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.