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.