Ahhh...the week has come to an end and along with realizing how many things we did not get to, I am also thrilled with the way this course went. What an amazing group of high energy, enthusiastic teachers! Thank you for giving up a week of your summer to sit in our very hot, sticky, breathless Hamilton-Smith and work on yourselves and your teaching! What dedicated people you all are!
Reflection...or as Darlene would croon, "What's it all about?" What IS it all about? How much of Pink we did not get to discuss and how many classroom applications we were unable to explore....how amazingly well you all did with getting a piece of writing ready for Friday. I know it was a quick week, and that there was a lot packed in, but with rigor and relevance we find ourselves going places that we may not have expected to go. Pushing ourselves out of our comfort levels is disconcerting, but also necessary!
This week I did that myself! I am not a musician...remember, I am one of those "expert listeners" who loves to sing her lungs out in the car! This was also a course I had to develop with no model at all. I was outside of my comfort zone, and with that I discovered so many things that I will be able to keep with me in my work with teachers and kids this next year and beyond!!
You are all encouraged to help me out with this if you are interested. Should I ever teach this course again, I would like to have even more resources and ideas. Those ideas can come from you and what you try in your classrooms. Feel free to post here your ideas, or e-mail them to me and I will post them for you. Also, if you are somewhat local and planning on doing something with music in your classroom, e-mail me and perhaps we can arrange for me to come and see all that you are doing in your classrooms!!
If you would like to respond to my posts in writing then just click on the bottom of the post where it says comments. This will bring you to a box where it will ask you for your g-mail account. I would recommend setting up a g-mail account as it is easy and makes access to blogging easier. If you have any questions let me know.
What else? Honestly, I think I need to take some more time to really think about the week and what went well and what could have gone better and so on! Of course the technology piece on Monday was a nightmare...but what other things would I change?
As I unpack my many LL Bean Bags I will try to figure out the changes I would make and why. When I come up with them I will post them.
Keep the music!!!
Tomasen
Lyrical Links
Movies and Music
- Dancer in the Dark (Rec. by Kate)
- Elizabeth Town (Rec. by Kate)
- Songcatcher
- Across the Universe
- August Rush
- Once
4 comments:
Hey all you Music/Art/Literacy Lovers!
I suggested this site to Tomasen, and I'll suggest it to everyone else, as well:
revels.org
They have lots of traditional music, events, books, children's music, etc. There is a wonderful family event coming up in September (Riversing) to welcome the Fall.
You may even know some names of people who have been active in Revels over the years: Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising Sequence) and Jay O'Callahan (storyteller), just to name two.
Check it out!! :)
Cheers! Keep singing!
Patti
Here are a few Music/Art texts to use with Elementary age students:
"Snow Music" by Lynne Rae Perkins
"The Other Way to Listen" by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall
"Willie Was Different" by Norman Rockwell
"Frederick" by Leo Lionni
"The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" by Eric von Schmidt (sp?) (I think this is out of print, but it's a good story featuring the value of Right-brain thinking in a community.)
This note is for Kristen! You may remember that I mentioned a fairy book for you to read with your daughters, but that it was out of print. It is now back in print, and you can pre-order it from Amazon.com! It is The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies illustrated by Garth Williams. I just ordered copies for my grandchildren and one for school! Happy Fairy-ing! :)
Please find below the e-mail I sent out the group in January with an overview of a music and literacy project I did with one of my classes. Tomasen encouraged me to post it here so that people could access it more easily. Not so surprisingly, I am just getting to it now (after another inspiring week spent in a class with her)! I am also going to attempt to post the pictures...if I can figure it out!
Hello everyone!
I thought I would follow Gwen's lead and share with you a small project I did with my Women's Lit class this semester that was inspired by one of the activities that Tomasen introduced to us.
We had been doing a media project over the course of the semester (one that's been done in years past), and every other Friday students would share artifacts (which could come in any form: article, advertisement,commercial, etc.) that represented women in some way. In order to tie in more music, I asked that a couple of students share songs related to women's issues and/or performed by female musicians each week. As we listened, we all jotted down words and phrases that caught our attention and interest.
At the end of the unit, students pulled from their individual stockpiles of language to create poems that explored issues/themes that we had discussed up until that point in the course. They then wrote their poems on old vinyls.
Thanks to the help and creativity of a parent and the support of our principal, we were able to create a display of the records in the front office. So many people have commented on how cool they think the idea is and the display looks, but I tell them that I cannot take the credit. A big thank you to you, Tomasen, for inspiring me to tap into this great point of connection in my students' lives!
Hoping this message finds you all well,
Kate
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