Israel, and Hannukah, and then I quickly moved onto Kwanzaa, which I used to introduce Tuwe Tuwe, admittedly not really a Kwanzaa song, but yet something that worked well last year and is African. Teaching the song this year, however, did not seem as successful. I don't know if the students already knew it and were bored, or if again I was rushing things. But it certainly didn't seem like students were picking up the song as well as I had hoped, and they seemed somewhat disinterested. I plan on trying it again the following week, and ultimately I was hoping to use this as a round later in the year.

I used Let It Snow as a very brief exit song, but in both classes I was distracted and only sang the song once through.

I really need to have the students march in to song from the very beginning, and so I need to remember to ask a student to hold the door open for the rest of the class. That way, I can stay in front of the students as they enter. It's probably a good idea also to tell the students that (1) we are marching in, and (2) whatever mat you end up with is yours, not the one across the room.

Again, there were a lot of things that I had planned but did not get to, including the 12 Days of Christmas, Fish/Chips/Vinegar, Rudolph, and Up on the Housetop. I'm really hoping that Tuwe Tuwe will work out better the next week.

Teaching Notes, 20091130

We had another off week thanks to Thanksgiving, and so we had classes after another two week break. I wanted to build on many of the songs and topics we covered during the last class.

Over the River and Through the Wood	Use as an entrance song. Quickly review, add the 2nd verse.
Students remembered the song from two weeks ago very easily. However, the 2nd stanza didn't go as well as I had hoped. I couldn't tell if the students were just bored of the song or if I was rushing the instruction. I did try to include some illustrative motion for the 2nd verse, but I don't think certain parts (marching in 1/2 time for "we seem to go extremely slow") came as easily as the 1st verse did. I also had an interruption of momentum to start the class; the first class sat down while I was singing the song, and I had to stop to tell them to keep marching, and the second class sat down before any song started as I had to hold the door. I'll use this song again perhaps as an exit song during the last class before the holidays.
Austrian Yodeler	Teach the song from scratch, include 3 verses.
One some of the students knew the song (mostly from my classes last year), and so I taught the song from scratch, using avalanche and grizzly bear as the first two items. Then, I threw in Santa for good measure, which gave the kids a nice chuckle. "How many Ho's should we say for Santa," asked one student. This was a nice exercise to get the students still moving a little bit. And, it also set me up nicely for the next exercise...
Do Re Mi Fa Sol	Have students find Do from "Austrian Yodeler", and walk them up the scale
With the song ending in a yodel on Do, it was easy to jump (literally) back into the Do Re Mi exercise that we did two weeks ago. This time, I put out triplets of three differently colored stools at different locations in the classroom, and I had the students jump at Do, Re, Mi. I placed a different stool at Mi, and then I went up two more steps to Sol. Sol got a stool as well, and as I jumped around the notes, students sang the notes. Probably about half of the students (maybe a little less) were also trying to follow pitch upwards/downwards depending on which direction I was moving. I also took the time to introduce a jump by jumping the arpeggio (Do-Mi-Sol), although I didn't tell them what an arpeggio was. Instead, I mentioned that these notes are more important than the others, but I did not explain why. I'm hoping the alternating stools are going to also pay off when we do notes on a staff.
Zemer Atik	Teach steps of dance, then apply to music
Yay - this was the first time I had the students engage in significant motion in the middle of the class. I spent a decent amount of time walking the students through the initial steps, although for the first class, I flubbed the introduction a little by having the students take 4 steps instead of 5 (and then a 6th). No matter, students were able to figure out the pattern. I didn't bother trying to get the students to put one hand in front and one hand in back while they marched in a circle - I figured that that would have been too difficult. The students were able to learn the motions leading into the middle of the circle very easily as well. About half of the students knew how to snap, and the others either just motioned the arms, or clapped. There were a few students who took very large steps into the middle in an effort to crash, and so I had to remind people not to overextend themselves. There were also some students who were slipping on the mats, as we had to cross them to get in/out of the middle, and so I had to caution the students about slipping as well. Zemer Atik was pretty successful. Students seemed to enjoy the song/dance greatly. I used a recording from David and the High Spirit which I downloaded off of iTunes, but it was slower than the one that was used to teach me the song. I actually prepared faster versions (about 5% faster and 10% faster) versions of the same song, but I didn't get to use them. Teaching the dance and going through the song twice (a 2:06 recording) took about 8 minutes of class time.
Victor Vito	Exit Song - sing first stanza, and get the class marching to line up to leave
Victor Vito is a great exit song; heck, it's a great song in general. I had the 2nd class march in the wrong way (oops) while doing the mat return. I still need a good system for that for exiting the class through the back door. In both classes, I was really short on time, so I only went through 3 verses, and shortcutted to "youuuuuuu!"

I was really happy that I was finally able to get a motion activity into the middle of class. However, there were a ton of things that I wanted to do, including teach Tuwe Tuwe (round, sort of a lead into Kwanzaa), and I didn't even have to use any 5 fat turkey interjections for a minute or two. I also had Fish/Chips/Vinegar in my back pocket, which I was going to record and play back. I even had upon the housetop if we really needed it ready.

Teaching Notes, 20091116

Because of an illness, I had to cancel my class for the previous week. As a result, I was left with only one class before Thanksgiving.

Over the River and Through the Wood	Use as an entrance song. Immerse students and have them sing it.
I sang the song as I led the students into the class. After singing it twice through, I added some minor movements to the song, particularly for "the horse knows the way" (motion riding a horse), "oh how the wind" (sign wind), "stings the toes" (point to the toes) and "nips the nose" (point to the nose). I stopped the marching in order to teach the motions, but then I had the students re-march in a circle after teaching the motions. The students seemed to learn the song reasonably well; most knew the melody but not many of the words coming in. Originally, I was hoping to teach both phrases, but it was clear that it would have taken multiple weeks to do it. I could try teaching the other half for the next class.
Do Re Mi	Have students understand the concept of "Do" as the primary tone of a song
Before the class started, I placed stools all around the class. After finishing up "Over the River" (which ends with the word "Go"), I took a stool, pointed to it and said "Go" with the same pitch that we used for the song. I then had the class sing "Go" whenever I jumped right behind the stool. I then changed "Go" to "Do", and then talked about how Do was in every song, and usually the last note of the song. Most of the class was able to match pitch but only after I moved up the pitch a few steps, which was a nice segue into a moveable Do. I then added Re and Mi, and then danced around Do, Re, and Mi while having the students watch and sing on command. Some students asked about Fa (and some just sang Fa and the other pitches), so adding the others may be reasonably easy when it's time.
5 Fat Turkeys	Immerse the students into the song, with hand motions
I used this song last year, and so I was hoping for a quick review of the song. Ideally, I wanted this to be a quick 1- or 2- minute break between other songs. Just like last year, hand motions really help.
Hey Ho, Fall is Here Round	Review a 2-way "round", then try a 4-way round.
Most (but not all) students remembered the round attempt from the last time. Reviewing the song (I had the lyrics on the board again) was easy, and then I split the class in two again for a 2-way round. I recorded the 2-way round twice for each class. Then, I split the class into quarters, and tried (and recorded) a 4-way round. What I noticed was that in the 2-way or 4-way round, the later groups more often than not tried to outsing the previous groups, and so their sounds tended to drown out the other groups. They also tended to sing a bit faster (I told students to watch their leaders, not me, even though I was trying to gesture a steady beat) than other groups, and that made the end of the rounds a bit muddy. Still, there were times in the recordings when you could really hear multiple parts fit well. Knowing that it's unlikely to always get an even number of students for each group, I need to probably put the extra students in the earlier groups. For the second class, I forgot to illustrate that going in a circle in the 4-way round was called a "round". Whoops.
5 Fat Turkeys	Interject the song one more time.
Again, this was a nice distraction and transition to the next song.
Things That I Am Thankful For	Dive right into the song; teach by rote, then zipper it.
I didn't have a lot of time left by the time I got to this song, so I dove right into it. A few students knew the song, but enough didn't such that I had to teach the song phrase by phrase in the limited time I had. Afterwards, I talked a little about the meaning/history of Thanksgiving, and then asked students what they were thankful for. The first class gave straightforward answers about family, friends, pets, all of which I could also teach by sign. The second class offered a bunch of pets which I had to transform into family. I wrote people's suggestions (after my filtering) on the board, and so then we all zippered them into the song.
Everybody Oughta Know	Exit song; use the suggestions from Things I Am Thankful For
Singing a zipperable song after a zipper song is almost too easy. :)

I still haven't been able to mix in great motion in the middle of a class yet, and so hopefully soon I'll be able to do that in a later class. I also am still looking to add instruments to known songs. I do hope to build on Do-Re-Mi throughout the year.

Teaching Notes, 20091102

I was hoping to extend the previous class' songs right off the bat, and so I didn't have a lot of room for new material. I've been trying this time around to pipeline a lot more and have more recurring topics/themes/songs throughout the year, and so bits and pieces of the year's lesson plans are coming together, albeit slowly.

Everybody Oughta Know	Use as an entrance song. Immerse students and have them sing it
Both classes enter from the back door, and so I sang the song as I walked the students into the class. The students who I had last year clearly knew the song, but the others didn't quite know what to do with it, as I wasn't teaching by rote this time around. After sitting the students down in the circle, I proceeded to teach the students the song, noting that the 2nd to last phrase is not echoed. It took a while in both classes to get the students in general to sing loudly, and I hope they picked up the song well.
Name Clapping/Rhythm	Group names on the whiteboard by rhythm
I pre-wrote the students' names on the whiteboard, arranging them in 1- 2- and 3- syllable groups. I also split up the 2- and 3- syllable groups by where the accented syllable was, and I asked the students to figure out why names were split out in the way they were. I used flat lines (ta) to symbolize the syllable, and then used a carat to note the accent. I then had a student come up to the board and draw out my name ("Mr. Chen"). Interestingly, for the 2-syllable names with the accent on the second syllable (rare), those students who had those names understood immediately why their name was singled out.
Seasons (Hey Ho...)	Review, do a 1-pass round
The students remembered the song pretty well. I split the class in two, and had one person from each group be the leader. The leaders did reasonably well, although I had to remind them to sing loudly, and I also had to remind the students to follow their own leader. I started the second class at the 3rd verse instead of the 2nd, and it took a few tries before students got the hang of it. I told them that we'd record the attempt the next time, and I hope to split the class in 3 or 4 parts. To help students focus on singing with their leader, I had prewritten the words to the song on the board.
Minor/Major exploration	Recall Halloween songs in minor; experiment with minor songs in major and vice versa
I never got around to this for either class, but this would have been an experimentation where we took songs that were minor and flipped them to major. We'd do the same thing in reverse for other songs.
Fresh from the Kitchen	Teach song quickly, run through the class names.
I never got through this either. Fortunately, I had forgotten the nametags for one of the classes, so this would have been a little difficult.
Victor Vito (Laurie Berkner)	Dive right into the song; teach by rote.
I sang the first half of the song, then taught that half by rote. I also had them clap twice after "beans" and "rice", which gave the students something to do and think about during the song. While teaching the song, I asked the students if they knew what a rutabaga was. I also asked the teacher, and only one of the two teachers knew. As for collard greens, students weren't sure what they looked like, but they were sure they were green. The second half of the song is of course really easy teach. During the first class, we sang it completely seated. During the second class, after teaching the first two iterations of the song (well, the students were only immersed into the 2nd iteration), we got up and marched to the song, which made it a lot more appealing to the students. This was a serious hit, even for those students who had never heard the song before. Because we were marching, I had the students march into a line at the end of the song so that I could sing "to eat some spaghetti with youuuuuuu!" to the students; that worked out really well as a way to have the class exit.

I had the first class exit to "Everybody ought to know", which was a little awkward; exiting to Victor Vito was a lot better. I also had Austrian Yodeler with instruments planned, as I did want to get instruments into the class soon.

Teaching Notes, 20091019

We're back! This year, I had hoped to teach at Nesbit where my son would eventually attend, but MFM and Nesbit couldn't complete the arrangement, and so I returned to Montclaire. This year, I was assigned to two 2nd grade classes, which mean that I have the opportunity to teach some of the same students that I had last year.

For this first class, I wanted to spend some time learning some of the students' name, but I also wanted to cover as much Halloween material as I could, as next Monday there is no class as a result of a teacher training day (and therefore no school).

I closed the class with "Goodbye, Everybody", and I had the second class put their mats away. However, the second class teacher wanted the students to exit through the back door (instead of through the GLC), and so there was a bit of a traffic problem. I'll likely have to do something different for each class' end.

Hello, Everybody	Use as an entrance song.
I wasn't planning on using this song, but the 2nd class teacher had all of the students line up outside the door before letting any of the students in; this provided a natural opportunity to lead the students in in song, and I plan on taking advantage of that pattern in the future. I ended up just singing the song while marching the children in a circle, and some followed along just fine. I didn't use the song in the first class, as the students sprayed into the class all at once.
Name Clapping	Have each student say their name, and then have the whole class repeat the naming, clapping at each syllable.
I used this as a way to learn names (and hear how the students pronounced them). However, during the following class, I intend on writing out names and their Kodaly rhythms on the board as a way of introducing written rhythms.
Seasons (Hey Ho...)	Teach quickly by echo.
This was more of a warmup song, although I spent longer than I had hoped teaching the song. I intend on using this tune a few different times - for two weeks at the start of each season (different lyrics!) as well as doing some variations on it, such as doing rounds.
Five Little Pumpkins	Teach by echo/rote, emphasize signs.
A number of students knew this song (it wasn't from me!), and so I was able to cover this song faster than others. I did try to show the signs for 1,2,3,4,5, and also gestures for late, etc. The students seemed to understand the signs quickly. I also covered ASL "3" for a bit, since that's always new to some students.
Five Little Pumpkins	Teach by echo/rote, emphasize signs.
A number of students knew this song (it wasn't from me!), and so I was able to cover this song faster than others. I did try to show the signs for 1,2,3,4,5, and also gestures for late, etc. The students seemed to understand the signs quickly. I also covered ASL "3" for a bit, since that's always new to some students.
Ghost Chant	Teach the chant, work on dynamics.
I used the fact that Halloween is supposed to be scary as a way to introduce this exercise. Before teaching the chant, I also sang a ghost howl, which was nothing more than the "oooooo" from "Ghost of Tom", which I was going to cover later. The chant, is pretty simple: ghost so scary ghost so white don't scare _____ on Halloween night! I substituted various student names in there. The first few times, we whispered and crept slightly to the middle of the circle, but that wasn't very scary. So, when it was time to say a student's name, I had them shout (moderately) the name, and students obliged by shouting at the student. Maybe that was a little shocking for some, but most seemed to enjoy it. One student, when it was clear I was about to use her name, quickly asked not to be chosen, so I quickly skipped her. I tried to emphasize the changing dynamics, and how it was so important to be quiet for the last line even though we shouted the name.
Stirring Our Brew	Teach the song standing, with arm motion, and then add a loud "boo!". Then, march during the tiptoeing. Then, have students say "boo" only on command.
Singing the song, even with moving around an imaginary spoon in a cauldron wasn't terribly interesting to a lot of students, even with a different "oooooo" in the song. Adding the tiptoeing made things a little more fun, but the captivating part was having the students watch me for a signal for "boo". The first class was able to watch me successfully only after two tries. The second class took about 6 tries before they all consistently waited for me before shouting "boo!". I had hoped to use instruments for the song, but I never got around to it, as I was running out of time.
Halloween Surprise	Teach the song, also with motions.
This song was probably too easy for the students, although it was a nice quieter change from the commotion caused by the "boo!" from Stirring. I pretended to hug a big fat pumpkin, asked the students to guess what I was doing, and then proceeded to sing the song. While this was picked up quickly, the students still seemed to have fun.
Ghost of Tom	Immerse the students right into the song, and then immediately change the name. Introduce staccato with the last line of the song.
I only had time to do this with the first class (a change from last year), which in hindsight was too bad, since the first class probably enjoyed this more than the last song (below). Having sung "ooooooooo" earlier made this really easy to teach. I did try to get the students to sing the last line very short, and I had them notice the texture difference between that line and the 2nd line (legato).
Jingle Bells Halloween style	Sing the song once through, then teach by rote.
The song had the following lyrics: dashing through the streets in costumes bright as day to each house we go laughing all the way halloween is here making sprits bright what fun it is to come and sing our scary songs tonight oh, trick or treat, trick or treat, trick or treat we say try to get the treats before the ghosts take us away! trick or treat, trick or treat, trick or treat we say if you don't have treat for us we'll never go away! The students had fun, but there wasn't a lot of time for them to learn the song all that well, and by the time I hit the chorus, my voice was really starting to crack.

Teaching Notes, 20090605

Originally, I was planning on two more lessons to end the year - 5/22 and 5/29. However, around 5/22, I was ill, and so I had to cancel my class. Then, 5/29 turned out to be a day off for the children (affecting the entire Cupertino school district). I wanted to get one more class in, so I tried to cover as much as I could during the following Friday, which was also the last full Friday day of classes for the students.

Adding to the scheduling fun was the fact that the second class had a rehearsal for their spring show (in which I wasn't really involved), and so their class was moved until right after lunch. I discovered that that really meant slightly less than :30, as there's a little bit of time overhead spent collecting the children from lunch.

I wanted to get in solo experience for everyone, and so the main focus was going to be the drumming. But, I did want to provide some last inspiration to the students to get them to sing to anything.

It's a Very Good Day	Review song, but also focus on the middle portion ("I can feel the sun..")
I used "It's a Very Good Day" plenty of times in class, and usually while passing out instruments during the 2nd half of the year. This time, I did spend time passing out instruments (see the next section), but in the middle of passing out the drums, I stopped to teach them the middle of "It's A Very Good Day". I also noted how outside wasn't really sunny as the lyrics suggested, so I changed them to "It's a very good day for running through the clouds". I also noted that if it were rainy, then we'd sing about playing in the rain. Asking "why?" seemed to always garner the right response given what was sung. I kept the song alive enough to pass out instruments to all of the students.
Drums and other Rhythm Instruments	Pass out drums (djembe), tambourines, rhythm sticks, shakers, hand drums, guiros. Have students on the djembe take solos while the rest of the class played 4 beats on, 4 beats off (during the solo). Rotate students so that everyone gets solo time.
I tried to space out each type of instrument evenly enough so that everyone got a chance to play each instrument. However, neither class had an even 20 students, so this was difficult to achieve. I made sure however, that everyone at least got solo time, which meant introducing a 5th djembe when necessary. I had the students practice the 4-on, 4-off again and it took just a little bit of time to achieve the good silent 4-beat rest. The students then got their chance at the solos, and some students really had a lot of fun with them; it was their time for their own self-expression, even if it was only for 4 beats at a time. One student didn't play much (not sure why), but I used that as an illustration of a different kind of solo, where the student was resting in their own way.
My Bonnie	Review My Bonnie, teach various ways to sing it
Here was my chance to encourage students to sing anything to tunes they recognized. At this point, they really knew the tune of My Bonnie, and they were eager to play any game involving the song. But, instead, I wanted them to explore other ways of singing the song: My kitty's gone lost in the branches/My kitty's way up in the tree My kitty's gone lost in the branches/Who'll bring back my kitty to me? or... My kitty likes eating my ice cream/My kitty like ice cream you see My kitty likes eating my ice cream/Oh, bring back my ice cream to me. I purposely wore a t-shirt with a cat eating ice cream during the class, and I wanted to make the point that you could create lyrics out of anything. The chorus of course is fully dependent on the last line, and the students were able to figure out what the chorus was by the the time we were singing about ice cream. Then, I pulled out this one: Who stole the last chocolate chip cookie?/The cookie jar's empty you see Who stole the last chocolate chip cookie/Oh bring back my cookies to me. That of course provided a very easy transition to the next exercise.
Who Stole The Cookie From the Cookie Jar	Play the game, but enforce the beat; send students who miss the beat to the center as cookies.
Like before, I started the chant, but then I told the class (in beat) If you miss a name If you miss a beat Then you will be a cookie in the Cookie jar Those lines of course, came straight from my own elementary school music teacher. To help out the students, I had them again choose the name of the student next to them, so that they didn't have to choose a name out of thin air. It also ensured that everyone got a chance. The students for the first 3rd of the circle did a pretty good job at keeping the beat, but as the game went on, we started getting cookies in the jar. I tried to be lenient, saving the cookie jar for the most egregious offenders; if students were early on the beat, they were saved from the jar. The students really had a fun time with this, and none felt they were singled out when they went into the jar. My jar had no limits, unlike other variants where the jar usually held only the most recent beat-offender. I only had time in the first class to do this.
The Longer, The Faster	Play the game.
This was basically a treat for the students as their last activity, as this was always a big winner. I think the hardest part was making sure that everyone got picked; it was usually the boys, particularly in the second class, who tended to pick only boys, while everyone else did a better job distributing the selections. This worked out well as a last event.

The first class actually had a minute left before they were going to join the second class in their spring show rehearsal, so we decided to sing Old King Glory On The Mountain while holding hands and walking to the door. While the first class probably struggled more with focus over the year and the teacher had to shut the class down early, this time I think they sensed that this was the last music class, and so during the last parts of the class this day, they were pretty well focused. The teacher also allowed more latitude that she normally did with the giggling.

I'm going to miss teaching the classes; they were both wonderful, and I felt that they really did grow musically over the course of the year. The second class gave me a thank-you book that they constructed, which was very heartwarming. I don't know if I'll be at Montclaire again next year, as I'm still hoping to teach closer to home at Nesbit in Belmont, but Montclaire was indeed a wonderful place to teach, and probably had the better stocked music rooms in the Bay Area.

Teaching Notes, 20090515

Today is my 3rd to last class, and I'm already trying to pack in things I missed doing this year. One of those was teaching a little more music theory, particularly in getting them to read music.

Wake Up You Lazybones	Review song, march and sing, have students follow
This is turning out to be one of the more fun and longer warmups. Students didn't remember the song very well - when I sang the first line, only a few echoed the followup, and so I spent a little longer than usual just going over the song. Then, when we were marching to the song, I varied the "Cows are lost" part in tempo, and watched as some students jumped the gun on the next parts, including the tap on the ground. I also tried to spend just a little bit of time illustrating how one can put unusual words/phrases to songs.
Tone Bells	Pass out tone bells while singing Caanan Land (and variations). Review usage, go into scales, and teach numbered notes/tones
This was the big thing for the day. I passed out the tone bells while singing Caanan Land, interjecting verses that talked about not playing the bells until everyone had them; that seemed to be pretty effective, as it caught some students off guard. For the first class, I had to arrange the class into groups of three and two, but initially I made the mistake of not lining up the bells with the right number of people; for instance, I started out with three students with the lower E, but I only had two E bells. I set up a C scale with the students, and then had them play one note at a time, two or three students at a time in unison. I had them play up the scale, after which we talked about the tones and the steps (very briefly). I then had them play down the scale. Each tone was numbered from 1 to 8, with the lower C being 1. I then showed them a list of numbers, 1 through 8, and then a list 8 through 1, and I had the student repeat their scales until they would play a number (spoken and pointed to on the board) very quickly after being prompted. I then had the two "C" tones play, and I tried to explain how they were the same, with the "8" just being higher. I'm not so sure if the concept of the octave really sunk in, as students still thought they were the same note. I even tried singing low to get them to octave-match me, but it didn't work, and resulting in a lot of low singing by the kids. That was amusing. Eventually, I had the 8's and 7's move; during the first class, I had the 8's use additional C/B, while I had the 7's use additional D and F tones, while for the second class, I had the 8's just take their high C's to 1, and the 7's traded their B's for D's. I had prewritten a number of lines: 5553135424531 16416443534 1155665,4433221 Of course, those were "Wake Up", "Aloha Kakahiaka", and "Twinkle Twinkle". I had the students play a line, and I asked them if they knew what it was. No one got the first two, even after playing the lines several times. Some guesses for the first one was "Twinkle Twinkle", amusingly. For the second line, some guessed "Wake Up", even though I didn't think it resembled the song. The students seemed to be familiar with the tunes, but I couldn't really tell if they were just excited to play the Name That Tune game. Many students were able to guess "Twinkle Twinkle". I asked whether or not the song sounded like anything else, and neither class came up anything else (Baa Baa Black Sheep, ABC). I ended up singing both for both classes while having them play as I pointed to the notes on the board. Then, I had the same numbers listed in 2-dimensional form (on a board underneath the original), illustrating pitch vertically on the board. On the board was the rest of Twinkle Twinkle (5544332). For the second class, I took the class down a slight tangent by asking them to play Twinkle notes as I pointed to them, while I sang ABC backwards. The first class had a substitute that day, which led to a lot more chaos. The teacher interjected several times about taking sticks away, and to her credit, she did exactly that. I also had to do something similar where one student said "no" to a suggestion, and I immediately followed up with a calm but steady "would you like to sit out?", which was met by a sheepish "no". At one point the teacher asked if we should cancel music class because of the chaos, and some students started pleading "no" to those who were being disruptive. I guess sometimes peer pressure does work. For the second class, I pre-arranged the mats in lines of two or three, but since we had "Wake Up" to warm up with, I didn't lay down the edge tone mats (the "C" tones), and I added them when we completed the warmup. When it was time to recollect the tone bells, I sang "My Bonnie", which the students happily followed along. When I ran out of song and still had bells to collect, I sang the variation "Rabbits Have White Shiny Noses". That drew some strange looks from the students, but it kept them somewhat captivated.
My Bonnie/Rabbits	Review My Bonnie, teach Rabbits.
Students remembered My Bonnie very well. Getting them to learn Rabbits wasn't all that hard, but students didn't understand what the song was really about (e.g. "what's a powder puff?") Some students were happy to talk about their own rabbits at home. For the second class, I had some extra time which I used to play the motion game with My Bonnie, first going up and down while being silent on all B-words (which was really really tough), and then just moving + silence on "Bonnie" (much easier). With this exercise, I wanted to encourage the students to sing anything to tunes they knew. I don't think I was all that effective in driving that point across, and I'm unclear whether or not the students are automatically retaining enough familiarity with many of the tunes to be able to sing/hum it automatically without prompting. For the first class, this is when I introduced the ABC song sung backwards, which left the class stunned.
Aloha Kakahiaka (traditional)	Have students lined up ready to go, and quickly review the song.
Having referenced Aloha Kakahiaka before made this a very easy exit song. Students didn't quite remember the words, but they remembered the motions. I didn't have a great transition to the line for this, I just had the students come right up to the door and line up, facing the board.

I probably spent a lot longer than I should have on the tone bells, but the students did appreciate being able to play a song - and one that required teamwork, in a sense. Sort of in the backpocket were Cookie Jar and an round of Criss Cross Applesauce. I also was thinking of pulling off Old King Glory, but there wasn't much time for any of those.

I'm hoping that I'll have enough time in the final two classes to revisit music learning/reading. I'd like to put the numbers to a pseudo-staff. However, I do know that I still want to get the students playing a solo.

Teaching Notes, 20090501

May 1 is May Day, and in Hawaii, May Day is "Lei Day", which often involves schools doing performances, often musical in nature. Thus, I decided to do a day of Hawaiian music and chant. I was fortunate also to have my wife (who grew up in Hawaii) available to help teach some of the Hawaiian words and songs. As an added bonus, I picked up my son's soprano ("flea") ukulele two nights before the class and I learned enough to play "May Day is Lei Day", which was the last full song that we did.

Guten Morgen	Start with sol-mi echoing of various ways to say "hello" (including "aloha"), and lead into Guten Morgen
I don't do a lot of sol-mi echo in the class, and so this was a convenient time to do it. I tried rattling off hello in as many languages that I could remember (Spanish, Mandarin, French, Italian, Hawaiian, German), and then I went right into Guten Morgen. I ran through Guten Morgen twice.
Echo Tap/Clap Rhythms	Have students repeat patterns (instead of keeping a continuous beat). Eventually practice patterns found in the next song.
Getting the students to just echo a short pattern by me took a little getting used to, surprisingly; students wanted to keep a beat continuously and would try to follow me once I started. I also varied the lengths of my patterns which made things extra tricky for the students. The two patterns that I wanted to have the students practice was t-c-/t-c-/tcc- (where t= thigh tap, c= clap, -= rest) and tcc-/tcc-/t---/t-c-. Students had a bit of a hard time picking up the pattern; I should have taught it with first the starting measure and then adding one measure at a time. Saying "tap" or "clap" however, seemed to help a lot, and for the second class, I used the verbal cue a lot earlier with quicker success.
No Ka Moku Kiakahi Ke Aloha (Keali'i Reichel)	Play an abridged version of the song, and tap/clap to it.
No Ka Moku isn't a song that is meant to be taught to first graders (at least not those in Hawaii); it's entirely in Hawaiian, and apparently the translation could be somewhat suggestive (something I didn't realize until later in the day, after the class was taught). However, it is a spirited Hawaiian sung chant, along with a lot of drumming with a gourd drum (Ipo). When the Ipo was tapped on the ground, making a low boom, I would tap my knees; when the Ipo was tapped on its top (making a sound similar to a regular skin drum), then I would clap. The song moves pretty quickly, but it is originally a 3 minute song, so I cut out about a quarter of it using Audacity on my Mac. If I could, I would have cut more out and slowed the song down, since it is just slightly too fast for the first graders to keep up. In the middle of the song, I had the students just tap their knees - revealing a simple steady beat; I would also do this when I felt the class was falling apart and getting lost. It would have been additionally pedagogical had I asked the class the distinction of the roles of the higher pitched drum vs. the lower booming drum sound. I asked the students after the song was over where they thought it was from. Students uniformly said it was Hawaiian. Maybe my Aloha shirt was too much of a hint.
Aloha Kakahiaka (traditional)	Teach students about the meaning of "aloha", and then teach them the song. Teach very simple hula to go along with the song.
Aloha means hello and goodbye, which some students knew, but it also means love (and much more), and so when I had the students say Aloha, they would cross their arms as if they were signing "love" in ASL. I then introduced my wife ("Aunty Cari"), and she spoke a little more about the word "aloha"; she then introduced some simple phrases that we had prewritten on the board - Aloha Kakahiaka (good morning), Aloha 'Auinala (good afternoon), and Aloha Ahiahi (good evening). The song is very easy to teach. Because the song is sung "Aloha kakahiaka means good morning to you", all I had to do was to ask the students what "Aloha kakahiaka" meant, etc. After singing only the first third of the song, I then asked my wife to talk a little about hula. The pseudo-hula movements included a sunrise for kakahiaka, a big overhead "O" for 'auinala, and clasped hands under a tilted head for ahiahi. When I ended the song, I had the students go do the ahiahi sleeping movement again. Doing the hula also allowed the students to stand up. The students seemed enthralled by the prospect of doing hula. They really seemed to enjoy this. During the second song, there was a fire drill which consumed some of the extra time I'd normally have thanks to using a refined lesson plan.
Po'o Maka	Teach body parts in Hawaiian, teach the song. Students are still standing.
Po'o Maka is a simple kid song that introduces a lot of body parts. It goes something like this: Po'o maka ihu waha pepeau lima manamana lima kuli wawae, manamana wawae me ku'u po'ohiwi Translation: Head eyes nose mouth ears hands fingers knees feet toes and my shoulders I taught the song first focusing on the first half, then the second. We would spent a decent amount of time introducing each word, and having the students point to the appropriate body part for each Hawaiian word. I'd then have the students sing the song by echo for each half. What's great about this song is that I tried to make it seem like we were just learning words and putting music to seemingly random words. I want to empower the students to sing about anything at any time.
May Day Is Lei Day	Introduce students to the ukulele, and learn the song line by line/echo. Sing the whole song while being accompanied by the uke.
While showing the students the ukulele, my wife gave a quick lesson about the origins of the ukulele and its word origin (uku = flea, lele = jump). May Day is actually a pretty straightforward song. I had the students continue standing since they had to see the board. They were able to sing it pretty well, despite my terrible uke playing. It helped to have my wife there, since I found that I had to keep looking at my fingerboard when playing the song.
Hawai'i Aloha	Simply immerse the students into the song.
There wasn't a whole lot of time for this, and so for the first class, I just had the students link hands while my wife and I would sing the song. Some students picked up on the song only a little bit, but there wasn't a lot of singing from them in general. I didn't have time to do this for the second class at all.

I had the students say "Mahalo, Aunty Cari" as they were leaving - the last Hawaiian word that they'd learn. I knew that I had a lot to cover, and so if I really had time left over, I would have just whipped out Tuwe Tuwe - something that we could do easily with two instructors.

Teaching Notes, 20090424

I wanted to get the students back playing on instruments, and I wanted them to get used to solos, so out came the drums and rhythm instruments again for today!

I Can Sing Up High	Warmup.
Similar to last week, I said "Good morning," and I was met with sleepy responses. This was an easy excuse to have them warm up with this song. Students remembered the song and movements easily. I had them repeat the song faster and faster with a little bit of body movement (but with feet mostly in place), and they had fun with it.
Pass The Shoe (from Keep It Moving workshop)	Have students learn the chant/song, then play the game with a shoe. If it works, then have them play with their own shoes.
I didn't really have any neat transition to this; I just started singing the song. This song is pretty short, and not hard to learn. However, to practice the movement, I had them use my son's old shoe, which made the first class extremely squeamish; many flinched and could not keep the beat as a result. Others held the shoe with the minimum two fingertips, which also made keeping the beat difficult. I didn't bother trying to have the whole class shed shoes for the first class. The second class was a little less squeamish when I told them right upfront that the shoe was clean. After each iteration of the song, I asked the student holding the shoe if it was his/her shoe. I then had the whole class try it out with their own shoe (and fortunately, by having the teacher sit out, I had a perfect 20 in the circle). The whole class version worked reasonably well, although after each iteration I had to pause to recollect everyone's attention. The students also occasionally missed a shoe; after 5 iterations, probably about only 75% of the class had their shoe back. Originally I wanted to emphasize staccato, but I never made it a point. As it became clear that the students weren't really keeping beat, the songs phrases became slower and more irregular, making staccato more difficult to illustrate. This was an activity from the Keep It Moving workshop that I could not attend; Joanne Read sent me a copy of the handout. Thanks, Joanne!
Rhythm Instruments	Bring out 4 Djembe, a number of hand drums and rhythm sticks. Have the Djembe players play the solos.
I had rhythm sticks for basically half of the class and 5 hand drums. That meant that I had to bring out a tambourine if I ran out, as I wanted to alternate rhythm sticks with something else. The 4 Djembes were placed roughly equidistant from each other, as best as you could with 20 students and alternating rhythm sticks. I first had the class play quarter notes, emphasizing playing together and resting together. The first class was actually better than the second class at playing together and resting in between beats. I then had the students play 4 beats on, followed by 4 quarter rests (but still counting). That took a little bit of time to have all of the students rest properly particularly for the first and last beats of rest. To get the solos started, I would point to one of the Djembe players, right before the 4 rests, and then it was that Djembe player's turn to do what they wanted to do. Most of the time, the soloists simply played 4 quarters, but there was usually one person who would do anything (which was perfectly fine). I eventually had the students all move one position to the left, so that no student was just playing rhythm sticks. Students who didn't get a chance to play on the Djembe (3/5ths of them seemed a little sad that I moved on, and in retrospect perhaps I should have just taken the additional time to have all of them take solos. But, I'll try something more along those lines in a later class.
Two Hands Make...	Quick Review.
I had this on my list of things to do in case I felt I was going to have extra time in the class. I didn't end up doing this in either class.
If You've Got One	Repeat the same lesson that I did on January 16th
Students remembered this - I started with twiddling my thumb, and most caught on right there. The only deviation I did this time when compared to January 16th is that during "4", I indeed wiggled my knees and signed "more", rather than wiggle my whole body. I didn't exactly plan it that way - it just came out like that, but the students didn't seem to care. I quickly went into the recorded song, and some students did sing along, even though it's way lower than their voices really support, and neither class seems to want to sing an octave higher than the recording or how I sing. Originally I didn't think I'd have time for this, but I did just manage to squeeze it in.
Razzama Tazzama	Review with a few, add a new verse in the middle, finish with old verses.
This was as successful as the first time. As the song went on, students were doing the "Wally Woo Hoo" with a big flop backwards, but in order to keep the group moving, I didn't wait very long for the students to recover. It was a matter of keeping the activity short (we were pressed for time), and to get the students to keep a consistent beat. There were some different phrases that I wanted to add in between the original 2nd and 3rd stanzas, namely: first stand up straight, now sit right down, stand up again/and turn around put your hands on your head/put your hands on your knees/when you have a cold, it/makes you sneeze However, I did add one that was a bit on the fly: put your hands on your head, put your hands on your knees, if you're a good kid, you'd say thank you and please I took the opportunity to teach the students ASL for "thank you" and "please" by doing this, which they seemed to like. The usual suspects who knew child ASL chimed in that they knew the signs.
Old King Glory On the Mountain	Try the song one more time.
It only struck me now (as I write this) that I did this 3 times over the past 4 or 5 classes, which is a bit of an overload. The first class proceeded pretty well, but the students were a little more giggly than usual, which led to the teacher shutting down the class with only 6 students left in the inner circle to go. I'll have to find a way to prompt the class so that they shrink the circle with more alacrity and less noise. The second class was able to finish the song well, although again I had hoped to end the song with most of the class lined up ready to leave, but that didn't quite happen.

There wasn't anything special backpocketwise that I had planned - I suppose the Two Hands poem would have worked out if I needed more time. I did still have the previous week's backpockets handy (comparing bumblebee recordings (strings vs. Bobby McFerrin), Polly Wolly Doodle, Bushel and a Peck, Wake Up You Lazybones).

Teaching Notes, 20090410

One of the consistent pieces of feedback I received from both teachers was that the students could use some more movement. While I don't have quite enough material to keep them marching for the rest of the year (and how many circles do I want them to march through), I thought I'd try to do more rhythm exercises with hands.

Energy (Laurie Berkner)	Sing the first lines, and then start the song on the computer. Start marching in a circle during the 2nd iteration of the chorus.
Similar to the previous week, I said "good morning", and fortunately I got a sleepy response. When I sang the first lines without the music playing, I moved around a bit, which got the students a little excited. The students didn't sing along much, and I don't know if I'll use it again as another opener, but it did get the students moving. One student in the 2nd class had a birthday that day (he was wearing a crown), so I had the class sing happy birthday right before going into Energy.
Body Percussion/Criss Cross Applesauce	Have students follow my lead, then go into 4-beat patterns.
I first would clap or tap my knees to see if I could get the students' attention; the 2nd class didn't have much of a problem, but it took several hits to get the 1st class to focus on me entirely. I did try to wait longer than I normally did for a silent classroom this time around. When I got the students into a tapping motion, I did have to remind them periodically not to rush the beat. The patterns I used were T-T-C-C, T-T-C-H, T-C-C-H, T-CC-C-H, T-C-CC-H, X-X-CC-H, X-X-TT-B, where T=thigh, C=clap, H=head tap, X=half of a crisscross, B=body tap (around the collarbone). I tried to make sure that the majority of the class was following before moving onto the next pattern. After a few iterations of the last pattern, I then started chanting "Criss Cross Applesauce". When I did the chant, one student in the first class knew the usual version of the chant ("Spiders Crawling Up Your Back"), but I intended to do the Pepperoni Pizza version; Pepperoni Pizza involved pounding the ground for each syllable. Students were getting fatigued with all the hand/arm motion and started dropping out until Pepperoni Pizza. After enough Pizza, I then went into T-C-E-E (E=elbow), and then introduced the next activity...
Who Stole The Cookie From The Cookie Jar?	Review while continuing the beat. Have students choose each other in circle order.
The first few times, students really weren't keeping any sort of beat, so this time, I wanted to take something that the students really like to chant and force a beat onto the song. This was difficult to keep up; students lost interest in keeping the beat midway through the song, and I had to be very emphatic in my motions to maintain the beat. When students missed the beat, I'd try to recollect the students and restart the song with that person, which did help to get the students' attention a bit. I never repeated a student's attempt more than once. The first class actually by the last quarter of the circle got louder and louder, while the 2nd class started fading by the last quarter of the circle. After we finished, I admitted that I ate the cookie, but students again claimed that they had indeed stolen the cookie. I thanked them again for their honesty. Students' hands were pretty tired at this point, so I had them shake out their hands or blow air on their hands.
My Bonnie	Review song, then remove "Bonnie". Then play the 'b'-movement game with "Bonnie" silenced.
Students quickly reviewed the song, and then I asked them about the last time we removed words from the song. A few students remembered "Deep and Wide". When propositioned with removing "Bonnie", the students were extremely eager. However, it took a long long time for them to remember removing Bonnie during the 2nd half of the song, and even then we didn't get good removal coverage. That's when I decided to do the up/down game with My Bonnie, but instead of toggling crouching/standing on every b-word, I had the students toggle only when we'd normally sing "Bonnie". It seemed to help a little bit more, especially for the 2nd half of the song. Students asked if they could play the up/down game with B-words again, and I said we'd do that during another week.
Two Hands Make...	Have students mimic signs, then introduce the rhyme, then revisit the rhyme in beat.
This was pretty easy to do - I introduced each sign (rain - which they knew, umbrella, spider, mountain (not an ASL mountain), butterfly, sunshine (the big-O version), sailboat, and pillow). During the first iteration of the chant, I paused after each phrase so that students had a chance to do it. During the second iteration, I just went right on through.
If You've Got One	Repeat the same lesson that I did on January 16th
Students remembered this - I started with twiddling my thumb, and most caught on right there. The only deviation I did this time when compared to January 16th is that during "4", I indeed wiggled my knees and signed "more", rather than wiggle my whole body. I didn't exactly plan it that way - it just came out like that, but the students didn't seem to care. I quickly went into the recorded song, and some students did sing along, even though it's way lower than their voices really support, and neither class seems to want to sing an octave higher than the recording or how I sing. Originally I didn't think I'd have time for this, but I did just manage to squeeze it in.
Old King Glory On The Mountain	Review the song, and then teach the dance. Try to end the dance with the students lined up to leave.
This time, I had a little more time to keep the students in line, as rushing the song the last time may have led to more chaos. I deliberately explained every step of the dance before doing it, and I emphasized the importance of keeping the circle looking like a circle. During the first class, I forgot to put in something in the middle to symbolize the mountain, but for the second class, I did put in a stool. The dance went pretty well, and although there was some giggling, it wasn't disruptive, and students made a pretty concerted effort to reform the circle after each iteration. When we were two iterations before completion, stopped the singing and I introduced the very last line ("We all bow down to the mountain") so that they'd be prepared for it when it came. During the first class, there was one student left, who received all of the bowing and was dancing at the end with his hands clasped and his arms forming a mini-circle), and for the second class, the mountain was completely empty, which worked out well with the stool left there. I didn't quite get the students lined up by the door at the end, but it didn't matter much.

This was probably one of my most active classes, as I was trying to keep the class moving as quickly as possible, with little intro talk between activities. Looking back, it was 7 items, which was pretty cool in my book. Backpocket items included comparing bumblebee recordings (strings vs. Bobby McFerrin), Polly Wolly Doodle, Bushel and a Peck, Wake Up You Lazybones, and Pass The Shoe.

Teaching Notes, 20090403

This day, I thought I had a pretty good, full, loud lesson planned, but there was one curveball - the monthly meetings in the GLC were that day, and I knew that what we had planned would be too loud. So, I had to change things around, particularly for the first class, as the assemblies were completed midway through the second class.

Wake Up You Lazybones	A opener, immerse the students, and then have them follow me in the circle as I marched and stopped.
Students are always kind of quiet at the start of class, so I wanted to do an opener that addressed their sluggishness. Originally, I was going to play "Energy" by Laurie Berkner, and have them do what the song tells them while marching in a circle, but with the GLC assemblies going on, I felt it was better to do something sung. By habit for both classes, I actually tried to teach them the first half by rote first rather than immersing them. I also didn't march until starting the second time through the song. The students followed me pretty well, even though many didn't sing until maybe the 3rd or 4th time through. I think I did the song only 4 times I believe. One thing to note - the words of the song talk about hunting cattle and cows; later that night, I came to the conclusion that it would be more enjoyable to sing about feeding cows than hunting them, and the song still works.
My Bonnie	Review song, then do the b-movement game.
Students knew the song, but they didn't quite recall that we sang it in class. (Some noted that they knew it from preschool, or that they could play it on the piano.) The students however were able to sing the song easily in a quick review. Then, I had the students do the b-movement game (standing, toggle crouching and standing whenever a word starting with "b" was sung), which they did pretty well, especially the 2nd time through. While this had been in my backpocket for a while, this song was entirely planned; however, I intended originally to do it after the rhythm instruments, but I moved it earlier because of the assemblies.
Rhythm Instruments	Split students in groups of 4, and have them beat a certain # of times based on a part drawn on the board.
I completely scrapped this for the first class thanks to the assemblies, but by the time we got to this stage of the lesson, the assemblies had stopped for the 2nd class, so I took the opportunity to bring the second class up to date with the rhythm instrument lesson that I did for the first class back on March 13th. I split the class into groups of 4, sprinkled instruments around the room (djembe, tambourines, drums on a stick (I don't really know the name for them), and triangles/guiro/finger cymbals), and had them try to play something on their beat. I used the same measures that I used with the 1st class back on March 13th: 1-1-1-1, 1-2-1-1, 1-2-1-2, 1-2-3-2. Then, I tried to have the 4th group play for the entire beat by changing their value to a scribble on the board (1-2-3-S), and fortunately it's easy to play a continuous note with the triangles, guiros, and cymbals. The students were oohed and ahhed by the continuous sound. Originally I had planned on doing 4 beats on 4 beats rest (and then adding solos during the rest); I'll do that in a later lesson. As I was passing out the instruments, I sang "It's a Very Good Day", and I sang about the wind. I sort of fumbled the 2nd verse ("I can feel the wind rushing over me..."), but the students didn't care. When putting the drums away, I sang the same song, but talking about the sun.... I think.
Bate Bate Chocolate	Have students chant with alternating beats, and then alternating eighths.
Students seemed ok trying to tackle the alternating beats. Similar to before, the 2nd group (red for me) always chanted more tentatively than the first group; it's certainly easier to come in on the downbeat. They were amused when we tried to sing the alternating beats quickly. When presented the alternating eighths (I had it prewritten on a board underneath the original board), the students groaned a little bit. We tried it once through with each class, and both struggled, although the second class had a little more success. The one thing that was successful was that I was able to illustrate how the "uno, dos, tres" line didn't have notes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th upbeats - I added green dots to illustrate the rest. In fact, this might have been the first time that I spoke more than anecdotally about rests. Anyhow, trying to alternating eighths was pretty ambitious, and I won't try that again with 1st graders.
Old King Glory On The Mountain	Teach song quickly by rote, but more or less immerse them if there isn't enough time. Have the students walk CCW while I walked CW on the outside. Pull people to the door by the end of the song.
I tried this with the first class, but the students got a little rowdy, which I thought was understandable (the shrinking circle was something completely new to them), but the teacher (mis?)interpreted the giggling as deliberate disruption, and she ended the class right there. That surprised me a little bit, but perhaps it was also a way to emphasize the importance of attention conveniently, since they were on the verge of being late to their assembly in the GLC anyway. I didn't really have time to go through the whole dance with the 2nd class, so I had them sing to the song while they picked up their mats and redeposited their mats into the mat cart.

The shutdown of the 1st class was still a bit bothersome, and the next class, I might send a signal to tell the teacher it's ok for that particular song. Backpocket items including comparing bumblebee recordings (strings vs. Bobby McFerrin), Polly Wolly Doodle, Bushel and a Peck, and by virtue of its replacement as an opener, "Energy" by Laurie Berkner.

Teaching Notes, 20090327

Today, I wanted to spend a little more time than usual on songs involving languages other than English.

Guten Morgen	Opener, first say the phrases, then sing, then move while singing.
This song is pretty easy to introduce so long as it's the first thing that you do. I first said "good morning" and then said good morning (or "good day") in the other languages. Children also offered other ways to say "good morning" in other languages. I then sang the various good mornings in sol-mi, similar to what Charlotte Diamond does. By this time, the students were echoing me consistently, and they continued to echo my pitch when I stated singing the Guten Morgen phrases in the pitch of the song. Adding the motions came naturally, although I had to keep reminding the children to stay on their feet. The one trick with Guten Morgen is that if you have the students echoing pitch, then you have to have the students adjust for the last phrase, which is not pitch-echoed - the students have to continue descending the pitch. That took a little while, and it was actually easier to simply repeat "Buon Giorno" with the higher pitch descent followed by the lower pitch descent, thus giving the song 5 phrases. As a warmup/opener, this was fine, and it provides something to work on later.
Sarasponda	Have students listen to the Sarasponda two-part recording from last week. (No singing.)
I had the students listen to their creation from last week. (Note: the iSight-recorded recordings came out much better than the iPod-recorded recordings, as the latter sounded muffled and overwhelmed by my voice.) The boondas were a little hard to hear when the Saraspondas came in, and so I reminded the students who crucial it was to make the beat (boondas) continuously heard.
Each of Us Is A Flower	Record the students sing in the usual A-B-A format, and then have them sing it in A-B-B while replaying the previously recorded A-B-A.
Students knew the song very well of course, and when I had them review the song, it went quickly. I took the time to also teach them the ASL sign for "flower", since having students sign "grow" for so many bars gets boring. (I also reminded them that the sign has fingers under your nose, not in it!) The students paid attention pretty well during the recording, and they understood (seemingly) well that the second recording would have them sing A-B-B; students followed me anyway, so it was up to me to make sure I was singing the right thing. I still found myself slipping up a few times, and in a recording, that pretty much messes up the rhythm. I realized later that it probably would have been best to be tapping the beat in the first recording with sticks or something high pitched, because it was pretty hard to listen to the recording and try to sing the 3rd section ("B"), especially when the first recording wasn't perfectly regular in beat. (I had to keep the first recording's playback reasonably soft so that the 2nd recording voices wouldn't get drowned out by the first recording's playback.) That said, the dual recordings were perfect for the first two thirds of the song, and for basically the first half of the latter third. By the last two lines of the song, you could tell there was a distinct separation between the two recordings. I did notice that by the end of the recording, the students were bored; I guess that's what happens when you sing it 3 times through (and the "Each of Us Is A Flower" line 12 times). It would take more deliberate advance planning in order to do the first recording and then do the second recording the next week, but perhaps that would keep things moving briskly.
Soy Una Pizza	Teach the first verse by rote. Explain the translations.
As I did with the first class a few weeks ago with "Je suis une pizza", I started with the first verse in English quickly, and then reminded students that you can sing in any language; music knows no language bounds. Similar to what has happened in the past, students wanted to sing "I Am A Pizza" in many different languages, and so it took a little bit to refocus them on Spanish. But, this wasn't too hard. "Ceballos y hongos" was probably the hardest line, and so I spent some extra time getting the students to say that line; during the full singing of the song, I would slow down at that line. After ending the first verse in Spanish, I finished the rest of the song in English, which was an easy sing, but students didn't seem that interested. I doubt I'll use this song again this year.
I Knew An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly	Sing/immerse them into the song.
I went right into this song after talking about things we shouldn't eat, always a fun topic. Many students knew the story, but not everyone knew the song. If I remembered to do so, I'd ask the students what was next, or questions like "what can catch a cat?" I did try to use some signs to keep the song moving, but I stopped at cat; dog isn't easy to do while seated, and goat is a two-part sign. I ended the song with horse, but it felt like the students were expecting more. Note - the melody that I use (particularly around the lines about the fly) are slightly different than what's in the MFM songbook; I figured it didn't matter.
Bate Bate Chocolate	Have students chant. Have students chant using alternating voices (high/low, soft/loud); then, split the class into two groups and have them answer each other.
Students had a lot of fun with this one. I had prewritten the chant on the board with two different colors; for the first half, "uno dos tres" was in black while the final word was in red, and for the latter half, beats 1 and 2 were in black while beats 3 and 4 were in red. The students really got into the loud/soft, oftentimes really belting it out when they were permitted to be loud. There appear to be many different variants of the song/chant. (One student noted that Dora the Explorer sang a version.) I used the MFM version, which has the "con arroz y con tomate" line - something that the first class teacher understood, sending her wondering who would eat chocolate with rice and tomatoes. I did notice that in the latter half of the chant, I always had to slow down, and the red words were always more softly-spoken than their black counterparts.
Old King Glory On The Mountain	Teach song quickly by rote, but more or less immerse them if there isn't enough time. Have the students walk CCW while I walked CW on the outside. Pull people to the door by the end of the song.
I never got to this for the first class, and for the second class, there wasn't enough time so I simply sang a song (I forget what I chose) while they picked up their mats.

There was a silent auction (not so silent during "Bate") going on in the GLC, so students entered and exited through the door leading to the playground, which made the decision to forget drop Old King Glory easier. Backpocket items included Polly Wolly Doodle, Bonnie (with "b" movement), Energy (Laurie Berkner), 4 Hugs A Day (Charlotte Diamond), and Bushel and a Peck.

Teaching Notes, 20090320

Because last week I taught only one of the two classes (class #1), I did have the option of preparing new material only for class #1 and then having class #2 do last week's session, but I felt that it would be better to keep both classes on roughly the same schedule.

It's a Very Good Day	Opener, sing while seated, introduce middle verse.
I primarily wanted to teach the middle verse to the song ("I can feel the sun..."), but the middle verse was a bit sun-oriented, and I was making contingency plans with regards to the opening verse in case it was still cloudy/foggy when the students rolled in. Fortunately, there was just enough sun for us to sing about a sunny day.
Each Of Us Is A Flower (Charlotte Diamond)	Teach song (both parts), with hand motions.
I continued to talk about springtime (sun, warmth, changing time, etc.) in order to introduce this song, and when I sang it once, about half of the students said they knew it... from preschool! Anyhow, I went long and taught the song, going over the first half, then adding signs, then teaching by rote the second half with signs immediately. Some students noted that in other songs, we signed moon with the hands above our heads, similar to how Charlotte Diamond tries to sign sun. Anyhow, the students seemed to pick up the song without much of a problem, although I don't know if they were terribly interested in it. Perhaps it was too easy? I'll plan on trying to overlay the two halves together as a future challenge.
Tritsch Tratsch Polka	Have students dance/march around in the a circle, watching me. Ask them about what they observed with the music and the dance that went along with it.
I think the most students seemed to get out of this was the opportunity to let loose and get their jitters out. The students were mostly giggling through the march, and fortunately most followed my directive to not crash into the person in front of them. I totally forgot to ask the first class about their observations. When I asked the second class, few really noticed that I was tiptoeing during the softer parts of the song, while taking larger, more pronounced steps during louder parts of the song. It is possible that the students were merely preoccupied with moving around in general, or perhaps the dynamics of the song (and the recording that I chose) didn't have enough range and change during the song.
Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar	Review the game quickly, and then have students pick their target. Try keeping a beat during the game with hands/thighs.
Students were eager to play this again. In fact, when I asked "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" plenty of students volunteered to be the thief; I thanked them for their honesty. I unrolled a few modifications as we played - first students were to pick their own target (as opposed to last time). After two names, I then added the fact that you could not repeat a name; the first class was able to do this perfectly (and they also ended the game by choosing the teacher - an easy out), while the second class near the end needed help to cover everyone. Later, I had to remind the students that when they picked a name, they were to continue the entire phrase (e.g. "...stole the cookie from the cookie jar") rather than just blurting out the name. I also had to remind the rest of the class that after "then who", we all had to chime in with "Who stole..."; I oftentimes signed "who" (asl) in order to get students to jump in and keep the beat. This was the first time I had a student who was ill and obviously uncomfortable. When someone picked her to be the cookie thief, she started to cry. I had to quickly ask the class to help her with the chant, and then I went ahead and picked the next thief. The student recovered enough to do the later tasks.
Razzama Tazzama (Orff)	Immerse the students into the chant while seated
This was maybe a top-10 moment. The students were still sort of chatting after the Cookie Jar chant, and this chant not only caught their attention, but they loved it! I modified the movements slightly - clapping on Bim, and then waving hands on each of Razzama and Tazzama. I purposely paused after each Wally-Woo-hoo and the end of each middle verse (e.g. "put your hands in the air"); the students needed the catch-up time, even if it were just for a second or two. Anyhow, this was so well received, and after each Wally-woo-hoo, more and more students threw their arms in the air on "hoo" such that they rolled backwards onto their backs. This was fun, plain and simple. I have to be careful not to re-use it; perhaps I'll invent my own middle verses to keep it fresh.
Sarasponda	Review quickly, try out boonda ostinato again
This didn't seem to be all that successful. I tried to keep the boondas together, but it didn't seem like they blended well with the rest of the students. I used 8 boondas for the first class, and 5 for the second class. I tried having the boondas come back to the whole group at "A do rey o" to see if that would provide some unity, and it did to a small degree, but the boondas singing boonda never really morphed into a product I was hoping for. I actually recorded this for both classes, using both the iSight camera/firewire plus a tiny mic attached to my iPod to see what recorded better. I haven't gone back to see what the recordings sounded like, but I fear that the iPod recording may have been mostly me, since I was sitting right by it.

I also tried to squeeze in Polly Wolly Doodle in the first class, but it was so rushed that I don't think the students really got it at all, save for the handful who knew it before. For the second class, I ended with A Rig A Jig Jig and had the students pick up their mats and place them in the mat stand.

Other backpocket items were My Bonnie (with the 'b' movement), and Energy (by Laurie Berkner), and 4 Hugs A Day (Charlotte Diamond. It seems that the students are well versed in Charlotte Diamond songs, and so I have to balance learning new material and just singing for singing's sake (not a bad thing) with other Charlotte Diamond songs.

Teaching Notes, 20090313

This week was a little unusual. I was still suffering from a cold that involved coughing and rough voice, and so I informed the teachers that I didn't want to get them sick, and that it was at their discretion whether or not to have music class. The second teacher cancelled, but the first teacher never responded, and so music class for them continued. That actually worked out pretty well, since typically the first class doesn't cover as much material as the second class.

Down by the Sea	Opener, march to the beat while doing the hand motions associated with the song
It took a little more than usual to get all of the children seated and in a circle. I tried to emphasize the beat with my feet (stomping), and only a few students followed my lead with the feet. They seemed to remember to song well, though, doing all of the motions with little help with the exception of "feeding the gulls". After the song was over, I did ask them about what my feet were doing; students responded with things like "I was stomping evenly", but none said "beat".
Rhythm Instruments	Revisit the same 1-2-3-4 plan from two weeks ago with various instruments.
This was my way of teaching while eating minutes and saving my voice. Again, I passed out a variety of instruments, including the kpanlango, djembe (two), shekere (two), guiro (6), tambourines (4), and talking drums (2). I split the class into the large drums(1), shekere and talking drums (2), guiro (3), and tambourine (4). I returned to the single hit on a beat exercise, still starting with the big drums on 1. Then, I went to the board, and wrote out four vertical lines, illustrating four even beats. Next, I wrote a line underneath, with two lines for beat 2, to illustrate an even double hit for the shekere and talking drums. I didn't tell them that they were playing eighth notes. After the 1-2-1-1 pattern, I then drew out a 1-2-1-2 pattern, which the students then played with reasonable success. Next, I had the students do a 1-2-3-2 pattern, which drew some oohs and aahs. The triplet sounded a bit like mud, but the students had fun trying. It was a little helpful to also have the set of 3 be the largest group, and with the instruments that could make the shortest sound (if you hit the guiro instead of scraping it). I realized that the talking drums are easier to play with mallets, as opposed to a hand. That made the talking drum holders a lot more satisfied.
I Am A Pizza	Review 1st stanza while putting away drums, then teach 1st stanza in French, then Spanish.
One of the things I hope my students take with them by the end of the year is that music is universal and transcends typical languages. I was able to cover the first stanza while putting away nearly all of the drums, and then I started talking about how one could sing the Pizza song in any language. Students immediately chimed in, asking to sing in various languages, including Spanish (which I was actually hoping to do), and Chinese. Teaching them in French wasn't all that easy. The students had no idea what I was saying, and while I tried briefly to teach them what some of the words meant, they weren't exactly equipped for a foreign language lesson. I reminded them that they had to watch and listen carefully. I spoke the phrases, and they repeated them, sort of. Then, I sang the song slowly, and they did a pretty good job responding, except for the unison "Je suis une pizza" near the end, which they couldn't exactly get. In fact, they were pretty lost by the end of the stanza, and so I quickly moved back into English for the last two stanzas to recapture their attention. It didn't make sense to try Spanish after that, so I ended the exercise with the pizza that was now a mess.
Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar	Review the game quickly, and then have students pick their target. Try keeping a beat during the game with hands/thighs.
I didn't get to this.
Bonanopstekker	Review the steps and song
This was an easy way to close out the class. I reviewed the dance, and emphasized how important it was to keep connected when on the outside of the circle. When students entered the circle during the song, it was still chaos, and when going out of the circle, I never got the class to recover enough to change directions. Near the end of the song, I had the students follow me clockwise, and I led them to the door.

There were actually a lot of other things I wanted to do, including "Each of us is a flower", and talking about the elements again. I also wanted to re-try Sarasponda with Boonda, but there was clearly not enough time for that. Other backpocket items included My Bonnie (with the 'b' movement), and Energy (by Laurie Berkner)

Teaching Notes, 20090306

This week, I added something new - homemade nametags! I didn't want teachers to burn through labels in case they didn't have nametags handy, and this way, I could bring them back and for as needed. However, I realized as the day went on that the tags were as valuable as individual cards - I could shuffle through them, and they were just as helpful as tags on a string.

Well I'm On My Way	Opener, get kids singing as they got seated
It seems like it's near impossible to get the students to march into class and continue to march in a circle. And so, it was easier to have them sit while I sang (and they responded) the song. I only needed to go through the song once until everyone was seated.
Bonanopstekker (Shenanigans CD)	Teach them each dance transition without the music. Then play music and see if they follow me and the music.
I spent a decent amount of time explaining rules and what each phase of the dance was. Using the circle of mats as the barrier between inside and outside, I had to make sure the circle was small enough so that everyone could hold hands and be outside the mats, while the circle had to be big enough so that when the students walked inside, it wasn't mass chaos and collisions. Other rules included making sure that everyone held hands while outside the circle., and not colliding into others. The CD insert appears to have a counting error inside with regards to the beats when the kids went in and out of the circle, so I basically had the following plan: 16 beats to the right 16 beats to the left 4 beats going inside 4 beats waving hello 4 beats clapping 4 beats stomping 4 beats going outside 4 beats going inside 4 beats waving hello 4 beats going outside Now, going inside or outside takes a bit of time - especially going outside, so by the end of the whole cycle, we were a little behind. That cut into the 2x16 beat procession, and oftentimes I simply deleted the direction change and continued to go to the right. The few times that I did do a direction change, the students bunched up and collided a bit, but they did a good job trying to stay connected. The students were completely amused by the waving hello portions of the dance.
Tuwe Tuwe	Review the song sung twice in a row without stopping, with clapping. Then record the song, then play back the recording while recording the song again, starting 8 bars after the recording.
The review went quickly, and the students were very intrigued at the prospect of being recorded. I used an iSight camera to pick up the audio from about 5 feet away from the edge of the circle. I played the first recording back to them before using it to do the round; they loved it, and the second class actually clapped to it. Recording the second iteration wasn't too bad, although it was hard to make sure that we kept up properly with the speed of the first recording. Students really enjoyed hearing themselves. I had them count instances of "Tuwe Tuwe" when listening to the combined recording.
Cookie Jar Chant	Teach phrase by phrase, focusing on the call-response. Don't worry about beat.
About 2/3rds of both classes were familiar with the cookie jar chant, but when I tried to make them keep a beat, it didn't work at all, and students weren't all that quick to pick names. So, instead, I was always the speaker for the first two phrases (students eventually joined in). The chosen student responded with "who me" and "couldn't be" with varying degrees of chutzpah; full class responses of "yes you" and "then who" were generally strong. I used the nametags to go through everyone in random order, and even when my cards were missing a student or two, some students in the circle were keenly aware of my attempt to get everyone a turn, and they ended up pointing to those who hadn't gone yet. I made myself the last person in both classes, and admitted to taking the cookie..
Sarasponda	Review quickly, and try introducing boonda as a ostinato for the first half of the song.
I only did this for the first class, as for the first time, the second class took longer (particularly Tuwe Tuwe) than the first. Students didn't seem all that jazzed with Sarasponda again, but when given the new part of boonda, they were into it. I selected a group of 8 students to be my boondas, and I inadvertently also had them tap their thighs (they were all seated) on the beat (the 'b' of boonda), which provided them a nice beat for them. As the boondas were singing something very different, it wasn't hard to get them started, then turn my back mostly away from them while conducting (blindly) with one hand behind me. Getting everyone to come in at "A do rey o" wasn't hard either, and it was a nice way to bring the two sections back together.
I Am A Pizza (Charlotte Diamond)	Teach by echo, note non-echoing next-to-last line i each stanza.
About 3/4 of each class already knew this song, but I tried to teach it as if few knew it in advance. This is a remarkably easy song to teach in general, as nearly everything is echoed. Of the 3/4, only about 1/4 of those knew the song beyond the first stanza, which gave me a nice feeling that they were learning something new. I don't know if there are a lot of hand motions until the end (out of the oven, into the box, etc.), but the song was moving so quickly that the students didn't need much motion. (Plus, they were all getting prompted by virtue of the echo anyway.) I went through the first stanza twice, then moved onto the 2nd and 3rd stanzas (and the 4th mini-stanza). One student noted that she could sing part of the song in French, which is exactly what Charlotte Diamond does in her own recording. I noted that we'd do that (French) another day.
Nature Song (Sweet Honey In the Rock)	Teach signs for rain, sun, wind, sand, sea, and stars, and then just play the music on the boombox, and see if students could follow the songs and do he appropriate sign.
Students seemed ok with learning the signs. Each section of the song is a little on the long side, and I could see that students were a little bored (how long can one keep signing "rain" ?), and I quickly realized that the amount of time spent on one section changes way too dramatically for the 1st graders (i.e. rain the 2nd time is one measure, while rain the 1st time is 8 bars.) For the first class, because of time constraints, I had the students line up by the door in order for the song to be the very last thing that they did; I had the second class moving to the song while standing in the circle. The students were a little unsure of the long times for each stage, but when the song hit rain for the 2nd time, the students became amused by the quick changing. The song ends in chaos, which was a good way to end the day.

I had the second class pick up the mats in a circle with a song whose title I forgot. Oops.

Backpocket items included My Bonnie (with bouncing on 'B' words), and Each of Us Is A Flower.