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!