Teaching Notes, 20100208

Two days before my class this week (on 2/7), I attended a Kodaly workshop taught by Sanna Longden, and it was fantastic. The workshop involved all movement-based activities, and since I haven't historically had a lot of movement in my lessons this year, I thought I'd try out some of the workshop items in my lesson. Fortunately, there were some songs that were appropriate for both Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day.

Gongxi Ni	Teach some of the movements of the dance, then have students enter dancing to the music.
I had the students practice the 3-step pattern outside before walking in. Then, I had the students walk to a shortened (less than 1 minute) version of Gongxi Ni (also known as Kungshi Ni), just focusing on the 3-step pattern and the hand motion during "Gong Xi". I then talked a little bit about the significance of Gong Xi and Chinese New Year. During the first class, I even had the class repeat Happy New Year in Mandarin. I then split the class into two circles, and added the rotations along with the face-to-face Gong Xi motions. I had the students do this again to the shortened version of the song. Finally, I had students move to the left upon the second half of the Gong Xi's. The students in the first class really struggled with the step to the left, as students weren't lining up quite correctly. Students also had trouble consistently going to the left, and people were left without partners. During the second class, I tried to get around this by having only the outer circle move, but I still had to remind the students that the purpose wasn't just to take step to the left, but it was to find another partner.
L-O-V-E (Nat King Cole)	Quickly review the song
I asked the students if they had remembered a Valentine's Day song from the previous class, and only a few remembered. I then dove right into the song, and only perhaps half of the class really felt like singing this. Because of time, I didn't even try this song in the second class.
Heel, Toe, Down The Line	Immerse students into the song and dance
This was one of the Valentine's Day activities that Sanna Longden taught. It allowed me to talk a little about another country (Germany), and I consequently introduced the class to two German words (Ya!, Nein!) The dance is very easy to teach, and with the premade circle, it became even easier. I did have to remind the students to stay fully outside the circle unless a turn was being made, as this wasn't a double-circle anymore. The students really had a lot of fun with this, and it was really so simple to teach. Students in both classes asked to keep doing this. While I had to eventually stop, there was room for improvement, in my opinion, as I always had to stop briefly after each iteration so that people could line up. I think I can revisit this again, and try to drive the song continuously without any interruption between iterations.
Ee Yay Yay	Teach song, teach Rock, Paper Scissors, get into trains and try the game
This was another Sanna Longden idea, and I thought it would work out well, but it seems like it's better suited for a multiweek teaching. I all but abandoned trying to teach the song to the students explicitly, and instead, I just sang the tune over and over again when it seemed appropriate. Just about everyone knew how to play Rock, Paper, Scissor. I drew up the diagram on the board to show what sign trumped what sign, and then I taught the students how to say the three items in Mandarin. I noted to the first class that in Mandarin, people actually say "Scissor, Rock, Paper" instead; in the second class, there were plenty of students who already knew how to say the game's name in Mandarin, but few realized that the ordering wasn't "Rock, Paper, Scissor." After having the students play the game in pairs twice, I then assembled the students into four trains, and had them walk around while I sang the song. In both classes, the students walked around the circle, rather than walk in any arbitrary direction. I also realized that I really skipped some instructional steps, as after RPS was played, all of the students tried to "find another train", instead of having just the leads of the train search. I do think this is worth revisiting, even though Chinese New Year will be over by the next class. One thing I never got to do was mention several other different names (in different languages) for the RPS game.

Because today's lesson involved paired circle motion early, I didn't use the mats this week; instead, I used the ropes that I used for the life-sized musical staff and produce a circle that way. It provided a very clear barrier between the two circles.

One thing that I realized today was that pair activity is really hard to pull off when you have an odd number of students, even if I fill in for one of the students. It would be easier to try to pull in the teacher in such cases, but it does require teachers who are ready to participate alongside their students.

Unlike the previous week, the 2nd class struggled mightily with paying attention; there seemed to be a lot more chatter than usual, and it led to a lot more distractions and less progress than I had hoped. I do intend on revisiting the material (and it would be a minimum of two weeks in between iterations as the following week is a holiday), and hopefully I'll have better success the second time around, especially with the 2nd class.

I didn't do any Chinese New Year material, and I'm pretty grateful for having gone through the Kodaly workshop. Otherwise, it might have been all Valentine's Day material again.

Teaching Notes, 20100201

The previous day was the Red Grammer concert, and frankly, I felt that the class still had some reasonable momentum on some Red Grammer songs, so I felt that it would be ok to continue on the RG thread. I also debated whether or not those students who attended the concert would think I was just just copying RG, but I thought that that risk would be outweighed by having some students already familiarized a bit with the songs that I was trying to present. That said, I wasn't going to do another 100% RG class.

Hello World (Red Grammer)	Entrance song, stop students after one round of the chorus, and then have students echo the first verse
The last time I opened a class with this song, I didn't really spend a whole lot of time on the first stanza, and so this time I explicitly had the students echo each line of the stanza, similar to what RG did during his show. I sang along with my guitar this time around. The first class for some strange reason was extremely low on energy, and the lethargy appeared to extend throughout most of the class. The one thing that I feel that could have changed here was to sing Hello World not on the recorded key (C), but higher. For the second class, I moved the song up to G, which had me singing pretty high, but it brought the song up in the children's ranges. I think I've trained the kids not to match octave, which is a little too bad, since it'll mean a lot more adjustment for me, but the energy difference is worth it.
Jenny Jenkins (Lisa Loeb version)	Teach the tongue twister, then iterate through some colors and students to teach the song
I had the tongue twister ("I'll buy me a foldy roldy... to find me") prewritten on the board, and I spent a minute or so teaching it spoken to the class, and then with the melody to it. I then asked some volunteers to say or sing it as fast as he/she could, which was a bit of fun. Then, I mentioned how this was a song, and I just dove into the song with a color that someone was wearing. I managed to exhaust the colors of the room after about 5-6 kids, and I even got to improvise with a few colors not found in the Lisa Loeb version of the song. For the second class, I used the teacher as a prop, but I goofed by singing the other class' teacher's name instead. Whoops. In all, this song was pretty successful, and it really engaged both classes.
Ukulele Introduction	Show uke, demo a song or two
Before I brought out the uke, I quizzed the class with a few review questions about the guitar (think physics!), and then I brought out the ukulele for everyone to see. For the second class, I carried the ukulele around the room, letting each child strum the instrument once (and only once). We then talked about the differences between the two instruments (size, strings, etc.). I then talked about how ukulele means a jumping flea in Hawaiian, and how there were a lot of Hawaiian-sounding songs like...
Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Iz version)	Dive right into the song while playing ukulele
One of my stretch goals is to have the class be able to sing Over The Rainbow, but in the style of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I guess that's more than just a stretch, but I do have another 4 months or so left to go. Anyhow, I just went right into the song, which had some students chuckling. A few recognized the song as a tune from the Wizard of Oz. I only sang the first 8 lines (ending in "Dreams really do come true"), and that led to a quizzed look on some kids' faces; one asked the obvious question, "why doesn't that rhyme?" I gave a sort-of made up answer there; I didn't really know why it was different. One of my stretch goals is to have the class be able to sing Over The Rainbow, but in the style of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I guess that's quite the stretch, but I do have a few months left in the year.
Oh My Goodness, Look At This Mess (Sweet Honey in the Rock)	Dive right into the chorus, have the students repeat the chorus only when I sang a stanza or two
I transitioned to this song by noting that my room was always really messy with the multitude of instruments at home. I then sang the chorus and I proceeded to teach the class by rote. I only got through two different stanzas, and the students only partially got into singing the chorus, although the students seemed intrigued by the song.. I didn't go beyond two stanzas.
L-O-V-E (Nat King Cole)	Teach song, use ASL for letters and some simple signs.
This song was pretty effective with my 1st graders last year, but similar to Tuwe Tuwe, for some reason success last year didn't translate as well for this year. Some students seemed to like it, but few sang along with it, even with the lyrics. Both classes were so disinterested that I had to remind them to sit up straight and give their bodies room for the air before trying the song again.
Wimoweh (Red Grammer)	Teach students the 1st and 3rd parts of RG's version of Wimoweh, have students sing both part simultaneously.
This was completely inspired by Red Grammer's show - get the students to sing 3 parts simultaneously while the leader sings the most recognizable part of the song. I only wanted to cover the 1st and 3rd parts since they are both pretty repetitive, whereas the 2nd part ("way up, boys") has rests interspersed and could lead to momentum loss or rhythm chaos. Getting the students to all sing part 1 ("Wimoweh") was pretty easy, and most recognized the song from the Lion King after they started singing it. For the first class, I split approximately half of the class and taught (only) them part 3, which led to some grumblings ("I want to do the other part!") from the kids. I also noticed that it was hard to get both parts singing together. For the second class, I used my ukulele, which appeared to really get the kids going, and made it remarkably easier to maintain a steady beat/meter. I then only had about a quarter of the class move onto part 3 - still got some grumbles, but I tempered them by noting to the majority of the class that the 1st part was the most important part, as it set the tone and speed for the other part(s). With the uke, I was able to get the class to sing both parts pretty well. I didn't have any additional time to do anything else, and so I sort of left them hanging, but they, especially the 2nd class, appeared very interested in extending the song at a later class.

The 2nd class this week was a lot more responsive than the first, and I can't really explain why. Last year, I consistently was able to get through more material successfully with the 2nd class, but I chalked that up to adjustments made in between classes, but this year both classes were usually pretty similar in success, until today.

I left a lot of extendable material for next week, and so I hope I'll be able to extend them during the next few classes to come. (My lesson plans are already half-done! Yay!) The next week's class is the week before both Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year, and so I hope to be able to do more material relevant to both events; that will probably include redoing Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E.

MFM benefit featuring Red Grammer, 20100131

Each year, MFM, particularly board members and Linden Tree Books, sponsors a MFM benefit concert. This year, that concert was on 1/31 and featured Red Grammer. (That's why my last two concerts were so RG heavy.)

I had 6 of my students interested in going up on stage with RG to sing two songs, "Teaching Peace" and "I Think You're Wonderful", and while only 5 of them showed up on the day of the concert, it was a great experience for the kids. Now, I was not only there as the teacher for the students, I had also brought my own 4.5 year old son to the concert.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have been all that surprised, but my son really thought he was going on stage too with the 2nd graders. Since I practice a lot of my material on him, he knew the songs probably better than some of the 2nd graders, so up on the stage he went (think: one of these is not like the others..."), while wearing his Spiderman cape. (He is 4, after all.) But, he was quite the trooper/performer, and I think his presence up there entertained Red quite well.

Red Grammer is quite the artist. As a children's musician, he was very effective in singing songs that either most children already knew ("Somewhere Over the Rainbow") without diving into what I would normally call McNursery Rhymes (like "Old MacDonald"), or introducing songs that would easily engage the children (Down By The Sea, 2 Hands, etc.). Red's teaching style is awesome, and he had enormous energy (as one would expect). The only time that Red sang something that wasn't necessarily pedagogical was during one of his last songs, when he sang a very beautiful yet poignant song celebrating the life of his late wife, whom he referred to earlier in the program and who he revealed had passed about a year ago. That really brought a hush to the crowd, especially from the parents.

In all, the concert was awesome, enough for me to keep tabs on the next time he's performing in California (which appears to be about once a year). You can see pictures from the concert here.

Teaching Notes, 20100125

We're back from MLK day! The Red Grammer MFM benefit concert was 6 days away, so I figured I might try an all-Red Grammer class, even though the previous attempt to inject Red Grammer into the classroom didn't go quite as planned. I still wanted to provide some non-RG structure around the class, so I figured I'd add some theory elements to the class. Before the class started, I drew a 5 horizontal lines meant to be used as a staff, and hid some other surprises behind some boards. (Read on!)

Down by the Sea (Red Grammer)	Entrance song - have students follow me in motions around the room to the song
It was a cold day, and Down By The Sea is all about being on the beach, so I had the students, before entering the classroom from the outdoors, pretend and/or wish that they were on a warm beach. I then had them do the first few motions (in retrospect, it's much more effective to have practiced at least up to "Hot, Hot") outside before running in, starting the music, then re-greeting them at the door and leading them in. Similar to previous classes, I picked a volunteer student to hold the door so that I could do the leading, and that appears to be working out very well. Down By The Sea was a song that I thought would be a little to simple for 2nd graders, but they still appeared to enjoy it. I know that I don't add as much motion as I'd like to, and so perhaps this was simply the students liking a motion activity.
I Think You're Wonderful (Red Grammer)	Review song, teach the chorus
I quickly reviewed the chorus of the song, and had the students sing it twice. This was a pretty simple exercise, which then led easily to the next exercise...
Musical Staff, La	Use pieces of I Think You're Wonderful to introduce "La" and review the use/features of the staff
With Wonderful still fresh in the students' minds, I quickly pointed to the lines and asked what they were. Without a clef marker, they were just lines, and the first class identified that correctly. After adding the clef, I then fast forwarded to the last note - where we marked 'Do' right at C on the staff (upper). I then jumped back to the the start of the song (I asked the students to immediately sing the first part of the song again), and noted how we didn't start on Do - but instead we started on 'Mi'. I had a bit of fun splitting the class where half sang the last word ("Too" on Do), and the other half sang the first word ("I" on Mi); we were a bit of a doorbell for a bit. I then jumped again to the 3rd line, which goes up then down. (Amusingly, "Me" was not 'Mi', but instead it was "Fa" on the staff.) I then noted how some students were singing "Me" higher instead of lower than the preceding word ("To"), and so I tried to show how that note was off the staff. I then introduced "La". How convenient! I then split the class again with half of the class singing "To" on Fa, and the other half on La - it sort of worked, and when I pointed one hand up, one hand down, I think the students understood what was going on. This whole exercise had me repeat pieces of the song starting at various points in the chorus, as if I was a tape player with a rewind button. I think it was surprisingly effective as a tool to teach elements of the staff, as well as getting the students maximum exposure to the song, as most sang along with me with each snippet, however short. When I was done, I had the class sing the song again one last time. It sounded pretty good.
There's a Hole In the Bottom of the Sea (Red Grammer)	Immerse students into song, build as the song goes on.
This is a really good aggregation song. I started with the first line on a board "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea", and I had the students read it. (Only a few knew right away what the song was.) Before the class, however, I had written on a board to the left of the board with the line a concatenation of all of the other items that the song referred to, with each item (e.g. "log", "bump", etc.) written in a different color. This other board was to the left of the first board and initially obscured by the board with the staff. And so, when it was time to introduce a new part of the aggregation, I simply moved the staff board to the left a few inches. Students love revealing surprises beneath boards, and so the excitement grew after each stanza singing. By the time we had finished the regular part of the song, I took suggestions on how to extend the song, and we added two more items for each class. This song provided a nice time to remind students to manage their air (sit up, take a deep breath, etc.) in order to say the whole line in one breath. I did not do what Red Grammer does at the end of the song ("break the branch..."), and I just ended with the hole in the sea. I originally thought about using the guitar for this song, but stopped short of doing so. It probably would have been too much of a distraction.
Teaching Peace (Red Grammer)	Teach song by rote in lines, then have the students march to the song.
Teaching Peace was a song that I knew students would be asked to sing alongside Red Grammer, so I tried to squeeze this one in, although I was arguably running out of time for both classes. I taught the song quickly, and then had the students march in a circle whenever the chorus was being sung. During the stanzas, I had the students walk in and out of the center of the circle (some students tried to collide, reminiscent of the Zemer Atik dance), just so that they weren't just standing around. Around the sound off, I had the students reverse course and then line up to the front of the classroom.
Hello World (Red Grammer)	Sing as a goodbye song
Originally, I was going to sing this as the entry song before I settled on using Down By The Sea, but Hello World works just as well as an exit song with a few minor modifications (e.g. "hope to see you again" or "so have a good day"). I had time for this song only in the second class, which was a bit of a bummer, since I was sure that Red Grammer would sing Hello World (in its original form) during his concert.

This was a lot more successful than the previous class that was Red Grammer heavy. I felt pretty good that I was able to pull off 5 different songs from RG in the second class, and even with only 4, both classes felt like they were appropriately paced. If I had more time, I even had Wimoweh (another RG classic) ready to go.