Beginning of the year Orff experiences for 3rd grade

In 3rd grade, the students first learned body percussion and the words to a song.  We then learned how to play it on the Orff instruments.  

 Here is Mrs. Burkett's 3rd grade class from Mill Road performing the body percussion and singing "Let's Sing a Song" (Music For Children Vol. I, Canon #1 on pg. 91 modified for 2 at an instrument, lyrics by Nichole Witman). 

Here is Mrs. Tuell's 3rd grade class performing "Let's Sing a Song" on the Orff instruments.

Check out my other blog posts for videos from other grades!

Beginning of the year Orff experiences for 2nd grade

In 2nd grade we read the book Up, Down, and Around by Kathrine Ayres.  2nd grade also practiced upward and downward contour on the Orff instruments like the 1st graders, but these students focused on scale patterns and alternating their sticking.  Here is Miss Antrim's class with part of their book performance:

Check out other blog posts for more videos of the students from other grades playing the Orff instruments.

Beginning of the year Orff experiences for 1st grade

This past week all of my students started learning how to use our Orff instruments. In 1st grade the Orff Instruments were turned into trees (Thanks for the idea Sarah Patek Farrell!) and the students made their mallets go up and down the tree to the song "Let Us Chase the Squirrel". 

Here is Ms. Jenakovich's 1st Grade class playing "Let us Chase the Squirrel":

Check out other blog posts for videos of the other grades!

The wonderful world of Orff!

This past summer I completed a goal that I have had since starting teaching.  I finished my Orff Levels and am now a certified Orff teacher!  It was great to be back in the classroom this summer as a student instead of a teacher!  Last year I posted about several different music teaching methods and Orff Schulwerk is another well known approach in the world of music education.

As I mentioned in an early post, my main approach for teaching is through the Kodaly Method, which is absolutely wonderful for teaching music literacy.  However, I have been noticing that while my students are very knowledgeable, they were having a hard time applying what they know in a musical way and struggle to be independent creators.  By integrating Orff Schulwerk with the Kodaly method, I am able to help my students become musically literate and also perform and create musically.

Orff Schulwerk was developed by Carl Orff, a German composer most known for his cantata "Carmina Burana", and Gunild Keetman, a German educator.  This method promotes musicality through the use of music, movement, speech and drama.

The American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA) website describes Orff Schulwerk as "A Teaching Model For Optimal Learning," explaining that "Imitation, experimentation and personal expression occur naturally as the students become confident, life-long musicians and creative problem solvers."  For those of you who read my last post, that's 21st century skills at it's finest!

AOSA website

I am very excited to be integrating more Orff based ideas and activities into my teaching.  In November I will be attending the AOSA National Conference in Atlantic City to learn and grow more in the Orff approach.

 Check out my next post with lots of videos showing how we used our Orff instruments during the 2nd week of school.

 

21st Century Skills: The 4 C's

21st century skills have become the hot topic in the world of education.  The Elizabethtown Area School District, in particular, has put a much bigger emphasis this school year on the importance of 21st century skills to the future of our students.  When most people hear "21st century skills" their immediate thought goes to technology, however, they are much more than that!  As an educator, my main task is to prepare students to become productive members of the community.  With technology and information changing at such a fast pace, how can I ready students for jobs that may not even exist yet?  21st century skills are identified as essential skills for any job, even those that we can't imagine!

In my classroom, I focus on what is known as the "4 C's": Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking.  As a music educator, these skills show up in many of the activities that we do on a daily basis in music class.  

Take, for example, an activity that we did during 3rd grade music class last week.  It was the first time I had seen the kids this school year, so I planned to do a few team building games to get to know them.  One activity focused on learning each others' names and using two of the 4 C's: Creativity and Critical Thinking (problem solving).  I had the students say their name as they went around the circle, but they were challenged to come up with a unique way to say their name (i.e. high vs. low, fast vs. slow, etc...).  This activity also reviewed the idea of question/answer form.  I was the question asking "What's your name?" and the students gave their name as the answer.   

After they shared their unique sounding names, they were then challenged to create movement or body percussion that matched their name.  I gave them few instructions and allowed the students to time to experiment.  After we performed our name and motion we talked about how some names matched better because you could hear or see the syllables in the motions or because they followed the contour of their voice.  

Student were encouraged to "edit" their responses if they wanted to and we performed our names one final time.  This time, we only performed the movement portion of our name.  Without the ability to use our voice, the students honed their communication and listening skills as they waited for their turn. 

Here is Mrs. Stough's class from Bainbridge Elementary performing their version of "What's your Name?":

Thanks to Susan Riley, Founder of Educationcloset.com for the great name game idea! This was a quick activity, but there were so many lessons that we could learn from it!

Move it!

Movement education:  Sound's like a Phys. Ed. topic and not something to be studied in music class.  Right?  What if I told you that in some cultures, 'music' and 'dance' are not separate terms.  They simply exist as one and the same.

 So why is movement so important to music?  Other than the fact that research proves that the use of gross motor movement activates the brain in a way that makes learning become more deeply embedded in your memory, movement can also facilitate a deeper understanding of how musical concepts work and are used.  Those tiny black dots on the paper that we read and call 'music' is nothing more than script until our muscles literally breathe life into them by singing or playing an instrument.

Can you tell I'm passionate about this subject?  It may come as a surprise to some that I am a teacher and musician by trade, but my real passion is movement!  I love dance and always have.  In fact I still take regular ballet classes, which have become very therapeutic to my soul!  While some people have been known to see certain colors when they hear music, I see movement and dance.  My brain is continuously choreographing what it hears to the point that I just have to move to the music!

Some of my earliest teaching experiences were teaching others to dance as a choreographer for show choirs and musicals during my high school career.  Not to mention the performances I would put on in the living room with my best friend and reluctant brothers when I was in elementary school!  While I have no degree in movement or dance education, several of my undergrad and graduate courses have focused on dance education, including a dance pedagogy class (one of my favorites as an undergraduate) and movement classes that were included in my Orff-Schulwerk levels, which I just completed this summer.

In my music classes we move just about as much as we sing! We use movement as our transitions from one activity to another.  We dance to folk songs to feel how meter and form play a role in how music is constructed.  We practice rhythms using body percussion and other gross motor movements before performing them on instruments that require fine motor control and an understanding of multiple musical concepts.  Because movement is so important to me and to the education of my students, I have decided that one of my focuses this year would be to integrate as much movement into my lessons as I can.  To kick it off, a new word wall has been installed in both of my classrooms.

 While I won't be assessing the students on their movement ability, this word wall will provide some opportunities for connections across curricula and serve as idea starters during our creative movement activities.

If you are interested in learning more about dance education or reading some of the research that influences my teaching, please continue exploring the links below:

Music, Movement and Learning by Carlos Abril

The Elements of Dance

Laban Movement (Brief Overview)

Dalcroze Eurhythmics (Official site)

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to another great school year!  I am so excited to start helping kids fill their minds and bodies with music and movement!  I will be using this blog to provide updates about what we are doing in the classroom (including pictures and videos), important dates and performances, and to share some topics that hold a special interest to me and influence my teaching.

Please check back often to stay up to date and connected.  You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address on the link in the upper right hand corner of this page.  Once you subscribe, you will receive an email anytime this page is updated.  You can also follow me on Twitter (Mrs. Witman, @MrsWitmanMusic).

For parents interested in other things like schedules, pictures of the classroom, curriculum and community links, please visit my EASD district classroom website.  Here is a link:

Mrs. Witman's EASD Classroom website 

As always, please feel free to contact me at anytime!  I'd love to hear your feedback or work with you to make your child's music education the best it can be. You can email me at nichole_witman@etownschools.org.