Perseverance

One of the big HOWLs at our school, (an acronym for habits of work and learning) is perseverance.  I need a great deal of it lately, because I am challenging myself regularly in so many different ways.  First of all, I have taken on all the choreography for the musical, "High School Musical, Jr."  This is a great show, and the story is perfect for middle school, all about trying new things and being yourself, and finding yourself by pushing the status quo.  However, there is so much choreography to create and figure out in it, that I am pretty much in over my head.  That being said, I am loving it!!  Must I love being challenged to do well with this?  Perhaps, I don't know.

One other way I am persevering is with the choral music I am learning to play for the fifth-eighth grade choruses.  The theme this spring is "musicals" so the music is complicated, fast, multi-layered, full of huge, many-noted chords, full of off-beat rhythms, full of really huge extensions with my hands.  I will persevere, and it is only January, so I have some time to work at it, but I get frustrated, because every time I come back to it, I feel like I am sort of starting over from scratch..shoot!! But, just like a little child who is learning to walk, I will not give up until I am soaring!!

The best news is that with my new fifth grade students I can use these experiences to show the importance of perseverance.  I can share my own personal experiences with perseverance with my students.  I works to talk to them about it, also because they all hear me practicing down the hall from their classrooms, and some of them are IN chorus, so they know what the music looks like.  It's just plain HARD!!  I will keep you posted, but wish me luck, will you??

First Week of Fifth Grade

This is my first week of fifth grade, and I am trying out a new project.  New students, new project, new ideas, new thoughts, new year!!  The project reads like this:

DYNAMIC PROJECT CHECKLIST -Create their own compositions by applying the knowledge and skills of notation, symbols, and terminology of dynamics.   

1. LEARN THE DEFINITIONS OF THESE DYNAMICS AND WRITE THEM ON THE LINES

FORTISSIMO__________________________

FORTE_____________________________

MEZZO-FORTE________________________

MEZZO-PIANO___________________________

PIANO____________________________________

PIANISSIMO_________________________________

2.  WRITE DOWN EXAMPLES OF THESE DYNAMICS IN REAL SITUATIONS.

EX: FORTISSIMO: AN AVALANCHE OR A FIRE ALARM.

3.  GO TO THE PIANO LAB AND EXPERIMENT ON THE PIANO WITH THESE DYNAMICS, FINDING WAYS TO MAKE THESE DIFFERENT DYNAMICS.

4.  CREATE A PIECE THAT YOU WRITE DOWN IN YOUR OWN WAY,  USING ALL THE DYNAMICS YOU HAVE LEARNED.

5.  BE SURE TO LABEL YOUR PIECE WITH ALL THE DYNAMICS YOU HAVE LEARNED: YOU CAN USE FF, F, MF, MP, P, AND PP, OR YOU CAN WRITE THEM OUT IN FULL.

6.  PRACTICE YOUR PIECE IN THE LAB.

7.  PLAY YOUR PIECE FOR ME, FOR A GROUP, OR FOR THE CLASS, YOUR CHOICE!

8.  USE YOUR TIME WISELY.

9.  ASK QUESTIONS IF YOU NEED HELP.

10.  USE YOUR CREATIVITY AND THE NOTES OF THE PIANO TO CREATE YOUR PIECE, USE YOUR OWN IMAGINATIVE WAY TO WRITE DOWN YOUR PIECE, SO YOU CAN PLAY IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.  YOU CAN USE NUMBERS, NOTES, PICTURES, WORDS, WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU!!  

I am trying to get students to be creative, think outside the box, and not be intimidated by reading notes or trying to understand rhythms. Just experiment with the piano and see what comes out. Also, there is a larger, more specific purpose: To have students show their understanding and ability to use different dynamics: fortissimo, forte, mezzo forte, mezzo piano, piano and pianissimo.

So far, there were a few students who were intimidated by the piano just because they have never played it before. But when I told them they didn't have to know how to play it, they just had to make things up and write them down the way they want to, there was a sigh of relief, and I will keep you posted. I am hoping they will come up with some really interesting things, and use the dynamics in their favor, but also just have some fun before reading music gets really complicated and serious. We shall see!!

Appreciation

I want to say how much I appreciate my sixth graders this year.  They have brought me new challenges, and made me laugh and feel energized as well.  There are so many different personalities in this group, and I have learned new patience, and a new sense of what order looks like for them.  I have opened my mind to new ways of helping them, and have decided, because of this group, to retire a few old projects.  It has made me very excited about discovering new ways to inspire sixth graders about composing and playing music, and I will keep trying, no matter what. 

I appreciate their openness about new songs and performers that they watch on youtube.  I appreciate their ability to ask questions and not be afraid of sounding uninformed.  I am hoping this will not be their last experience with music, although it might be.  Some of them will not have music again until the high school because of their particular academic needs.  This often makes me very sad, because they miss out on a time of creativity and a time to re-learn the basics of reading and understanding music.  I hope that when they get to high school those students will be able to remember their reading of music from sixth grade.  However, I don't hold out a lot of hope for this, as if you don't keep practicing your music reading, you will absolutely forget how to do it, and it will be a terrible waste.  Just like any language, if you don't practice it, you will lose it completely.

So- my words of wisdom to anyone who cares about music at all.  Practice note-reading.  Practice on a keyboard, on any instrument, and you will never be sorry.  This is my last lecture to my sixth graders, keep up playing, keep up reading, you will not regret it!!  Happy trails, you all, and come visit me when you get a chance!!

I leave you with a picture from the holidays, of me and my three granddaughters, the new loves of my life!!  Always play like a child, always be in the moment like a child, and remember to sing like a child as often as possible!! Amen!!

Home on a Snow day, always Reflecting..

The blizzard rages outside, but I am here, warm, by the fire,  thinking about the last time I was observed by an administrator in my district.  First of all, the administrator observed my class the last twenty minutes of the day, one day before holiday vacation.  I was not perturbed, even though this person also knew that the aid that is ALWAYS in the classroom for two students who need support, had left for the day because he had an appointment he couldn't miss.  In fact, shock of all shocks, students were involved, engaged, able to answer all his questions, and were all doing what they were expected to do.  The learning targets were on the board, the agenda was also on the board, the students were working at their own pace, and they were all progressing well, even if they had not had a lot of experience with composition or piano playing.  They were articulate about the differences between 3/4 and 4/4 time, and they were enthusiastic about their knowledge and the project and activities at hand.  We had been listening and singing "Farewell to Tarwathie" and had been conducting in 3/4 time, and everything connected to everything else. 

Somehow, the administrator managed to find EVERYTHING wrong with the observation, but the problems he found had absolutely NOTHING to do with anything he observed.  For the third time since this person began at our school, I felt unsafe, guarded, and defeated by this experience.  Frankly, we have been told that this new supervision and evaluation program is supposed to be more helpful for me and them, but all it did was make me feel defeated.  Nothing positive was reported, although all of the kids were working well and learning.  He wrote in tbe feedback he didn't approve of the way I set up my classroom, but in our discussion, he never mentioned this issue.  If he had, I would have explained to him why I set up my classroom in a flexible way, so we can sing, and dance, and act, and move things in many different ways.  I have discussed the reasons why I do what I do with my former principal, and he was a stickler, but even he agreed with my reasoning when we discussed it before. 

The worst part was that he wrote about things he never observed, and that is not right.  He wrote about my writing operas, but he wasn't observing that project.  I had already talked to the principal about that a few weeks before, and had agreed to limit my writing from now on, as there is so much emphasis now on writing, it was getting to be too much.  I understood that, and shared with this administrator my plans for next year, but he never talked about that- he only criticized what I had done before with writing.  He said I needed to talk to the teams about my plans for writing, and I had already told him that I had discussed at great length my plans, and how I used the RACE model and the hamburger model in fifth grade, and how I used a plot development model from the language arts teacher in sixth grade. 

I would never say that my teaching is impeccable, I can always use ways to improve.  I would only like the observers to be sharing what they SEE, not what they choose to interject from some random complaint by a student.  I would rather have them be supportive FIRST and critical second, just as I try to be in my evaluation of my students.  If this person treated his students this way, I can only imagine how they would end up feeling at the end of a quarter.  I am all for supervision and evaluation, I am all for trying to get better as a teacher, but please allow us to be human, please acknowledge that there is good going on in our classrooms, before you rip us to shreds, please realize how wonderful you might really have it, if you just did a little bit of research before you criticized everything you imagine is happening when you "walk by". 

Finally, this person also spoke about how I sit at my desk when he is walking by, does he realize when he walks by it has always been during targeted learning time?  Students are working independently on subjects that are not related to music, so they are sitting in different places in the room, and I am at my desk, so I can write them passes to the library or to other teachers they need to see.  Did he do his research on this at all?  I am sorry to say, he just no longer has a leg to stand on.  He needs to find better ways to do his supervision and evaluations, and he needs to be a supportive administrator who you can count on, instead of someone who a teacher might try to avoid at all costs.  I doubt anything will come from this blog, but it made me feel much better to write about it. 

Casting a play

We just cast the spring musical, "High School Musical, Jr." by David Simpatico.  We had two days of auditions, two hours a piece, and we had over fifty students who auditioned.  What I realized through this process is that most kids these days don't know how to audition for a play or a show.  They don't read the directions about how to do it, so they come to the audition completely unprepared.  Well, let me teach you all how to prepare yourself for an audition for a musical.

First of all, check the website, and familiarize yourself with the music and story of the play.  Check out all the characters, and choose some that you think you might want to audition for.  If you can, watch a version of the show on youtube, and listen and study the songs from the show.  Prepare a song that you know will show your voice and will show the directors what you can do, range, emotions, preparation, diction, pitch, and expression.  Make sure you know the song cold before you go into the audition.  If it requires accompaniment, bring the score with you, or bring a karaoke accompaniment.  Study the "sides" if they are offered on-line.  If not, take a moment before you begin to read your part and study what is happening at that point in the play, and what your attitude and emotions need to be.  Smile, and sing confidently, and warm up before you go in, if you can, even in the bathroom for a few moments. 

When you are cast, be grateful that you were chosen among all the other people for that part.  Make a commitment to something bigger than yourself and your ego.  Every year many students are disappointed with the parts they get, and they up and quit before the first rehearsal.  In all the plays and shows I have been in in all these many years, I would never in a million years question the director's choices on casting their shows.  I don't know where this arrogance comes from, but I am unfamiliar with it, and it irks me and truly worries me for the next generation's possibilities for success in the world.  I am hoping someone reads this blog, and learns from this and thinks about the success of the whole production, instead of always about themselves. 

Last Day of School Before Christmas Vacation..another complaint

I am very annoyed at the amount of competition that has descended upon this school in the last few months.  The teachers have taken over "Spirit Week" for the week before Holiday Break, and all of a sudden it is one competition after another.  You are supposed to bring in a picture of yourself when you were a baby so the kids and teachers can guess who it is.  I have no baby pictures of me because I don't know what happened to them as my mother is gone.  I don't like this, it makes the teachers seem too familiar, and lacks professionalism.

 I don't like these other competitions either, the "best door decoration" is another one of the competitions.  Why isn't it enough for people to be happy in the season and to add some color and joy to their doors, instead of making it mine's better than yours and so forth.  I think this is contributing to the angst, anxiety, lack of compassion, anger, lack of a sense of community or caring towards others.

But the thing that has bothered me the most in the last few weeks is the fact that they have summarily done away with the Holiday Concert during the morning of the last day of school before Holiday break.  I am so sad about this, it has been such a tradition for years at this school.  Instead, there will be a "pie in the face" contest, and there will be some people running around in Grinch costumes, and there will be some loud yelling and screaming, in the name of "school culture".  This smacks of a lack of vision on the one hand and a lack of leadership on the other.  Does no one realize that the holidays should be sacred?  I am all for making school culture a priority, but it comes from an organic and quiet place, not a lot of people making jokes about "flash mobs" during the chorus songs.  Not appropriate, not funny, and really cruel. 

I remember fondly, and will for a long time coming, the days when the last day before the Christmas break began with advisories giving gifts to each other, and a team breakfast.  Then we listened to the Choral Singers from YHS as they strolled through the halls singing Christmas carols to all of us.  Right after that we all gathered in the gymnasium where the jazz band was first playing, then the choruses all sang a number a piece, and then the bands all played pieces.  We had the ugly sweater contest, and that was fun, but controlled.  We all went off to lunch and recesses after that, and in the afternoon we watched a quiet movie, or we decorated our gingerbread houses or we read stories about the holidays to the children as they dreamed of already being home for the holidays and playing with their siblings, and toys and making cookies to leave out for Santa Claus that night before Christmas.  Where are you Christmas?  Where did you go? Why have you stolen our tradition??

 This is how I feel, and I hope someone actually reads this and thinks about what they have done to destroy the last beautiful tradition that we had in this school.  Amen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J3XG0ZRcdU

A Minor Frustration

I understand the importance of connecting curriculum to "real life".  I understand how essential it is that students become immersed and engaged in what you need them to do, and that if they are engaged they will be more successful in your class.  I get that, and I work really hard to make sure I have really amazing, varied ideas for curriculum, and I am always looking for ways to make what I do better. 

Here's what I am frustrated about.  I sang an old American folk song with the students last week, and we talked about the meaning of the song.  It is about two people who are somehow separated for whatever reason and can't be together anymore.  The person singing the song is really sad about the person who has left.  What I have them do is write a letter to a person that they have known that is no longer here, or that they rarely see, or who has died, or who they argued with and no longer talk to.

It seems to me that this is an organic, hands-on, life-affirming, real life assignment that will teach students how to communicate their feelings about one another.  All of a sudden, I have had several students ask me "Why are we doing this?"  I thought this was a music class?  Why are we writing in music class?  I am sorry, but it seems to me, you need to talk about music and write about music, and figure out how music relates to the outside world so that you can be a kinder, gentler, more compassionate, sensitive, strong, thoughtful person.  I am tired of swimming upstream in this particular case, and I am sick of being questioned at every turn.  I will leave you to think on this and to think about what Plate said about music:

Teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly, music, for the patterns and all the arts are the keys to learning. Plato.

I rest my case.