Study Unit 2........yeah!

Study Unit 2................Yeah!

So I have heard / read that it is important to be able to hype yourself up.......hence the title ;) To be very honest, I am taking any kind of good energy from wherever I can get it because, I really need it right now.  Man! This semester feels tough, it feels like my to do list is never ending and every time I complete a task and delete it off my list (my favorite part of making the list, btw), that list is just not getting any shorter.......where is the "I am exhausted and cant go on" emoji when you need it???

Breathe Justine, just breathe......you can do it!

This week has been hectic and the things that have inhibited my learning are things that I cant escape, such as work, and not enough hours in the day.  I have felt overwhelmed and stressed out, not feelings that I like to sit with.  I know that its part of the package, but it can feel very daunting sometimes. But.......no more moaning, I am just going to buckle down and get things done, even if that means that I have to pull a few all nighters.......*high five*

This module was so interesting and I really enjoyed the content as it showed me how much fun music can be in the classroom - and I am all about the fun! The things I enjoyed learning about the most were that we could incorporate our whole body in creating music, I love that, that is so hands on for all the learners.  I am happy to know that most of the approaches state that music concepts should be taught before moving onto music symbols.  My daughters both attended piano lessons for a short while and ended up hating it, and I am certain that it was because they were being taught how to read the music symbols before they were ready, so then ended up feeling confused and resentful. I enjoyed learning about the different things that can be used to make our own instruments, what a fun way to incorporate a creative activity and then merge that into a music activity......this needs another *high-five*.  The last two things that really tickled my fancy was the idea of using scarves in music and movement lessons and also teaching the learners the Solfa hand signals......I loved hose ideas so much.  My favorite teaching method was Dalcroze Eurhythmics.....this approach appealed to me the most, and I think that it is a great approach and very easy to incorporate into the classroom.

If I had to choose which genre of music I would incorporate, I would definitely choose mostly Contemporary Commercial Music, as that is what I know.  I also know that most of the children will be listening to this kind of music with their parents in their every day lives so they will know a lot of songs from this genre and will be able to identify with this music.  I have some music by a band called Kidz Bop, they recreate all the most popular songs into versions that are child friendly, children love listening to them, so I would definitely make use of their music.  BUT please don't get me wrong, I am happy to incorporate other music into my lessons, I would first have to learn the songs as well as the pronunciations, but I feel that this would be something that would be fun, challenging and very rewarding for me, and how awesome would it be to be able to pass those feelings onto my learners??? Pretty amazing if you ask me! ;)  I definitely feel that the activities offered are inclusive, as the activities can incorporate the whole class, and everyone can do them together happily, while creating a feeling of unity and commraderie and friendship.

I would make the activities even more inclusive by maybe allowing the learners to create an easy and very basic song with their instruments and have them teach the song to another learner, they would work in groups of 2 and this could be done regularly while changing the group members.

Anyway folks.......let me love you and leave you.....I told you in the first blog that I could talk a lot......this is just typing, imagine how much I can do verbally......now I know why my teachers used to get so irritated with me and would often send me on random errends.......it did not help to move me, I spoke to EVERYONE! HA!

I hope that you all have a splendid week, and manage to get all the things done!! 💗