Module 8-2

Although I personally disagree with several of the itemized points in this article, I was able to wade through presentation to see the main point of the writing: the traditional American family is in peril. This writing directly points to a belief that a child should be raised in a home with a male and a female.  While I do agree that this is the ideal situation, there are several modern communities such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgendered community who would oppose.  Further more, the idea that, "Boys  (in the absence of a father) will grow up with no consistent male figure on which to model their behavior. They will not learn basic things such as attitude toward work and women, and personal qualities such as honesty and favorable attitudes toward self and others.They are handicapped when it comes to dealing with life," is preposterous. (Hoffer, p.1)  Again, as a married mother of a son, I personally agree that the ideal situation for raising children would be to have both the wife and husband positively active in the child's life, however, my husband is an amazing,confident, hard working, honest, loving father who grew up without a father. According to the previous definition, men like him and President Obama for that matter wouldn't exist. 

I will say that while the best option would be a loving father to be a young boy's icon, there are other options for a "stable male role model".  This is where I feel the school could come into play more. There are several existing programs whose mission is centered around the same cause.  Instead of trying to invent another form of artillery, we could utilize one already created. One option for schools would be Big Brothers Big Sisters.  The organization is the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network.  They make "meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”), ages 6 through 18, in communities across the country. (They) develop positive relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people". (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2014)  By local schools reaching out to their area BBBS, they would be supporting their students in ways that would not be so easily done otherwise. Another outstanding program is the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.  The BGCA's mission is, "to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens." (Boys and Girls Clubs of America, 2014).  They offer A safe place for children to come, ongoing relationships with caring adults, and life-enhancing programs and character development experiences.  Both of these organizations are constantly looking for ways to reach children.  What better way to kick off this initiative than to open the doors of the school for volunteerism and in-school mentoring projects?  I do like the idea of family music nights at school as well.  Something as simple as playing a concert for parents or having parents sit in on an evening rehearsal.  Maybe afterwards light horderves could be served.

As far as the government and legislation is concerned, I am not sure what the best solution is (which is why I wouldn't run for office), but I do feel that there could be some sort of accountability measures placed with in local areas.  For example, in Georgia students must attend some type of school.  If they have excessive absences the parent s could actually be in legal trouble.  I remember being a student when this law was first introduced.  There were some who thought that they shouldn't be responsible for their teenager who refused to go in the school when they got off the bus.  On the contrary, I remember going to school with a boy whose mother rode with him on the bus and personally escorted him to class for this very reason!  Laws like this, and one perhaps requiring students to have a school approved community mentor for a period of at least one full year before graduating would be great starts to putting an end to this epidemic. If we truly believe that attitudes are not taught, but rather they are products of our nurturing (or lack thereof), then legislation and programs like the ones mentioned would be very helpful in this cause.

Module 8-1

• How will what you learned in this course about philosophy and aesthetics affect your teaching in the future?

 Hoffer stated, "He (Aristotle)  said that music directly imitates the passions of the soul-gentleness, anger, courage, temperance, and their opposites and other qualities; hence, when one listens to music that  imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued with the same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to the kind of  music that arouses ignoble passions his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form." (Grout, 1973, p. 7) In the article, Music: Its Expressive Power and Moral Significance, Whitfield begins with an in-depth overview of ancient philosophers of contrasting opinion who all agreed that music is on of the most powerful art forms. She journeys through several explanations ranging from theories to mathematics, but the results are that music plays an important role in affecting human emotion.  Those emotions, she writes, goes on to effect the complete human being. Whitfield concludes, "The creation and practice of music is tightly wound with human emotion, character, and the overall tapestry of human experience. Music arouses sentiment, whether it evokes the intended sentiment or not. Thus, music cannot be underestimated as a powerful shaper of human virtue, character, and emotion." (Whitfield, 18) With these powerful, educational findings, I feel empowered to rest in what has always been my personal philosophy: Music affects human character.  Though I have felt this way for a while, prior to this course I did not have substantial information to support my belief. Learning more about philosophy and its relation to music has given me the missing links to connect my personal philosophy to my professional teaching philosophy.  

Further more, I have learned that aesthetic experiences are moments created for students that have no practical utilitarian purpose, involves feelings, involves intellect, involves a focus on attention, and finally, it must be experienced.  These experiences can in turn introduce students to various styles of music and serve as a launching pad for further musical studies. I plan on incorporating these types of experiences in my classroom, and be reminded avoid treating these experiences as moments for teaching music history and/or 

music theory.  

• How will what was covered in the parts on sociology, social psychology, or psychology affect your teaching in the future?

Although there was much discussed in these areas, my main take-away is the topic of socioeconomic factors of music. In learning the socioeconomic factors of music and their effects on music education, I have made several correlations to my own teaching experiences.  It has also helped to give clarity to a number of different challenges faced during my previous year of teaching.  For most of my teaching career I have taught mostly at-risk youth.  That is to say that most of my students have come from low socioeconomic statuses with minimal parental involvement.  This year I transferred to a brand new middle school where I had the opportunity to build the program from ground zero.  I did not realize that the culture of the school would be so drastically different from my past experiences.  The socioeconomic factors were the main differences.  

In my present teaching situation most of the parents have graduated high school and a great percentage of them have attended college. Most of the students come from families where there parents are either nurses, engineers, business owners, clergy or educators.  Similarly, most of the students live in homes where they have their own bedroom and since of privacy.  These will likely be students who will each have their own cars when they reach driving age. Culturally, the divide is probably 50% white, 30% black, and 20% other.  Because of our location in Georgia, as expected, there is a very high percentage of Christians and Christian groups in my school as well.

Obviously, the big shift in SES from my previous experiences to my current experiences effected the musical selections a bit.  The majority of the repertoire choices remain the same as I strive to use quality pieces of music no matter what SES of students I teach.  Still, the differences between the teaching situations should be observed.  With the majority of the music learned in my chorus classes, the only difference between the two teaching situations were that in my previous teaching situation I had to spend more time relating the Classical repertoire to the students' preferred styles of music (which was mainly Pop and Rap).  My current students seem more accustom to delayed gratification as mentioned in the text, which makes it a little easier to explore more challenging choral pieces. I plan to use this information to raise the standard in my choirs next year and challenge them more. I feel better about pushing them having realized this contrast in my teaching experiences.

The social psychological foundations of music education spoke quite extensively on conformity and its significance to the adolescent and the implications for the music educator. As a middle school choral director, I found this section very interesting as well. I always try to use conformity in recruiting and expanding my program. My teaching style is one that is fast paced, energetic, and rigorous. The pacing of my lessons are intended to foster student engagement and minimize classroom disturbances.  I always begin the school year with team-building activities and ice breakers and try to instill a sense of cooperation and homogony within the group.  In fact, I often refer to my ensemble as a team and often compare their work ethic in class to that of an athlete.  One way that I acknowledge hard working students is with a monthly award called the Star Student award.  This award is presented to the choral student who demonstrates good rehearsal etiquette, gives 100% during rehearsals, works cooperatively within their sections, and shows improvement in skill.  I make it clear that this award is not presented to the best singer or performer but instead focuses on the hard working music student. I considered omitting the latter strategy (Star student) from my class room next year, however, after learning about the importance of conformity and social psychological, I may consider keeping it.

• Choose any one of the previous seven units in the course, and explain how what you have learned will affect your teaching in the future.

While there are several aspects of this course that were helpful, I found module seven, The Psychological Foundation of Music Education, to be especially helpful.  I like to explore concepts in my classroom, but like any realistic teacher, I know there are many things that I could be reinforcing and doing better.  Learning that concepts are primarily a classification process that will also increase the likleyhood of recall was as useful as it was interesting.  i found being able to identify and design lessons for my own classroom to be very beneficial and these concepts are presently what I look forward to implementing the most in my classroom.

1. Rhythm (duration). For this concept, I could incorporate more rhythmic exercises in my warm-ups.  Currently, I use most of my warm-up time for sight-singing with pitches. Of course rhythm is incorporated here but there is no direct attention placed on rhythmic reading.  Dotted-quarter notes and dotted-half notes are the notes that need the most re-enforcement in this concept.  I have not introduced sub-dividing into rhythmic reading, but could utilize this approach for these types of notes especially.  By allowing my students to feel the pulse of the eighth note in the dotted-quarter note and the pulse of the quarter note in the dotted-half note, the students would be more apt to successfully perform these notes.
2. Pitch. The specific area of this concept I would like to develop is being able to transfer the student knowledge of reading pitches from sight-singing to actual repertoire.  In my experience there is a disconnect from the skills they use in sight-singing and the skills that they use in rehearsing their actual music.  It seems that students are use to being given the pitches by the teacher that they disengage in the reading process.  There are three ways that I can help develop this area: 1-use actual music excerpts for sight-singing, 2-have students sight-sing the re-occuring theme of new repertoire (where appropriate), or some section of the music before it is rehearsed, 3-play the piano with the students as they read instead of relying completely on vocal modeling.
3. Dynamics. For this concept, I can give practical references to identify the dynamic making.  Although my students are use to the dynamic terms and their meaning, sometimes the execution of the dynamic gets lost in translation.  For example, my students can identify that mezzo piano means medium soft and that mezzo forte means medium loud, but singing a line mezzo piano and then repeating that line mezzo forte can get a little confusing to them.  However, if I explain mezzo piano further as being the volume you would use to speak to your friend who is seated beside you and mezzo forte as the volume you would use to give a presentation to the class, students would have more of a practical reference that they could use to perform the dynamics.  Other examples could include, forte as loud as the roar of a lion, pianissimo as quiet as a sleeping baby. Also, posting these dynamics with their practical references somewhere in the classroom will help serve as a constant reminder.
4. Tone. This year my students have vastly improved their overall tone. Still, there is room for improvement.  To develop this area more fully, I could focus more on tone production.  I identify four basic steps to tone production with my students: 1-'singer's breath' (engaging the diaphragm), 2-raise the soft palate, 3-drop the jaw, 4-rounded lips.  I could consistently use these steps sequentially in everyday warm-ups.  For example, I could start the warm-up with deep breaths where the students focus on diaphragmatic breathing. Next, I could have them practice dropping the jaw, raising the soft palate up and lowering it through releasing their 'singer's breath' on 'ha'.  Lastly, I could have the students move from 'ha' to 'who' (like an owl). This would re-enforce rounded lips.  If I use this as a beginning warm-up consistently, perhaps the students will think of these tone production steps in a sequential manner and incorporate them in their everyday choral singing.

Module 7-3

Musical Concepts and Development

While there are many aspects of music that I like to explore in my classroom, there are a few that could stand re-enforcement.  Here are four concepts that I would like to develop more in my classroom:

1. Rhythm (duration). For this concept, I could incorporate more rhythmic exercises in my warm-ups.  Currently, I use most of my warm-up time for sight-singing with pitches. Of course rhythm is incorporated here but there is no direct attention placed on rhythmic reading.  Dotted-quarter notes and dotted-half notes are the notes that need the most re-enforcement in this concept.  I have not introduced sub-dividing into rhythmic reading, but could utilize this approach for these types of notes especially.  By allowing my students to feel the pulse of the eighth note in the dotted-quarter note and the pulse of the quarter note in the dotted-half note, the students would be more apt to successfully perform these notes.
2. Pitch. The specific area of this concept I would like to develop is being able to transfer the student knowledge of reading pitches from sight-singing to actual repertoire.  In my experience there is a disconnect from the skills they use in sight-singing and the skills that they use in rehearsing their actual music.  It seems that students are use to being given the pitches by the teacher that they disengage in the reading process.  There are three ways that I can help develop this area: 1-use actual music excerpts for sight-singing, 2-have students sight-sing the re-occuring theme of new repertoire (where appropriate), or some section of the music before it is rehearsed, 3-play the piano with the students as they read instead of relying completely on vocal modeling.
3. Dynamics. For this concept, I can give practical references to identify the dynamic making.  Although my students are use to the dynamic terms and their meaning, sometimes the execution of the dynamic gets lost in translation.  For example, my students can identify that mezzo piano means medium soft and that mezzo forte means medium loud, but singing a line mezzo piano and then repeating that line mezzo forte can get a little confusing to them.  However, if I explain mezzo piano further as being the volume you would use to speak to your friend who is seated beside you and mezzo forte as the volume you would use to give a presentation to the class, students would have more of a practical reference that they could use to perform the dynamics.  Other examples could include, forte as loud as the roar of a lion, pianissimo as quiet as a sleeping baby. Also, posting these dynamics with their practical references somewhere in the classroom will help serve as a constant reminder.
4. Tone. This year my students have vastly improved their overall tone. Still, there is room for improvement.  To develop this area more fully, I could focus more on tone production.  I identify four basic steps to tone production with my students: 1-'singer's breath' (engaging the diaphragm), 2-raise the soft palate, 3-drop the jaw, 4-rounded lips.  I could consistently use these steps sequentially in everyday warm-ups.  For example, I could start the warm-up with deep breaths where the students focus on diaphragmatic breathing. Next, I could have them practice dropping the jaw, raising the soft palate up and lowering it through releasing their 'singer's breath' on 'ha'.  Lastly, I could have the students move from 'ha' to 'who' (like an owl). This would re-enforce rounded lips.  If I use this as a beginning warm-up consistently, perhaps the students will think of these tone production steps in a sequential manner and incorporate them in their everyday choral singing.

Module 7-2

Behavioral objectives and Assessments

1. Identifying solfege in written examples. In assessing this objective, students will be given four examples.  Each example will have two measures written in common time where the first pitch is 'Do'. Students will be asked to write in the solfege for the remaining pitches based on their knowledge of the major scale.
2. Singing skips from Do-Mi. For this assessment, students will be given a four measure sight singing exercise in common time where the first pitch is 'Do'.  The exercise will consist of pitches in step-wise motion with two skips from 'Do' to 'Mi'. The teacher will instruct students to identify every place where there is a skip.  Next students will practice singing that skip with hand signs. (Students will be asked to use Curwen hand signs for the example to re-enforce their pitches).  After the practice period, students who successfully sing the example with hand signs would have met the objective.
3. Singing solfege in written examples. For assessment, students will be broken up into four groups. Each will groups will be given a pitch to identify, either 'Do' 'Mi' or 'Sol'. A simple, eight measure example will be displayed on the SMART board.  The example will be written in common time and will only consist of the previously mentioned pitches and will only have half notes, quarter notes, and eighth-notes (eighth-notes will be on one pitch only).  Students will be asked to identify the pitches in the example.  Students will be given time to practice and the entire class will sing the example. As an extension of this assessment, student will be asked to identify their assigned pitch in the example.  After identifying their pitch, students will be instructed to only sing their assigned note in the example. Students who successfully sing their assigned pitch will demonstrate objectives 3 and 4.
4.  Singing in two parts.  As an assessment, students will be taught, "Music Alone Shall Live" by rote.  Next, the students will be dived into two groups.  One group will begin singing,while the second group waits until measure three to enter (from the beginning).  Students will repeat the entire song. Group one will hold the last dotted-quarter note until group two reaches the same note at which time teacher will end the song.  When the class successfully sings through this exercise, they would have demonstrated this objective.  

Module 7-1

For this post, I have decided to imagine having to teach my choral students to sing this piece instead of playing it as I feel there would be a bit of a disconnect with the instrumental aspect of the teaching.

Behaviorist
One strategy that I would use for teaching this to begin the rehearsal with an activity where I would borrow work out bands from the gym department.  I would have one for each student.  We would begin with a normal warm-up.  Next I would hand each student a band.  I would ask them to pull the band over a span of four beats.  Next we would pull the band while holding singing a pitch for the duration. Next, we would continue this process for a span of 8-beats.  After this, we would sing our major scale ascending and descending with this same process.  When we begin rehearsing this piece,  would reference this activity as a way to stimulate the desired legato response.

Cognitivist
With this approach, I would begin rehearsal with two sections on the board.  One would read "staccato" and the other would read "legato" (the students would already be familiar with these terms).  The entering activity would be for students to write one aspect of each term under each heading on the board.  Next, we would have a class discussion on the descriptors.  Next, We would compare and contrast the terms.  Finally, we would select descriptors under the "legato" heading such as "smooth", "connected", "flowing",and  "energy". We would discuss what we could do as singers to perform in this way.  Acceptable responses would include "engage the diaphragm", "sing with forward motion", and "raise the soft palate".

Module 6-2

Teaching creativity can be challenging in the music classroom.  For starters, the concept of creativity is usually an ambiguous complex one that many are uncomfortable with.  Still, not only is it important to a holistic music education but it is a necessary concept for aspiring musicians.  In this post, I have compiled a list of five activities that are effective in introducing and teaching creativity in the music classroom.  These particular activities are intended for the upper grade, elementary general music classroom but can be adapted for other grades.

(1) Rondo is my name: In this activity, all students will be given an index card and a pencil.  The class will begin by stating their first name only.  They will then be instructed to say their first name in varying speeds and rhythms (a teacher model will be needed here). After selecting a rhythm for their name that they like, each student will come up with a way to "notate" the rhythm for their name. Notation choices could include dashed lines, dots or any way that is most useful to the student.  Next, students will need to be grouped in three's and given a number (1,2,or 3).  They will introduce their rhythm on their name to the group.  Each group will learn every group member's rhythm and practice performing the rhythm in random order. Students will focus on fluidity in these stages. Lastly, students will be introduced to Rondo form (ABACA).  They will be asked to perform their group rhythms in rondo form, where #1-A, #2-B, and #3-C.  The students who are 'A' will leave a space where their card should go as the line progresses.

(2) Drum Circle-phase 1: The students will sit in a circle and have either hand drums or another non-pitched percussion instrument.  The teacher will have a dominant sounding non-pitched percussion instrument, such as a Djembe. The teacher will start by reviewing the correct technique.  Next, the teacher will have the students participate in echoing the teacher.  That is to say, they will play the rhythm that the teacher plays while maintaining the steady beat.  After the students become comfortable with this process, the teacher will then choose another student to be the 'teacher'.  The teacher keeps her instrument but the student will be the initiator of the echoes.  After that student has completed four measures of this, they will choose another student to take their place as the 'teacher'. This process will continue until all students have had a turn to be the 'teacher'.

(3) Drum Circle-phase 2: This activity begins the same as phase 1and should only be done after successful completion of phase 1. In this phase, the teacher will tell the student to her left that they will be the 'teacher' immediately after the class echoes her.  The next person to the left that student will be the next so that the cycle will be in a clockwise motion.  This process will continue ('teacher'-class-'teacher'-class) until the cycle reaches the actual teacher of the class again.

(4) Musical Story Time: This activity will begin with each student reviewing the technique for classroom instruments.  Each student will have a barred instrument with mallets. The teacher will select (or write) her own short story for this activity.  The teacher will instruct the students to listen for verbs (a review will be needed here). The teacher will practice with the students on three verbs first like run, fly, and jump.  The students will play musical sounds that reflect the verbs. The students will improvise musical sound to accompany the verbs read in the story. *Note: the teacher will have to slow the pacing down for each verb to allow time for student response. A very short story is encouraged.

(5) Improvisation: Each student will have a barred instrument.  The teacher would have arranged the bars for a C pentatonic scale.  The students will learn two chords that will be used to cover four measures.  They will play C-E, C-E, C-F, C-E on whole notes.  They will play each chord on beat one of each measure.  After the class is successful with this, the teacher will improvise eight measures or two repetitions of this sequence.  After modeling the improvisation the teacher will select a student to begin this process.  Afterwards, the teacher will arrange an order for the improvised solos and the improvisation will begin. *Note: the class will continue to play the entire time so that all students are participating throughout the activity.

Module 6-1

This week's module focused on the social psychological foundations of music education.  It spoke quite extensively on conformity and its significance to the adolescent and the implications for the music educator. As a middle school choral director, I found this section most interesting. I always try to use conformity in recruiting and expanding my program. My teaching style is one that is fast paced, energetic, and rigorous. The pacing of my lessons are intended to foster student engagement and minimize classroom disturbances.  I always begin the school year with team-building activities and ice breakers and try to instill a sense of cooperation and homogony within the group.  In fact, I often refer to my ensemble as a team and often compare their work ethic in class to that of an athlete.  One way that I acknowledge hard working students is with a monthly award called the Star Student award.  This award is presented to the choral student who demonstrates good rehearsal etiquette, gives 100% during rehearsals, works cooperatively within their sections, and shows improvement in skill.  I make it clear that this award is not presented to the best singer or performer but instead focuses on the hard working music student.  I try to make our uniforms as teen and economically friendly as possible. In fact, for my spring concert the students wore jeans and a solid black top with black shoes.  This was partially due to the fact that as a new school we have not had enough time to fundraise for uniforms, however, this worked very well for the concert.  

When I go to recruit students for my program I always mention trips as an incentive.  I even tell them of the friendships gained through performing together with a group of people and then the excitement of  going on performance trips with those new friends.  For the sake of conformity, I usually hold off on the number of student assemblies we will do throughout the year until after their first couple of successful performances. Initially, I usually have to ease their apprehension about public performances in the beginning of the year.  Again, here I reference sporting teams.  I tell them of how baseball players practice hard everyday just like they do.  I then pose the question, "How weird would it be if the baseball team never had a game?"  To this they usually laugh and reply that they wouldn't feel good about practicing because they would not have a game to prepare for.  I then respond by encouraging them in their thoughts and asking, "...then why would we practice everyday in class and not have our 'game day'?  Our game day is our performance."  This usually helps to change their perspective on public performances. After they have experienced this type of success they are more motivated to put on an excellent show for their peers in school.  Lastly, I do try to incorporate a Pop piece at least once during the year.  It helps to have a sense of give and take in the classroom.  Although I have not specifically asked my students which Pop piece they would like to perform, I do keep up with the Billboard hits and usually choose a piece from the Top 20 to write an arrangement.

These strategies directly play-off of conformity in the middle school teaching situation and has brought me success.  I plan to continue with these strategies and add more throughout the year.