Ashley Maeshiro(Saturday, 26 September 2020 03:26)
Mililani-Ike:
At Mililani-Ike this week, I worked with the kindergarten classes for the first time. The first activity I did was Charlie Over the Ocean. They already learned this song with Lauren, so we quickly
reviewed the song and had a few students take turns giving us a different animal to sing instead of “Charlie caught a big fish” and changing “Charlie” to the student’s name. We then did the chant My
Mother Baked a Cake. The main focus of this activity is to have the students practice keeping a steady beat. The students also learned this activity before. The chant goes “My mother baked a cake,
how many eggs did it take?” At the end of the chant, the students shake their shakers to a steady beat and count to a number between one and twelve “eggs.” Lauren had the students bring their own
homemade shakers for the activity. I had a few students take turns giving us a number to count to. We then did the activity Johnny Works with One Hammer. The main focus of this activity is keeping a
steady beat. Lauren taught them body motions for the song where they would “hammer” or move their body to the steady beat of the song. We reviewed the body motions and the song first, then we
transferred the steady beat to instruments. Due to the students not having instruments at home, I went over the different instruments I was going to use, and similar things that they can find around
their house that they can bring next class. For example, I played a wood block and explained that wood blocks are made out of wood, so something similar that they could use at home can be two wooden
pencils. I then played the instruments to a steady beat while singing the song, and the students either shook their shakers to the steady beat or did the body motions. The last activity I did was the
chant Garden Gate. This chant was new for the students so I taught them the words and had them pat the steady beat while saying the chant. I then had the students clap the amount of syllables or
sounds per word.
I had a lot of fun teaching grade K this week. The students looked so happy when they got called on, especially during Charlie Over the Ocean when we used their name in the song. They also looked
very excited when they got to play their shakers. I think that the most challenging part of this week was recording the asynchronous videos for grade 2 next week. During live lessons if I make a
mistake, I have to either fix it quickly or just keep going, but with the asynchronous videos if I make a mistake, I have to keep re-recording. On the other hand, I think that recording the
asynchronous lessons helps me prepare for when I have to teach live because I have practiced my lesson so many times. Last week was the first time I recorded all the asynchronous videos for the
activities that I was going to teach, and I think that this helped me feel more comfortable teaching this week.
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Ashley Maeshiro(Saturday, 26 September 2020 03:25)
Highlands:
At Highlands this week, I taught counting to the beginning band classes and I did a counting dictation activity with the choir classes. For the beginning band classes, I introduced the counting
system that Highlands uses for whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes, and we practiced counting and clapping a few exercises. We also finished up screening the students for physical attributes
and skills to determine which instruments would be a good fit for them. The choir classes went over counting last week, so Clement had me teach a rhythm dictation lesson with them. I played a few two
measure rhythms in 4/4 time at the piano while a metronome counted the beats out loud, and had the students dictate the rhythms. The students wrote their answers on two large google slides so that I
could see how they were doing while they were working on their dictations. I think that the biggest challenge I had was making my instructions extremely clear because I was overlooking things that
may be intuitive for me, but not for a young student who is new to music.
On Tuesday I taught all of the symphonic band period. We did a listening log on the piece Havendance by David Holsinger. I chose this piece because Clement wanted me to review time signatures, and
this piece has a lot of time signature/meter changes. I told the students the inspiration of the piece and things they can listen for, and I think that this helped them write their reflection on the
piece. I then went back and played the beginning of the piece again, but I conducted and counted out loud so that the students could hear the meter changes. Clement suggested that I should have had
the students tap the steady beat so that they could feel the time changes better. We then went over time signatures. We reviewed what the top and bottom number of a key signature tells us, and then I
introduced 6/8 time. We then did some accent on achievement exercises together. I had some students unmute and play for the class, and that was the only time I was really able to give students
feedback. The rest of the time I just played the exercise on my trumpet with a metronome, and the students played along on their own. I then ran a trombone sectional at the end of class. I had some
difficulty diagnosing trombone specific problems, so Clement helped teach me about common issues for young trombone players.
Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 26 September 2020 03:26)
Mililani-Ike:
At Mililani-Ike this week, I worked with the kindergarten classes for the first time. The first activity I did was Charlie Over the Ocean. They already learned this song with Lauren, so we quickly reviewed the song and had a few students take turns giving us a different animal to sing instead of “Charlie caught a big fish” and changing “Charlie” to the student’s name. We then did the chant My Mother Baked a Cake. The main focus of this activity is to have the students practice keeping a steady beat. The students also learned this activity before. The chant goes “My mother baked a cake, how many eggs did it take?” At the end of the chant, the students shake their shakers to a steady beat and count to a number between one and twelve “eggs.” Lauren had the students bring their own homemade shakers for the activity. I had a few students take turns giving us a number to count to. We then did the activity Johnny Works with One Hammer. The main focus of this activity is keeping a steady beat. Lauren taught them body motions for the song where they would “hammer” or move their body to the steady beat of the song. We reviewed the body motions and the song first, then we transferred the steady beat to instruments. Due to the students not having instruments at home, I went over the different instruments I was going to use, and similar things that they can find around their house that they can bring next class. For example, I played a wood block and explained that wood blocks are made out of wood, so something similar that they could use at home can be two wooden pencils. I then played the instruments to a steady beat while singing the song, and the students either shook their shakers to the steady beat or did the body motions. The last activity I did was the chant Garden Gate. This chant was new for the students so I taught them the words and had them pat the steady beat while saying the chant. I then had the students clap the amount of syllables or sounds per word.
I had a lot of fun teaching grade K this week. The students looked so happy when they got called on, especially during Charlie Over the Ocean when we used their name in the song. They also looked very excited when they got to play their shakers. I think that the most challenging part of this week was recording the asynchronous videos for grade 2 next week. During live lessons if I make a mistake, I have to either fix it quickly or just keep going, but with the asynchronous videos if I make a mistake, I have to keep re-recording. On the other hand, I think that recording the asynchronous lessons helps me prepare for when I have to teach live because I have practiced my lesson so many times. Last week was the first time I recorded all the asynchronous videos for the activities that I was going to teach, and I think that this helped me feel more comfortable teaching this week.
Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 26 September 2020 03:25)
Highlands:
At Highlands this week, I taught counting to the beginning band classes and I did a counting dictation activity with the choir classes. For the beginning band classes, I introduced the counting system that Highlands uses for whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes, and we practiced counting and clapping a few exercises. We also finished up screening the students for physical attributes and skills to determine which instruments would be a good fit for them. The choir classes went over counting last week, so Clement had me teach a rhythm dictation lesson with them. I played a few two measure rhythms in 4/4 time at the piano while a metronome counted the beats out loud, and had the students dictate the rhythms. The students wrote their answers on two large google slides so that I could see how they were doing while they were working on their dictations. I think that the biggest challenge I had was making my instructions extremely clear because I was overlooking things that may be intuitive for me, but not for a young student who is new to music.
On Tuesday I taught all of the symphonic band period. We did a listening log on the piece Havendance by David Holsinger. I chose this piece because Clement wanted me to review time signatures, and this piece has a lot of time signature/meter changes. I told the students the inspiration of the piece and things they can listen for, and I think that this helped them write their reflection on the piece. I then went back and played the beginning of the piece again, but I conducted and counted out loud so that the students could hear the meter changes. Clement suggested that I should have had the students tap the steady beat so that they could feel the time changes better. We then went over time signatures. We reviewed what the top and bottom number of a key signature tells us, and then I introduced 6/8 time. We then did some accent on achievement exercises together. I had some students unmute and play for the class, and that was the only time I was really able to give students feedback. The rest of the time I just played the exercise on my trumpet with a metronome, and the students played along on their own. I then ran a trombone sectional at the end of class. I had some difficulty diagnosing trombone specific problems, so Clement helped teach me about common issues for young trombone players.