Journal 6 and Assignment 6

This week we completed our lesson plans. This was our first time teaching a lesson. I was extremely nervous when teaching this lesson. I feel that I did well for my first time but could improve in some areas. The grade I received in Musicianship is what I expected to get. I could improve my pitch and tune. I thought that my leadership was good which really helped the lesson run smoother. I prepared well but could have timed my lesson better. I also wish I wouldn't have looked at my lesson as much as a did. The delivery of instruction was good but I need to improve on the pace of the lesson. I could have slowed down and could have broke things down into smaller tasks so the students could have understood. If I had to give myself a grade, I would have probably give myself the grade that I received. I believe that the grade I was given 48.5/50 was the grade that I deserved.
During this lesson, I felt that staying calm was the most difficult part of the lesson. Also making sure the lesson is taught successfully for all the students to understand was difficult. In order to make my lesson better I could have sang in tune and also could have slowed down so students could have understood me better. I felt that the piano helped a lot with getting students to understand the melody of Jump Jim Joe. I thought that the energy of the students really helped make this lesson more fun. I also think the closing part was good, it showed that students had a good understanding of what the lesson was about and understood what was being taught. Overall this was a good learning experience and practice for future lessons.

journal 5

This week in class we cover a lot of material for our lesson plan. Our lesson plans were returned to us and we were able to go over various issues to improve our lesson. Personally I feel very pressured for this lesson plan. This is our first lesson plan that we have to present to the class and not having a good background in music really puts me under pressure. We were able to meet in groups to go over our lesson plan which was nice. We also covered a new note on the recorder. We went over the "D" note. we also covered sharps. I am still unclear of some of this but hopefully within the next few weeks before the test it will become more clear.

This week it was a lot of the instructor telling us techniques and ideas about our lesson plans. We were able to give her some of our ideas and then we got positive or negative feedback about our ideas. This was suppose to help us improve our teaching styles. We got feedback from our instructor and our classmates. Each style of feedback differed from ideas and techniques of teaching our lesson. We did not do a lot of musical things this week mostly our lesson plans.

This part of the class is very important to us. We need to know how to successfully teach a lesson to our students. Developing a successfully lesson plan will make our students a lot more knowledgeable in that subject. Incorporating music into our classrooms will give children a different style of learning to adapt to. So its important we learn how to teach our students.

Its important for students to be exposed to music in the classroom. It gives students more knowledge and helps them learn different ideas and techniques from different composers. It shows students that they can express themselves not only on paper but in music as well. It gives students a better understanding of musicianship itself.

I felt this week was a important week for us students. I think this next week we will be under a lot of pressure to present our lesson plans in front of one another. In the future we hope to take what we have learned and learn more about making a more successful lesson plan.

Journal 4

This week we covered a lot of information on Lesson plans. We prepared throughout the week for our first lesson plans. We did cover two skills this week. This week was emphasized on the rest note and the C note on the recorder. These concepts that we learned were taught briefly throughout the week. While teaching these concepts and ideas there was always ideas on how to use certain concepts and ideas in our own lesson plan.
These different concepts and ideas this week were taught to use verbally. The professor would give the students an example of the different songs or concepts that were being taught, and the students would repeat back what they heard from the professor. This helped students to have a better understanding of what the teacher was asking for.
This week the things that were important for us was writing our first lesson plan. A lot of the topics covered this week were directions on how to successfully write your first lesson plan. There was not many topics this week covered that would help our students. It was more emphasized on the lesson plan. Some of the things that were asked to do while writing the lesson plan were not clear. Students were still not clear as to what was being asked. Being the first lesson plan students are writing I feel that they needed more direction on how to go about writing it. Other concepts that were covered were good and well explained.
This week, not many things would help my students out. The rest note and the C note on the recorder would be the only things that would benefit my students. The learning of how to write a lesson plan would benefit me as a teacher more then my students. I think it was good that we covered how to write a lesson plan more then concepts throughout the week. It takes a good lesson plan to teach a good music skill or concept.

Journal 3

Throughout this week, we have learned about melody. We were able to learn melody both through singing and playing on the recorder. We learned and started a new song to get to know one another and each others names. We learned about the C-Scale and were able to learn the treble clef. We also learned about the beat of each note. We did this by making pictures according to the song. We would make big pictures to emphasize one beat or two smaller pictures to emphasizes two beats. We applied all these different ideas towards a lesson plan. We learned the different things to put in a lesson plan in addition to the what to consider while teaching the lesson. While learning this, we were able to know about each grade level and what they are capable of doing. We also learned the different things students should be learning at those different ages. We are starting to be able to combine different ideas and thoughts that we are learning into different age groups and lessons.
All these things we learned this week, were taught to us in a variety of ways. We learned melody through singing to one another. The instructor presented the information to us and we would repeat the information back to her through question and answer or singing. We always learned this information through each other. Some of our classmates were able to give us information on things we may need to know. I feel that students this week were critiqued unfairly. Some students were trying hard and still were not getting the encouragement they needed.I This is causing students to doubt their abilities in music. Students were being called out on their weaknesses rather then being encouraged to try. We also learned information through reading the chapter. The chapters cover the majority of information on lesson plans and students abilities in different grades.
All these concepts are extremely important for us to cover. Being an elementary teacher, these concepts will help us to present information to our students in different ways. I think it is also important so that we know what students musical abilities are capable in different age groups. These different ideas will help us bring music into our classrooms.
All these different techniques and ideas are important for students to learn. I feel that students should be very diverse with different ways of learning. Music can incorporate a numerous about of different things in the world. From different culture ideas, communication, education, people, places, and things. These musical concepts are very important to children learning in elementary schools. We learn these different ideas to help our students learn and express emotion. As we continue on in the semester I feel that we will increase our knowledge of how students can interpret different ideas and concepts.