Grant
Undergraduate
Music Education |
Grant
Undergraduate
Music Education |
I know that my last posts have been primarily focused on my travels, but the blog this week is about the International School! As I have touched on before, I have a fantastic mentor teacher. Through the guidance of Dr. Renzoni and my mentor teacher, I have taught most of the Year 1 and Kindergarten/Transition classes, and am starting to teach some of the older years. On Monday we had one day of Parent/Teacher/Student conferences where my mentor teacher was in conferences all day - I taught 3 classes on my own (Y1, Y4, Y5) and they went well!
In the past few weeks, the Year 1 students have been doing a Unit of Inquiry on Forces of Measurement and are discovering that the speed of the beat can be measured (tempo). I have introduced different tempo speeds, tempo names, metronome markings, and have been focusing on the relation between animals and tempo. For example, they are associating animals such as turtles and snails with slower tempos, while cheetah and hummingbirds represent faster tempos. Another activity we have done is listening to excerpts from The Carnival of the Animals (Saint-Saens) and discussing what animals they think the music represents. There is one song I taught them called Grizzly Bear that they adore and ask to sing every class. Each time through the song there is a grizzly bear - one student “sleeps” while the other students sing and do aural/tonal patterns (singing exercises). The goal of the song is to not wake the grizzly bear and sing the patterns right! Each class I have to come up with new patterns because their tonal capability and echoing is truly inspiring. This past week I have introduced the Year 4 and 5 students to music technology. All of the students in the school either have an iPad (younger students) or laptop (older students). We have been utilizing music technology via free websites such as Bandlab and Chrome Music Lab Sound Maker. Through these websites, students have already made simple, group compositions in their first few lessons. The next few weeks we will focus on each student creating their own composition. Because the Year 4 Unit of Inquiry is All the World’s A Stage, we want to include sounds from around Siena in their individual compositions. One example of this is recording the church bells from the city center and uploading the recording into the websites! So far I have been truly impressed with the intellect at the school, especially the younger students. When talking about animals, the Year 1s came up with hummingbird and tortoise, and then had a discussion about the difference between turtles and tortoises (which I did not know!). In addition to music, we also teach 3 public speaking classes where Years 7-9 are having great discussions on government, status, and are creating a Model United Nations to debate world topics.
5 Comments
Liz C
4/23/2023 02:57:14 pm
It sounds like you’re a perfect match for that school and those kids! Keep it up!!❤️
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Lynn Augugliaro
4/23/2023 04:51:13 pm
Grant
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Amy Heist
4/23/2023 09:46:43 pm
Grant,
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Mark Miller
4/24/2023 12:33:26 am
Thanks for the update. It sounds totally wonderful. 🎶🎷
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Christina
5/18/2023 01:48:27 am
Thank you Grant for sharing your Siena Student Teaching experiences. This truly was a trip of a lifetime and will always help you when you are teaching in your own classroom. Keep working hard and making your dreams come true. We miss you buddy😎
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AuthorHello everyone and welcome to my blog about my experience student teaching at the International School of Siena! My name is Grant Asklar and I am a senior Music Education major at SUNY Buffalo State University. I play primarily saxophone, clarinet, and flute, and am looking forward to this intercultural teaching experience. Archives
May 2023
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