I have to say, even with all of the current drama swirling around the music program of my school district, this has been a great school year so far. Honestly, I'm loving my new school (H) and continue to love P as I have for the last 6 years. Here's some of what we've been up to so far this school year:
Kindergarten: The basics. We've been practicing steady beat, rhyming words, social skills, spatial awareness, etc. I love teaching K music! I'm always on the hunt for songs, games, and activities to work on those basic concepts and ideas with my kindies. My schools' PE teacher and I actually collaborate quite a bit with K to align what they're learning in each of our classrooms.
1st Grade: Steady beat vs no steady beat; the difference between beat and rhythm; loud and soft; fast and slow; and now we've just started with long sounds and short sounds. One of my favorites for introducing beat vs rhythm is using the children's book "Max Found Two Sticks". We read it and then I ask the kiddos if Max was playing the steady beat or something else. When it's identified that he's matching words or "playing the words," I introduce the term rhythm. Then I pass out a pair of rhythm sticks to each student (reviewing instrument procedure, of course--ha!) and then we read the story again, with the students playing the rhythms along with Max. They especially love it because I let them play the rhythms on the floor.
2nd Grade: Reviewing beat vs rhythm; reviewing quarter notes, quarter rests, and paired eighth notes; composing 4-beat and 8-beat rhythm patterns; review and practice with mi-so-la. I love using Artie Almeida's Mallet Madness books for practicing rhythm activities and instrument technique. One of my favorites for 2nd grade when working on quarter note, quarter rest, and paired eighth note patterns is her "One Potato, Two Potato" activity.
3rd Grade: Folk songs; Verse-Refrain Form (identifying, singing, and arranging); melodic direction; reviewing pitches of the pentatonic; practicing song accompaniment with barred instruments using chord, broken, and cross-over borduns. I like to use "Frere Jacques" to incorporate a lot of these concepts: Singing a folk song, singing in a round, accompanying the singing with various types of borduns, and introducing the concept of low "so".
4th Grade: At P, we've been working on their program, to be held Oct. 29. We're doing "A Kid's Life" by Jaconbson/Higgins. I'm loving it and so are the kids! At H, we've worked on "America the Beautiful" (singing it, memorizing the 1st verse, and creating our own illustrated book for the first verse); Theme and Variations Form with "America" and Ives' "Variations on America"; reviewing absolute pitch; Artie Almeida's lesson "Old Black Fly"; and now we've started a rhythm review and introduction of 16th notes.
5th Grade: At P, they're working on their program in conjunction with the 4th graders. At H, we've done a big unit combining with their social studies curriculum: Early US History-Civil War. We worked on a variety of activites with the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts", "Yankee Doodle", and then learned a couple of songs from the magazine Music K-8 ("Declaration" and "We the People"). Sidebar: Do you use Music K-8 in your classroom? I love it! We then took some time to learn about spirituals (big lesson using "Follow the Drinking Gourd") and the Underground Railroad. Within that portion of the unit, we take a slight--but still related--detour to discuss major and minor tonalities. To cap it all off and bring it back around to music history, we watch "Bach's Fight for Freedom" and do the activities that go along with it. We'll be starting the rhythm activity that goes along with it next week.
6th Grade: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (singing it/memorizing the first verse; various activities and projects to ensure that they understand the meaning and history behind the song); a couple of dance activites ("Popcorn" and "The Hustle"); reviewing the musical alphabet, absolute pitch, and rhythms learned so far; building and playing major scales; and now we're working on playing Boomwhacker pieces based on the C Major Scale, incorporating note and rhythm reading.
Up next? The 4th and 5th grade program at P next week Monday and lots of fun Halloween songs and activities for the kiddos!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Some Answers, Many Questions
I'm home sick today (yuck), but decided this would be a good time to get you caught up with some of the big music issues going on in my district right now. I know I can't be the only one facing situations such as these. Let's get a dialogue going. Ready, Set, Read, Respond.
First, I'm very fortunate to report that I am not on a cart full-time at my one building. (Yet.) We are one first grader shy of me getting the boot from my classroom, however. At this point, they will be using my classroom 3 times a year to set up a computer lab for MAP testing. This means that 3 times a year, for about a week each time, I will be traveling from room to room on a cart. The first MAP session with me cart-bound went fairly well, but I felt like it could have gone better. I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Danielle for commenting on my previous post and sharing her great ideas (and photos!) of how she makes the whole cart thing work for her. (You are awesome and I look forward to keeping in touch with you!) I think the next MAP go-round will definitely work out better.
So, how many of you are getting the squeeze or have already lost your rooms? Do you feel like a valuable part of your students' education team or are you made to feel like a babysitter while the "real teachers" meet in their PLC's? I'm fortunate to feel like I'm a valuable team member, but music teachers in other buildings in my same district are made to feel differently.
Second, our district passed a bond issue this September allowing us to build 3 new school over the next few years. 2 elementary schools and 1 high school, to be exact. This will also have direct implications on how general music is set up in the district. Currently, our students K-6 receive 60 minutes of music instruction each week. The music teachers of the district have been pushing for years (around 35, to be exact) for students to receive 90 minutes of music instruction each week, to be on par with what students in other districts around the state receive. With a new high school on the horizon, it looks as though our middle schools will soon be moved to a grades 6-8 set up rather than the 7-9 that they currently are, and that the 90 minutes might actually become a reality.
In addition to the "minutes" issue, an additional, but related, debate that is raging is this: Should the 6th graders still receive general music, even when they're moved up to the middle school? If so, how should it be structured? My concern is that general music would become the "dumping ground" for those 6th grade students not currently enrolled in band, choir, or orchestra; and I do not want to see that happen. Not fair for the students, not fair for the teacher(s). My opposition has stated that since 6th grade currently receives general music instruction, why would we want to take that away from them and give them less music opportunity? My response to that is, give the children 90 minutes each week from K-5 and they'll actually be getting more.
Adding another twist to this, our state legislature, in their most recent session, eliminated language in the century code mandating school districts to include music and art instruction in the curriculum. While our superintendent has very clearly stated she has no intention of eliminating music, the ultimate decision is not up to her--she can advise the school board, but they will have the final say in the matter, should a motion to remove music instruction be made. Am I wrong to think that we, as a team of music teachers, need to tread (somewhat) lightly and choose our battles very carefully?
OK, that's where I'll leave things (for now--ha!) I'll be back later with some specifics as to what's been happening in my classrooms so far this school year.
First, I'm very fortunate to report that I am not on a cart full-time at my one building. (Yet.) We are one first grader shy of me getting the boot from my classroom, however. At this point, they will be using my classroom 3 times a year to set up a computer lab for MAP testing. This means that 3 times a year, for about a week each time, I will be traveling from room to room on a cart. The first MAP session with me cart-bound went fairly well, but I felt like it could have gone better. I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Danielle for commenting on my previous post and sharing her great ideas (and photos!) of how she makes the whole cart thing work for her. (You are awesome and I look forward to keeping in touch with you!) I think the next MAP go-round will definitely work out better.
So, how many of you are getting the squeeze or have already lost your rooms? Do you feel like a valuable part of your students' education team or are you made to feel like a babysitter while the "real teachers" meet in their PLC's? I'm fortunate to feel like I'm a valuable team member, but music teachers in other buildings in my same district are made to feel differently.
Second, our district passed a bond issue this September allowing us to build 3 new school over the next few years. 2 elementary schools and 1 high school, to be exact. This will also have direct implications on how general music is set up in the district. Currently, our students K-6 receive 60 minutes of music instruction each week. The music teachers of the district have been pushing for years (around 35, to be exact) for students to receive 90 minutes of music instruction each week, to be on par with what students in other districts around the state receive. With a new high school on the horizon, it looks as though our middle schools will soon be moved to a grades 6-8 set up rather than the 7-9 that they currently are, and that the 90 minutes might actually become a reality.
In addition to the "minutes" issue, an additional, but related, debate that is raging is this: Should the 6th graders still receive general music, even when they're moved up to the middle school? If so, how should it be structured? My concern is that general music would become the "dumping ground" for those 6th grade students not currently enrolled in band, choir, or orchestra; and I do not want to see that happen. Not fair for the students, not fair for the teacher(s). My opposition has stated that since 6th grade currently receives general music instruction, why would we want to take that away from them and give them less music opportunity? My response to that is, give the children 90 minutes each week from K-5 and they'll actually be getting more.
Adding another twist to this, our state legislature, in their most recent session, eliminated language in the century code mandating school districts to include music and art instruction in the curriculum. While our superintendent has very clearly stated she has no intention of eliminating music, the ultimate decision is not up to her--she can advise the school board, but they will have the final say in the matter, should a motion to remove music instruction be made. Am I wrong to think that we, as a team of music teachers, need to tread (somewhat) lightly and choose our battles very carefully?
OK, that's where I'll leave things (for now--ha!) I'll be back later with some specifics as to what's been happening in my classrooms so far this school year.
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