I've finished up the first week of teaching Kodaly Level I Pedagogy and Folk Song Research at DePaul University. It has been a great week full of lots of singing, playing, and reflective discussions! As we go onto the second week, I'm excited about the special topics classes taught by my colleagues. On Monday and Tuesday, my friend and colleague Donna Gallo will be presenting strategies for creating music with Garage Band. I just know that after this session I'm going to be wishing I had a classroom set of Ipads! I'm posting the information below about writing grants as a remin…
I've finished up the first week of teaching Kodaly Level I Pedagogy and Folk Song Research at DePaul University. It has been a great week full of lots of singing, playing, and reflective discussions! As we go onto the second week, I'm excited about the special topics classes taught by my colleagues. On Monday and Tuesday, my friend and colleague Donna Gallo will be presenting strategies for creating music with Garage Band. I just know that after this session I'm going to be wishing I had a classroom set of Ipads! I'm posting the information below about writing grants as a remin…
Okay, I know, it has been a while since I blogged! But if you're like me, you've been enjoying the warm weather and hopefully, your first few days off! I've also been preparing to teach Kodaly Level I at DePaul starting this upcoming Monday, and even though I've taught Level I several times, there is still so much work to do! Even with all that preparation, I've been enjoying some quality time with my daughters: Jenna, who is 9 years old, and Macy, who is 9 months old. I explained the other day to Jenna that their ages will never line up like that again...pretty special! A c…
As we approach the end of the school year, I often look at my grade-level indicators at what I wasn't able to cover, or what I wish I had delved into more. It would be wonderful to say we could get to everything, but with music only twice a week for thirty-five minutes, that can be quite the difficult task! One of the benefits about being a music teacher is that unlike classroom teachers, if we need to slow our pace down when we realize that students need more practice, we can without having to worry about how it might impact standardized tests. If we don't get to every single concept…
As we approach the end of the school year, I often look at my grade-level indicators at what I wasn't able to cover, or what I wish I had delved into more. It would be wonderful to say we could get to everything, but with music only twice a week for thirty-five minutes, that can be quite the difficult task! One of the benefits about being a music teacher is that unlike classroom teachers, if we need to slow our pace down when we realize that students need more practice, we can without having to worry about how it might impact standardized tests. If we don't get to every single concept…
Over the years, I've tried several different ways of teaching the notes on the treble clef staff. For a while, I used the silly sentences (like "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "Elvis' Guitar Broke Down Friday" for the lines) and "FACE" for the spaces. Then one year I decided I'd show them that the treble clef is sometimes called the G clef because it crosses the G line four times. Then, they had to figure out that the next note was A, the note after that was B, etc. I thought maybe this was better than the silly sentences, but I quickly learned that al…
Over the years, I've tried several different ways of teaching the notes on the treble clef staff. For a while, I used the silly sentences (like "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "Elvis' Guitar Broke Down Friday" for the lines) and "FACE" for the spaces. Then one year I decided I'd show them that the treble clef is sometimes called the G clef because it crosses the G line four times. Then, they had to figure out that the next note was A, the note after that was B, etc. I thought maybe this was better than the silly sentences, but I quickly learned that al…
Over the years, I've tried several different ways of teaching the notes on the treble clef staff. For a while, I used the silly sentences (like "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "Elvis' Guitar Broke Down Friday" for the lines) and "FACE" for the spaces. Then one year I decided I'd show them that the treble clef is sometimes called the G clef because it crosses the G line four times. Then, they had to figure out that the next note was A, the note after that was B, etc. I thought maybe this was better than the silly sentences, but I quickly learned that a…
For many years, I’ve been tweaking my process for teaching meter/ time signatures. I wish teaching this were just as easy as saying, “In 2/4, there are 2 beats in every measure, and in 4/4, there are 4 beats in every measure,” but as we all know, it is much more complicated than this. In this blog post, I'll detail some strategies that have worked well for me in teaching meter or time signature. In order for students to understand time signature, they need to feel that the first beat of every measure is the strongest. They need to be able to track measures. They need to be able to figure o…
For many years, I’ve been tweaking my process for teaching meter/ time signatures. I wish teaching this were just as easy as saying, “In 2/4, there are 2 beats in every measure, and in 4/4, there are 4 beats in every measure,” but as we all know, it is much more complicated than this. In this blog post, I'll detail some strategies that have worked well for me in teaching meter or time signature. In order for students to understand time signature, they need to feel that the first beat of every measure is the strongest. They need to be able to track measures. They need to be able to figure …
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