Justin......or is it Nicholas?

Now that I've begun teaching at my 6th school in seventeen years, the phenomenon I have jokingly referred to as Doppelganger Students has once again come to the surface.  Doppelgangers, according to Wikipedia (and The Vampire Diaries) are someone's living double.  Of course, I take this notion with a grain of salt, but having taught at half a dozen schools during my career, it has become an interesting pastime of mine to notice how many of my newfound students look, and even act, amazingly like students I had previously taught.

Over the past two days, as I handed out name tags at my new school, I spent the better part of the day initially thinking, "There's Eric.  That's Karla.  Oh, look, it's Isaiah!" only to find that, instead, they were Joseph, Estefani and Kiani.  Whoops.  My bad.  But can you really blame me?  Until you really get to know a student, all you have to go by is physical appearance and maybe a smidgeon of their personality.  And first impressions, however accurate or inaccurate they may be, naturally lead me to Eric, Karle and Isaiah.  A few years back, while teaching a class of 2nd graders at a new school, I decided not to back away from this confusing phenomenon but instead to honor and, indeed, celebrate it with them.  As I attempted to learn the students' names via some tried and true Orff name games, I was doing pretty well until I got to Justin.  Unfortunately, I kept calling him Nicholas.  Every time I did so, the class laughed a little and corrected me.  Finally, I broke down and, with good humor and patience, explained that it was just because he reminded me of one of the students I taught at my previous school.  Rather than taking offense at such a notion, Justin was intrigued.  For their part, his classmates were extremely eager to find out what their "other" names were.  And, not wanting to disappoint them, I went around the circle and named names.  And, for those who did not have a virtual double at a previous school, I simply told them they were themselves.  Eventually, I learned all of their correct names and the Doppelgangers ceased to exist.

As music teacher, I have observed an interesting, related phenomenon among my students over the years that might be called Musical Doppelgangers.  It's the phenomenon that students express when they insist that a song they have just sung is called by another name.  Well, that may ring true for a few folk songs or nursery rhymes for the younger set:  Twinkle Twinkle and The ABCs, Yankee Doodle and The Barney Song (egads!).  At least a dozen echo songs I use on a routine basis have the same melody.  So many classroom teachers use piggy back songs to teach all manner of subjects from counting to spelling to days of the week that Musical Doppelgangers do seem to exist.  And one of my favorite Doppelganger moments happens just after I finish teaching a song I know I've never taught my students before and Karla/Estefani asks, "Didn't you teach us that in _____ grade?"  But when students insist that Old MacDonald is really called BINGO, I have to take a stand and be the Music Teacher.  Sorry Justin, er, Nicholas.  They may sound similar, but the melodies and words are indeed different.  Let's sing each one again so you can hear.  After that, at least for a moment, the Doppelganger spell is broken.

Change is inevitable

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?  To be honest, I have been avoiding this because of my own pride.  If you've been following me (and if not, go ahead and read previous blogs to get the gist of it), you already know that I lost my job last spring.  To make things even more bittersweet, I had to move far away from a place I had grown to love because we simply couldn't afford to live there any more.  Now, I face the challenge of new surroundings, new people, a new way of "doing things" but, sadly, no new music teaching job.  And with the school year now into its 2nd month, the chances of that happening are getting slimmer.  Oh, I'll keep putting myself out there just in case that elusive mid-year position pops up (in fact, I'm waiting on a couple of prospects right now).  I've signed up to be a substitute teacher with a few school districts and hope that starts rolling along pretty soon.  I have joined my local Orff chapter and have already made plans to present a couple of mini workshops in February.  After learning a lot about how the job search goes around here, I'll be much better prepared to jump on the jobs that do open up.  Consider that the Lessons Learned portion of today's post.

So, what now?  In my current situation, I will probably focus more on the Musical Memories aspect of things.  And, with that in mind, here's something I have used with my younger students that has always been met with rave reviews!

I bought 16 of these little guys and drew differently shaped eyes on them with a Sharpie:  rectangles, triangles, Ts and circles.  They were then scattered around the perimeter of the classroom to make a "pumpkin patch."  Students sat in a circle and we sang Paw Paw Patch, changing those words to Pumpkin Patch.  Students were given instruments that corresponded to the shapes drawn on the pumpkins:  sand blocks, triangles, tick tock blocks and hand drums.  Then we played a little game.  One student was selected to be Johnny, who walked around the room collecting pumpkins as we sang the song twice  (I made a rule that he could only take one at a time and bring it to me before getting another, otherwise we might have run out!).  When Johnny was finished, the pumpkins were arranged into patterns like in the picture and used as a score for playing instruments.  They had a great time and loved the game!

Here's a variation that ties in a bit of rhythm reading skills:  Circle game without instruments (or with if you want....):  each student receives a pumpkin (die cut, toy or real) with a quarter note, paired eighth notes or quarter rest (or whatever you're working on) drawn on.  Select a student to be Johnny and sing the song.  Whomever Johnny stops next to at the end of the song brings over his pumpkin, then becomes the new Johnny.  Repeat until four pumpkins have been collected to create a pattern.  (Of course, you could also draw four beat patterns on each pumpkin and cut down on the repetitions, but I find that students don't mind singing songs over and over as long as there is a chance they might "get a turn.")  Then select a student (or whole group, whatever) to say/clap/play the pattern.  Repeat the process as many times as you want.

Enjoy!

The End of an Era

This has been one busy week!  Three concerts, practically in a row, with just one day between the second and third.  These were the last concerts I would present at my current elementary school

Monday was a mere warmup, assisting at the middle spring band concert shared by its feeder elementary band students.  Amidst the 24 students from three other schools, my two drummers showed up to play and I got to conduct Let's Go Band.  Then we listened to the jazz band and went home at intermission.  Like I said, it was an easy warmup to the concerts ahead.

On Tuesday, all of the instrumental music students from my school gathered for their spring concert:  beginning strings, intermediate strings, beginning band, intermediate band and Orff ensemble.  Aside from setting up (and tearing down) the Multi Use Room without the aid of the night custodian (there was a conflict with the classified staff barbecue), it went off without a hitch.  I am amazed every year at the progress of my students from the first day of honking on a mouthpiece to now playing concert music in parts.  Amazing!  Of course, my heart is with my Orff ensemble because I get to delve further into the Music for Children volumes than I can in a class of 32 students.  What a fun and talented group they are!

Then, last night (Thursday), the week wrapped up with the Kindergarten and First Grade performance of The Bremen Town Musicians.  I have used that story every year with my Kindergarten students.  I read the story to them, we sing a theme song I wrote, they make animal sounds and get to move like each animal (gallop, walk, tip toe, run), then each animal gets its own special day with songs and movement activities.  It seemed like just the ticket for our spring concert.  And, since it was so familiar, I couldn't just let it be.  I had to find a new rooster song (Let's Put the Rooster in the Stew), create original artwork depicting the story, put it all into Power Point with narration in English and Spanish and expect it all to go smoothly.  Well, it didn't.

As concerts go, this one was fairly typical at the beginning.  At 6:25 only about 20 students had shown up and I started to panic.  Then, right around 6:30, when the concert was supposed to begin, they started coming in droves.  We ran out of space and had to have students sit on the floor.  There was not much thought about where students were placed other than their size.  That was mistake number one.  Two students, chatty friends, were seated right next to each other in the front row and sat talking to each other throughout the performance, even during the songs.  Even as I stared them down.  Even after I told them to stop talking and sing please.  Meanwhile, another student, while sitting on the floor, fell asleep.  Her little head just fell forward into her lap and all you could see was her mop of thick brown hair.  I think she woke up in time for the last song, maybe.  There were more, of course:  the first grade boys who kept pushing each other as they stood on the top step of the risers.  The shell shocked Kindergarteners who just stood there, eyes wide, not singing at all.

The main glitch, the one that really got me, was the *&%$@ computer!  I put a lot of work into the Power Point and it was going really well.  The narration was loud and clear and all could understand  d the story.  That is, until the audio stopped working.  I looked at my techie and he just shrugged.  The audience and the kids started to grow impatient.  We checked all connections and everything was fine.  I even, with the projector still on, checked the settings of the slide show and everything was fine.  I was so set on the telling of the story that I asked my principal if she would translate for me.  She suggested we just sing the songs and forget about it.  Okay then.  So I made a "technical difficulties" announcement and told the audience we were simply going to sing the rest of the songs and forget the story.  They cheered.  Ouch!

 

So we went on with "Let's Put the Rooster in the Stew" and it was charming.  Then, just for fun, my techie advanced to the next slide and just as we were ready to sing the next slide, low and behold, the audio started working again.  Sigh.  Whatever.  By then, it was a moot point.  I was disappointed that my story hadn't gone off without a glitch, but I had to remind myself that this was a concert and what counted most was the music.  And that part went very well.  They all sang beautifully.  Well, the ones who actually sang did!  And in the end, all that mattered to their parents was the experience of being there, seeing what their children had learned and that they were happy.  On that note, I would call it a rousing success.

Keep On Keeping On

For a while now, I have known about the possibility that my job will likely be cut after this school year.  Such has been the precarious nature of being a music teacher in California for the past ten years.  But it's not just California, is it?  Too often I hear stories from friends about how their jobs are changing.  One friend went from teaching at 5 schools to 9, general music only to GM and band.  Another's position was cut back to 60%.  I read on music education blogs about middle and high school band directors who now have to teach elementary general music to "round out" their positions.  In my own school district, not too long ago each child K-6 had general music plus the opportunity join band or strings in 4th grade.  I saw that get cut back to just 4th and 5th grade general music with instrumental on a pull out basis.  And now all that is left is pull out instrumental music for 4th and 5th graders. 

I always thought, by working at a charter school that has K-6 music twice a week written in the charter, that I would have some job security.  But last summer, while meeting with my principal, I was told flat out that there would be some budget cuts and my position might be eliminated.  While the rest of the staff rallied to make the best of it and get the charter passed again, I wrote a section about the music program just in case.  But it was not to be.  You see, part of any charter is the goal of fiscal responsibility.  So the decision to cut music was made and the work I had done outlining the wonderful music program was null and void.  Was I angry?  You better believe it.  But there is really no one to blame.  Only the budget.

So, knowing that I will not be back next year, how do I keep going?  Keep in mind, I have known this as fact since February.  I still have nearly half of the school year left with lessons to teach, concerts to prepare and projects to complete.  It would have been really easy to simply throw up my arms, think I quit and just start showing videos.  But that's not me.  I'm not doing this to impress my colleagues or receive accolades from my principal.  I am doing this for my students.  They still deserve my best, even I won't be around next year to keep them moving forward in their musical development.  And a few weeks later, the 2nd and 3rd graders performed a charming concert about a bakery.  The 2nd year violin players are getting pretty good at Cripple Creek.  Beginning Band is finally starting to make musical sounds.  Next week, 1st grade and Kindergarten will begin learning songs for their spring concert.  Teaching and Learning will carry on.

And, if it is true that I am doing this for the kids, then I have achieved that goal.  Today I heard a story that gave me the warm fuzzies! 

As part of the public hearing for my school's charter renewal, community members, students and teachers have been invited to speak before the school board.  Lisbeth, the student representative, is being coached by her teacher and another staff member and, when asked to choose a topic she would like to speak about that truly represents what makes our school special, she chose to talk about a music project she worked on last fall.  As a student leader, she could have chosen any number of other things:  student council, Renzulli projects, yearbook club, Girls On the Run, world cup soccer during fitness classes, class field trips or parties, but no, she chose a music project because it incorporated everything she has learned in project based group learning:  teamwork, problem solving, delegating responsibilities, creativity, planning, editing, practicing and presenting a project that was student driven.

That, my friends, is why I keep doing what I do.

Knowing When to Stop.....

As an Orff specialist, I am always challenging myself to create the next great new idea to help my students discover their inner musician.  Through experimentation and student feedback, I have created some very engaging lessons that have become grade level traditions.

There is The Bremen Town Musicians in Kindergarten; Hickory Dickory Dock in 1st grade; Mr. Pine's Purple House in 2nd grade; recorder bird calls in 3rd grade; the Hot Cross Buns monster in 4th grade; Canoe Song Islands in 5th grade.  It's all pretty cool stuff and I'm not just saying that.  The reason I keep on teaching these lessons is because year after year, my students have enthusiastically enjoyed them.

But, as an Orff specialist, I am always challenging myself to create the next great new idea to help my students discover their inner musician and, truth be told, experiments don't always work.

Recently, I attended my local chapter Orff workshop and was inspired to try something we had done.  At first, my adaptation of the idea seemed to go well:  randomly played bass bars and crazy, mixed up glockenspiels were a big hit with my little after school Orff ensemble.  And the instrument bit seemed to perk up my 5th graders.  But when I tried to connect the music with movement, their attitudes started to change.  Well, let me try it again with tomorrow's class.  I think I have a better way of approaching it now.  That's what I thought.  And it seemed to go a smidge better, but not much.  Don't give up.  I told myself that they just needed to get comfortable with the movement aspect.  Take away the instruments so they can focus on movement.  What?  Take away the part that got them interested in the first place?  Well, doesn't the saying go, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"?  Again, I tried, but by that point, my students had already made up their minds.  They didn't like this anymore and they pretty much told me.  "Mr. D, when do we get to do something fun again?" Eduardo said, and I was shocked back into reality.

Despite my best intentions, I had lost sight of my students' needs.  Sure, fun is not listed as a standard and cannot be adequately assessed, but without it, my class becomes little more than musical drill work.  And that's no fun for anyone.

So, onward.  With Easter and spring break on the horizon, I will be reprising some of my kid-tested and teacher-approved activities.  We will bunny hop.  We will have a visit from John the Rabbit.  We will be Going On A Picnic.  And I will experiment with Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  I just hope that this time around, my experiment yields good results and doesn't blow up in my face.

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Consider Using Shapes, Part 3

A few years back, I attended a Saturday workshop of my local Orff chapter.  The presenter, the brilliant Soili Perkio from Finland, used a book by Leo Lionni (Geraldine the Music Mouse) for a sequence of activities.  This was the first I had heard of Lionni and I have to say, I was immediately drawn his style of both story telling and illustration.  Since then, I have purchased several of his children's books and, thanks to an Amazon.com referral, have chanced on one of my favorites in his book Pezzetino.

To sum up, Pezzetino (meaning "little piece" in Italian) is a little orange square living in a world full of characters who are much larger and colorful.  He wonders if he might be someone else's little piece but by the end of the story, he discovers that he is perfect just the way he is.  Sigh.  I hope that children really receive this message when I share it with them.

I have taught this story to students from Kindergarten through 3rd grade and they are just as charmed by it as I am.  I read the story, showing the pictures and singing a little song with my students along the way.  After that, it is time for them to create!

Spurred on by Lionni's inspiration, I divide my students into small groups and hand out classroom materials (scarves, cups, index cards, rainbow resonator bells, magnets, etc.) for them to create their own characters who might live in Pezzetino's world.  I take pictures of their work then share them with the whole class the next time I see them.  Then. again referring back to Lionni's use of names that describe the characters such as "The One Who Runs" and "The One On the Mountain," we discuss possible names for the characters they created in their groups.  Ultimately, I print out their pictures and present their teacher with this newly created version of the story.

So far, I have been unsuccessful with my attempts at using the color patterns in a more musical way.  I would like to use color patterns from the characters as a graphic score for music making.  For example, the greean/blue/purple/black color palette of The Swimming One could represent four different instruments or pitches.  This is something I'll keep working on.  Meanwhile, in her book Blue Is the Sea, Orff master teacher Sofia Lopez-Ibor suggests using the characters in Pezzetino as inspiration for movement.  There are many possibilities here. 

Here are some of the characters my students have created:

 

 

 

 

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Consider Using Shapes, Part 2

Many of the small percussion instruments we use form basic shapes:  circles, triangles, rectangles and, possibly, squares.  There are a few with odd shapes like the vibraslap, ratchet or those guiros shaped like various creatures (frogs, fish, crickets, etc.).  Every time I bring out instruments the students get excited, but I like to throw them a curve ball by saying, "We won't be playing the instruments today.  Instead, we will be playing with the instruments" and proceed to show them how the different shapes of the instruments can be used to make a picture:

After my demonstration, the students are eager to give it a try.  I could separate them into groups and have them all go for it, but due to the limited number of instruments in my classroom, I prefer to take a different path.  I choose a small group of students (3 or so) to go to a corner of the room to then create their own work of instrument art while the rest of the class is playing a singing game or something.  I like to set a range of how many instruments they may use for their artwork (between 5 and 12) and let my iPhone random number generator make the decision for each group.  The group work aspect encourages cooperation skills and setting a limit encourages problem solving skills.  Questions students inevitably face along the way are:  what will we make?  Which instruments will we use?  Who decides?  When the artists are finished creating, we sing the song above and have a gallery walk for all students to see what was created.  Here are some examples of my students' work:

 

       Caterpillar:  drums and trinagle beaters

                                       Ribbon and Bow:  triangles and wooden mallets

 

                                                                                                                   Snail: 
                                                                                    jingle bells, triangle,
                                                                                    drum, tick tock block

                                            
                                     Bicycle:  drums, wood blocks, jingle bells, triangle

 

                   Playing the Drum: 

drums, triangle, wood blocks, sand blocks,
           tick tock block, castanet

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Consider Using Shapes, Part 1

For a while now, I have been incorporating shapes into my music classes - shape rhythms, shape notations, student artwork using shapes they either draw or form with classroom instruments.  There are many possibilities:

Here, students chose two basic shapes to draw on a 1/4 sheet of paper, then worked in groups to arrange them.

The orientation of the papers opened up many possibilities......

......and begged the question, "Where is the beginning?"

In this activity, students used the shapes to notate rhythm patterns.  Square = ta (rest); Circle = ta ta; Triangle = ta-ti ta; Rectangle = ta ta-ti.  Once numerous permutations of the shape rhythms were explored, students were given classroom instruments to play their patterns: triangles play, well obviously, triangles.  Drums played the circles.  Wood blocks played the rectangles and sand blocks played the squares.

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The Beauty of the Unexpected

A few years ago, I was teaching a class of 1st graders. It was time for my annual tradition of using the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day as a comprehensive experience with singing, xylophone playing, story and movement. In the story, the title character keeps saying that he's going to Australia. I latched onto this recurring statement as an opportunity to use a song about Australia for movement. After all, 1st graders can't sit still at xylophones for too long and this was a perfect way to get them up and moving before the next section of the story. By the time this particular class came for music, I had been teaching this unit for several years and, as much fun as it was, I had become rather routine. My process was very practiced. I knew what pitfalls to expect and which mistakes to correct before they happened. But if Orff has taught me anything, it has taught me that the best moments are those that are unplanned.

So, off we went to Australia. The students stood up and began pretending to drive their little cars around to the music and then I noticed a student who was sort of, um, stuck. She wasn't hurt. No one had bumped into her. She was just walking in place in front of one of the stacks of chairs in the back of the classroom. At the soonest possible moment, I walked over to her and asked if she was okay. Her reply: "I'm parked." I smiled, keeping a little laugh to myself, and continued on with the lesson. The recording stopped, we went back to the xylophones and the story continued. The next time we went off to Australia, the same girl was joined in the "parking lot" by a boy next to her at another stack of chairs. My smile broadened but then I noticed something that sent me over the edge. Another girl was doing all of the movements, but instead of walking on her feet like everyone else, she was walking on her knees. Again, I had to find out the impulse behind her actions. When asked, she replied, "I have a flat tire."

These students are now in fourth grade and, I have to tell you, they are still a treat to teach. They love to sing, are generally kind to each other, and truly enjoy learning and creating. Whoever placed fourth grade after the often frustrating fifth graders in the schedule created the perfect remedy to keep me going near the end of a long teaching day.

 

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Welcome to Musical Memories and Lessons Learned!

As you might know, I am a music teacher.  As you might also know, I consider myself an Orff specialist.  What you might not know is what exactly that means.  And, sorry, but unless you've really experienced Orff Schulwerk, it is difficult to really explain.

I could give you a standardized overview of what Orff Schulwerk is: Orff Schulwerk is an approach to teaching music to children based on the work of composer Carl Orff along with Gunild Keetman and other artisits (dancers and musicians) at the Guntherschule from the middle half of the 20th century. While working with children, Orff discovered that they learn best through play. Using singing, rhythmic speech, specially designed percussion instruments (reminiscent of Gamelan and African xylophones), drama, creative movement and, really, whatever media catches a child's fancy, they learn the elements of music and how to apply them to create their own musical work. In the United States, there are three formal levels of Orff Schulwerk training. Teachers who complete all three levels are considered "Orff Certified." There are also many post-Level III courses, special courses, a national conference every year, international trainings, etc. etc. And, by the way, I've completed three levels, several master courses, presented at three national conferences and been published a few times in the Orff Echo.  Yay me!

But what does this any of this mean? Well, that's what I hope to explain via this blog. I'll be posting anecdotes from my own teaching, teacher friends or just from my own experiences as a musician. Occasionally, I'll share an idea that you might try in your own classroom. I'll try to keep it brief because I do tend to ramble. Thanks for visiting and taking the time to get to know me!

 

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