• Home
  • Music Room Blog
  • Student Showcase
  • About
  • Contact
  • Resources and Webliography
  • Recorder Resources
  • Music Musings
WHEELOCK MUSIC... WE GROW MUSICIANS!

STICKing with 'The Nutcracker!'

12/11/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Peeping Through Our Classroom Window
Mrs. Lynn's class STICKS with The Nutcracker for some music of the season....
Take just one minute and watch them in the video below to see how movement can help young musicians to organize the structure of a piece of music as they participate in the music.

Active listening is a key skill to develop in the music room. When students engage in 'active listening' they are mentally engaging in the music with understanding, predicting what might happen next. The process of predicting is what makes us hooked on music: it's immensely satisfying when the music resolves as you expect it to, yet it is so exciting when the music takes you to a place you didn't expect!   
One of our responsibilities as music educators is to build lots of music experiences to support the development of a rich and varied music vocabulary from which our students can draw to make predictions....and become lifelong active participants in the music of their culture.  

0 Comments

From Major to Minor...

12/1/2015

0 Comments

 
I often wonder at how I ended up as a music educator... Truthfully, when I was studying for my undergraduate in music at University College Cork, a career as a music educator was the last thing I wanted!  That seemed like such a boring and uninteresting profession, probably because my own experiences in a school music classroom were mostly about singing and playing the tin whistle at the elementary level, and memorizing music theory and rules for harmony at the secondary level.
​ 
 I wanted to perform and play in ensembles and experience music by immersing myself in it..and I did go on to do that...but somehow I ended up back in the classroom.  Somewhere I learned along the way that teaching could be engaging, immersive, exciting and most of all...meaningful for students. And, I never stop finding new ways to make it so...

I am so grateful to teach in a school district that is open to new ways of thinking about pedagogy. Recently our department enjoyed professional development with an expert on a particular teaching philosophy  that puts a lot of emphasis on teaching for musical understanding: can students hear how pitches relate to one another, can they hear the tonal center, can they feel and demonstrate in their body how the rhythm and beat of a song is organized...  

Picture

​

I have enjoyed putting some of these strategies to work in my own classroom. One of those strategies was to provide the opportunity for students to compare and contrast major and minor tonality. 

​In the two-minute video above, students from Mr. Kuehl's class share their reflections on major and minor tonality. Eavesdrop on conversations in the music room in this next installment of 'Peeping Through our Classroom Window...'
0 Comments
    Picture

    Author:
    Eithne Stover

    I'm a toe-tappin, guitar-pickin', hummin' 'n drummin' spouse, and mom to three kids.  I love  being in nature, kayaking,  travelling with my family, tending to my beehives and chickens and walking and training my crazy dog. Engaging with the world musically is very important to me. It's where I get my joy!
     C
    ontact Mrs. Stover at
    estover@email.medfield.net ​

    To automatically receive blog updates you may subscribe to the RSS feed through a Reader (such as Feedly or Google Reader) below

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015

    Categories

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.