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).