At Mililani-Ike this week, I taught kindergarten classes. I had one class that had low participation, two classes that were participating a lot, and one class that had a lot of behavior problems.
Most of the grade K classes have some behavior issues since they are so young, but one class had a bit more than the others. I taught most of the activities for the classes. We did some review on
long and short-short, and then I taught them two new songs, Who’s That Tapping at the Window and Bluebird.
For the classes that were participating and paying attention well, the activities went a lot smoother. We could go a lot faster because the students responded quickly when I asked them questions and
for volunteers. For the class with low participation, it was difficult for me to tell if they weren’t understanding, or they weren’t paying attention. For the class with more behavior issues, I had
to continuously remind the students to stay muted unless I asked them to unmute. Since the behavior issues caused the pacing of the class to go slower, I think it also caused the students to lose
interest in the lesson. Luckily the last activity Bluebird was a fun one that the students generally enjoyed. Lauren had me introduce “in place” versus “travel” movements. For Bluebird, I had the
students do different flapping motions while I sang the song. At first I gave them a few examples of in place flapping and travel flapping, then I had student volunteers show the class their own
original flapping movement. After I sang the song and the students copied their classmate’s movement, I asked if someone could tell me if the movement was in place or travel. I think the students
liked this activity because they got to stand up and move around.
#1
Ashley Maeshiro(Saturday, 24 October 2020 01:42)
Highlands:
At Highlands this week, I reviewed eighth notes with the beginning band classes. When I planned my lesson, I took some of the activities that I have been doing at Mililani-Ike, and I tried adapting
them for the students at Highlands. Although the students at Highlands are a lot older than the students at Mililani-Ike, I thought that maybe some of the activities that I have used at Mililani-Ike
could work because the beginning band students at Highlands are still new to music.
I think that this was one of my more successful lessons at Highlands this semester. My main goals at Highlands are to improve my engagement and classroom management. I have been trying to find a way
to redirect students who are misbehaving in a way that is comfortable for me. Clement is very straightforward when students misbehave, but I don’t think that I am comfortable addressing the students
in the same way that he does yet. I haven’t really scolded anyone yet, and I don’t think I’m at a place where I’m comfortable doing that yet. A technique that seems to be working for me is that I
call upon students who are misbehaving to answer questions or do something individually. That way I can tell them to correct the behavior, and I can check if they understood the lesson, even if it
seemed like they were not paying attention. I also think that by doing this, the students have been paying attention more because they know that they might get called on individually. I hope that
eventually I will be comfortable enough to address the students in a similar way that Clement does, because he addresses the issue right when it happens and he is very direct about it.
For the choir and symphonic band classes, I have just been seeing the students for individual ten minutes sessions. For the choir students, we are mainly checking if the students are able to match
pitch. We are also taking notes on the students’ strengths/weaknesses, and their range so that Clement can eventually figure out where to place the students when they come back to school in person.
For the symphonic band, we’re just hearing the students play one of the songs in their Accent on Achievement book to see how they are doing. A lot of the students are struggling with the music, even
though it is review from last school year. Clement brought it to my attention that a lot of the students in both the choir and symphonic band classes seemed to be telling me a lot of excuses or
trying to lie to me about practicing. When he caught them trying to lie to me, he handled it, but I hope that as I keep working on addressing the students for misbehaving, I will find a way to do so
that is effective and comfortable for me.
Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 24 October 2020 01:43)
Mililani-Ike:
At Mililani-Ike this week, I taught kindergarten classes. I had one class that had low participation, two classes that were participating a lot, and one class that had a lot of behavior problems. Most of the grade K classes have some behavior issues since they are so young, but one class had a bit more than the others. I taught most of the activities for the classes. We did some review on long and short-short, and then I taught them two new songs, Who’s That Tapping at the Window and Bluebird.
For the classes that were participating and paying attention well, the activities went a lot smoother. We could go a lot faster because the students responded quickly when I asked them questions and for volunteers. For the class with low participation, it was difficult for me to tell if they weren’t understanding, or they weren’t paying attention. For the class with more behavior issues, I had to continuously remind the students to stay muted unless I asked them to unmute. Since the behavior issues caused the pacing of the class to go slower, I think it also caused the students to lose interest in the lesson. Luckily the last activity Bluebird was a fun one that the students generally enjoyed. Lauren had me introduce “in place” versus “travel” movements. For Bluebird, I had the students do different flapping motions while I sang the song. At first I gave them a few examples of in place flapping and travel flapping, then I had student volunteers show the class their own original flapping movement. After I sang the song and the students copied their classmate’s movement, I asked if someone could tell me if the movement was in place or travel. I think the students liked this activity because they got to stand up and move around.
Ashley Maeshiro (Saturday, 24 October 2020 01:42)
Highlands:
At Highlands this week, I reviewed eighth notes with the beginning band classes. When I planned my lesson, I took some of the activities that I have been doing at Mililani-Ike, and I tried adapting them for the students at Highlands. Although the students at Highlands are a lot older than the students at Mililani-Ike, I thought that maybe some of the activities that I have used at Mililani-Ike could work because the beginning band students at Highlands are still new to music.
I think that this was one of my more successful lessons at Highlands this semester. My main goals at Highlands are to improve my engagement and classroom management. I have been trying to find a way to redirect students who are misbehaving in a way that is comfortable for me. Clement is very straightforward when students misbehave, but I don’t think that I am comfortable addressing the students in the same way that he does yet. I haven’t really scolded anyone yet, and I don’t think I’m at a place where I’m comfortable doing that yet. A technique that seems to be working for me is that I call upon students who are misbehaving to answer questions or do something individually. That way I can tell them to correct the behavior, and I can check if they understood the lesson, even if it seemed like they were not paying attention. I also think that by doing this, the students have been paying attention more because they know that they might get called on individually. I hope that eventually I will be comfortable enough to address the students in a similar way that Clement does, because he addresses the issue right when it happens and he is very direct about it.
For the choir and symphonic band classes, I have just been seeing the students for individual ten minutes sessions. For the choir students, we are mainly checking if the students are able to match pitch. We are also taking notes on the students’ strengths/weaknesses, and their range so that Clement can eventually figure out where to place the students when they come back to school in person. For the symphonic band, we’re just hearing the students play one of the songs in their Accent on Achievement book to see how they are doing. A lot of the students are struggling with the music, even though it is review from last school year. Clement brought it to my attention that a lot of the students in both the choir and symphonic band classes seemed to be telling me a lot of excuses or trying to lie to me about practicing. When he caught them trying to lie to me, he handled it, but I hope that as I keep working on addressing the students for misbehaving, I will find a way to do so that is effective and comfortable for me.