First Week of school comes to an end..

The first week of 2015-2016 is coming to an end today, as the rain falls and the air cools.  It has been way too hot to begin school this week, but the kids have been great sports about it all.  I have been learning a lot about my own teaching through my experience with "Creating Independent Writers".  I took this class at York's Summer Institute and I have already begun to utilize an important concept that I learned from it in my teaching.

"To-With- By" is the important idea I have been working with this week.  This means that the teacher teaches the concept "TO" the students, then she or he works on the concept by doing it "WITH" the students, and then finally she lets them do it "BY" themselves.  It is called a gradual release of responsibility.  It turns out I have been doing this in my music classes from the beginning, but to do it with a mindfulness is a completely different experience.   I know that I have always tried to make children become more independent by helping them first, and then letting them do it alone, but now I have more of a sense of how much they can handle before I let go of the control.  I think we all tend to give students too much, throw so much at them all at once, and then they immediately become overwhelmed with too much information.  Instead, if you give them a mini-lesson, then create an example with them and then let them do one on their own after that, it will be a much cleaner, more fluid, and more positive experience for them.

My example is that I have my students begin the term by creating a rhythm composition and then playing it for the class.  I explained how to do it, and gave them the tools they needed to succeed at it.  Then I did an example of a composition on the board for the class, then we created one as a class, or a shorter one, and then I gave them the rest of the week to create one on their own.  They finished in good time, and today they performed their projects for the class.  Everyone met the standard, for creating a sixteen measure composition and sharing it with the class.  Our last assignment for the final five minutes of the class was to play separate pieces together, everyone has sixteen measures in four/four time, so they should all begin and end at the same time..good luck to all doing this, it is not easy!

My reflection on all of this, is that when you do something that you have not been cognizant of, like to-with-by, maybe it isn't getting to the students as successfully as it should.  When you become more aware of the technique, and you check yourself as you are doing it, and you do it with more consciousness, with more mindfulness, I think our students benefit so much.  It is a wonderfully positive experience to watch them become independent musicians, independent learners, and independent composers!!!!