Language is not music! This week has been exhausting, frustrating, busy, but very rewarding. I finally had a lesson this morning that seemed to be legitimately effective. The students were engaged, they filled in the hand-out and they wrote a response in their journals. And yet, I had to introduce music to create a lesson that really works. I guess this is always going to be the angle that I'll take in my teaching. I don't think this is a bad thing, necessarily.
I miss the comforts of rotary band- every lesson was almost the same. Maybe I'd introduce a new musical concept, maybe a new chart. But it was mostly rehearsal and I could show up and make it work. I always felt like I was performing during the rehearsals, but there was a nice amount of control involved.
This week alone I feel like I've covered more material then my entire time at Runnymede. Day 1: video and print ads, Day 2: newspaper articles, Day 3: editorials, today: tone and voice in music and photography, tomorrow short stories. I'm up late writing lesson plans and in early photocopying. I plan to start to cancel my private lessons. 12-hour days plus creating dynamic lesson plans leaves too little time for cuddling with my boy, or hanging with my friends. Not to mention working out, practicing music or cooking proper food. Those are long gone.
I'm not complaining. It's just a new pace. March Break anyone?
I'm right there with you Mack... Week 1 has been INTENSE!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you are finding it rewarding in the end, so am I. But alas, where has the time gone? Hopefully this week will go by just as fast as the last and we will be in March Break sooner than we can say "Elephantsoup".
<3 vivian
They do indeed like music. You can snap your fingers twice and if they can all follow, it gets their interest like catnip (instruments work even better).
ReplyDeleteKids are starved for creativity in these highly structured environments. Any art or music will hook them.
I tried a very modest excursion with boom whackers that are now in my possession, now totally inaccessible to the rest of the school, and the kids were enthralled like they were at the movies.
Astaire here.
Language IS music !!!
ReplyDeleteSound music. Conceptual music. Grammatical music. Spelling music.
But the foools....zey do not understahnd!