WARNING: Post may contain some "horn tooting"

For those of you that follow my Blog, you may have also been following the development of my community initiative for the preschool music program I called Up Beat!, which is now coming to a close for the 2015-16 school year.  I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the children that participated in the program and have gained a wealth of knowledge about early childhood development and education through my preparation for our sessions and from the interactions I've had with the kids.  Here is an earlier post about the goals of the program: click here

I don't usually toot my own horn (unless it's during a tuba lesson ;) ), but I'm very humbled to share that I was awarded with the EASD Teacher Recognition for Community Service for my work with the preschool music program.  You can read about it here.  I couldn't have earned this award without two very supportive principals (Thank you so much Mrs. Brewer and Mr. Kiehl!) and EASD administration, as well as the participation of the children and families who spend a 1/2 hour with me every Tuesday.  Needless to say, I am very excited to see where this program will go in the future!

Speaking of the future, in order to plan for next year, I have created a survey to gather information about scheduling, likes and dislikes, and about the community that the program serves.  The survey is designed for participants as well as families of children who may be interested in participating during the 2016-17 school year.  Even if you are not eligible for the program, please pass this blog post on to those you know who would benefit and live in the EASD school district.  Please spread the word to help our program grow!

Click here to take the survey

I hope to see lots of old and new faces when we start Up Beat! in the fall!

It's Concert Season!

Has your child ever wondered what it would be like to perform with a choir, orchestra or band?  Maybe he or she already plays an instrument or sings in a community choir? Or maybe you or another family member play or sing at home or in a community group?

Even if you don't participate in music at home, there are many wonderful ways to expose your child to music and most of the time its FREE!  This summer many communities will sponsor free "concerts in the park" series that feature local musical groups of various genres.

But why wait until summer?  The Etown School District has just started spring concert season.  Students in 4th-12th grades will be demonstrating what they have learned this year through several band, choral and orchestral concerts and they are always FREE to the public!

Below is a schedule of upcoming concerts.  All concerts begin at 7:00pm.

April 14  High School Band Concert

May 3  Bear Creek Orchestra Concert

May 12  Bear Creek Choral Concert

May 13 MS/HS Orchestra Concert

May 16 Middle School Band Concert

May 23 MS/HS Choral Concert

May 24 Bear Creek Band Concert

Next year, our current 3rd graders will have the opportunity to select an instrument and join the chorus.  What a wonderful opportunity the above concerts provide as a conversation starter for you and your child about their musical interests! 

Using Children's Literature to Prepare and Practice Music

Below are the handouts from my PMEA Annual Conference session.  Enjoy!

Witman Session Handout

Witman Bibliography

Music In Our Schools

March is known in the music world as "Music In Our Schools Month (MIOSM) ".  Started in 1975 by the Music Educator's National Conference (MENC), MIOSM has grown from a single day celebrating music in education, to an entire month.  MIOSM advocates for music education in all schools and there are many special events, such as a nationwide concert and advocacy days at state and federal government building, that help us celebrate that fact.

This year MIOSM's nationwide theme is "Music Inspires."  At Mill Road and Bainbridge Elementary school, we recreated the logo by having each student in the building put their name on a leaf to add to our tree.

Adults in the building were encouraged to join our celebration by putting their name on a blue bird.  Many of the teachers really got into decorating their birds!

I loved the students' reaction after the tree was completed!  Many of them were in awe of the tree and wanted to find their name.  Having their name on the tree represents something very important that all children yearn for:  a sense of belonging.  Everyone deserves to have musical experiences and it is my hope that my students feel just as much included in our music classroom as they do seeing their name on our tree.  Music certainly has inspired many things for me.  What has music inspired for you?

The Playground Connection

This past week 2nd grade learned a new game called "Hot potato, Pass it on".  I recently learned this from a website called Active Music Digital.  Instead of passing the "hot potato" as quickly as they can, the students learned that to play the game properly, they needed to bounce the ball to the metric beat (beginning of each measure in the song).  I love this game for many reasons:

1. ASSESSMENT:

I was able to assess if students do or do not feel the metric beat.  In first grade, we spend a lot of time understanding how to perform a steady beat, which does not come naturally to some students.  However, 2nd graders start to understand that steady beats are grouped and we can perform several different steady beats (micro beats: the subdivision of the beat; macro beats: the beat; and metric beats: the beginning of each measure or group of notes.)  I was surprised how many of my good steady beaters were having trouble finding the metric beat in our song, while for others it came as naturally as walking.  This formative assessment allowed me to gauge my student's progress and make changes to my upcoming lessons to accommodate the students who need more practice in this area.

2. SINGING:

The students enjoyed singing the song, even if we sang it 20 times in a row!  They loved it, everyone participated without reminders and everyone was singing with energy!

3. SOCIAL LESSONS:

While students got "out" during the game, it was not based on skill.  Getting out was simply based on chance.  Students learned that getting out may be undesirable, but it was part of the game.  This is a life lesson that children need to practice in order to understand how to control their feelings in similar situations in the future.

 

My favorite moment while teaching and playing this game was when one of my students said, "Hey!  We could play this on the playground!"  It is surprising how novel that concept is to the students.  Children learn first through play and yet there has become this disconnect between what we learn in the classroom and what we do outside of the classroom.  

Time outside the classroom, whether it be on the playground, at home, or in the comings and goings of our daily lives, should be time for students to practice what they are learning in school.  For my 2nd graders, taking the "Hot Potato" song to the playground is a great way to practice finding the meter of a song.  What they don't realize is that they can do this with any song that they know!

Parents can cultivate the idea of bringing school learning into daily life by modeling ways that children can take the concepts they are learning and applying it to a real situation.  If your child is learning addition skills, simply turn an everyday routine into an addition sentence (ex. You put one plate on the table and we have 3 more plates to set.  How many plates do we have altogether?).  Children become more comfortable with asking questions and excited about learning if the adults in their life model it for them.

Up Beat Learning

The Up Beat! preschool music program is in full swing!  So far we have had two energizing sessions with 20 children taking part in at least one of the sessions.  To prepare for my preschool lessons, I have been reading into Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory (read about it here).  In particular, I am using many ideas from Gordon's early childhood music curriculum: Music Play.

Aside from moving, chanting and singing in several different meters and modes, I have also incorporated at least one song-based picture book into the lesson. I try to model ways that the parents can do the same at home.

The first week we read The Ants Go Marching by illustrator Jeffrey Scherer.  Musically, this was a great book to work on steady beat and singing a song that is in minor and 6/8 meter.  Better still is the fact that we were able to pause to cumulatively count from 1 to 10 on each page.  The children not only practiced counting, but also made connections between the name of the number and what the number looks like in print, as well as one-to-one correspondence in the pictures.  After doing things like this at home with my son, he is now almost able to count to 10 on his own and is even recognizing numbers in print at only 20 months old!

The first book we read this week was Winter Wonderland by illustrator Jacqueline Rogers.  I had intended on using this song the week prior, but we had to cancel our session due to our own winter wonderland!  I loved pausing during the song to make connections to things like weather.  The children shared things they see during the winter time and we talked about what they like to do in the snow.

The second book we sang this week was If You're Happy and You Know It by illustrator Jane Cabrera.  I love this book because the kids already know the song and can interact with movements and sounds that are described in the lyrics.  It's a great way to help the kids recognize patterns (i.e. clapping 2 times after I sing "clap your hands").  At the end of the book is a picture of all of the animals from the previous pages.  We took some time to discuss the characters in the book by naming the types of animals.  Next week we will use this song and sing it with feelings.  The children will share different types of feelings and things that you do when you feel that way (i.e. happy = smile, sad = cry, sleepy = yawn, etc...).

For those of you interested in song-based pictures books, Jane Cabrera has a collection of really great ones!  The other two books I mentioned are from Scholastic's Sing and Read Storybooks.  Again, there are a lot of really great song-based picture books from Scholastic.  Some even come with sing-a-long CDs.

Up Beat!

For the past few months I have been working on putting together a preschool music program and now I am very excited to announce that my program "Up Beat!" will become a reality starting in February!

Up Beat! is a preschool music program for children of the Elizabethtown Area School District, ages 3-5 (not enrolled in kindergarten) and their parents.

The current session of Up Beat! will meet in the music room at Mill Road Elementary School on Tuesdays from 3:00-3:30 for the months of February through May 2016.

What is Up Beat!?

In music, an "up beat," or anacrusis, is the unaccented beat before an accented beat or "down beat."  The term "up beat" was chosen as the name for our preschool music program, because I feel that the key to successful students is starting their education before formal education starts in kindergarten, and building connections between home and school educational efforts.  It is also the goal of Up Beat! to create a joyful and up beat learning experience.  Children who have joyful learning experiences are more likely to engage in learning in the future.

"Ana-crucial" Elements of Up Beat!:

 Below is a list of "ana-crucial" elements that Up Beat! will focus on.  The word "ana-crucial" is a play on the words anacrusis and crucial, meaning that these elements are necessary for the development of young learners before they enter formal education.

1. Exposure: There is a lot of research that has been done on how we learn.  Most findings boil down to exposure!  You can't learn it if you aren't exposed to it.  The more you are exposed to something that you need to learn, the easier it will be for you to retain the information and apply it in new situations.  By exposing children to music concepts and other core concepts at a young age, they will be more equipped to make connections to their experiences and learn new concepts in the future.  Up Beat! strives to expose children at a young age to the arts and core subjects.

2. Engagement: In order for a child to become a life-long learner, engagement is key.  If a child is not engaged, he may not want to learn or may not make the deep connections necessary for him to be able to apply his learning in new situations.  However, it is also imperative for parents and guardians, the child's first teachers, to be engaged in the child's learning as well.  Up Beat! strives to build connections between home and school education by engaging the parents and child in the educational process.

3. Exploration: Children often first begin to learn by exploring the world around them through imaginative play and games.  Exploration often leads to opportunities for children to apply their learning in new situations.  Up Beat! provides a safe environment for children to explore their world through imaginative play, movement, songs and games.

Space for Up Beat! is limited and will be granted on a first come, first served basis.  

Please register today!

 To register please, contact me by email (nichole_witman@etownschools.org).