Teaching Notes, 20101110

This week, I really wanted to get the students dancing again, which sort of meant Agadu or I would have had to find something else. I also wanted to do something different for an entry, as I felt I was reusing and overusing the same material for starter songs.

Flight of the Bumblebee (McFerrin/Ma)	Lead class quickly while listening
I led the class in (seated in stadium arrangement, which appears to be my favorite alignment), and quickly had them sit down and listen. While the song was still playing, I asked the students what they heard, and eventually in both classes someone thought they were hearing a fly or a bee. I then asked them what instruments they heard - most commented that they heard some sort of stringed instrument. I then asked them to try to pick out some other "instrument" - which of course was supposed to be the voice of Bobby McFerrin. Only after a lot of guesses did one student in only one of the classes figure it out.
Staff Exercises	Write out clefs again, review scale
We hadn't reviewed the staff and scale for a while, so I decided to do this again, even though it sort of sucks the momentum out of the class. Students seemed to remember reasonably well the notes up to La. I then introduced Ti and the upper Do. I then talked about the octave, its significance, and how there were 8 notes inclusive between the ends of the octave. I spent a little bit of time trying to get the students to match my pitch with each note sang, and I felt that I only achieved moderate success here; some students started getting bored when I kept walking around with a single pitch. There was also a lot of cacophony when I tried to have the students do the octave jump.
Agadu	Teach motions, dance to song
So, the one big thing I learned from last week was not to introduce "Agadu", at least by name; it's too risky and leads to crazy giggling. So, instead, I just had the students copy my motions. I first did the hand motions a few times in no real order, and the I did them in the order of the song. I then started doing them while counting to 4 for each measure - however, there is a rest on the 8th beat, and so I intentionally whispered "4" when we reached that note. I figured I wouldn't talk much about rests until we spent more time on rhythms (i.e. another day). When it was time to introduce the 2nd half/form of Agadu, I was going to have the students walk back and forth - but first, I had the students remember where they started. (Note to self: also make sure that no one's too close to a wall - it'll save unfortunate accidents later!) After walking forward (clap) and walking backwards (clap), I stopped the students and had them look where they ended up. Most were nowhere near their starting spot, and so I had them reset. The walking pattern I used was forward-back-forward-back-left-right, followed by two measures of just getting back to the starting spot. It was finally time to do this to music, and when the music started, I could tell that some students were amused and intrigued by the tunes, and so I had to be very deliberate in my motions in order to keep the students' attention. The song is pretty fast, and so I had to keep announcing moves when it was time to walk and clap. Agadu has a weird cut near the end of the song where the 2nd form only lasts 4 measures instead of 8, and reintroduces the 1st form with a long "aaaaagaaaaaadu", and so I had to tell the students to listen for an unexpected change. We ended up going through the song twice. Upon finishing the song the 2nd time, I asked the students if anyone knew what language it was. I really didn't expect any of them to know, and so I didn't tell them the answer, asking them to think about it for the next class.

I conquered Agadu! Yay! Ultimately, the classes do respond very well with motion, and it seemed easier to teach motion before accompaniment; when the music was going, many of the students were able to sense the beat anyway.

Teaching Notes, 20101103

The school where I teach is on a year-round schedule, and so I had a 3 week break, during which I did absolutely nothing towards planning lessons. Because I was going to teach songs in parts, I arranged the class in the stadium arrangement (4 lines facing forward).

Hello World	Lead class while singing the song, sing in parts
I led the class in, singing the chorus; it took two iterations to get a class fully into the room. I then led the class to sing the first stanza, which I had prewritten on the board. After finishing the song with another iteration of the chorus, I then split the class into left and right halves so that they answered each other for each line of the stanza. We practiced it once, and then I recorded the song sung this way (including the chorus, which I continued to lead) on my laptop. I then played the song back to the students. The one thing I noticed is that with a split the volume is much lower, and so I had to remind the students to sing loudly. As expected, the students got a thrill hearing their voices on the playback.
Seasons	Teach, the split class and sing
This song ("Hey Ho, Fall is Here...") is something I used extensively last year in my 2nd grade classes, and as I had yet to do a song about the seasons, I figured I'd use this here. I had prewritten the song on the board, with the 1st and last lines colored blue, the 2nd line colored red and green, and the 3rd line color orange. (Well, at least, those are the colors that I can remember as I type.) I first had the class sing through (taught by rote), and then I had the class split up the 2nd line. Next, I had the two back lines sing the 3rd line. This provided a minor challeange to some of the students, since some ended up singing either half on, half off, then full on, and some sang half on and full on. The students were able to get the pattern after a couple of tries. I then switched things up; the 2nd line was split in the opposite direction, and I had the front two lines sing the 3rd line. Piece of cake - yet still fun for the students.

Believe it or not, that was it. I was hoping to do Agadu, and in the first class, I managed to try to get the students to recite the word "Agadu", and I was met with a sea of giggles, especially when I said "Agadu-du-du". Silly 4th graders.

I was also hoping to review the staff and intervals, but alas there was no time. The one thing I did discover from today's lesson: a 3-week layoff translates to a rusty voice, particularly when trying to sing in the upper registers.