Some things I've learned

I've obviously learned a lot so far (and still have a lot more to learn), but I would like to share two important things I've learned so far.

The first is the importance of not doing everything yourself. I first realized this when I was trying to organize Monopoly money for a proofreading project. I was prepared to count it all out myself and get the elastics around the piles and spend a lot of time on it. My PSIII teacher mentor Kathy was like, "Just give 5 kids each a pile and tell them to give X number of each to every student." DUH. Why didn't I think of that? Since then, I have been using the students for all sorts of things, like handing out books, pulling down the projector screen (also because I am bad at it), and handing out dry erase boards/markers/shammies.

The second thing I've learned is the importance (or benefit) of letting the students "make a piece their own". How you do this is letting them give input into how it is performed. For example, my grade 4s sang Yellow Submarine in the assembly a couple of weeks ago. I had some fabric water waving above them, and the boys were echoing the girls at one part. Some suggestions of theirs that we incorporated included the front two rows swaying one direction and the back to rows swaying the other direction. We did that during the chorus. It looked great! They also suggested that we have the rest of the school join us in the last chorus. Great idea! We did it, and they really got a sense of ownership and contribution. It made them really want to participate.

With my grade 5s, we are singing In Flanders Fields on Novebmer 10. We learned the song, and then came up with ideas. They came up with this: boys sing the first verse while girls hum quietly, then girls sing the second verse while boys hum quietly, then everybody sings the chorus. Then I decided that it would be cool here to have a few students talk about what they know about war, or their families in war or something. I left it up to them to write a few sentences in their own time, come find me and then we'll incorporate it at Monday's rehearsal. So that's what's happening. And then verse 3 and the last chorus are by everybody. They just seem to be more passionate and interested in it this way, which is great for classroom management and learning! Of course, effective learning pretty much goes hand in hand with good classroom management. So... I'll continue striving for that.