Dr. Sandy Stauffer Workshop, September 30, 2017
Despite having to wake up early on a Saturday, I really enjoyed this workshop. It was really fun to play children’s games for three hours. I also learned a lot of different ways to be creative in a classroom. It meshed well with this weeks reading of ‘Fumbling Towards Vulnerability: Moving Out of the Familiar for Music Education’s Sake’ because it gave us different ways of being creative with still appeasing the curriculum.
One thing I really enjoyed is that Dr. Sandy Stauffer used different types of learning styles for different activities. For example the Ram Sam Sam and rolling the ball activities were very bodily kinaesthetic while the Kangaroo activity was very visual. This allows for kids to develop all the different learning styles and learn how to listen to music and kind of analyst it (the melody is going up, my movements will be higher or the dots will go higher on my page).
I was really surprised at how easy it was to teach compound time with just replacing sounds with words. This allows for teachers to teach difficult rhythms and help teach new pieces more efficiently. I was also surprised at how easy it was for all of us to stop caring and give into playing children games. Because normally in our music education class it takes us a while to get into the game.
The only thing I wish we did was talk about why we did the peace round. I loved it and the harmonies were great but I don’t know what the significance was compared to all the other activities.
One thing I would like to ask Dr. Stauffer is what inspired her to stop teaching elementary school and start teaching teachers?
Overall I found this workshop very rewarding and I hope that I can remember some of these games when ever I am in a classroom setting in the future.
Leslie Dawe Skype Call, October 4, 2017
This week in Intro to Music Education, the class skype called Leslie Dawe, an elementary school music teacher. Although this call was short, I felt that we learned more about how Leslie teaches and her philosophy behind her teaching.
During the call, Leslie talked about how her classroom is setup and how there are two different streams of music in her school. I never knew that this was possible and I found it really interesting to learn about. I wonder how the children are split up into the two different streams and who did decides what stream a child goes into? It is interesting how there is the stream where they learn the classic band instruments and the stream where they learn guitars and drumming. I’m interested in whether more students go into high school music because of this option and whether more students from one stream than the other continue to create music past elementary school.
Leslie also talked about how the students help chose what music they will be producing and/or listening to. I feel like this is a really good strategy to keep students interested in music and keep them engaged. I am constantly wondering what my musicality would be like if I had this much freedom in my education. I feel like I would be able to pick repertoire for myself better and be willing to be more vulnerable in my music making.
Overall, I found this Skype Call really interesting and informative in the different ways we can operate a classroom. The only thing I wish is that it could of been longer. I realize that due to scheduling that this wouldn’t be possible but I feel that as a class we would of benefitted more with more time.
Deborah Bradley Workshop, October 18, 2017
This week in Intro to Music Education a former professor of University of Toronto came in and talked to us about her essay on decolonizing multiculturalism in music education.
As previously stated, I really enjoyed the topic of this reading and agreed with Bradley’s perspective on this type of teaching. Although it took me forever to read, when finished I truly felt that I understood what Bradley was talking about. So the workshop didn’t clarify me on what Deborah was talking about but furthered my understanding on how I can avoid teaching in a manor that is unintentionally racist.
One thing that really made me think in the workshop was the video on the difference between a non-racist and an anti-racist. It is one of those videos that really opened up my eyes and made me realize instances in my life where I have been a non-racist instead of an anti-racist and it is something that I want to change, especially when I am teaching.
Another part I enjoyed in this presentation was when we sang. Although we weren’t that loud and didn’t have much time to learn it, it was a moment in the presentation when everyone got involved. I appreciated when Bradley gave us a background on the song about how it was written for the civil rights movement and how the artists got the opportunity to spread this song through different marched around the United States. This part of the talk showed us an example of how educators can be aware of what each piece of repertoire means and how it changes a musicians perspective.
All these were great parts, but probably my favourite part was when we learned Bradley’s origin story of why she teaches in this field of music education. In this talk we learned how she grew up in Southern United States and was in an all-white school growing up. During her childhood, 3 black people were eventually introduced into her school and she saw how they were treated in this mostly white school. It was this injustice that really inspired her to be in this study of education. I found this story really moving and it made me realize how recent segregation was and why it is so important to be aware of colonization in teaching.
St. George Catholic Elementary School, October 30, 2017
Today in Intro to Music Ed we went to St. George Catholic Elementary School and attended a Grade 3/4 class and did a music lesson with them. It was interesting being in an elementary school again because the last time I was doing a coop and still the youngest grade I shadowed was grade 5. I found it really interesting to just participating in the class and not trying to teach it; it gave me the time to just look around and see how Cathy ran the class. We started off with a game I already knew, the human orchestra, this allowed me mostly to focus on how the kids played it differently then we did back at Western. I noticed that the kids didn’t initially feel any sense of beat when making their sounds, they didn’t do much listening in order to see if their beat fit in with others. Slowly, they all started to mash into one common beat the more we did it. It showed me how quickly kids can learn. The next thing we did that I found significant is when we did the snap, clap, pat, stomp activities. I found this one more challenging then it should of been and thought it was a good activity to introduce rounds in. I found it interesting that some of the kids couldn’t help but follow Cathy when she was the only one doing the second part and it shows how some kids need visual cues while others are fine with just listening to the others behind them. There were plenty of other activities that we did including the old lady sweeping the graveyard, the witch with her very distinguished features and many more. But the thing that impressed me the most was Cathy’s ability to handle a classroom, she has found the right way to talk to kids so that they listen and respect her while still having a fun time. Seeing also how these activities work with actual children was great to because before this we only saw these great activities in theory and didn’t see how they would work in the ‘real world’. Overall, I found this class very informative and I’m excited to learn more in the future.
Despite having to wake up early on a Saturday, I really enjoyed this workshop. It was really fun to play children’s games for three hours. I also learned a lot of different ways to be creative in a classroom. It meshed well with this weeks reading of ‘Fumbling Towards Vulnerability: Moving Out of the Familiar for Music Education’s Sake’ because it gave us different ways of being creative with still appeasing the curriculum.
One thing I really enjoyed is that Dr. Sandy Stauffer used different types of learning styles for different activities. For example the Ram Sam Sam and rolling the ball activities were very bodily kinaesthetic while the Kangaroo activity was very visual. This allows for kids to develop all the different learning styles and learn how to listen to music and kind of analyst it (the melody is going up, my movements will be higher or the dots will go higher on my page).
I was really surprised at how easy it was to teach compound time with just replacing sounds with words. This allows for teachers to teach difficult rhythms and help teach new pieces more efficiently. I was also surprised at how easy it was for all of us to stop caring and give into playing children games. Because normally in our music education class it takes us a while to get into the game.
The only thing I wish we did was talk about why we did the peace round. I loved it and the harmonies were great but I don’t know what the significance was compared to all the other activities.
One thing I would like to ask Dr. Stauffer is what inspired her to stop teaching elementary school and start teaching teachers?
Overall I found this workshop very rewarding and I hope that I can remember some of these games when ever I am in a classroom setting in the future.
Leslie Dawe Skype Call, October 4, 2017
This week in Intro to Music Education, the class skype called Leslie Dawe, an elementary school music teacher. Although this call was short, I felt that we learned more about how Leslie teaches and her philosophy behind her teaching.
During the call, Leslie talked about how her classroom is setup and how there are two different streams of music in her school. I never knew that this was possible and I found it really interesting to learn about. I wonder how the children are split up into the two different streams and who did decides what stream a child goes into? It is interesting how there is the stream where they learn the classic band instruments and the stream where they learn guitars and drumming. I’m interested in whether more students go into high school music because of this option and whether more students from one stream than the other continue to create music past elementary school.
Leslie also talked about how the students help chose what music they will be producing and/or listening to. I feel like this is a really good strategy to keep students interested in music and keep them engaged. I am constantly wondering what my musicality would be like if I had this much freedom in my education. I feel like I would be able to pick repertoire for myself better and be willing to be more vulnerable in my music making.
Overall, I found this Skype Call really interesting and informative in the different ways we can operate a classroom. The only thing I wish is that it could of been longer. I realize that due to scheduling that this wouldn’t be possible but I feel that as a class we would of benefitted more with more time.
Deborah Bradley Workshop, October 18, 2017
This week in Intro to Music Education a former professor of University of Toronto came in and talked to us about her essay on decolonizing multiculturalism in music education.
As previously stated, I really enjoyed the topic of this reading and agreed with Bradley’s perspective on this type of teaching. Although it took me forever to read, when finished I truly felt that I understood what Bradley was talking about. So the workshop didn’t clarify me on what Deborah was talking about but furthered my understanding on how I can avoid teaching in a manor that is unintentionally racist.
One thing that really made me think in the workshop was the video on the difference between a non-racist and an anti-racist. It is one of those videos that really opened up my eyes and made me realize instances in my life where I have been a non-racist instead of an anti-racist and it is something that I want to change, especially when I am teaching.
Another part I enjoyed in this presentation was when we sang. Although we weren’t that loud and didn’t have much time to learn it, it was a moment in the presentation when everyone got involved. I appreciated when Bradley gave us a background on the song about how it was written for the civil rights movement and how the artists got the opportunity to spread this song through different marched around the United States. This part of the talk showed us an example of how educators can be aware of what each piece of repertoire means and how it changes a musicians perspective.
All these were great parts, but probably my favourite part was when we learned Bradley’s origin story of why she teaches in this field of music education. In this talk we learned how she grew up in Southern United States and was in an all-white school growing up. During her childhood, 3 black people were eventually introduced into her school and she saw how they were treated in this mostly white school. It was this injustice that really inspired her to be in this study of education. I found this story really moving and it made me realize how recent segregation was and why it is so important to be aware of colonization in teaching.
St. George Catholic Elementary School, October 30, 2017
Today in Intro to Music Ed we went to St. George Catholic Elementary School and attended a Grade 3/4 class and did a music lesson with them. It was interesting being in an elementary school again because the last time I was doing a coop and still the youngest grade I shadowed was grade 5. I found it really interesting to just participating in the class and not trying to teach it; it gave me the time to just look around and see how Cathy ran the class. We started off with a game I already knew, the human orchestra, this allowed me mostly to focus on how the kids played it differently then we did back at Western. I noticed that the kids didn’t initially feel any sense of beat when making their sounds, they didn’t do much listening in order to see if their beat fit in with others. Slowly, they all started to mash into one common beat the more we did it. It showed me how quickly kids can learn. The next thing we did that I found significant is when we did the snap, clap, pat, stomp activities. I found this one more challenging then it should of been and thought it was a good activity to introduce rounds in. I found it interesting that some of the kids couldn’t help but follow Cathy when she was the only one doing the second part and it shows how some kids need visual cues while others are fine with just listening to the others behind them. There were plenty of other activities that we did including the old lady sweeping the graveyard, the witch with her very distinguished features and many more. But the thing that impressed me the most was Cathy’s ability to handle a classroom, she has found the right way to talk to kids so that they listen and respect her while still having a fun time. Seeing also how these activities work with actual children was great to because before this we only saw these great activities in theory and didn’t see how they would work in the ‘real world’. Overall, I found this class very informative and I’m excited to learn more in the future.