Sunday, April 12, 2009

Reflection # 12

This week we worked on our group projects. I think that overall all of the groups did a very nice job. I really enoyed the grop that did the Ocean book because they had a lot of good dynamics incoporated in with there lesson. The activities that we were asked to do would have kept children very involved and interested. I enjoyed the group that I was asked to work with becuase we all did our par and are lesson worked out very well. By doing all these avtivites with dynamics it helped to show me how important it really is to incoporate dynamis in wiht a lesson when you are working with children. It helps them to use there creativity becasue they have to see what would be the best noise to go with a certain word. I wasnt present for class on Friday becasue I had to go outnof town for Easter. I am looking forward to the end the semester becasue I have learned so much up to this point.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Reflection #10

This week was really focusing on childrens literature and how they can incoporate different sound effects into and ordinary story by using instruments, sound effects, or just some ordinary object around them. this week really helped me to be creative and figure out differnt ways to make the stary come alive and i had a lot of fun while doimg it.
In class we did many activities that allowed us to incorporate music into an ordinary story that will help to make it more interesting while keeping children involved and also it brings out there creative side. In class this week we used the story Chicken Little to incorporate sound effects into the story by using different musical instruments. We also learned a theme song to go along with the story that was played numerous times during the story.What made it even more intersting is in the center of our class circle Dr.Wang picked differnt students to play certain instruments for the theme music and it sounded very well together.
We also read another story about thunder. for thiss story we were asked to bring our own piece of recycleable trash to make sound effects for the story. We got split off into groups and each group was asked to come up with a way to use the trash they had to make the sound effect that was on the board by your group number.
we also learned a new musical concept in class this week and it was binary form. we learned the Mariposa song to go along with the concept becasue that song is an example of a song with binary form. a song with a binary form has two contrasting parts, a verse and a chorus. during the chorus we flapped are wings like pretty butterflies and during the verse we held hands and everyone walked to the right.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Reflection # 4

This week we learned how to create our own lesson plans. Were taught the song Tideo and also learned the dance movements to go along with this song. Then we used this song to create our own sample lesson plan to make it easier when we created our own since we would have some type of format to follow when we create a lesson plan from the song of our choice. I am glad that we are working on lesson palns because this is something that we as uppcoming teachers need to be really good at. Another song that we learned was Bow Wow Wow and we were aslo to keep a steady beat while singing the song. we went around the circle and everyone in the class was asked to show the class a differnet way of keeping a steady beat with differnent parts of your body. On friday we wworked with our recorders. We learned a new note in addition tot he three that we already knew how to play this note was, C. When we learned this note we also learned about three new songs to go along with it.

Reflection # 8

This week we learned about the importance out the importance dynamics and we also learned how to use vocal inflections to dramatize the story, The Piglet Brothers. There were certain phrases within the story that were underlined which means they needed some type of sound effect to take place of the word, and some students were required to figure out some type of noise that could b used to dramatize that phrase.
We also had the opportunity to create our own songs and figure how to incorporate dynamics and vocal inflections into the story and then each group had to perform it for the class. I think that it was very interesting t hear the stories that the other groups came up with. We also played the recorder and learned new note F #.
You can’t always assume that children learn in the same way so you must change your style of teaching adapt to your students. You can allow children to work while listening to music or you can teach them things y incorporating it in a song. Whatever you do you must make sure that it is keeping the interests of your students.
We went of the requirements and rubric for our multicultural project and I decided to do mine on African American culture. That is a very broad concept so I want to slightly touch on slavery but I want to focus more on the Civil Rights Movement, and also some present culture which would be Obama being the first black president.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Reflection # 7

I prepared for the midterm by making sure that I was familair with everything that was on the study guide. I reviewed notes and the chapters that i knew would be on the test.
The difficult part was trying to remeber the C and G scales and also solfegee. I think that all of the terms that were on the test were simple because I was very familair with them because we go over them a lot in class. Overall I think the the test was a bit more difficult then i expected it to be. I also think that it was long especially since we were expected to finish in 50 min
The easy part for me was all of the definitions
I usally prepare for an exam 2 or 3 days before
I am learning a lot in this class such as the music terminolgy and i also really like the recorder!!!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Evaluation

Musicianship (5 pts) ____5_________
In tune, accurate pitch
Accurate rhythm
Appropriate tempo
Phrasing
Expression

Leadership (10 pts) ______5__________
Body language
Facial expression
Voice tone and volume
Eye contact
Intensity (energy)

Preparation (15 pts) ___15______________
Knowledge of music
Knowledge of plan
Written plan
Instruments/equipment ready
Recordings/charts/materials ready

Delivery of Instruction (20 pts) __13___________
Motivation, capturing attention
Sequencing of steps
Verbal instructions
Questioning
Pace of lesson, flow, transition
Flexibility (ability to diagnose and adjust)
Feedback to the learners
Continuity/focus of lesson
Closure
Total Points __38____________

Journal Reflection # 6

What i found most difficult about the presentation was getting up in front of the class and actually making the lesson plans we wrote come to life. i really am not very comfortabke with getting up in groups of people. For me , it is easier to get up in front of a class full of children rather than a group of people your own age.
I dont believe that i spoke or sung loud enough because generally I am a very softspoken person. I alos think that my ending could have been stronger and i could have come up with better questions to ask the class.
The hand movements went very well with the song that i was teaching and i theink that would be something that second graders would enjoy doing.
If i could do the whole thing over again i think that I would choose a different song. There are many other song that would be a better pick when trying to incoroporate musical and non musical concepts into the lesson.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Journal Week #5

This week reviewed our lesson plans and also covered some things that we will need to know for our first test. We worked in detail with our lesson plans and worked in groups on how to present the plan to the class. This was my first time working on a lesson plan and i realized that i didnt put enough detail into it but in my second draft i put in the hand movements and everything else that should have went in my first draft. i think that working in the groups was a good idea becausethe people in my group helped me to see the the things that werent right in my first draft. I am kind of nervous about teaching my song to the class but since it is my first time i l believe this will be a very good learning experience. on friday we learned a new note on the recorder and the class was doing very well and we all sounded very good playing together and also with the piano to.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Journal Reflection # 3

This week we learned many new things but one thing that we really focused on was melody. The definition that we learned is that melody is a variation of high, low and the same pitch. We also learned about the scale that was associated with us learning about melody, this scale is the CDEFGABC. The treble clef sometimes called the G- clef comes at the begging of the 5 line scale. After we learned about these our assignment was to go draw pictures that went to the beat of the song rain, but the catch was we had to place the pictures we drew on the same place on the scale that the note would show up. I think that this assignment helped up to better understand where the notes come on the scale because you actually had to do it for yourself. We also had to learn about whole notes, the half notes and the quarter notes and all if these things were incorporated in our homework in some way. We also talked about the tone you should use when singing song with children. The younger they are the higher your voice should be so they can sing along.
On Friday we got some more practice on our recorders. Last week we learned to play three notes on the recorder, A, B, G. We were directed in class to use these three notes to play the song “Think of a Fly” and we could put the notes wherever we wanted to in the song. I didn’t think that this activity was difficult it was actually a lot of fun because we got to use or own creativity.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Journal Reflection #2

In class this week we learned about steady beat and rhythm, and we also learned how to play Hot Cross Buns on the recorder. Steady beat unchanging continuous pulse. To illustrate a steady beat, tap with each underlined syllable as you sing the song. In class we practiced doing this with many songs that we learned. The other term we learned was rhythm and that is the combination of short, long , and silent beats. On Friday we had our first class lesson on the recorder. We learned to play three notes on the instrument and these notes were: A, B, G. all three of these notes we learned lets us play one song, Hot Cross Buns. This was the only song that I actually remembered how to play on the recorder. It is important for us to learn about steady beat and rhythm because both of those concepts are important when learning about music. We need to be able to recognize a steady beat and also be able to play it when it is asked of us. It is important for us to learn to play the recorder because I think that is something that every child should experience playing during some point of there elementary education. It also helps children to see if playing an instrument would be something that they may be interested in doing. The ten children songs that I am familiar with is , Hello Everybody,, Rain, Here Comes Sally, Row, Row, Row your boat, Starlight, Star bright, Rocky Mountain, Bee Bee Bumble Bee,Diddle Diddle Dumpling, Hello Song, and Round and Round.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

My name rhyme

Colette is my name
Rhyming is my game
Come join in with me
Promise it wont be lame

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Reflection 1

I began singing in my church choir when I was 8 and I remained in that choir up until I graduated from high school. Along with that I played the clarinet for to years but it wasnt really something that i enjoyed doing , but in grade school I had many solo's in our school plays. My freshman year of high school I joined a community choir where I lived at and i sang with them for about three years. Singing is never something that i would ever consider doing professionally but it is a hobby and something that i enjoy doing!!! I listen to music everyday, when I am walking to class, getting ready in the morning, and also before I go to sleep at night. R&B is my favorite type of music , but i listen to some rap. Beyonce is my favorite artist I'm actually listending to her cd while I'm writing this reflection.
I do have an Ipod and right now i have about 500 hundred songs on it. I listen to my ipod everday on my way to and from classes. It really helps to take my mind off of how cold it is. I mainly have a lot of R&B on my ipod.
On moday we learned the Hello song and at first it was a little awakard but then once we kept doing it I really began enjoying it. This is a game that I know i could use when I become a teacher. Kids really love it when u use music to do activities and learn things. I know that from experience bcause I remeber songs that I learned from a teacher in kidergarden and she was one of my favorite teachers. I also liked that you taught us different ways that we could incorporate hand gestures in the song to get the children mor involved.