Teaching Notes, 20111201 (2nd class)

During the previous class (2 weeks ago), we actually had a very good class, and I wanted to extend what we had accomplished during that day. At the same time, I had only 3 more week before the winter break, and so it was time to try to pull off something that was holiday-related.

I also wanted to introduce some instrument usage, and so I had the students sitting in two lines; similar to the other class, as the students walked into the room, they

Hello, World	Review song, introduce stanza
The last time we did this, the students simply echoed the stanza back to me, and I didn't have the lyrics written anywhere. This time, I had the lyrics of the stanza pre-written on the board, in alternating colors. We practiced the stanza first (1) by echo, and (2) together; after singing the stanza together, I fell back to the chorus. (I also took the time to remind the students about the terms "stanza" and "chorus".) I then split the class in two, with the front line of students reading the odd lines and the back line responding with the even-numbered lines. The students sang quite well, and then we ended the song with the chorus.
Sarasponda	Review the song, add motions
Before we got into Sarasponda, I had read about some intervals that could be used as warmup, and so I tried them on the students; they were Do-Mi-Sol-Sol-Mi-Do, Sol-Fa-Mi-Re-Do, Sol-La-Sol. That was actually a little bit difficult to pull off without going through the Solfege scale quickly one time, as the students didn't seem to realize that Do-Mi was a jump. It took a while for the students to get used to the intervals, and I realize that I need to spend more time practicing intervals. I introduced the song quickly by having the students echo me for the first two lines. Before we continued with the song, I then asked the class what the song was about. Sarasponda is of course a nonsense word, but it was supposed to sound like a spinning wheel, and so we talked about the song and how it was a song about those sounds. (I threw in the word "onomatopoeia", but it didn't sound like a lot of students knew what it meant.) When singing the start of each of the first two lines ("Sarasponda…"), I had the students move their arms in circles in front of them (with the axis parallel to their shoulders), as if they were simulating the movement of a spinning wheel. During the 2nd lines, they pretended they were pulling thread from the wheel, so they reached out in front of them, and pretended to pull with one of their hands. For the last line, the students were done spinning, so they were to brush their hands together as if to signal that they were done. And finally, we continued to clap during "Ret Set Set" for that was when the students were tapping the spindle. The movements did add some more life to the song, and I think the students appreciated it a bit more. I do have to say that this year's attempt at Sarasponda was a lot more effective than last year's, and I think I spread out the additions a bit better this time around.
Bells, Tambourines, and patterns	Introduce bells, tambourines, and written rhythmic patterns
Similar to the previous class, I introduced the bells to the class, and we talked about the construction of the bells, the sounds, and proper ways to play them. Eventually, I handed off the bells to the front line of the class. We spent 3 iterations trying to play (or clap, for the back line) them all at once, on cue. But this time, instead of practicing much more with only bells, I quickly stopped to pass out tambourines to the back line. (I realize now that unlike past classes, I haven't been singing quick songs while I've been passing the instruments out. Whoops.) After talking a bit about playing the instruments in more than one way, and practicing playing a single tap/strike together, I then proceeded to write a line on the board representing our single tap. I got the students to follow a verbal 4-count, and then we played the single tap. Next, I wrote another vertical line, and we practiced playing two hits in beat after a 4-count. Next was the continuous shake, which I represented with a squiggle ("~"). We practiced a few times playing ||~ for a bit, and quickly I expanded the pattern to ||~ ||~ |||| ~|. I didn't go into the number of beats, or how the ~ lasted twice as long; I just had them play along with me. We sped up the pattern more and more, until we were ready for our next surprise…
Jingle Bells	Sing the song while playing the instruments
I told the class that I'd be singing something shortly, and that they could sing along if they could figure out what the song was, but otherwise, they had to keep playing their instruments. Of course, once I broke into Jingle Bells, everyone started to sing. I kept playing a tambourine myself while gesturing to the board, and the students kept up as well. Total Fun!

We ended the day with Goodbye my Friends Goodbye, and even though the students have heard that tune many a time, they were quite happy to sing it as they lined up to exit.

With the success of the instruments, I'll likely bring them again at least one more time before the holiday break. I will also want to spend more time going over the different kinds of notes, durations, and the concept of the rest.

Teaching Notes, 20111201 (1st class)

This is the first class after Thanksgiving, and because I was out of town during the full week before Thanksgiving (and the teacher and I weren't able to schedule a makeup class that fit both of our schedules), it was again a long block of time since my last class with these students (3 weeks). Plus, this first class of 3rd graders were now another week behind my other class.

I have only 3 classes (including this one) before winter break, and so I though I'd include some holiday cheer, along with some instrument play. Thus, I had the students sit in two lines. What was interesting and unintended was after leading in the first batch of students along the front lines, and as I led the other half of the class to the back lines, the front students turned towards me, and so I had two lines of students facing each other. That could indeed be a useful technique if I decided to do some partner dancing involving a large line.

Hello World	Revisit the chorus of the song
I started singing Hello World with my guitar, but the response from the students was lukewarm at best. I don't know if it was because the students were coming straight from lunch/PE, or they just weren't into it, but after singing through the chorus, I had the students sit up straight, and we tried singing again, this time to a bit more success. After we finished singing, we talked a bit about how for every instrument, there are always at least two ways to play it. I asked the students if they noticed that I was doing something other than strumming the guitar, and a few noticed that I tapped the instrument at some point in the song.
Hello My Friends	Revisit song, add Korean
Similar to what I had done with the other class a few weeks ago, I had pre-printed the lyrics, one language per sheet, and created a vertical lyric sheet by taping the sheets together, in language order. We sang through the languages we had previously covered, and then I presented them with Korean. (Previously, someone from the class asked for Korean, and so voila - there it was.) I asked if anyone knew how to read it (안녕, 내 친구/annyeong nae chingu) and indeed two students knew what it said and what it meant. To help out the class, I had printed out the English transliteration of the words, and we practiced as a class saying the words together. We then sang the stanza in Korean. I didn't do the coda walk up the language chain this time around; I figured again that I'd just plow on ahead with new material.
Do Re Mi	Review the scale, then the song, then add dynamics
I had the scale of 7 chairs already set up in the front of the room, and I quickly reviewed the notes and hand signs. (The students even now aren't really picking up the hand signs, but I continue to do them.) After a quick run up and down the scale, I then had the class sing the Do Re Mi song while I put out the preprinted caricatures of each note (the same ones I've used in past classes). We then broke to talk about dynamics. I introduced the terms forte and piano to the students, and rather than just tell them what they meant, I asked how they felt when we spoke each word in a way that was either strong or soft. Someone had asked about Italian during Hello My Friends, and I was happy to let the class know that forte and piano were indeed Italian (and not Spanish). We then repeated the song twice while I held up a sign that either said FORTE or piano. The students had a ton of fun with this.
Bells and Tambourines	Introduce the instruments, get students to play simple rhythms
I took out a bell ring, and immediately I was met with ahhhs, oohs, and a lot of children telling me that they knew what I had. We talked about the material of the bells, and how they had to hold it without touching the metal. Keeping with the theme of playing an instrument in two different ways, I showed them that you can give bells a strong single shake, or you can do a continuous shake. I passed out the bells to the front line of students, and I had them practice playing together by having the students watch my hands; with one hand raised I lowered the hand, and asked the students to shake their bells when one hand passed the other. We practiced this a few times. I tried having them shake twice using this method, and it got messy very quickly, and so I had the students start playing two or three beats after I gave them a 4-beat count. At this point, I passed out tambourines to the back row, again illustrating how the instrument could be played in multiple ways. On the whiteboard, I drew one vertical line, and we practiced all playing bells or tambourines with a single hit or shake after a verbal 4-count. I then drew a second line, and we played instruments twice, in beat, after a verbal 4-count. After that, I then drew a squiggle, and asked the student what that meant; a few realized that it was going to be the "other" way to play their instruments, i.e. a longer shake. With the ||~ pattern, the students would shake pretty long, and so I had to motion to cut them off after two beats of the continuous shake. I then started writing more patterns until I generated ||~ ||~ ||~ ||~ ||~ ||~ |||| ~~ We practiced this sequence, and each time I sped up the tempo more and more, because for the last time, we sang…
Jingle Bells	Play instruments while singing the chorus
I didn't tell the class in advance what we were really singing, but I did tell them that if (and only if) they knew what I was singing, they could sing along. And, with a 4-count (more like 1,2, 1,2,3,4) , we were off! The students of course knew the song after the first two words, and we all sang together, while playing the sequence twice through. Instant success.
Donut Song	Sing the Donut song, have students step/clap to rhythm and answer with the final words
I first had the students do a stomp, stomp, stompstomp, clap pattern, which I taught Simon-style (adding one action each iteration). I then proceeded to sing the song, breaking in the middle to ask the students what a 5-cent piece was. Before I started the song, though, I did warn the students that they had a two-syllable part ("good bye"), and that they had to figure out when to sing it. I ended the song with the shave-and-a-haircut tune of "thanks for the donut", but no one chimed in. Whoops. That's ok - I sang that last line one more time, and the students got it.

The students did wonderfully! This class historically had the toughest time trying to stay focused, but this time the students, especially after getting a chance to play the instruments, were very well focused. It was a welcome surprise for me, and perhaps I'll just have to teach more classes with instruments!

Teaching Notes, 20111115 (2nd class)

For this particular week, I had to hold my classes at an alternate time and day because I wasn't going to be in town during my regular day. I only managed to teach one of my two classes, and the one class happened to be the 2nd of the two 3rd grade classes, which means that the 1st class was going to fall behind even more.

The music room wasn't available during this day, and so I held class in the students' regular classroom - this was actually the first time I ever held class in a room other than the music room, at any school. As a result, the students didn't have to walk into the room, and they ended up sitting in a grid near the front of the classroom.

Hello, World	Review song, introduce stanza
With guitar in hand, I sang the song with the students, and simply went right into the the stanza following the chorus. I had the students echo the stanza back to me, and finally we sang the chorus again. I didn't want to spend too much time on the song, so we moved on.
Hello My Friends	Review the song, add Korean
I had pre-printed out the lyrics to Hello My Friends in all of the languages, one language per sheet, and I had the papers taped together vertically in sequence. We sang through the languages that we had covered before. And then, I had Korean attached as the last sheet; the words were printed in Korean, and when I asked if the students could read it, they were a little dumbfounded. But I had also printed on the opposite side an English transliteration of the words ("annyeong nae chingu"), allowing the students to read and sing in Korean! After practicing the Korean lyrics, we then sang through the stanza in Korean, followed by ending the song up the language chain as we've done in past classes.
Seasons	Review the song and practice singing in parts
Similar to the previous song, I had also pre-printed the lyrics to Seasons (fall version), and hung the lyrics on the board. The lyrics were printed with each line in a different color, which then allowed me to split the class into first two portions, and eventually 3 parts (left, right, back). After a while, the students really started having a lot of fun with this as I varied who sang which part.
Sarasponda	Teach by rote, talk about the lyrics and song
I was never really able to teach this last year, and so I really looked forward to teaching this to the students. I emphasized how the students had to really watch me and what I was saying. I had the students also clap to "ret set set", something that I felt kept the song interesting as the words are otherwise nonsense. We eventually were able to sing through the entire song, while clapping to those three words every time. I'll definitely work on the song later in the year; we didn't even talk about what the song was about much.

We ended the day with Goodbye My Friends Goodbye, and out of the room I went.

I thought the class went pretty well despite not being in the normal room. I did actually spend a little bit of time talking about music without instruments (as we were without our usual assortment of instruments), and I ended up playing a few songs on my laptop (and its tiny speakers) that involved mostly a capella music. One of the songs ("Crayola Doesn't Make a Color") seend pretty interesting to some of the students, and so I might teach that song to the class formally later in the year.

Teaching Notes, 20111110 (2nd class)

Similar to my first class, I knew I was going to do a lot of review as it had been 5 weeks since we had our last music class.

Hello My Friends	Review the song and the coda
I led the students while singing the song already, and most of the students were singing by the end of the English section. The students were all in the room by the time I moved to French, and eventually I had them sing through the Chinese version. I then quickly asked the students what "coda" and the previously established coda sign meant, and a few students were able to remember. We then sang the Chinese lines once more, ending with the coda that had us move back up the language chain up to English.
Well Enough Said… About That	Review the call and answer, practice a few times
About a 3rd of the class remembered how to respond to Well Enough Said, but I still reviewed the call-and-answer, including varying the pitch, speed, and volume of the call. Just like the students of first class, these students found the variations to be a fun game.
Guitar Introduction	Talk about the guitar, and compare it to the ukulele
Unlike the first class, I talked a bit about the guitar first before singing a song with the guitar. We spent some time comparing the guitar to the ukulele, and we had a lively discussion about the larger and louder guitar.
Hello World	Sing chorus w/ guitar
After the guitar discussion ended, I immediately had the students echo me while I sang the lead half of the chorus to Hello World. We sang through the chorus twice, and the students kept up reasonably well.
Do Re Mi	Review the notes up and down the scale, review song, add dynamics
We reviewed the 8 notes of the octave (and I had to re-introduce the term "octave" to the students in the process), and then we sang the Do-Re-Mi song. During the second iteration, I didn't sing the regular words, but sang "Do" for 8 bars while the students sang the Do lyrics. I did the same for Re, Mi, and Fa. For Sol, I sang 4 bars of Sol and 4 bars of La, and I did something similar for La and Ti. After the 2nd iteration, I paused to teach the students the terms "forte" and "piano", and I referenced back to the volume changing "Well Enough Said" responses. I had written "F" and "P" on sheets of paper (which happened to be my lesson notes), and then I had the students sing Do-Re-Mi while I held up one of the signs. The students definitely had a good time with that.
Rattlin' Can	Immerse students into the song, with the prop can
This song is probably more fun than instruction, but the students do get a chance to sing what could be a pretty deep aggregation song. I used the same prop "rattling can" that I used last year, and we just dove right into the song. By the 3rd stanza ("in the bag there was a bottle"), I had nearly the entire class singing the chorus, and probably half of the students sort of figured out how to sing the stanzas so long as they knew what the next item was. By the time I got to bubbles, I stopped and asked the students what made up bubbles (their answer: air). I also later asked students what was in air (their answer: oxygen). We finished the song there. I did ask the students what was in oxygen, and none really could provide a good answer. I left that question to them as a "homework" assignment. :)
Donut Song	Have students march in beat and respond at the end
I wanted to see if the students remembered how the Donut Song ended again, but this time, I had the students do a step/clap pattern, where the first four steps were quarter, quarter, eighth, eighth, and followed by a clap for the last beat. I introduced the step/clap pattern one motion at a time, and the students found this to be like a game of Simon. I had the students do the pattern in the circle for a bit, and then, while leading the students back near the front of the class (as if they were lining up to leave), I started singing the song. Unfortunately, no one remembered what to do when I sang "thanks for the donut". Doh! Well, it was a good try.

Similar to the 1st class, I found myself needing to readjust my starting pitches, as I found myself going far too high, especially with the Donut Song. I have to plan out starting pitches a bit better in the future.

Teaching Notes, 20111110 (1st class)

And, we're back! This was actually the week *after* school had resumed after the break because I was home with an ill child during the previous week.

I knew I would have to spend a lot of time doing review since it had been 5 weeks since our previous class, and so I tried to do as much review as possible. This class also featured for the first time the regular teacher, and that (perhaps combined with the fact that we hadn't had music class for so long), the class was better behaved this time around.

Hello World	Teach song w/ guitar
Rather than start again with Hello My Friends Hello, I figured I lead off with the song that I used a lot last year as an intro song. As the students were entering the room and finding their seat, I was happily strumming my guitar for them in a variety of different chords. I received a number of oohs from students as they were focusing on my guitar. I had the students sing the song along with me; Hello World is a great echo song, and so it was an easy song to sing. I only sang the chorus, as then I stopped to talk about the guitar.
Guitar Introduction	Talk about the guitar, and compare it to the ukulele
After finishing the chrous of Hello World, we talked a bit about the guitar and how it was similar or different from the ukulele. Students picked out the obvious things (size, number of strings, construction, resonating hole/chamber), and that allowed me to talk about other musical concepts that we've covered before (sound wants space, longer = lower, etc.). I let the students strum the guitar strings once as I walked around the circle, and again we talked about how the metal strings felt a lot different than the plastic ukulele strings. After a few minutes of discussion, we sang again the chorus of Hello World.
Well Enough Said… About That	Review the call and answer, practice a few times
I first blurted out "Well Enough Said" and only one student responded, quite meekly. I then reviewed quickly the call and response, and practiced it once. In order to emphasize that I was expecting a good response, I asked the class what they were supposed to do if I sang "Well Enough Said" quietly. I then had them practice it quietly, which they did well. I then had the students follow me as I sang low, high, slow, quickliy, and whispery. The students found this to be a bit of a fun game.
Hello My Friends	Review the song, add Mandarin to the mix
I openly told the class that I wanted to see how much they remembered from five weeks ago, and so that pretense provided a very easy excuse to review Hello My Friends. I had prewritten English, French, and Swahili, and then I added Chinese underneath. We practiced singing in Chinese, and then I talked a bit about the sign that we'd be using to indicate that we're at the end or coda of the song (fist straight up in the air). I had the students attempt the coda while starting with the Chinese lyrics, and then bubbling up the language stack back up to English, and ending there. I don't know if the students really understood the coda of that particular song (and it'll grow as we add more languages), but no matter, I moved on. I interjected a "Well Enough Said" right here; the students nailed it.
Do Re Mi	Review the notes up and down the scale, sing the song
I had 7 chairs lined up at the front of the room, and so I started quickly reviewing the notes of the Solfege scale starting at Do. During this time, I had to remind students that going up the scale meant going up in pitch; likewise going down the scale should translate to a drop in pitch. By the time we got up to the top of the scale, we talked about the second Do and the octave. After going up and down the scale a few times, I jumped around the scale a bit, trying to get the students to sing Sol-Mi, followed by Sol-Mi-La-Sol-Mi. The students didn't really recognize those intervals. I had the students repeat the Do Re Mi song, one line at a time with me. By the time we went through the song, I then used paper representations of each note (similar to what I did with the other class previously), and we sang through the song again one more time.
Rhythm Sticks	Pass out sticks, have students follow me
I passed out first a single stick to Everybody Oughta Know (which to my pleasant surprise, many students knew, although they still will echo the 3rd line), and I had the students practice holding the stick properly while maintaining a small resonating chamber with their hand. I realized later on that getting them to make the chamber was of little value this early in their sticking experience, and it would have been better to just get the students sticking regardless of how well they were holding the sticks, even though we talked about resonating chambers and how sound needs space earlier in the day. I passed out a second stick to the same song, and then we practiced ready position (two sticks pointing up, sort of like a ready-to-eat, knife-and-fork position), and we then practiced sticking for a bit, to different beat combinations. I then spent a little time trying to stick to a 4-beat measure, and interjecting a rest or two at times. When the students seemed like they were ready, I had them stick to Raisins (which I also used with the other class previously). The song is actually so short that one cannot do too many different patterns, as it's better to make sure that the students have one pattern nailed down before moving to another.

We ended the day while singing Goodbye My Friends Goodbye.
I spent a little more than a half hour this time with this class, as I want to try to catch this class up with the other class.

I found myself starting a lot of songs higher than my voice preferred; I'm not sure why that was the case this time around, but it did require me to adjust my pitch/key signature in between song phrases more than once.

Teaching Notes, Kindergarten, 20110930

Originally I had planned on teaching one of the Kindergarten classes three times, but scheduling challenges only allowed me to teach the class one more time before the break. With that though, I attempted to cram as much as I could for the kids.

I had the ropes on the ground in a circle before the students came in.

Indo Eu (Shenanigans)	Lead students into the room with the song playing, moving appropriately to the song
Indo Eu features a steady, almost marching beat with a low-high call and answer, and I either crouched down or walked very tall in order to mimic the pitches that were being played. Instructions for something like this were pretty simple; I just asked the students to watch what I was doing, and that was enough. Not all of the students were following me entirely; some were just walking in a circle, but that was ok with me.
I can sing up high	Have the students follow me in the song
We did this last week, and so it was easy to get the students to repeat this activity. We went faster and faster until the students could barely keep up - instant fun.
Keep the Kettle Boiling	Teach students the activity, then play the game
With the students on the outside of the circle, I spent a few minutes explaining the game. The students initiallly were unsure about the activity, but once I got through the first few children, they really started to get the hang of it. The students started to chant louder, and they'd jump with more enthusiasm. I would then start varying the tempo, pitch, and volume of the chant, which provided some welcome variety. I'd also change up the movement just a little bit to see how well the students were watching me, rather than just listening to my voice. Anyhow, the students had a good time with this activity, even if it did take a decent amount of time.
Itsy Bitsy Spider	Sing song in different forms
Halloween would take place during the break, and so I asked the students what the next "holiday" coming up was. When we started talking about Halloween, I then asked them what things they associated with the holiday. Eventually I steered the students to talking about scary things like bats, ghosts, and spiders. We sang the Itsy Bits Spider, which of course all of the students knew. I then asked them what it would be like if the spider were really tiny, and so we sang the song in a high pitched voice. Spiders are quiet too, right? So, we repeated the song while whispering. However, tiny, silent spiders aren't very scary, so I asked the students to imagine a big hairy spider, and so we sang the song one last time in a big, low, booming voice.
5 Little Pumpkins	Teach via immersion slowly
Keeping with the Halloween theme, I asked the students what other things are associated with Halloween, and quickly the students were talking about pumpkins. That allowed me to go right into this song. I sang the song all the way through, and a few students tried to keep up with the hand motions. (One student knew the song.) I then would have the students repeat the song and motions after me, one line at a time. After doing the repeating twice, we did the song together; I think I probably had about a half of the class following most of my movements, and perhaps a quarter of the students singing about half of the words.
Halloween Surprise	Immerse students, one line at a time
We talked a little more about what we do with pumpkins during Halloween, including carving them up, which allowed me to segue to this song pretty nicely. This song works well as a line-by-line, noncontinuous song, allowing me to break in between each line with the students and have them motion carving, scooping, etc. I only did this song twice through, but I think the students got more out of this song than 5 Little Pumpkins (which, admittedly, is much more complex). I forgot to hold onto the last word ("surprise!") and see if the students would follow me; I've done that in past years, which added a little bit of surprise to the "surprise" and forced students to watch me carefully.
Tony Chestnut	Teach song, sing while doing movements
I first had students point to parts of their bodies (toe, knee, chest, nut/head, nose, eye). I had the students repeat the sequence a few times, and then I just started singing the song. I didn't really expect any of the students to sing with me, and other than the one student who knew the song from before, the students were busy just trying to keep up with the motions and the body parts. I then sang through it a second time, a little faster this time, and a few more did start sort of singing with me.

I ended the class with "Goodbye My Friends", just like I did the previous week.

A couple of thoughts:
- It was challenging to keep the students in a wide circle, as there was circle creep towards the center as the class went on. I had to have students step back a few times just so that we weren't so crowded.
- I had to use Show Me a few times in order to refocus the students. The second time I used it, I varied the lyrics, and I ended up singing "Show me, show me the ceiling, show me the window, show me how you're feeling" - it was not quite what I had intended, but it still worked.

There was perhaps a minute or two if I wanted to squeeze in one more activity, but for these Kindergarteners, by the 25th minute or so, you could really tell that the students were getting a bit tired. It helps to have them move around (hence, Tony Chestnut near the end of class), but it was noticeably harder to keep the students attention near the end of the day.

Teaching Halloween for this particular school is always a bit of a challenge, because of the 3 week break that follows; this year, I had no classes the one week before the break because the entire week was a half-day week for parent-teacher conferences. I still am not quite sure about teaching Halloween songs more than 4 weeks in advance of Halloween, but perhaps next year I'll just try it and see what happens.

My two-class stint as a Kinder teacher was a wonderful experience. It is really great to lead a bunch of students who don't question you, and even if they don't quite understand what they're doing or why they're doing it, in the back of my mind I know that they're (1) having a good time, and (2) learning something whose purpose will become more evident as they grow older.

Teaching Notes, 3rd grade, 20110929 (2nd class)

This was the last class before the intersession break, and I wanted introduce at least one new song that I used multiple times last year - the Seasons song.

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song, in different languages
We covered so far English, French, Swahili, and given that today was the last day before the break, I figured it was time to throw in Mandarin into the mix. I used "hello little friends" as it's a little shorter than "hello my friends" when translated into Chinese. The 3rd grade has had Mandarin since Kindergarten, and so this was an easy language to add. I also took the time to use the finish sign (closed fist in the air) and I had the students what is really the 2nd to last line in all of the languages in reverse order (Mandarin, Swahili, French, English), and ending in English. I had the words all written in the board in order which made the finish even easier. I do think that the students are really learning the song quite well.
Seasons	Introduce the song
I used Seasons last year quite extensively for teaching in a round, and as a pseudo zipper song, and it worked quite well. As I've done in past years, I had the lyrics pre-written on the board, which we read as a group. We then sang the song a few times. This went so well, that I decided to split the class into two, and I wanted to get the class to sing the two pieces separately in a mini-round, per se. I first practiced with the class the silent count (which would be critical for the half of the class that starts second), and then we tried practicing starts. I had the 2nd half start the song at the 3rd line (exactly after half of the song was completed), and the first few times resulted in a lot of mud. The teacher tried helping out to lead the first group, and students were a little more successful singing only their part, although it still wasn't clean enough to record (which I'd likely do the next time). We did try to have the first group repeat the song once, and during the first group's second iteration, we had a number of students from the second group finish the song with the first group. Whoops. This actually still went better than I had expected; I don't typically plan on splitting a class for a song during the same day I teach the song. We'll likely revisit this same song when we return in November.
Do Re Mi	Teach song by immersion and then by picture
Before I sang the song, I reviewed the notes up to La using the same jump-behind-the-chair technique that I used the last time. I then added Ti and the upper Do, and we talked a bit about the re-emergence of the other Do, and how it formed an octave. I also pointed out that the pitches were getting higher as I moved to my left (the students' right), just like a piano. After jumping up and down the scale (another introduced term), I then introduced the song by having the class repeat one line after me, in tune. After going through that sequence once, I then whipped out printed sheets for each of the notes each with a picture of the homonym of the note (e.g. a deer for Do, the sun for Re, etc.) I placed one sheet on each chair, in order. I then did the same echo singing with the students with the sheets one time through. After finishing with "and it brings us back to Do Do Do Do", I immediately had the students sing with me the song, with the visual cues. Success! I'm absolutely sure that some of the students knew the song, but enough definitely took advantage of the pictures. Note to self - use card stock next time; the paper was a bit flimsy and often fell off the chairs.
I Think You're Wonderful (Red Grammer)	Assess how well the students know the song
I knew for a while that during assemblies during the Wednesday minimum days, sometimes the student body sings this song. I've used this song as a tool to get a class to sing in split parts too, and so I figured I'd have the students sing the song to see how well they knew it. It turns out that the students had little interest to sing this particular song (song fatigue?), and they certainly weren't singing it in any particular tune, even though I started the class on a specific note. After we sang the chorus through, I told the class that one day I'd like to have the class lead the rest of the student body when singing this song.

With the extra time spent on Seasons, I actually found myself short on time! Students arrived right at 2:10pm, and so I might try to get the class to arrive just a little bit earlier so that I don't feel pressed to release the students before the 2:40 bell. I did actually have claves with me, and I do want to illustrate the purpose of the resonating chamber (with the hand holding the clave), which I'll do in a later week. I do see another round of sticks/beat echo in their future.

Teaching Notes, 3rd grade, 20110929 (1st class)

For a while, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to be teaching class for this week. Originally I had planned on teaching this class around 1:05pm, give or take a few minutes, but no children showed up until 1:30pm; apparently, the teacher thought that classes started at that time. Fortunately, I was still prepared to go through my original lesson plan with the students.

I'm still trying to catch this class up with the other 3rd grade class, and so a lot of the material here was similar to last week's material for the second 3rd grade class.

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song, in different languages
The students this time were accompanied by the principal, who was filling in for the regular teacher. Now, this time, the students walked in in a pretty orderly fashion. I had the ropes laid out in a 3/4 circle, and while they were marching in, I sang Hello My Friends in English. I then moved to French (which we had covered during the previous class). I had the lyrics written pre-written on the board, and then I wrote "Jambo, Watoto", and asked the students what they thought it meant. We then tried singing Jambo Watoto, Jambo.
Ukulele Introduction	Introduce the ukulele
It was this class' turn to be introduced to the Uke. This time, I did allow each student to strum lightly the ukulele, and after I had gone around the classroom, we talked about how the instrument felt when it was played. We also spent a little bit of time talking about the function of the hole/resonating chamber, and how sound needs space.
Jambo (Red Grammer)	Sing/teach song via immersion
This song worked well with the second class last week, and save for a bit of a hiccup when I was hunting for the initial starting tones, I was able to lead the students to sing the song. Similar to the previous week's experience, I also took the time to teach them to look for a sign that the song was ending; at that time, the students were asked to sing "Jambo Sanna" three times, followed by "Jambo". The students did a pretty good job with the song. It helps that the song is entirely an echo song without long phrases for the students to copy.
Do Re Mi	Introduce the notes to the students
This was an activity that I had done with the other class two weeks ago; I had chairs laid out in a line, and standing behind the first one, I sang "Do" and showed them the sign. After many repetitions, I started working up the line, moving to my left (the students' right) as I went up the scale. The students sang, but struggled a little with the hand signs; they didn't quite make the association with sign and note, and in a few instances, I also had to recapture the students' pitch so that they sang with me. I went as high as La, although I didn't try to jump notes this time around. Eventually by the end of the exercise, I tried to jump around with only signing (no singing) each note, and I think I lost half the class pretty quickly.
The Longer The Faster	Play the exercise
I've now done this exercise with 5 or 6 different classes over the years, and it's always a fun one. I spent a decent amount of time explaining the rules and having the children practice, and the students had a very good time with it. The principal filling in for the teacher even jumped in and participated in the fun. Yay! After the exercise was complete, I was able to discuss with the class the nuances of the exercise, particularly what was making the exercise more and more difficult as it went on. The discussion provided a little bit of a downtime for the students, too.

I'm writing this blog a few weeks after the class happened, so my memory isn't so great about what happened next. I thought I had done something off the cuff, but I don't recall what that was, and I didn't exactly have a lot of time.

I of course eventually taught the other class afterwards, so this 3rd grade class continues to be about one session behind. But I'll try to accelerate the classes a bit when we resume after the intersession break; during those times, I also can extend the class beyond 30 minutes to about 45 if I have to.

Teaching Notes, 3rd grade, 20110922 (2nd class)

Since my two 3rd grade classes are now staggered by a week of instruction, I'll start blogging for each of the classes separately, until at least I have the same lesson plan for both classes.

This would be week 3 for my 2nd class of 3rd graders, and I thought it would be time to introduce rhythm sticks to the class. In fact, I ended up introducing a lot more than just sticks this week.

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song, introduce Jambo
Leading the students in was pretty easy, and it seems to get easier each week (yay!). I had the students again in a 3/4 circle, which I think I'll continue to do until it doesn't work for me any longer. I had the words in both English and French on the board, and after having the students sing both versions, I then wrote "Jambo" underneath "Bonjour". I had the students guess (quickly) what Jambo meant, and then I asked them what language it came from. A student quickly answered that it was from Africa, which was good enough for me to introduce Swahili as a language. Underneath "mes amis", I wrote "watoto", which really means children in Swahili. But, that little difference didn't matter much. We sang "Jambo Watoto" twice with ease.
Ukulele Introduction	Introduce the ukulele
I wanted to use the uke as an accompanying instrument for the next song, and so I had to spend some time introducing the instrument. I spent time talking about the origins of the name, and how it had 4 plastic/nylon strings. One student, who knew that the ukulele had its origins in Hawaii, noted that he was part Tongan.
Jambo (Red Grammer)	Immerse students in this all-echo song
Jambo was a song that I discovered only very recently after downloading the Cellabration! album, which has a few notable gems (such as this one). The song is 100% echo, and it's pretty easy to sing. It does go better with some sort of instrumental accompaniment, which is why I wanted to introduce the ukulele. The students sang the song with me well, although near the end of the song, I think they were getting a little bit bored. I taught the ending, where one sings "Jambo Sanna" in unison three times in a row before ending with "Jambo".
Rhythm Sticks	Teach how to play properly, stick to a song
I passed out the sticks while singing Everybody Oughta Know. Singing slowly, and with some help from the teacher, I was able to pass out all of the sticks in just a little more than one iteration of the song. I was pleased that many of the students remembered the song and how to sing it. I first tried to teach basic things - show a ready (and silent) position, and how to hold the stick being hit while allowing some resonance. Doing just those two things took a lot longer than I expected. When it was clear I wasn't going to be able to get 100% of the students' attention, I simply started moving my sticks in a particular motion, in order to hope that I could keep the students focused. It worked partially. I had to spend several minutes to get the students to echo a single hit, but I realized (and I should have remembered this from years past) that it's actually easier to echo two hits in beat rather than a single hit since two hits/beats are required to determine tempo. When I felt that I had reached a critical mass of expertise and attention, I had the students follow me with sticking and rhythms while listening to Raisins by the Barenaked Ladies. This song happened to be the very first song I had students stick to, back when I taught first grade during my first year as a MfM docent. I didn't quite use the same patterns from 3 years ago, but I think the students got a little bit of experience and fun with it. I was hoping that the students would be able to follow me better than they did; I think they were over-enamored with the prospect of (1) playing some sort of sound-making device, and (2) playing something that resembled drumming.
I Think You're Wonderful	Immerse the students into the song
I actually had very little time left when I got to this, and I really just wanted to understand how well the students could sing this song. The song is a regular song sung during Wednesday assemblies, and so I was hoping that most of the students knew it. It turned out that most knew some of the words, but the class hardly sang it in tune. I wasn't quite sure if the class simply didn't know the tune, or if they were disenchanted after being asked to sing a song that they probably are tired of. After we all sang the chorus (I didn't expect them to know the stanzas), I then mentioned to the students that I was hoping that they'd be able to lead the entire school during Wednesday's assemblies while singing the song. I think they, with practice could do it. Anyhow, I wasn't going to teach them how to sing it properly during this day.

I ended the class by singing "Goodbye, my friends, goodbye", without much introduction, and some of the students picked it up, as it has the same song as their intro song. Yay.

The second class has so far been the strongest, although today was perhaps the least effective class that I've had with this batch of students. It was indeed a hot day, and as music class marked the end of the day, I think there was a little bit of fatigue. But, during the exit, it was clear that they still had fun, enough so that they were looking forward to next week.

Teaching Notes, 3rd Grade, 20110922 (1st class)

Last week, my 1st class didn't show up, and so that class was effectively a week behind. I knew what I did that week for the other class worked well, and so I kept to almost exactly the same lesson plan, and that sure cut down the required preparation time.

What surprised me, however, was that again, there was another substitute teacher for the class. You know it's going to be a challenge when the teacher opens the door and asks "are you ready for this?"

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song
Again, I wasn't able to lead the students in, and I made the mistake of leaving the nametags near the front of the room, where some of the kids swarmed. So, I had the students find their own way around the outside of the circle, which meant that children clumped around their familiar friends, leading to a lot more chatter. I started singing the song, and I quickly realized that the students were only going to echo me. And so, we spent more time reviewing the rather short song. ust like last week, I had pre-written "Hello, my friends" on the board, and then I wrote "Bonjour" underneath it. After teaching students how to say it, and asking them to guess what language it was, I then wrote "mes amis" next to "Bonjour" and ask the students to guess what it meant (which they did quickly). We then sang "Bonjour, mes amis" twice. Just like last week with the 2nd class, I noted to the students that they knew 3 or 4 different languages now, if you threw in Mandarin and Spanish.
Rhythm Names	Repeat students' names with body percussion, and repeat
This was the same exercise I did with the second class during the first week, where we adding body movements matching the rhythm of each name. We'd string up to 4 names together. This didn't work as well as it did for the second class two weeks ago; students weren't as interested, and I couldn't get a strong majority of the class to follow at any one time. Even at the end when I sped up the pattern, there still weren't a lot of students following. Plus, there were far more distractions this time versus two weeks ago, and that slowed the exercise so much that I burned nearly 20 minutes trying to get through the entire class (approximately 22 students). Last week, I very quickly taught "Well Enough Said", and I don't think many of the students remembered. I sang the phrase, and hardly anyone responded. So, I spent a minute or two reteaching the response, and I practiced the response a few times during the rest of the class.
Everybody Oughta Know	Teach song, zipper away
I taught the song and was, with some effort, was able to get the students to echo only the 1st, 2nd and 4th lines. The students showed increased interest in the song after I asked about the students' days and an example of something good that happened to them. I was amused that one student offered music class as something good that happened that day. Anyhow, I think at least got the song to a point where I could use it later in the year.

So, this class was probably a little more successful, only in the sense that I was able to teach Everybody reasonably well. But, another week without the regular teacher is really making this quite a challenge. The day was also quite warm, and as the students were coming right out of lunchtime, I think they were definitely tired. Even when I tried "Well Enough Said", I received little response.  I had to send another student to the office (the same student from the previous week), and that was a disappointment.

I have some catch-up to do in order to get this class in line with the other classes. After September, after I stop teaching Kindergarten classes, I'll likely expand this class to 45 minutes in order to get more material in. Next week, I'll introduce Do-Re-Mi, and Longer the Faster, two things that went well with the second class.

The one thing that did work very well was to bring a box for students to leave their lunch items.  I left the box at the front of the room, and the items provided no additional distractions.

Teaching Notes, Kindergarten, 20110915

For the next three weeks, I get to do something rather special - I get to teach Kindergarten music classes! While we have music classes for all classrooms this year, one of the Kindergarten docents (and both 1st grade docents) are new this year, and the docent won't be eligible until after the fall break. The other two K classrooms started music on September 8th, so I wanted to start up the 3rd K class so that it didn't get too far behind.

Now, this would ultimately be the first time I ever taught Kindergarten. Furthermore, each subsequent year except for this year involved older and older kids, and so it's been a while since I taught anyone under 7 years of age. I had to dig deep into the MfM songpack and notes to get ideas. I also referred back to my 1st grade classes from three years ago for additional ideas.

Come and Follow Me	Lead students into the room in song, do silly motions at the end of each phrase
I had the class walk with me in a circle using the ropes as a guide. I think with Kinders, it was a real challenge to keep the students truly following what I was doing while I was singing, especially since part of the class still wasn't in the room while I was singing. The kinders reallly do try to keep in line better than the older children, which helped things, but they're also decidedly a little slower. After I had the students all inside, I introduced myself, and clapped by name. This led to...
Name clapping	Have students introduce themselves, and we all respond with clapping and repeating the name
I've done some variant of this with nearly every class of mine, and it typically works quite well. This time was no exception, and we were able to go around the circle in only about 5 minutes.
"Did everyone bring your instrument?"	Ask question, discuss the voice
This is a nice icebreaker that allows the students to really say anything, especially when they do think they brought their instrument (and then they start talking about instruments that they have at home). No student ever thinks of their voice as an instrument; hence, this exercise is rich in potential discussion, especially around the dynamic range of the voice. I had the students do whoops up and down with their voice. Then, I asked them about sounds that they heard outside, which led me to…
I Can Sing Up High	Talk more about sounds, teach song
We first talked about the sounds that were heard outside. I really didn't get anything that was terribly useful or easy to repeat using voices, and so I steered the conversation a bit, to birds chirping and then to a train motoring (not the train whistle!). Eventually after we established that small things make high sounds and big things make lower sounds, I had them stand up to learn the song/movement. The students were able to follow me, but the singing wasn't very strong. I suppose that's understandable; they're just Kindergarteners.
Show Me	Teach song
I have never used this in the classroom, and I realize that, as simple this song is, it works great as a method to recapture the students' collective attention. I also used this song to get the students to sit down (after singing "show me the floor"). Later in the class, I used this song again when the students were getting too rowdy.
Bee Bee Bumblebee	Have students chant with me after talking about sounds again
With the students back in their seats, I had them talk more about sounds that they heard, particularly animals (and pets). I eventually suggested the sounds of bees, which artificially allowed me to segue into the Bee chant. During the chant, I simply kept the beat by tapping my knees, which the students did. I only repeated this 3 times, and during the 3rd time, I got up as the students chanted, and moved a toy bee in front of one child after the other. At the end of the chant, that student closest to the bee was "out", although we didn't really get into what that meant.
Highway Number One	Teach motions in the song, then move to the song
I was slightly short on time, and so I didn't get to practice all of the moves, but I did spend time laying out groundrules for "driving". I had the students walk in a circle rather than allow them to drive randomly. The students actually did quite well with this activity, including stopping and listening to what they had to do next at each stop in the song.
Goodbye by Friends Goodbye	Sing while the students exited
This was a pretty easy song to sing as an exit song, and some students started singing it after the 2nd iteration. I didn't plan on teaching this formally to them; I may do that next week.

In case there's ever any doubt, it is indeed far easier to teach Kindergarten students vs. 3rd graders (or older). The students don't fidget as much, they don't complain, and they'll do anything you're doing. They're also very forgiving in case you make a mistake. The students though do not learn as much, and they typically aren't as interested in talking; they just want to "do" (including sing), and so I tried to minimize chatter from me.

For this lesson plan, I had them alternate sitting and standing for each major activity. That also seemed to work quite well to break up any monotony.

Teaching Notes, 3rd grade, 20110915

A funny thing happened today - my first class (the one with the substitute teacher last week) didn't show up. There was no explanation, and no student who dropped by to inform me that the teacher had forgotten. I would later learn that during that afternoon another school staff person was leading the class, and that individual didn't know that music class was supposed to take place that afternoon. This means that that first class is going to be at least one week behind the other class, and probably more given what took place during Week 1.

As such, I only taught one 3rd grade class. I did however, also teach a Kindergarten class for the first time, which I'll cover in a different blog entry.

I had the students arranged in roughly a 3/4 circle, with the part of the circle closest to the board/front of the room without children. I was also wanted to turn the piano so that the keys faced away from the class. However, as I discovered later, having the piano available could be a tremendous asset.

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song
I led the students singing, and a few students sang along. Since I only had a 3/4 circle, I motioned where students would stop, and I modified the lyrics appropriately. They were seated pretty quickly. We sang the song once through in English and in full echo, and then I had the students sing it all together. I had pre-written "Hello, my friends" on the board, and after we had completed singing, I wrote "Bonjour" underneath "Hello" in a different color, and I taught the students how to say it and what it means. I then wrote "mes amis" next to it, and I had the students figure out what that phrase meant. We then sang "Bonjour, mes amis" together. I pointed out that with English, Mandarin, Spanish (for some children, natively), and now French, the students knew 4 languages.
Well Enough Said	Teach the interjection
Last week, I very quickly taught "Well Enough Said", and I don't think many of the students remembered. I sang the phrase, and hardly anyone responded. So, I spent a minute or two reteaching the response, and I practiced the response a few times during the rest of the class.
Do Re Mi…	Introduce the names of the notes and hand signs
This exercise is loosely based on Bobby McFerrin's demonstration of the pentatonic scale, but of course I'm doing a standard scale. I first sang Do, while doing the hand sign. After a few repetitions, I walked to my left and sang (and signed) Re. I'd go back and forth between the two notes, and then I'd introduce Mi to the (my) left of Re. At that point, the teacher offered to play the notes on the piano as well, and so I immediately had an accompaniment! I made it up to La before stopping, as the class I think getting a little bored.
Everybody Oughta Know	Teach song, zipper like crazy
This worked out pretty well. I taught the song first by echo, got the students to not echo the 3rd line, and then I started asking the students about their day. We zippered things like ice cream (there was an ice cream party), to pets, to family.
The Longer The Faster	Have student do the exercise
This is another exercise that always works. I had the students arrange themselves loosely in a circle, and I had them count to 8. I then paced myself from one side to the other within the counts of 8. There were a couple of students who tried to walk while I walked and I had to remind them that only one person would be walking at any one time. Then, we talked about the shoulder tap on 8, which we practiced a few times. When the music was on, I found myself quickly directing traffic and having kids wait so that they could start walking at the next set of 8 beats. After the exercise was completed, we had a chance to talk about the exercise, what worked, and what made the exercise become more difficult with time (as the song sped up).
Donut Song	Sing to the class as they lined up, have them respond at the end
I felt like I needed something lighthearted to end the class, and so I searched through the MfM 3rd grade sample plans for ideas, and I found the Donut Song. It apparently is a pretty funny song/poem set to the Turkey In The Straw. You can search online for various different variations. The song ends with "Thanks for the donut… Good bye!", and so I told the students that they'd have line that simply was "Good bye", but they'd have to wait for my signal to sing it. When I got to the end, the students had forgotten their role! So, I had to repeat that last phrase to get them to sing.

This was a fun class. The only other thing that I had in the back of my mind was to introduce rhythm sticks, but I'll do that next week. I also plan on having the students sing "I Think You're Wonderful", which I know they sing during the Wednesday minimum day assemblies.

Teaching Notes, 20110908

We are back! One of my long term goals was to establish weekly music classes for all grade levels at the school, and I'm happy to announce that we've managed to do it at the start of the 2nd year of Music for Minors at the school. In order to cover all of the classes, we ended up hiring a professional music teacher through MfM for 4th and 5th grade, while recruiting new docents for all of 1st grade and one Kindergarten class. As a result, with returning docents for 2nd grade and a veteran docent coming to the school for the other Kindergarten classes, I found myself teaching the two 3rd grade classes this year.

This represents the first year where I can truly leverage my past lesson plans, specifically from last year when I taught 3rd and 4th grade. This year's group of students also had no music last year (and thus no significant music during their entire experience at the school), which means that I can start from scratch again with these students.

While I planned a single lesson plan, I ended up with two very diferent experiences; the first class was being led by a substitute teacher, and that made for quite a chaotic scene. The second class was a lot more effective, with the regular teacher present and participating.

I did try to mix in some elements of my first class last year, with some new things. Here's now it turned out.

Hello My Friends Hello	Lead students into the room in song, in different languages
For the first class, this didn't quite go as planned. The students simply started filtering into the classroom before I could issue instructions, as I wanted the students to sit in a circle. By the time they were inside the class, they were scattered randomly in the room. The students were also rather chatty, and although I caught the attention of some students when I migrated to different languages, I was unable to get the students fully engaged, let alone into a circle. For the second class, I greeted the students outside the class, with "Good Afternoon, students". They didn't really know my name, and so they simply responded with "Hello." I quickly got the class into the room. This year, I only have 23 students per class, and they all fit well in the room, when they're in a circle.
Hello in Many Languages	Sing "hello" in sol-mi, have students repeat
I sang hello in at least 10 different languages, and in both classes, I received questions amounting to "do you speak all those languages?" During the first class, I'd ask the students what language they thought they heard me sing, and in retrospect that slowed down the class and made any sort of momentum that I still had left evaporate. Plus, the students stopped singing (echoing) and simply listened and guessed. I was able to at least get students to raise hands. During the second class I didn't ask; I just sang and asked the students to repeat, and I never pointed out the different languages. I did briefly consider re-singing Hello My Friends Hello in some of the different languages, but I chose not to.
Rhythm Names	Have students do something rhythmically with their names, one at a time
For the first class, I had to get the students to reposition themselves in a circle, so I burned a minute doing that - I had the students join hands and then walk away from the center of the class. In doing so, I did noticed that the class had a little of the squeamishness regarding holding hands that I witnessed from last year's classes. I had planned to do a rhythm/body percussion activity reminiscent of the MfM kickoff event from last year, when one would repeat a name while clapping, tapping, etc. to the syllables of the name. Then, after doing the same for the second name, you'd put the two names together and perform the two names' rhythms in beat. You'd form eventually a chain of 4 names, and then reset the sequence. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough confidence in the first class to be able to pull this off, so I ended up just having the students clap their name. For the second class, I did manage to do this, and it worked out perfectly! After about 3 or 4 names, the students understood what was going on. I ended up having a sequence of 5 names at the end to round out the class, and I ended up repeating the sequence faster and faster, which was a ton of fun. In retrospect, I possibly could have done this with the first class. By the end of the exercise, however, the students were now all chatty, their attention mired in a mild chaos.
What Do You Hear?	Ask students about sounds they hear, then have them experiment w/ high and low sounds
I sort of planned on doing this sort of intro in case I needed it, and for the first class, I felt that I did need to do it for that particular class. I tried asking the students about sounds that they heard outside before music class, and sometimes sounds that they heard in the morning. However, I couldn't really get the students focused, nor could I really drive the discussion towards the goal of illustrating the relationship between large things and low sounds, and the converse. I was hoping to sing "I Can Sing Up High", but I didn't feel the students would have appreciated it much.
Old King Glory on the Mountain	Teach song, play the game
I spent a little bit of time teaching the song, and after I felt that the students were able to sing the song well, I had the students try marching and singing at the same time. When we started playing the game, the students in both classes were able to sing pretty well. Mid-way through the exercise I asked the students what they noticed about the inner and outer circles, just to see if the students were paying attention to what was going on. I also asked them to think about how many students were going to be left in the inner circle near the end. The second class got into the song, and when singing it, pointed fingers when singing 1,2,3, sort of like what one does when singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". I did think about varying the count to 1,2,3,4,5, but I didn't do it.
Well Enough Said…	Teach response
Last year, I used "Well Enough Said" in order to recapture the attention of a class, or to mark transitions, and I wanted to introduce this to the class early. So, as the students lined up to leave, I introduced the response to them. I don't think they really captured it amidst all of the chaos, although the second class was a little more responsive than the first.

I had a whole lot more planned, including discussing the difference bewteen rhythm and beat, playing the cookie jar game, and possibly teaching Everybody Oughta Know, another short song that I used extensively last year. I even looked up that morning the Donut Song, which I was going to toss to the student by the end of class.

A few takeaways.
- the first class really will need the string for seating; I can't imagine having the class seated in a way that I want without some sort of marker on the floor.
- I think I'll recommend keeping kids in line order
- I need to remind the first teacher to allow their students to leave their lunch materials in the classroom.
- I need to turn the piano so that it doesn't face the students. Too many kids were tapping on it, and I plan on making the use of the piano when I have the class under better control.

I do plan on repeating a lot of the original lesson plan for the first class, and hopefully with the regular teacher there, I'll be able to get through far more of the plan.

Teaching Notes, 20110615

Today was the last day of class for this year. Before I continue with the blog, I want to note that this was my 32nd day of teaching that I taught at College Park. Last year, I only taught 22 times, and so teaching at CP certainly took a lot more time, not to mention the extra time being the CP MfM liason. But, I do believe that at least for my classes, whose children had no significant organized music previously, they are at a point where they are more confident in their singing, and have a basic knowledge of music.

I had the students in a squarish circle to maximize the space inside the circle. I then proceeded to run through a bunch of things that were familiar with the students, and one new thing.

Teaching Peace	Lead students into class while singing
I quickly led the students into the class before singing, and then I quickly led them into the song. We sang through both stanzas without anything on the board, and although I flubbed the 2nd stanza for one of the classes, the students were able to sing well.
Seasons (summer)	Teach the summer version of the song
I had the summer version of the song (See the warm sunshine/feel the warm sunshine) pre-written on the board, and I quickly had the class sing through the song. I split the 1st class 3 ways, and we sang and recorded the round normally. For the second class, I split the class only 2 ways, but I had the 2nd half of the class start on my signal; first I had them start once the first half ended, and then I had them start earlier and earlier - with no overlap, with with one stanza overlap, and finally with two stanzas of overlap (so that the song was evenly started/sung). At two stanzas of overlap, I had the class keep singing the song over and over again without stopping, which sounded pretty cool on recording.
How Do You Dootee	Review, try chanting while interlocking hands
This was mostly a review, except that I added one more thing. When chanting the non-moving part of the chant, I had the students cross their arms and shake each others' hands. This required condensing the circle significantly. I pointed out that when we crossed the circle to look for a new place, we all had to pay great attention to make sure we didn't crash into each other. This was a lot of fun, and unlike earlier in the year, I didn't see a whole lot of squeamishness. We did this a few times.
The Longer The Faster	Review, play the game
I used the Longer the Faster during my first class at CP, and throughout the year, I'd on occasion get a request to revisit the game. Since this was the last day of the year, I figured I should finally bring this back. I was a little surprised that students didn't quite remember the game so much, and so I had to spend a decent amount of time reviewing rules. This time, I also had 3 students be designated triangle players, and their job was to always chime on the 8th beat every two measures. The students predictably had a whole lot of fun with this, and similar to how it went the first time, it was a challenge to encourage students to choose people who (1) weren't their friends, and (2) hadn't been chosen yet. I think one or two students in each class failed to be picked, which was too bad. We did however have an opportunity to talk about the exercise, and that was a way for me to re-include those students who weren't picked for the game by their peers.
Sing a Song	Teach via echo, have students sing a solo for a line
I used this song as the last song I taught last year, and it went well; thus, I felt it would be helpful to use it again for my closing song. Only a few students knew the song, which made it a learning experience for all. I spent a decent amount of time trying to teach the song by echo, and after the first iteration, I pointed out to the class that their range had clearly improved from the start of the song, as this song spans more than an octave. After we sang the song a few times, I then brought up a student who was willing to sing the second-to-last line in the song ("Don't worry that it's not good enough/for anyone else to hear"), which is what I did at the end of last year's class. I tried this twice in each class, with the second time bringing up 3 students to sing together. The students didn't really keep in pitch when singing the solo, which made it sound a little weird, but since the last line is echoed, I was able to bring the class back together.

What a wonderful year. It was quite the challenge trying to teach music to students who had a greatly varied musical experience, many of whom had nothing. I do wish I had time to get to some other popular items, such as the Rattlin' Can, Agado, Epo I Tai Tai E, and even Oh My Goodness. But I think the students did come out of the year's worth of classes quite positive, and I know that many continued to sing even after this class was completed. My first class had also produced a book of thank you letters which was heartening.

I am looking forward to teaching again at CP after the short summer break is over. I don't know quite yet what grades I'll be teaching; I might have the upper grades again, but who knows. I do have a few new or newish docents teaching at CP next year, and so I'm really hoping to be able to cover all of the grades next year.

See you in August!

Teaching Notes, 20110601

I had to cancel the previous class because of an unplanned pediatric appointment, although I was able finally to get time with the tone bells. This day, it was also raining (very rare in June), and so I had to lead the students into the class quickly. I had the students sit in a squarish circle this time around.

Everybody Oughta Know	Lead students into class while singing
This seems to work well to have the students sing and walk at the same time. I got the class into the room with 3 iterations of the song.
How do You Dootee	Teach Chant, get class to move around to the chant
This was a chant that I learned from the Sanna Longden NCAKE workshop from last year. I taught the chant line by line, and after each line, we talked about what we were saying (e.g. "what area of the world is this from?", "what does 'shifting away' mean?"). Some students giggled at the chant (which admittedly does sound a bit silly), while some students enjoyed trying to talk with an Australian/English accent. After getting the chant mostly down, I then instructed the students to go find another part of the circle. The constraints were that they had to find that place in the duration of the last line, but they could not crash. Needless to say, the students had trouble meeting both criteria, but they were still having fun while doing it. I think in both classes I was able to restart the chant without delay only once. After I had the students stop and sit down, I asked them what worked and didn't work, and that provided some good conclusions about (1) going slow with the chant, and (2) ways to avoid collisions. It's moments like this when I do wish I had a large map of the world. I'll have to get one for next year.
Tone Bells	Have students play bells in chords, accompany song
Finally, I had time to have the students play bells. I started with a single student and I had the student practice playing while being cued by me. I found that a visual cue (like a hand passing a second hand) didn't work very well, and so I resorted to a verbal cue (hit, 2, 3, 4). I then brought two more students up, and we practiced as a group; the students' bells' tones formed a C chord (another term I introduced to the class). I then proceeded to bring up and practice with two more sets of three students - one forming a G chord, and one forming an F chord. I had the C chord group remain the middle group Next, I tried to get the groups of three to play on demand with me pointing. I kept the same beat/rhythm (e.g. playing on 1), to make things simpler. When the groups seemed to play together relatively well, I then turned to the students and asked them to follow me in song. I didn't tell them what the song was going to be; I just started singing the chorus to Teaching Peace while pointing to the appropriate bell group (most of the time). I found that it was hard to keep just playing on 1, particularly near the end of the chorus, so I started pointing on both 1 and 3, which I think tripped up the groups a little bit, but they recovered. We sang and played Teaching Peace once more before I switched the song on them and sang the Rattlin' Bog chorus. One thing I realized was that it was difficult for me to direct the singers and the bell players; each group of students faced each other, which meant that I had to keep turning around in order to direct both groups. Perhaps it would have been more effective to have the bell players facing in the same direction as the rest of the class, as the singers didn't really need to see the bell players.
Piano	Introduce the Piano
Last week, even though I didn't hold a music class, we had a roving MfM docent come by and do a presentation about various instruments for my students and older students in the school. The roving docent, near the end of his presentation, talked about how the piano was a combination of a "bang" (or percussive) instrument, combined with a "twang" (string) instrument, and I wanted to demonstrate this to the student. Plus, in the music room, there had been a piano mostly all year, pretty much unused, and it was overdue to show the piano to the student. I could not remove the board underneath the keyboard to reveal the large harp-array of strings, and so I had to open the top of the upright to show the students the action of the hammers and strings. And so, as students were marching out, I had them come by the piano and look from atop to see what was going on. I played The Rattlin' Can on the piano as they walked by and observed.

Yay, I finally got to the bells. I only have one class left with the students, and so I'll likely make that class a review of all of the really successful songs and activities.

Teaching Notes, 20110518

This week, I really wanted to try Tuwe Tuwe one last time and see if would stick with the students. At the same time, I did want to revisit the tone bells, but I also had a new song ready for them that I thought might be a nice departure from the planned aspects of a music class.

Tuwe Tuwe	Lead students into class while singing, attempt staggered parts
This time, I sort of forced the issue of bringing students in while singing (or not singing), and Tuwe Tuwe, being so short, I figured, would be doable. While many students obliged by singing, students felt more comfortable doing a line by line echo than singing with me, which made the middle verses ("A brofra ba…") difficult to repeat due to their lengths. After the students had all entered the class, I had to spend some time reviewing the song to make sure that they could sing it well. In retrospect, I should have ended right there rather than attempt the next thing I tried… recording and re-recording! I first recorded the students sing Tuwe Tuwe, with a silent count. (Getting the silent count wasn't too difficult for the students, and it really allowed me to capture the attention of the students.) Recording was easy (despite the substandard microphone that I have), but it turned out that playback at the right volume was very difficult! My goal here was to have the students sing while being accompanied by their own recording. However, the students would start two bars behind the recording. I tried recording each class more than once,and I didn't get a good balance of the playback recording and the new voices; usually the second voice would drown out the first. Part of the reason may be the distance between the sound source/boombox and the placement of the microphone. Plus, the addition of the second voice seems to max out the amplitude of the recording, and as a result the recording gets a little clipped. A couple of ideas for the next time I try this - record the original recording for more than 1 iteration. That way the students when singing the second recording can hear the overlap for longer. The other thing that I might try is to record the song for more than iteration and then use Audacity to overlay voices in a staggered form. This eliminates the need to record a second time, but it does require some quick work on the laptop in the middle of class, and that might lead to some fidgeting by the students.
Tone Bells	Revisit the tone bells
Tuwe Tuwe took a lot longer to do, and so I had only a few moments to work with the tone bells with the students. I ended up showing them the full set of tone bells, with which we talked about things like the Do-Re-Mi scale (using C->C), and octaves. People asked about the black tone bells, and so that gave me the opportunity to talk about "the notes in-between"; for the second class, I even had the class vocalize an ascending "whoop", and I asked them how many notes did they sing.
The Rattlin' Can (Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke)	Teach song w/ props
A few weeks ago, I purchased a new car with sattelite radio, and one of the stations is a kids' music station. Naturally, I've been using it for ideas, and one of the songs that I've fished out of the playlist is "The Rattlin' Can", which is a variation of the Rattlin' Bog, however, using things that are a little easier to visualize: a can, a box, a bag, a bottle, some juice, some bubbles, etc. I brought in a blank paint can purchased from the local Kelly Moore store, put inside a small cardboard box (which I had to construct a bit), and inside that, I put in a red newspaper bag holding a small 6-oz bottle of juice. This was a very instrumental (no pun intended) prop in getting the students to sing the right things. I first had the students practice the chorus a few times; naturally, they didn't know what the full song was going to sound like, so the students were lukewarm in singing at this point. I then introduced the can to the class, and I started singing the first stanza, followed by the chorus. Some students tried to echo, but I didn't really give them the time. (I also didn't have the time for them to echo.) Opening the can, I took out the box (to a lot of ooohs), and then I sang about the box, and the box in the can, followed by the chorus. By the time I got to the bag, many of the students got used to the cascading lead-in to the chorus. I had also placed the box and can onto chairs facing the students to help them remember what was inside. This proceeded with the bottle, juice, and bubbles (I shook the juice so that students could see bubbles inside), and by this time, the students got the cascading chorus that all I had to do was point to the object and sing only bits of the cascade. The song actually goes as far as breaking down the bubbles into atoms, protons and quarks, but I didn't really go that far. Instead, when it was time to break the bubbles down, I simply asked the class what the bubbles were made of, and we used "air" or "oxygen", which worked perfectly well. This song was a wild hit.

Like last week, I really wanted to do more with the bells, and so I'll have to make a concerted effort to work with them in the next class. I did, just in case, have the Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (Red Grammer, another cascading song), along with Epo I Tai Tai E if necessary, and How Do You Dootee.

Teaching Notes, 20110511

For this week, I wanted to revisit Seasons in round, and so I had the students back in the familiar stadium seating

Teaching Peace	Sing as students walk in, go right into a stanza, unprompted
Well, again I had sort of planned to have students sing while walking in, but again the students weren't really focused enough to pull it off, so I had them walk in before I started them on the song. I accidentally in both cases sang the 2nd stanza instead of the first, which made for a shorter song. However, the students in both classes didn't quite remember how to pull off the partial echo for Teaching Peace, so I had to quickly review that. But, anyhow, we were able to get through the song.
Seasons (spring)	Teach the song, then record in rounds
I had the lyrics written on the board, and the students were able to sing it very quickly, as they remembered the lyrics from the previous two versions. I then prepped the students for rounding the song by having the students, split in four groups, sing just the first line. I found out, however, particularly for the 2nd class (of just 3rd graders) that it was hard for the students to go from that to singing the entire song, and so the value of just practicing that first line isn't all that great, especially if you over-repeat that exercise. Eventually, I did have both classes record round attempts, and it was a little difficult to get the volumes of each group consistent on the recordings. The microphone on my laptop isn't all that strong, and while I tried attaching an external microphone, I couldn't position it somewhere where I could record all 4 groups well. Typically one of the 4 groups dominated on volume, and it was difficult for groups to maintain momentum past the first line.
Tuwe Tuwe	Reteach song
The students hadn't really gotten a good grasp of Tuwe Tuwe from the previous attempts during the year. I had the students sort get comfortable with the song, enough so that in the 2nd class, I pulled a few students just to sing "tuwe tuwe, barima tuwe tuwe" repeatedly in ostinato. The teacher was happy to help lead that effort, which was very helpful. However, I don't think the students are really getting a huge amount out of the song, which is a bit of a disappointment given the success I've had in previous years.
Epo I Tai Tai E	Try a few different patterns
For the last few minutes, I stood up on a chair and tried Epo I Tai Tai E with a patterns that were different from the previous week. The 1st class was able to pick out the patterns quickly, but the second class had troubles trying to pick up the pattern, and even remember the exercise that was done the previous week.

I'm writing this almost a month after the class took place, and so I don't have all of the gritty details like I usually do. Backpocket items included How Do You Dootee, and a re-run of Oh My Goodness, Look At This Mess.

I was pretty happy with this second stint in the gym, and perhaps I can squeeze in one last class in the gym. I did want to try Thady You Gander and the Irish Jig once again, not to mention How Do You Dootee.

Teaching Notes, 20110504

Today was May 4th, which meant that this class was the closest class to Cinco de Mayo. As such, I wanted to teach at least one more dance, and that meant holding the class in the gym again.

Bonanopstekker	Lead students directly into the song and do the dance prescribed in the Shenanigans CD
I purposefully didn't give a lot of time for the students to get settled, and so I led them straight into the dance. Enough students remembered so that those who didn't had plenty of examples. I still had to prompt students before each transition, and we used basically a simplified dance similar to what we did a few weeks ago. The dance went ok, although there were more collisions than we had before. For both classes, I took some time to have the students think of aspects of the activity that "worked" or "didn't work", and most realized that the colliding/tripping/crashing wasn't all that much fun. The Bonanopstekker, danced without holding hands (which we did) does force students to be more aware of the their surroundings, and so I hope that that awareness stays with them for a while.
El Juego Chirimbolo	Teach the song, then teach the dance
I talked a little bit about Cinco de Mayo for a little bit, and then I proceeded to teach the song to the students. It's a pretty simple song, and fortunately the lyrics, which are in Spanish, were mostly understandable to the students, despite my poor Spanish accent. I then started teaching the dance. I taught by singing the song with me moving the appropriate body part to the song. After another repetition, most of the class was following me. I then had the students try walking while doing the movements, which actually is a lot harder than one thinks, as the students were asked to walk sideways (and without partners). I then added the twirl to close off the dance. Next, I chose a student, and we both did the movements together. The dance typically has partners hold hands, but I didn't ask the students to do that through most of the dance since they tended to be very squeamish about holding hands. When it came to the twirl, I had to have the students hold hands, as otherwise, the double twirl doesn't quite work. The students seemed to get the dance after a few repetitions. The twirl ending was something that I wanted the students to add when I gave a particular hand signal (hand way up in the air), and so the students had to wait for it. Also adding to the fun - I had the students walk in the opposite direction after each iteration so that the students didn't crash into one side of the room. I was able to get most of the students into the dance from the first class, and for the second class, we made one massive double line of students spanning the length of the gym. Most students in the dance were able to do the twirl so long as the twirl was facing the original direction of motion, but if the twirl was towards the opposite direction, a lot of the students got tripped up. I had a chance to talk about why the twirl worked better in a certain direction with the second class, and it was a pretty good talk.
Epo I Tai Tai E	Try it a few times and see if the students can figure out the pattern
This is always a fun exercise, and it took an unexpectedly higher number of iterations before students really caught on. I had to give hints about how the last measure of the song was already determined by the earlier parts. Once the students figured out the pattern, I switched the motions on them, and even then it took a few iterations before the students could figure out the next version.

I was pretty happy with this second stint in the gym, and perhaps I can squeeze in one last class in the gym. I did want to try Thady You Gander and the Irish Jig once again, not to mention How Do You Dootee.