Robert Young Student Teaching

This week I took over all of the fourth and fifth-grade classes. My goal was to come up with original lesson plans for each class. (I have been using a book called "Game Plan" that the teacher uses the week prior) It was a little tricky because I had to meet the music objectives for that month for her class so things like ostinato, Mixolydian mode, improvisation, etc. I wrote four lessons that I thought could go either way. They could either work really well or fail miserably. (Some of the lessons consisted of composition, which can be hit or miss with some students) These lessons I thought about and I really wanted to do them. The first one was a responding assignment. I had the students bring headphones to class, come in listen to a song (I used a Paul Simon called the Obvious Child which has tons of African percussion in it) and draw a picture of how the music made you feel, what type of instruments you heard, or maybe a time that it reminded you of. I feel like just liste...

This was my first week with leading instruction with the fifth-grade classes. At first, I was not used to teaching elementary students. The audience is totally different and you have to go about how you communicate lessons very simply. My goal this week was to teach in Carl Orff's style of elementary education. The Orffian method is to start kids off with body percussion and singing, then transfers those rhythms and melodies to recorders and percussion and the students perform it. The one thing I was not used to was incorporating movement into the lessons. There are often games and dances utilized in the lesson plans. At first, I was having trouble with it because there are so many steps in each lesson. If you miss one, you have not executed the lesson properly and there is not a lot of time so you have to make sure you are not spending too much or too little time on one thing. By the end of the week, I was teaching the lessons very smoothly. One hurdle I had to come over was becau...

This was my second week at my second placement and it was amazing. I started to get to know students and they are hilarious. They are a lot nicer than eighth-graders. I think the best part is the beginner band experience I'm getting. I'm learning a lot about instruments. I bought a flute about a year ago because I wanted to learn more band instruments and brought it in. So I've been playing that which is fun. I have also been participating in the band, playing various instruments. It's actually pretty cool because it gives me the chance to teach me. I literally ask the questions I don't know and that makes them feel special. When I ask students for help on a note of a fingering, they get super excited. So far I've learned some notes and played the clarinet, flute, trumpet, and trombone. During the week I lead the percussion section in sectionals which was super cool because I'm a drummer and I've been teaching drum/percussion lessons for the past 7 years...