Reading “Humor in the Music Classroom” does not challenge, but rather delight me. It is actually very amusing what children at a young age came up with especially with humor. Children pick up humor from every aspect of their lives and if it is being used in the classroom, they are more attentive in the lesson. This is seen in the reading where the teachers use silly songs or chants to keep the students engaged. The teachers tell a story through the song and the students think it is funny because it is something out of the norm that they can still relate to. It is great to see humor in the classroom because the students enjoy it a lot and see it everywhere in their lives which is why they respond well to it.

Something else humor can do is build a relationship of trust with students. Usually students respond positively to humor. This is seen in the story when the teacher introduces a new student that was already in her class to the students. The teacher built a better relationship with that student because he was not the best of students before, however, the teacher still showed that she cared. In the Halloween story, she is building relationships with all her students because she used humor to show the students what kind of things she likes. Gary came back with humor to show the teacher that he was listening to the lesson the teacher was giving. The teacher took the humor well because the students had taken her humor well the day before and reciprocated the humor.

There are two building connected to each other. A rectangle building and a round building. There are two entrances in the rectangular building with one stating that it is the front office and the other one saying it is building “A” in the school. There are huge letters painted on the outside of the round building with the school’s name, “Kyrene Del Notre”, in school colors (Navy blue and yellow). On the rectangular building, it has the school’s name again with words underneath saying, Dual Language Academy. Under the school name and description, they welcome people in both English and Spanish.

 

Once you walk through the front office and into the school, the library is in the middle of the round building which is where the majority of the school classrooms are. The hallway is a circle which goes around the library and there are classrooms on the opposite side of the library. Walking to the music classroom, there are more classrooms leading up to it. Next to the music room, the art room is there, and they are both at the end of the hall which leads to the playground.

 

The music classroom is connected to the cafeteria/stage. It is blocked off with a removable wall. When lunch time is approaching, you can smell school lunches through the wall. The smartboard is on the east side of the room while the keyboard instruments also face to the east. There is an area where the students sit in between the smartboard and the keyboards. The sink, water fountain, and the phone are all in the back of the room. There are signs around the room with musical terms, time periods, solfege, recorder fingerings, expectations, and curriculum goals.

A lot of the posters and boards in the hallways are both in Spanish and English. Since this is a dual language academy, they try to apply both languages to the boards. The boards also display the students’ work on lessons they are learning in their grade classroom. There is a board coming out of the front office right next to the teacher workroom where is has a large picture of the continents. There is a dialogue bubble next to the ones that have Spanish speaking countries, naming the country in Spanish and English.

 

I hear teachers talking to their classes in both in Spanish and English. Each grade class either has Spanish in the morning and English in the afternoon or vice versa. Depending which language they have, the teacher is talking to them in that language. Next to the door of each classroom, they have the teacher’s name in either in Spanish or English because the way a teacher is addressed in Spanish is a little different (Mrs. Gil vs Maestra Gil).

 

The announcements are also bilingual. Some stuff is said in Spanish and in English. Some messages are also translated so that the students are getting announcements in both languages and understanding everything. In the announcements, they announce birthdays, cougar stars, the lunch menu, and anything else important that the students may need to know. The announcements are done by the principal and sometimes the student council.

 

I think the messages are coming from the teachers and administration. Going back to the dual language academy idea, the administration knows that the goal of the students is to learn Spanish to be able to use it in the future so if they apply Spanish to their boards and conversations, they can immerse themselves in the language. The teachers also know the goal, so they apply those to the activities they are doing in their classrooms.

 

the first ethnography assignment. I researched that this school is a dual language academy which lines up with what they do at the school. A majority of the bulletin boards and posters are in Spanish and also translated in English. This immerses the students to use both languages they are learning in their classes. I can also see that the population at this school is Hispanic seeing the percentages in the music classrooms. I do not see their exam scores or go to their grade classrooms to see if they are matching up with all the scores that are online. It is a little hard to see some of the research that I did in the first assignment at this school because a lot of the research is quantitative versus what I am observing which is qualitative.

 

 

Joseph Schwab had an important impact on educational research and practice. He emphasized the preparation of school curriculum through the study of the philosophies of education and science. He originated a program for educational improvements called The Practical. In The Practical, there are five bodies of disciplines and experiences necessary for curriculum development in education. The first four are considered as commonplaces. An example from Peter Pereira article explains the commonplaces in detail, “Someone (a teacher) is teaching something (subject matter) to someone else (a student) in a network of social and cultural contexts (milieux).” The fifth body is a curriculum specialist to make sure that the other bodies are coordinated because each one of the bodies work with each other.

Sources:

https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2401/Schwab-Joseph-1909-1988.html

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/schwab-joseph-j

https://condor.depaul.edu/ppereira/pers/intro.htm

 

Jerome Bruner developed many theories and other aspects of cognition which influenced the American educational system and helped the field of cognitive psychology. In the “Constructivist Theory (Jerome Bruner)” website, they state that a major theme in his theory is that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas based upon current or past knowledge and allow the learners to go beyond the information that was given through experiences. Jerome Bruner had many ideas about teaching and learning that include modes of representation, discovery learning, and spiral curriculum.

 

There are three modes of representation that Jerome Bruner explained. These modes of representation can depend on each other when learning new skills. The first mode is enactive representation. This mode involves encoding physical action-based information and storing it in our memory. This mode is learned by doing much like how infants learn (McLeod, 2019). In the YouTube video Jerome “Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation”, they compared this mode to learning a sport. When learning a sport, the main elements in mastering it is learned through physical motions and gestures. The knowledge is specific to motor skills and learned physically. Verbal and written information can support this mode, but it is best learned by doing the activity.

 

The second mode of representation is iconic. Iconic represents events with images which may include pictures, charts, or graphs (even the simplest ones like a thought bubble) that help activate the imagination (Jerome Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation, 2016). Information is stored as sensory images and thinking can be based on the use of other mental images like hearing, smelling, or touching (McLeod, 2019).

 

The third mode of representation is called symbolic which represents things through arbitrary symbols (Jerome Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation, 2016). Information is usually stored as a code or a symbol which can be a language. In this knowledge it is primarily stored as words, mathematical symbols, or in other symbol systems like music (McLeod, 2019).

 

Another one of Jerome Bruner’s teaching and learning ideas is discovery learning which he proposes that learners’ construct their own knowledge and do it by organizing and categorizing information using a code system (McLeod, 2019). He also believes that the most effective way to develop this learning is by the learner discovering it instead of the teacher telling which implies that the students construct their own knowledge. He also states that teachers should be there to facilitate the learning process instead of the students learning by rote. A good teacher will design lessons to help the students discover relationships between smaller pieces of information without giving them organized information. The spiral curriculum helps with this process.

 

The third idea of Jerome Bruner is spiral curriculum. The instructor’s task is to translate information into a format that is appropriate for learn according to their current state of understanding. The curriculum should also be organized to where the student continuously builds on what they have learned (Constructivist Theory [Jerome Bruner] website). This way of learning should guide students to be able to solve problems by themselves meaning that complex ideas can be taught first by teaching it at a simple level and then re-visiting it later when they are more complex.

 

Sources:

 

Jerome Bruner- Three Modes of Cognitive Representation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9kH8bEHWhs

 

Constructivist Theory (Jerome Bruner)

https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/constructivist/

 

Bruner- Learning Theory in Education

https://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html

Jerome Bruner

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jerome-Bruner

1. What kinds of musicking were going on in this environment? What did the children’s play look like and sound like? What “I can” statements might a teacher write after observing the children’s musical skills?

 

The children were singing to every activity that they did. They were singing multiple rhythms and melodies that were made up with no guidance except for one of the chants that the teacher had sang. Even when some of the kids were playing by themselves, they were singing to themselves. Their chants and songs included melodies with seconds, thirds, broken triads, and leaps of fifths. The children’s rhythms included quarter notes, eighth notes, and even some syncopation and triplets.

 

There were many different ways that the children’s play looked and sounded like. For example, some of the girls were playing pet store and they were imitating rhythms and melodies from the Pocahontas song. They also used some of the same words. Another one of the children was playing by himself and he chanted a song about wheel-rolling on a sol-mi pattern. The teacher was picking green beans one morning and she chanted a small phrase where some of the children were with her. The children chanted their own phrase using different rhythms, but the same notes that the teacher used. The children made up their own songs at the sandbox reiterating what they were doing in the sandbox. Even at lunch time, the students were making up songs and replacing the ending tag that they had made up.

 

Some “I can” statements that a teacher might write may be:

• I can make up my own songs
• I can choose my own words
• I can use the teachers notes to make my own song

 

2. After reading about the Lakeshore Zebras’ informal musical experiences, think about young children you know or have seen at your internship placement or elsewhere in your life? How might you interact with children to keep their musical selves active and lively?

 

A way I might interact with children to keep their musical selves active and lively would be what the teacher in the Lakeshore Zebras’ did. I could sing a small chant with my own notes and words and see how the children pick it up and adapt it. I could also sing songs that they know with my own words so that they know that can make up their own words to different songs. Since I already sing any activity I am doing, I could sing certain activities making up my own rhythms and melodies so that the children could do the same. Like in the reading, the children were already singing and chanting their activities.

 

3. During the second reading, think about how the author is writing this. How has she put this together? Besides the children, what does she describe? How does she help you “get a picture of” or “get a feeling for” this setting and these children? What three “tips” might you pick up from her that you could use when writing your ethnography assignments?

 

She started off by describing the community and the history of the Lakeshore Child Development Center. The author gives numbers of how much it would cost to go there and how much the families make. She also sets the stage by describing how the LCDC looks like, the age group names, and where each age group is located. She then goes on describing the room and the children in the room. She gives an imagery of the room and where certain objects are located. She gives in depth details about anything she is describing so that we are in the story with her. She starts off with her first day in the classroom and how the children reacted with her being there. After the children had gone off with their normal day, she explains various activities that the children were doing. She even included dialogue, written out music, and with those she had a short description of what the children were doing in those instances. At the end of her writing, she sums up what she wrote about and discussing what exactly the children were doing without even realizing it. She also includes some of her thoughts. Three tips that I could use that could help me when writing my ethnography assignments would be giving detailed imagery, having written out examples of certain phrases, and being very precise about the details that I research.

Video 1: Masai children singing
Listen for a little bit. What do you notice about the structure of the song the children are singing? Who is the leader? About the pitch level? About the quality of their voices? How would you characterize the feeling or affect of the children who are singing?

The song started off with the whole group singing a part of the song and then it went to a call and response with one leader singing the phrases and the entire group responding. The leader is one of the boys in the front that is singing with the group. The pitch level is very high and it cuts through the group when they all sing together. I would characterize the feeling of the children who are singing as playful. They are all having fun while singing and jumping around with lots of energy.

Video 2: PS22 Chorus “EMPIRE STATE OF MIND Pt. XXII” Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
PS22 is in New York. Why this song for these children? What do notice about the children and how they are participating? How are they being led or facilitated? What do you notice about the quality of their singing? When is it best in tune (e.g., in what range)? What happens at the end?

I think they sang this song because they are from New York and they can relate to the lyrics of the song. The children get into the song when they get into the chorus. They all start dancing and moving around. Even when they are singing some of the verses, the children touch their chests and sway side-to-side. They are being led by their teacher on the piano. He counts them at the beginning and throughout the song he is tapping his foot. He also cues them by pausing before their big entrances. Their singing is well balanced throughout the song and it seems like a great quality of sound. I think their singing is best in tune when they are singing in a higher range. It seems like the kids are struggling to get some of the notes out when they sing in the low range. At the end of the video, the students celebrate when they are done and they show a bloopers of the kids having fun when they mess up.

Video 3: Children singing at Carden Academy Huntington Beach Music. Carden Academy Performing Arts
These are kindergarten and first-grade children. As you listen to the multiple verses of this song, what part do the children sing best? Who ends up singing the most? What does this tell you about choosing songs for children? In what key or what pitch level has the teacher put this song? What happens at the end?

The part that the children sing best are the parts that repeat over and over again, “they are all getting ready for Halloween night.” The teacher is the one that ends up singing the most because she is the one teaching the song and leading the children. It also seems like the children have a hard time saying sone of the words because they are younger and the words are longer. This tells me that usually songs with repeated sections are best for choosing songs for children because they get lots of practice with those parts. This song seems like a minor key because it is a Halloween song and a minor key usually makes it feel spooky. It also seems like this key is too low for the children. All the children end together at the end, but one of the kids tells a story to the teacher right after they are done.

Video 4: Cantare Con Vivo: Instructor Lydia Mills teaches South American Folk Song
This video is short and of the teacher only, though you see some children on the sides. The teacher is probably a guest artist visiting the class. She models a song for the children. Why are the children likely to enjoy this song? Why are they likely to sing it well? If you were teaching this song or wanted the children to sing with you, what strategy would you use next?

The children are likely to enjoy this song because there are instruments that are unique to a general music classroom and they do not hear those instruments too often. I think they are likely to enjoy it because the words of the song tell a funny story. I think they would be able to sing it well because a lot of the words repeat themselves and the melody also stays the same when the words change. The next strategy I would use next would be to ask the students a question about the song that it engages the students to listen to the song multiple times. I would sing it to them multiple times and ask them questions so that they hear it a lot before singing it. This will get the song in their head and learn it even without singing it. I would then do an echo sing on each phrase so that they get practice with shorter parts of the song. I would then have the students sing it in longer parts and then the entire song.

Video 5: Phoenix Children’s Chorus National Anthem at Diamondbacks Game – August 29, 2015
What do you notice about the age range of the children in this group? Their singing? Their song? Did you know about this group?

What I noticed about the age range of the children in this group was that it varied a lot. There were children of all ages. It seemed like it ranged from elementary school to high school. The children were singing in unison for most of the song. They broke out into harmonies in a few places and at the end. This group was singing the national anthem at a baseball game. I had heard about this group a few times when I was at community college, but I did not know much about them. I heard people mention this group, however, I still do not know much about this group.

Video 6: Ah Poor Bird!
“Ah Poor Bird” is a song in a minor key. OK, so . . . well . . . there are all kinds of problems, but not with the song itself. So what’s happening? Why is really going on?  What’s your analysis of this situation?

The first time they sang the song, they were reviewing the song because they had done it before. The second time the children were told to sing with no movement and keep their hand on their lap/at their side which was different from the first time because they were moving all over the place. The third and fourth time they sang it, she asked the girls to sing by themselves and the boys to sing by themselves. Usually when teachers do this, they sing with their students, however, the teacher in this video leaves each group to sing on their own. The teacher then goes on and shows the kids a sign so that they could be quiet at the same time. The sign somewhat works because the kids think the sign was silly and the kids were not taking it seriously. She has the boys and girls do a round. It is not working very well because the kids were not super confident with the song by themselves and now they are doing it at different times. The teacher is also conducting them and the students really do not need that type of guidance. They may need the teacher to say certain words or even just clap the tempo because they are young and need simple to the point guidance. When she tries to fix something that the students are doing, she imitates what they did and the students do not take her seriously, they just start laughing at what she did. The teacher has lost the student’s attention by the end of the video and they just think it is funny and a game. At the end, the students were able to sing it in a round but it took them a while to do.

LAST: After all of this, what have you learned about children’s singing? What is singing about for them? What strategies will support children’s singing? What is not as good for them? List three principles or primary ideas that will guide your practice and provide a sentence or two for each describing why those ideas are important.

Overall, I learned that it is important to pick songs that are in the student’s range. Sometimes they are not able to be successful because the key is not right for them. It is also important to pick songs that are appropriate for the age group because depending what grade they are in, they might not be able to sing a complex song with lots of words. For the students, singing is about having fun for them. They do not care if they are sing the exact rhythm or the correct pitches, they just want to have fun singing. Some strategies that will support children’s singing is having songs that have easy melodies and repeated words so that they are able to be successful right away. Also, doing it over and over again, but making sure that they are doing something different with it each time so that they do not get bored. Something that is not good for them is conducting or doing complex things with the song. They need it to be simple so that they can catch on right away.

1. Singing it a lot of times and doing multiple things with it. This will ensure that the students are practicing it a lot and not getting bored.
2. Echo singing. This will help the students practice it in chunks so that when singing it as a whole they have practiced it in small chunks.
3. Simplicity. Keeping my teaching simple will help the students a lot. They do not need me to be waving my hands around or they do not need to sing super complex songs. They will have fun if the song is super easy and simple.

1. What does the idea that people must “formulate or construct their own understanding” mean to you as a learner? As a musician-scholar-teacher? In what ways or when have you “constructed your own understanding”, either intentionally or unintentionally?  What did that involve? How did you know that that you “knew” something?

 

To me, as a learner, the idea that people must “formulate or construct their own understanding” means that we all have had our own journey in life, so we all have different ways of viewing ideas. We all understand ideas differently because of what we know and do not know. As a musician-scholar-teacher, this means that I have to put myself in my students’ shoes and adapt to what the students need because they have their own ways of understanding. As a teacher, I have to think outside the box so that everyone is learning and understanding. When students start to make connections in a lesson, the students start to understand on their own and take ownership of what they are learning. One way that I can think of how I have “constructed my own understanding” has been when I play any clarinet repertoire or ensemble pieces. Those pieces may have a hard passage that I cannot play, and I would have to slow it down to play every note. Since I practice my scales, arpeggios, and thirds every day I start to identify those different patterns in my music which makes it easier for me to play. It just took me a little bit of time to notice that it was a pattern that I knew.

 

2. Make a “schema map,” similar to the hamburger map, that illustrates what you know about children and music. Consider the understandings you have from the entirety of your experience, not just this class. Bring your map to class. Include it in your post about this assignment if at all possible. Based on your schematic drawing, what do you want to know next? What are you curious about?

I want to know how long it takes for children to catch onto songs? I am also curious about how many children’s songs the kids know.

3. Wiggins asserts that because are schemas are different, people’s interpretations of the same experiences and information can be very different. What does that idea mean for you as a teacher? 

The idea that everyone’s schemas are different means for me as a teacher that not everyone is going to learn the same and not everyone is going to know the same information. Some students are going to know more than others. So, I will have to keep in mind that a certain way I say something may be interpreted completely different from student to student. I will have to make sure that I am constantly assessing my students to see if they are understanding the lesson. An example for this idea is how a certain food like pizza can bring different meaning to different people. I like pepperoni on my pizza, however, someone else may like ham and pineapple on it. Pizza brings me memories of birthday parties because I used to have pizza as a meal. Someone else may have other memories associated to pizza.

 

4. We’ve already been talking about whole-part-whole. What does Wiggins have to say about the relationship of parts and wholes? 

What Wiggins has to say about parts and wholes relationship is that it is easier for people to understand a part of something when it is learned in the context of a whole. We usually understand things if they in relations to other things. Wiggins also says that as teachers we need to make sure we present all material within the context that we are teaching. A place that I have seen the idea of whole-part-whole is in art of teaching beginning instrumentalist. We taught a lesson where we (the students) played a phrase we were working on and the teacher broke it down into small sections to work on. At the end we played through the entire phrase to see what we had fixed. We had context of the whole (the phrase we played), the part was when the teacher worked on different places in the phrase, and the whole was also when we played through the entire phrase one last time to assess how much the teacher fixed.

 

5. Scaffolding . . . what is that?  Have you used it?  Have you seen it used? Describe!

Scaffolding is when the teacher models how to solve a certain problem and then steps back to see how the student can work on the problem on their own. The teacher is there to assist the students when they need help. I have used scaffolding many times. I have used it at my previous internships. I have asked a section of instruments to play their part and have the rest of the students listen to those students. After they are done playing through their part, I ask the students what they heard, if they do not have anything to say, I help them by giving them guided questions to help them think about things they heard. I have also seen it used in my internships by my mentor teachers. They used it by playing the example first on the keyboard then having the students play the example as a class and then teacher chimed when the students were falling apart. The teacher asked the students questions about how they did and helped the students figure out what they can do to make it better.

 

6. If learning is social, and if the Zone of Proximal Development is really a “thing” then why do we send kids to practice alone?  In what ways have you experienced learning as social construction? How might you use the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development to good advantage in your pedagogical practice?

We send kids to practice alone because they are still capable of doing it on their own. When they come into our classroom, they learn ideas that they can apply on their own. In the classroom, they are still learning socially because they around others, but they can use what they learned while practicing alone. A way I have experienced learning as social construction is when I practice with my friends. This allows my friends to give me feedback on my playing especially when I am not pay attention to a certain part of my playing. I also do this with my friends and give them feedback when they are not getting something. Sometimes my friends know something else that I don’t, and they help me with it. An example is that this week I was working on glissandos, I was having a hard time getting them and they gave me different ways that they do it. I could use the idea of Zone of Proximal Development in my pedagogical practice by giving my students a few minutes to converse and help each other after learning something new. Sometimes they get the concept better when a peer is helping them out.

 

7. Consider that you are, we are, in a “cognitive apprenticeship” about music learning and teaching. How are you learning in this course or other experiences? What do you need more of? Less of?

The way I would be learning in a cognitive apprenticeship would be by me working closely with my mentor. They would guide me through processes that I do not know about and they would not throw me in right away into something I do not know how to do. They would build off a concept or idea that I already know about and let me teach in areas I know right away. My mentor would have to guide me in the areas I am not the best in. I would need more experience teaching in a cognitive apprenticeship because as students we learn the best while experiencing an activity. By teaching, I would get more comfortable in areas that I am good at and would get feedback in the areas I am not the best at. This type of experience reminds me of an internship except instead of always observing our mentors, we are working side-by- side with them.

Teaching Video

Lizeth Gil- February 13^th, 2020

“I Know” Statement:

• I know how to keep a steady beat.

“I Can” Statement:

• I can sing a song in Spanish.

Materials:

• Laptop, phone, Baritone Ukulele, “Un elefante” by Claudina de Ferrari

Process:

1. Question for the beginning

• This song that I am going to sing is very special, listen to it and see what is so special about it (it is in Spanish)

2. Sing it for the first time and follow up on the question I asked
3. Ask another question

• So now we know that this song is in Spanish, this song is about someone, who is this song about?

4. Sing it again and follow up on the question that I asked
5. Explain to the students what the song is about since they do not know Spanish
6. I will sing it again and the students will tap their legs

• This will allow them to keep a steady beat and listen to the song once more

7. We will echo two measures at a time (My turn, Your turn)

• The students will still be tapping their legs while echo singing
• I will point at myself when it is my turn and at the students when it is their turn

8. We will echo one phrase at a time (My turn, Your turn)

• The students will still be tapping their legs while echo singing
• I will point at myself when it is my turn and at the students when it is their turn

9. Let’s try the whole song now

• The students will still be tapping their legs while singing

10. We will sing the whole song again and I will play Ukulele

• Instead of the students tapping their legs with both their hands, the students will be tapping the floor one hand at a time

11. We are going to try the song one more time with movements and I will be playing Ukulele

• The students will think about how elephants move
• The students will pick their own movements to do while singing

Assessment Statement:

I will be listening to see if the students can sing the words.

Summary:

What I have learned so far about Kyrene del Norte Elementary School is that it is a dual language academy that provides “an inclusive environment that supports the whole child, where all students are engaged in a meaningful dual language education.” The student population is 53% Hispanic, 29% white, 10% African American, and 4% other. It makes sense that Norte has a lot of Hispanics since the language they are learning in the dual language academy is Spanish. According to the Arizona Department of Education website, Kyrene del Norte is not a Title I school, and their school grade is an A. At Kyrene del Norte the highest state test scores were on the AIMS science. The next highest was on ELA AzMerit and then on Math AzMerit. Most of the students fell either proficient or highly proficient. There were also quite a bit of students that fell either minimally proficient or partially proficient. The GreatSchools website rated the school seven out of ten which is above average, and this rating is according to how the students perform on state tests. GreatSchools also said that Kyrene del Notre is a public school that has 564 students enrolled. When I looked at houses around the school on Zillow, the average range of prices are from $270K-$480K with bedrooms ranging from one to five. Most of the housing available around Norte are houses, however, there was one apartment complex that was close by. I thought the school boundaries were interesting when I looked up where they were. The school boundaries are shared with Kyrene de los Niños Elementary School and go from Price Round to Kyrene Road (east to west) and from Guadalupe Road to Elliot Road (north to south). There is also a small section that is by the I-10 in between Guadalupe Road and Elliot Road. When doing research on Google Maps, I found that Redden Park is right next to Kyrene del Norte. Public transit runs north and south on McClintock Drive and also runs east and west on Guadalupe Road. Other schools that are nearby are Marcos de Niza High School and Kyrene de los Niños Elementary School. Looking at the information that I gained from all the research I did, I learned that this school is above average when it comes to academics. The school is also in a wealthier neighborhood because the house cost is more than above average in Arizona. The school is also not a Title I school so that means that the students are not of low-income parents.

Question/Curiosities:

1. How does the dual language academy work at Kyrene del Norte?
2. Why does Kyrene de los Niños Elementary School share school boundaries with Kyrene del Norte Elementary School?
3. Why do most schools in the Kyrene district have Spanish names?

Sources:

http://www.ade.az.gov/edd/NewDetails.asp?EntityID=5303&RefTypeID=1155

https://azreportcards.azed.gov/schools/detail/5303

https://www.greatschools.org/arizona/tempe/877-Kyrene-Del-Norte-School/

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/?searchQueryState=%7B%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-111.978975%2C%22east%22%3A-111.877225%2C%22south%22%3A33.319861%2C%22north%22%3A33.463984%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Tempe+AZ%22%2C%22regionSelection%22%3A%5B%7B%22regionId%22%3A47958%2C%22regionType%22%3A6%7D%5D%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22isForSaleByAgent%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isForSaleByOwner%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isNewConstruction%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isForSaleForeclosure%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isComingSoon%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isPreMarketForeclosure%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isPreMarketPreForeclosure%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isMakeMeMove%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isForRent%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22isAllHomes%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22beds%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A2%7D%2C%22isCondo%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22sortSelection%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22days%22%7D%2C%22isMultiFamily%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22isApartment%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%7D%2C%22savedSearchEnrollmentId%22%3A%22X1-SS-1dh9cvaofxfjp_5b1bv%22%7D

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kyrene+del+Norte+Elementary+School/@33.3577015,-111.9174095,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x872b06457b5951d9:0x4196d26ba7e115e5!8m2!3d33.3577015!4d-111.9174095

 

 

Part 1:

Musicianship (5/5 points):

I stayed with the beat throughout this experience. I was able to stay with the phrasing and if I noticed that I was not with the phrase, I waited until the next phrase to start my next motion pattern. The music that I selected was not too fast or not too slow. It was a perfect tempo for my students to follow the movements I chose.

Leadership (4/5 points):

In my teaching, I made eye contact with my students so that I can evaluate when they needed my assistance in changing motions. I thought my voice tone and volume was loud and clear enough for the students to understand. I was articulate when I gave instructions so that the students knew what I was looking for. Even though my lesson was not going as planned, I did a great job having energy with my motions and making sure that I kept going.

Preparation (4/5points):

I knew the music very well and I knew where the phrases were going to change. When I felt like I was not with the phrase, I stopped and restarted with the phrase so that we could start on the phrase. I think I could’ve been more prepared with my lesson plan. I practiced it, but sometimes I forgot what came next or confused it with another phrase of movements. I had to look at my lesson plan a lot which made me loose eye contact with my students. I wanted to keep eye contact with my students which made me look away from my plan and I would forget what came next in my lesson plan. My equipment and materials were prepared and ready for me to teach. I made sure my music was playing on my laptop and my lesson plan/dancing chart were pulled up for me to look at when I needed it during my lesson. Overall, I was very prepared to teach my lesson.

Facilitating the Experience (6/10 points):

The clarity of my verbal instruction was not always clear. There were times where I asked the class to just say the movements and not do them, but we all ended up doing the motions and saying them. I could’ve been more demanding and stopped the class to just say the movements without doing the motions. The sequencing of steps was not all there in my lesson. I tried to sequence my steps to what I wrote out in my lesson plan, but I did not know how to teach it. I think that I could’ve done shorter phrases and broken it down to no music. I was not able to focus on giving feedback and assessing the class because I was still too worried about trying to figure out how to sequence my steps. Even though I was not able to break down the steps all the way, the class was able to learn the movements and do the movement dancing three times in a row.

Total: (19/25)

 

Part 2:

There were times where the learners were confused on what motion came next. Part of this was because I wasn’t doing the motions in order that I had in my dancing chart. Once I fixed the motion, the students were able to do the motions that I was teaching them. It just took them a little bit of time to figure out what motion I was trying to do. I felt prepared to teach my lesson. I sequenced out how I was going to teach my lesson. I just was not sure how to approach teaching the motions. Since I went first, I had no one to steal teaching styles from and usually when I go first, I get nervous. After seeing everyone else teach, I took a ton of different ways I could teach my lesson again. I think I could’ve broken down my phrases and taught them one by one. Instead of trying to do it with the music, I should’ve done my teaching without music and made sure the students could do them alone. I could’ve had the students say each phrase of motions, then have them say the motions while I did it, then have them do the movements of the phrase while saying them. If I did all of that for each phrase, the students would’ve been more successful and could’ve done the whole dance with no confusion. Since I was not breaking down the steps enough for my students, Dr. Stauffer stepped in to give me feedback and guidance so that I could be more successful in my teaching experience. One primary goal for my next leadership experience is to sequence my teaching more so that my students are able to be more success. A secondary goal I have for my next leadership experience is to assess my classroom and make sure that my students are understanding what I am teaching so that I can adapt to what they need.