Journal 10

This week we continued discussing the topic of creativity in the classroom. We reviewed some of the activities we did in the past and also learned new activities that we could incorporate into our classrooms. We did a new activity this week that showed us how students can use their creativity. We read the book The Listening Walk by Paul Showers. Each student was giving an object and they had to come up with a sound that represents that object. A student was assigned to read the book while the other students made their assigned object noise. This would give students the opportunity to be creative with their different noises they wished to make. Reading this story gave every student the opportunity to participate. We also did another activity that took a childrens song and incorporated that into the story that was read. The teacher took the melody to the song and changed the words to some of the words in the book. This helps make the stories more interesting and gives the students the opportunity to not only listen to the story but to participate as well. The activities we learned this week showed us how to incorporate music into storytelling and also use the students creativity. Students can use their creative in any story that is told. This will help the students ideas to be used but also a learning experience for the students as well.
Student learning is enhanced in activities like this because the teacher presents the students with a problem that needs to be solved. In the case of The listening walk, the teacher present the students with objects and the students had to come up with an appropriate sound that corresponds with that object. Student learning gives students the opportunity to incorporate their ideas with the problem the teacher presents. Student learning also brings out the creativity in the students as for they have to come up with different ideas. Student learning is a great way to create a lesson which would really bring out the creativity in your students.
We also used our recorders this week. We learned the E note and combined that to play a nice melody with other notes we learned.

Journal 8

This week we talked about creativity and child. Its extremely important for children to be creative in the classroom. When children become creative it not only makes the class more interesting but also keeps the students interested and involved. It important for children to be creative because it helps with the childrens memories and helps them use their ideas. I think students learn a lot more when they use creativity because they expand their thoughts and ideas.
We can help children use creativity with learning different notes on the recorder and having them come up with different songs or melodies. Children can also use creativity by creating a steady beat or rhythm for a song or story. Students can also create different musical instruments with different craft or materials. All of these things students can do with just using their creativity. Students will find that class will be a lot more interesting when children just use their creativity. Students can even create their own songs. Children can do anything if they just use their minds and be creative!

The culture that I will be researching is the polish culture. I will be researching different aspects of the polish culture including music, dance, food, religion, stories, and much more. I look forward to learning more about the polish culture and their beliefs.

Journal 7

This week, we had our first test. In order to get prepared for this test, I used the study guide and other students in the class to help me prepare. I was able to use past assignments and in class notes to review for the test. I felt that reading the music and being able to tell the different notes was difficult for me. With not much of a music background I found it quit difficult to understand how to read the notes and what each note was. I found the most difficult was solfegee. I wasn't at all prepared for that or knew what this concept was. I thought that a lot of the stuff that we read in the book was easy. It was more terms and you could understand it with no musical background.I felt if I had more of a musical background this would have been a lot easier for me to understand. For me the best way to prepare for the test was to do the study guide and have students from the class review with one another.

So far this semester, we have learned different teaching styles for students. We also learned how to write a lesson plan. Not only were expected to write a lesson plan, but then present it to a group of students. We learned five different notes on the recorder (G A B C D). We also learned the treble clef which is also known as a G clef. We emphasized a lot on steady beat and rhythm. We also learned rhythmic notations and melodic icons. I feel that we covered a lot of material this half of semester but at times were rushed through things in order to cover all the topics.

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.