Recruiting and Retaining Students and Their Families
For a successful band program, students must be excited to play their instrument; this initial excitement to play the instrument translates to motivation to become better at said instrument. Deciding what instrument a student should / will play is a very fine line to consider. This was assigned to me during my Wind Practices course, and opened my eyes to how deeply directors have to consider their beginning instrumentalists. I feel that reflecting on this specific excerpt allowed me to really critically rethink the way that many people decide who gets to play what in beginning band.
World Music Pedagogy - Performing Lesson
For the beginning of my content project in Music Teaching and Learning, I decided with my partner to teach about music from other cultures around the world, how they convey a sense of unity and teamwork, and how we can respect those traditions. In this project, we were tasked with teaching a small group to perform the tune "Ele Ă© um bom companheiro", which is the tune "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" typically found in Brazil. Making this curriculum and teaching my students allowed me to think critically about how music from other cultures serves functions similarly throughout the world.
Case Studies - James
During my time in MTL, we discussed a few students who showcased exceptional musical qualities from a young age, and I was chosen to read about James. James is a student in third grade who can connect to music very easily, especially for his age. Reading about James inspired me to take a more critical look at the ways that kids hear music and how it differs from a trained understanding.
"How to Fold a Napkin"
To the left is my Napkin Crane Tutorial video. When tasked to create a video on how to fold a napkin, I took inspiration from the content I used to watch and made a video tutorial with a bit of sketch comedy at the end. Making this video allowed me to branch out and really get creative with video writing and editing. On top of this, I had to learn how to fold a paper crane to a point where I was confident enough to step-by-step explain how to do it to someone else.
Schwab's Four Commonplaces
The idea of Schwab's Four Commonplaces comes from a man named Joseph Schwab, who believed that curriculum design should be understood in terms of four commonplaces: learner, teacher, subject matter, and millieu (context). These principles are explored by my classmates and myself in the document linked to the right. We were tasked with critiquing both videos linked from a commonplace perspective, as shown in the document. The idea of the four commonplaces allowed me to better understand what principles are considered when creating and implementing curriculum.