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The retired music teacher was back in action with our 5th grade classrooms, so we spent a majority of the teaching day observing him. Below are some picture of the classroom + what the students were writing as notes. The students sat in a C around the teacher, some standing, some sitting. The teacher would point to a particular pattern on the board and students would play it with their hands. Right hand was downbeats, left hand offbeats. Instead of sound before sight teaching, this demonstrated sight before sound instruction. A picture of a student's notebook. Students were taught fixed do, and learned solfege singing at an early age. They had some songs prepared for us as well, welcoming us into their town and thanking us for our instruction through song. After observing this music teacher, we were placed in a new 1st grade classroom. In all honesty, this was a tough day in the classroom. I had lost my voice from sickness that morning, and my voice kept cracking while singing the hello song. As a result, I did not include as much music instruction and our teaching group focused more on teaching literacy with their activities (read our book aloud, color and label vocab words about the seasons, ven-diagram etc.) Picture of the classroom we taught in. I noticed, from a researcher's perspective, that the students were having a relatively difficult time grasping the vocab words in English we focused on in instruction. We needed to re-explain certain words multiple times, but the students were very excited to learn from us and were patient with our limited Italian. This could be due to the lack of music instruction, the age group, it being our first time teaching them, truly any variable. Today was the only day I walked out of the classroom feeling disappointed with my instruction. It was extremely difficult to sing, and I felt a bit like I was on an island unable to connect with the Italian students. However, I also realized that this day was an opportunity to grow as an educator and began to understand that taking care of my voice/health was extremely important when working as a teacher.
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AuthorHello and welcome to my blog page! My name is Nicholas and I am a music education major with a minor in philosophy, my primary instrument is percussion, and my dream is to someday teach elementary general music. Through this program, I hope to increase my pedagogical repertoire and empathy when working with English language learners, to learn about myself as an individual, and to make an impact in the lives of the children in Torremaggiore, Italy. Feel free to browse through and return to my blog as I update it with my pedagogical and travel adventures! Archives
February 2020
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