hello world.
I know, long time no post. Like my friend Dana, I've tried to post meaningful things for the last month and a half but I haven't really felt like there was anything of importance. And being that I like to analyze things in my life, the fact that I haven't wanted to post anything is something to post about. Let me explain.
Teaching kindergarten and 1st grade general music, it's hard to feel like anything I'm doing is groundbreaking, interesting, or worth telling my loyal readers about. Not that what I'm doing isn't worthwhile or that I'm not into it, but it's just not something to record for all time on this blog. I think what this stems from is the fact that this is just a stepping stone in my career as a music educator. I know that I won't be in this district next year (unless something extraordinary happens) because I'm looking for a full time instrumental job and as of right now there aren't any anticipated openings. I would assume that most educators, like me, want to put their stamp on things and make a lasting difference wherever they are working, but I don't feel like I can do that in my current situation.
curriculum
During the original research project that Dana, Devon, and I did, we all grappled with curriculum issues; one of us had difficulties because there was no curriculum and I didn't like the book that the curriculum required me to use. Fast-forward to now and I have a curriculum that I really really have to follow. Being that my class is the first music class these students have in this district, I need to make sure what I'm teaching aligns with the curriculum so that next year they will be on the right track with whatever teacher they have. One thing I brought up in a department meeting was that the new kindergarten curriculum (since this is the first year of full day kindergarten, thus the first year of kindergarten music, art, and physical education) is pretty close to the 1st grade curriculum. For example, both grades need to be able to sing and identify sol and mi. It's hard to know how far my kindergarteners will go until I continue to assess them. Will they be able to do what the 1st graders can in terms of sol and mi identification? If they do, won't that mess up the 2nd grade curriculum because these students will be more advanced? Will that end up inflating grades and have all students end up being above grade-level (not that it's bad to have high achieving music students, but we want the curriculum to push the students, right)? I brought up these questions at a department meeting and no one knew the answer because we all have the same thoughts. It's just interesting that in real life teaching in a large and successful district, when I thought that teaching within the curriculum would be super easy, it has made me question long-term goals for these students...in a district I won't be teaching long-term...which brings us back to the issue of me feeling like I'm not leaving a lasting mark. Mid-year malaise? I don't know.
on deck
Sorry for that baseball reference - it's just now that the Giants are out, I'm counting down until my next sports disappointment, my beloved NY Mets. Because we lost days for Sandy, our district has school straight through January 2nd and March 23rd. No. Days. Off. Needless to say, lots of us teachers will be taking personal and sick days to alleviate the discomfort of that much school. For me, I'll definitely be taking off a few days to go to my state music education conference and for the NAfME All-Eastern conference. One thing I really liked from one of my instrumental pedagogy classes was the idea of a unit study. It makes lesson planning easier when it's in big chunks based upon the same idea. I just finished one that I used for all of December on The Nutcracker. The kids danced to, drew, listened to, critiqued, compared and contrasted, and watched performances of parts of The Nutcracker. It hit lots of national standards and was fun for them to learn little by little. Maybe I like it because it's like watching the next episode in a series - "tune in next class for the dramatic conclusion of the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy!". But anyway, to get myself through this next long haul, I will most likely be doing a unit on Peter and the Wolf. I know I'll definitely do it for 1st grade, but I have to think about how I'll do it with the little ones.
Well world, I feel better having this all down on...paper screen. Happy New Year!! I promise to post more regularly from now on. Let's call it a resolution.
long time no blog
I've been trying to think of what profound pieces of information to impart upon the world of the interwebs over the last two-ish weeks. All I keep thinking is that I am just pushing forward and that I haven't really had time to process what is important to take note of. Despite this, I'm going to put some of my thoughts down on paper laptop.
opinions of the faculty room
I'm sure we all, as current/potential music educators have heard to stay away from the faculty room! All those teachers do is complain about their kids, about administration, it's crowded, you don't know anyone, yadda yadda yadda. During student teaching, I never set foot in the faculty room (mostly because we ate pie during lunch in the middle school band room and I'm not one to miss out on a baked good) but I did when I substitute taught during semester breaks. That was a little bit of a different experience because almost everyone in the faculty room was a parent of a friend or was my teacher when I was in school, so it was more of a "How are you?!" type situation than a listening to complaining situation. I don't have a classroom or space to call my own in any of my four schools and since I travel so often and that means I spend a lot of my prep times in the faculty room. I have found that it is very important for me to have face time in the faculty room because no one really knows me anywhere. I think that for any new teacher, especially music teachers who touch so many students, it is important for you to get a sense of the school community, chat with other teachers, and let them know that you exist when you're in the faculty room. Yes, sometimes I do overhear a lot of jibberjabbercomplaincomplain, but also sometimes there are cookies and bread with spinach artichoke dip. You take the bad with the good.
observation
I was observed for the first time. It was fine. Real people observations are different than student teaching observations. When we got observed for student teaching during undergrad, we got instant feedback; our junior year student teaching supervisors gave us written sheets along with the discussions we had in the car on the way to/from the school and senior year, our supervisors met with us as soon as we were done teaching to give feedback. With this observation of a kindergarten class, my supervisor left as soon as I was done teaching and that was it! I know that I will have a post-observation meeting with him, but hey, I think it went well!
based on our old data...
Okay, that was a very brainy heading. I'll explain. When my two research buddies and I coded our data from our junior student teaching, one thing we discovered was that at one point or another we all felt like we had no idea what we were doing. To some extent, I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. The one thing that I have to keep reminding myself of is that my kindergarteners and first graders have never had music in the public schools before, so sticking with the basics for a while is just fine for them...and me! Some of the other teachers in my district are very well versed in Kodály and that's how they work their lesson plans. I, on the other hand, had an overview of different methods that included Kodály but that wasn't the main focus. I'm very happy that I've had a big overview of methods because it's helped my bag of tricks, but I still feel a little like my skill set isn't up to par. One other thing that has made me feel a little like I don't know what I'm doing is the fact that there are a lot of general music teachers in the 8 district elementary schools, but we aren't covering concepts at the same times. For example, I've already started with rhythm sticks, jingle bells, and tambourines with all of my students but other teachers save that for later. I talked to my mentor teacher about this and she said to just try it and if it fails, then I know for next time. It's nice to hear that there is some leniency and that me wanting to try things is okay. I like that I still feel a little like student teaching, that I can learn about what works as I go and I don't need all the answers.
My dad once told me that he feels like he shouldn't have gotten paid for his first few years of teaching because he didn't know what he was doing. I thought he was joking, but now I know it's not an exaggeration because I feel the same way! For some reason, I thought that having a job would mean that I felt super confident about everything I was doing - like a job gave me this treasure chest of knowledge that I was unaware of until then. Nope.
last but certainly not least, lesson planning
Writing plans for general music is way different than lesson planning for beginning band lessons or high school band. I can very easily open up Essential Elements 2000, turn to the next page, know what will be difficult, and say SWBAT within two seconds, or even open up a score and know what passages you'll have to work. While the general music teacher editions are full of tons of information and well laid out ideas to teach the kiddies, I don't want to do everything in the same order as the textbook editors want to. I mean, yeah, we all start with steady beat and high and low, but I've been taking time to get songs from different kindergarten and first grade books across publishers. It also takes a lot of time to tailor the lessons to the short attention span of 5-7 year olds. The lessons are so full of different activities that it inherently takes longer. In any lesson planning situation, it behooves you to plan extra just in case but with the little ones, it's especially true. I'm starting to get more in the flow as get to I know my students, their interests and abilities, but lesson planning for general music is a different beast.
Now it's time for one more small tidbit of information. If you don't have time to work out in the morning before school, do an activity with your students that incorporates a workout. For example, the song "I'm Tall, I'm Small", I had students squat down when they sing about being small and then jump up when they're tall. After doing that approximately 50 times on Monday and 50 times on Tuesday, my legs were KILLING me yesterday. Win.
