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Discussion Board


Sept 18

Comments: 2
  • #2

    Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 19 September 2020 07:20)

    Week 4 Reflection

    Mililani-Ike:

    At Mililani-Ike this week, I worked with grade 3. I taught a solfege activity focusing on so and mi with the song "Star Light," and a rhythm activity focusing on ta, ti-ti, and ta-a with the song "I See the Moon." For the "Star Light" lesson, we sang through the song with body percussion (snapping) and then we replaced the snapping with “pretend” finger cymbals. The students used metallic objects around their house such as pots, pans, utensils, etc. to play the finger cymbal part. We then reviewed and labeled so and mi in parts of the song. For the "I See the Moon" activity, we sang through the song with body percussion, then we figured out the rhythm of the song. The main focus was to review and practice ta-a. I also worked on recording asynchronous videos for the kindergarten students to watch before their classes next week. I recorded the activities that I will be teaching them next week.

    On Thursday, we had a lot of connection issues during both of the classes that we worked with that day. In the first class there was a point where my screen was sharing and froze, so the students could not see me manipulating the screen. I was not aware that my screen was frozen on the viewer’s end, but Lauren brought it to my attention, so I had to force quit Webex and re-enter the meeting. For the rest of the meeting I could not see any of the students and I was not sure how secure the connection was, so I just went through the lesson without many informal assessments. For the second class of the day, the connection started off better, but about halfway through there were issues again. When I asked students questions regarding the lesson, I was not sure if they were answering incorrectly because the connection was bad and they were mishearing what I was singing or saying. By the last class on Friday, we got our connection issues figured out and the lesson went a lot smoother.

    I sat in on a resource faculty meeting after school on Friday. The main topic of the discussion was planning for the second quarter. The principal asked the resource teachers for their questions or concerns regarding the potential schedule for the second quarter. As of right now, the first day that students will be allowed back on campus in either 100% face-to-face instruction or a hybrid schedule is October 26th. The resource class schedule for October 26th and later may be completely different than what is currently planned, or it may remain relatively the same. There are many unknowns at this time, but it was interesting listening to the thought process of how these types of decisions are made.

  • #1

    Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 19 September 2020 07:15)

    Week 4 Reflection

    Highlands:

    This week at Highlands I got a chance to teach a portion of each class. For the beginning band classes I did a listening log activity and did a counting prep activity. After my observation on Monday, I made some adjustments to my lesson plan and applied the changes when I taught the period 4 beginning band class on Tuesday. For the listening log, I asked the students to listen/watch for more specific things about the song ("Tuba Tiger Rag" performed by the Canadian Brass), and I think it helped the students write their reflections on the song. I changed my questions from more general questions that you could ask about any piece of music to questions that were specific to the piece. For example, I asked questions such as “Why do you think this piece is called Tuba Tiger Rag?,” “Brass instruments are known to play loud, but were the musicians able to play at different volumes (loud/soft)?,” and “What was different about this performance compared to the other listening logs we watched? How was this performance different compared to the other listening logs we did? Maybe how the performers played on stage?” I asked a few students to share their reflections with the class, and they were able to share more details about the performance compared to the period 2 class on Monday.
    I particularly enjoyed teaching the symphonic band class this week. For their listening log, I did "Amazing Grace," Arr. Frank Ticheli. I was originally planning on using this piece with the beginning band students because I thought it may be easier for them to grasp if they are familiar with the song, but Clement suggested I do it with symphonic band instead so that I could talk about more musical aspects. I had the students listen to the first two minutes of the piece, then I talked to them about orchestration in terms of foreground, middleground, and background. Clement suggested I draw a picture to help them visualize foreground, middleground, and background, and then connect it to music. Then I had them listen to the beginning of the piece again with those ideas in mind. I had a few students share their reflections, and they all had really good responses. I think that this made me happy because we were able to discuss a more advanced musical concept, and the students seemed to be able to hear those concepts in the context of the piece. I also think that I miss playing in band, and seeing the students appreciate and enjoy band music made me feel happiness vicariously through them.