Teaching Notes, 20090116

Second lesson of the new year yet again required last minute planning, although this time I was able to extend at least one successful song from a previous class. I also wanted to have something related to MLK during this class since MLK would be the next weekday for the children.

Because I was going to do Fresh From The Kitchen, I asked in advance that the teachers bring in their students with nametags.

Hello Everybody (yes indeed)	Opener - lead students into the room with the song
This seemed to work ok, but I've found because of the large auditorium that students must traverse in order to get to the music room, the students oftentimes are filing in in a very loose line, and it's hard to get students on the same page with any sort of pre-singing instruction. I ended up singing the song for both classes. One student did ask me later what "yes, indeed" meant.
Fresh From The Kitchen	Slowly teach students how to play the game. Try to encourage keeping the beat as best as possible
This took a bit longer to develop, as I first got students to respond with "Shoo-Lie-Loo", with one response higher in pitch than the others. Eventually, the students got the hang of the song and moving from one side of the circle to the other. I had varied success trying to get the students to continue to sing "Shoo-Lie-Loo" until the walking student made it to the other side of the circle. Clapping every other beat seemed to help a bit. Having done The Longer The Faster in a previous class also helped a little bit, and the prior experience provided an easy lead-in into this activity. I tried varying the "handful of biscuits" line ("basket of apples", "pocketful of sunshine"), but trying to think of new ones on the fly proved to be daunting, and I found myself settling on the basket of apples for most of the iterations.
Austrian Yodeler	Review, and add the St. Bernard and a wayward cow.
This was pretty easy. I used a wayward cow instead of a Jersey cow for fewer potential random questions. I also had the students do a moo sound instead of the squishing of milking. Finally, I asked for suggestions for other things on the mountain, and the classes came up with cats, wolves, and deer (tapping on the ground).
Deep And Wide (first class only)	Teach them the song. Then subtract "wide" and "river".
This turned out to be really easy to teach, and some students already knew the song. I was able to get the students to remove wide and river without too much effort, although getting complete silence during the deleted words was still a challenge. Students wanted to remove "Deep", and I told them that we'd try it during a later class.
Everybody Oughta Know	Teach the song by partial echo, and then explain how the 3rd verse is sung together.
This was my MLK song. We spent about a minute or two talking about MLK - who he was, and what he tried to do. Students here seemed to learn the gist of the song ok, but I may have sung this a little too low to begin with. I later asked the students for ideas/things that they found important, and I was met with mostly silence. The few suggestions I got were things around family.
1-2 Tie My Shoe	Quicky review this. This is a lead-in into the next song.
Indeed, the students had no trouble recalling this chant, with movements, and with the "9-10 Do It Again" line that I added last week. This was an easy lead-in into the next activity...
If You've Got One	Teach with motions while sitting
This is a song by Justin Roberts, which does a 1-2-3-4-5 rhyme with song and motion that I enjoy singing with my own son. This was pretty easy to teach, as I simply went through the phrases. The second class had a little more time left over, so I had them try to do the song to a recorded version of the song, which goes pretty fast - they seemed to handle it ok.
Goodbye Everybody (yes indeed)	Use this as the exit song.
Pretty simple exit song. Some children picked it up, as it was almost the same as the entrance song.

Overall, this class went ok. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on MLK, but I think it was enough, as students clearly knew that he was special, and students had a rough idea of what he stood for. In both classes, the teacher removed a student from the circle for the first time. Backpocket songs were Sarasponda and Tue Tue.

Teaching Notes, 20090109

We're back. I was really looking forward to a well-planned lesson, but despite the long respite (during which I didn't have access to my mfm materials), I ended up planning the lesson starting at 11:00pm the night before. In addition, I still had work that I had to complete before going to bed, and I had to drop off the kids in the morning. It would be my first lesson on proverbial fumes.

I wanted to also set up the lesson with songs that would extend well into future classes.

Well I'm On My Way	Opener - substitute with something about the cold outside after a few rounds of the song.
For the first class, I started wayyyyyy tooo low. When I brought it up an octave, the class responded a bit more, although they didn't know the song to start with (which I forgot). The second class was started at the higher octave, and they seemed to enjoy it. For both classes, I sang that we were on our way to music class rather than Caanan Land, and I did the weather substitution ("Well, it's cold outside") for the second class only - even though I forgot some planned lyrics and it ended up sounding a bit awkward.
Highway Number One	Do the song again. Get kids to stop each time and listen.
Well, I guess I chickened out and used probably the easiest reviewed song in the book. Highway Number One was well received weeks ago, and it was well received again. Kids really enjoy this, and they always ask for more. I did spend a little time right before talking about what went on during vacation, and I steered the conversation towards driving. Hmmm...
Austrian Yodeler	Teach the song by piecemeal rote, and only two versions (avalanche, bear).
I intro'ed this by talking about Australia vs. Austria (easy with Highway Number One!), and I also talked about the landscape of Austria (big snowy mountains, etc.). I then had some students try yodeling, which was a lot of fun, and got them to warm up their throats. One student mentioned that her dad was from Austria; I countered with "does he yodel?" Teaching this was a lot of fun. They now know what an avalanche is, and adding both the avalanche and the bear sounds was most enjoyable. I think the students sensed that the song was a little bit too short after two adds to it, and so I let them know that more would be covered in a later (next) week. One student knew the song previously.
The Longer The Faster	Have them play the game. Focus on trying to tap on the 8th beat.
I introduced this to them as a "game", and demoed what they should do without music (counting to 8, etc.). I also laid out some groundrules ("tap lightly", only on 8, etc.). After trying it out a few times, I then unleashed the music on them, starting with myself. During the first class, I clapped the beat the whole time (few students followed my lead), and for the second class, I encouraged students to vocally count for the others. The first class actually had more success keeping to 8 beats/person, while the second class had a few restarts with individuals. Overall, students had a blast. When it was all over, I asked what happened to the song, and students noted that not only did it speed up, but the "ding" disappeared after a while.
1-2 Tie My Shoe	Do the pantomime without words twice. Instead of "Big Fat Hen" sign "do it again" until the end. After 2 silent rounds, immediately fall into two spoken (and gestured) rounds, ending in "Big Fat Hen." Introduce sign language (1-10, "do", "again")
This turned out to be pretty good. Students more or less knew the rhyme, except none of course expected "do it again". I thought the change would keep the students' attention a bit better, and "Big Fat Hen" sounded rather silly anyway (although it provided a way to end the chant enthusiastically). Students did pick up the signs reasonably well (a few knew how to count to 10 in sign), and having them count silently from 1 to 10 turned out to be a useful tool in the morning class (read on).
Tony Chestnut	Teach song via rote, then add movement.
The first class knew the whole basic song, and then they knew the extension ("and his sister Eileen..."), and the teacher offered to attach her laptop to the boombox in the music room and have the class do the entire song (both slow and fast), which I permitted. While struggling with the cabling, the students became chatty, and that's where having them sign in silence 1 to 10 helped a lot. (They were soooo focused!) The second class go to learn the song from scratch, and only in that class did I go over all of the movements, first slow, then fast. One did not have to go that quickly to (1) confuse the students, and (2) confuse me!
Deep and Wide	Teach by immersion (it's so short!), and add motion.
I only had enough time to do this in the second class (the full Tony Chestnut is long!). This was darned easy to teach. In retrospect, I probably could have used real ASL for "river", but as that is a two-part sign, it may have made the song awkward. Anyhow, I want to use this as an inner hearing exercise, so I'll have to be sure to have the first class cover it next week.

Overall, the class went well, but I know I can't use "Highway Number One" every week. Having the teacher participate in the first class was a huge plus, esp. since she has to be a disclipliinarian for her class far more often than the other teacher. I'll have to find more backpocket songs.