Week in Review (10/5 - 10/9)

What a crazy week!!!  Here is a bit of a recap:


*Our part-time band director resigned Friday at the end of the day.  Spent the remainder of the week reworking the whole instrumental lesson schedule so that our part-time string teacher could take over the lessons as well.  


3 revisions and a conference call with 3 principals, director of music/art, and the ass't superintendent later, I learned:  I ROCK at making schedules, but you could not pay me to become an administrator -- no thank you sir!


*Having to tell students that their beloved band director was not coming back without any real reason (that I could share with them) out of nowhere -- really sucked!  Being able to keep some form of continuity by holding the last 2 5th grade band rehearsals, I think helped a lot!


*Never underestimate the power of a SMARTBoard in the music classroom.  In a day and age where children spend their lives on computers or in front of televisions, I guess it makes sense that by using the board for a lesson (that could have been a bit mundane) they would get all excited, completely engaged, and completely demonstrate understanding and mastery of the topic.  


4th Grade example:  A lesson on How Melodies Move, we discussed the 3 main ways they move:repeated, step, skip.  We then sang the song: "I Don't Care if the Rain Comes Down."  Then I had the students using the pens, and highlighters completely mark-up the music identifying how the melody moved.  Wow they raced to the board, couldn't wait for their turn -- and most of all, they got it!


3rd Grade example:  I am really trying to drill BAG on the staff with this year's 3rd grade because they are a low academic group.  The week before the recorders come in (last week), we learned the song "Give My Regards to Broadway."  (sheet music on the SB of course!).  Then we identified all the Bs, As, and Gs by highlighting them different colors.  Then they came up with a body position for each of the notes -- and we sang it again (slowly) and they had to do the body positions.  So, their hw was a worksheet that had them circle all Bs, square all As, and triangle all Gs -- and they got it.... they actually got it


So yay for some really cool things, Boo for some stress.
Let's see what this week has to offer....