Thursday, 24 April 2008

Random Teaching Thoughts

1. My middle schoolers are resilient creatures. They have adjusted to my methods remarkably well, even though I don't work exactly like my mentor. One example is in performance. I have stuck to my guns when it comes to never, EVER singing with the students in performance, and they know that. 7th and 8th graders have come to realize that, and they pulled it off in Lansing at the State Capitol. My 6th graders at South Shore just pulled it off yesterday for Grandparents Day, and I'm proud as punch. They were great.
2. Teaching recorders takes grit. You have to be prepared for lots of overblowing on the first day because the students are going to use too much air and they take time to figure out how little is required, and a few might even find it funny (note to self: DON'T LET THEM. IT ISN'T, AND IT ISN'T GOOD FOR YOUR SANITY TO LET THEM.). Keep the headache medicine nearby for the end of the day.
3. Music theory CAN be an interesting unit... provided there's a fun goal in mind. I just successfully finished a six-week unit on music theory to students in grades 1-3, and they LOVED it. The trick was to make writing songs the end goal, and my oh my, did they run with that. I was a little sick of playing elementary music compositions by the end, but to see the delighted responses by the end was worth it all. And engagement level in some of my students when they were independently working to correct and adjust their pieces was priceless-something I wish I could have recorded on a video and uploaded to TeacherTube.
   

So hard to think that my student teaching is almost coming to a close.