#musedchat Archive
Each Monday evening at 8PM EST, music teachers get together and share ideas about important topics within music education. It’s a great chance to interact directly with educators from all over the world and to get new tips and tricks to help you succeed in the classroom. The entire #musedchat discussion is organized and moderated by Joe Guarr.
Monday April 25, 2016
Welcome to the chat, glad you could join us tonight!
Sam Fritz from Greenwood IN 6-8 band - great topic tonight
Hi Sam, great to see you as always. We have to thank for tonight's topic!
Trying to bring up tweet deck on my laptop right now- it has been months since I have joined
Great to have you join us tonight
Phyllis, Louisiana, 5th grade choir, 7th/8th grade piano
winter concert is focused on the holidays but the spring I do themes. I take suggestions from the chorus
Good evening to you Phyllis
Private voice and theatre teacher also MD also 1st time
Sara MS band and orchestra from IL.
Q1: What sort of input do you give students in your classroom? Rules, lit, procedures?
Hi Sara, good evening to you
Hi All! Amy from MI. Middle school band teacher.
Hi Amy, hope you've had a good Monday
Pretty good. Tried out a suggestion from last week's chat, had kids teach each other short sections of pieces
Hi! Doug, teaching 7-12 band & choir in Indiana. Been awhile since I've done
It was great! Kids had some fantastic insights. Good stuff on dynamics especially.
Hi Doug, welcome to the chat. Glad to have you with us.
Q1 once more: What sort of input do you give students in your classroom? Rules, lit, procedures?
Hi! Pat, Iowa Arts and Community Engagement Coordinator
Danielle from Florida, teaching elementary music!
My tweets for the next hour will reflect discussion on student choice and voice in music.
Welcome to the chat Danielle
Active participant in lit choice otherwise they wont rehearse. Rules and procedures all mine.
Hearing kids speak music is wonderful! Ss are working on pieces for our Chamber Night. Great convos so far too.
A1: I will give Ss two similar pieces of rep and vote on which one to perform
A1 I heard a great thought from the other day - Why do we set up the classroom? Isn’t it our classroom?
A1: Lots of small choices every day. Students come up with rhythms/dynamics/articulations for our warmup scales.
Students mostly get input in lit, like voting on chorus songs. Orff sometimes chooses instrumentation
A1 I heard a great thought from the other day - Why do we set up the classroom? Isn’t it our (the class) classroom?
A1: Ss give input on rep and each group has input on rehearsal procedures.
What sorts of procedures do they come up with?
Concert in a few weeks. At this point I let the Ss find improv. themselves. I ask them what they hear in our rehearsals
A1: I give 2-minute timer for set-up they can choose how to use that time and encourage moving socializing after set-up it time
With the new standards, has anyone had their students create a new section to music working on?
Seniors pick the show for our final halftime performance of the year
Going to try for suggestions next time. Ss can vote and respond directly to posts.
We do a show every March where the students pick the theme and we build the rest of the show from there.
A1 With the new standards, has anyone had their students create a new section to music working on?
If the kids decide they need to move to a song they have to make up the moves and teach it out - even for concert
use paddler this week for performance inventory -Ss make rehearsal suggestions
Adam from NJ coming in late. Hi all!
Do you mean original composition or new arrangements for an existing composition?
This is an awesome resource! Thank you for sharing!!!
Q2: What boundaries/limitations do you place on student choice in your classroom?
I do something like that with my choir. Matrices. They love it.
Thank you so much! I've been wanting to add more chorales. We've exhausted the Sound Innovations chorales.
A2: Boundaries tend to revolve around practicality. ie: Can't play a piece that needs 10 percussionists with only 4.
My pleasure! Those chorales have been great for my students.
You're welcome! Love those chorales. Lots of good stuff to dig into.
A2: I set up threads on Google Classroom for S to nominate ideas in the comments, then I set up a poll for them to vote.
A2 Time constraints. 30 min class per week with 45-60 students = little time to get things done
Carla from IA -elem music
Welcome to the chat Carla
A2: the little ones need 1 or 2 options. Ex: they got to "make up" rhythms by rearranging rhythm cards
Agree w/ that. Time becomes an even bigger factor when you get closer to a performance.
A2: I usually make the initial selections and give them a choice of 2-4. Otherwise I would only do Les Miz and pieces from it
A2: All choices have to fit within our learning obj. Had Ss unpack standards with me to help them understand our purpose.
Love it! So many opportunities to have them use devices and provide choice and voice! https://t.co/SLpcuMmeyn
they always have Chromebooks. We keep them under our chairs but only use them when needed. Some use phones for stuff like this.
A2: not free reign - I design curricula and they choose within - choose this March or that one
I find the fact that they made distinct standards between cataloguing ideas and presenting them to be very intriguing
A2: They also get to create songs using their rhythms and mi, sol, and la only
State testing is limiting time now too. Having to step in a little on piece Ss are teaching themselves.
Google classroom and Google forms have saved the day with structuring S input!
A2: Setting up playlist of contest pieces that work w/ our small instrumentation next yr so Ss can tell me what they like.
how do they run this? in their heads/sing? writing down the notes? I want to get better at this w my lil 1s
A2 We provide so much opportunity to create in elementary. When they hit ensembles the “create” disappears. Looking for ideas.
We've done some small composition projects in 8th grade that culminated in a public performance.
Love this idea Sets up framework but allows choice - gives opportunity for ss to understand the why. https://t.co/0OEkEhAnhk
A2: Setting up playlist of contest pieces that work w/ our small instrumentation next yr so Ss can tell me what they like.
HS students composed pieces for our MS students to choose and perform at upcoming Chamber Night.
for sure! They like this one because it gives them an excuse to bust out their cell phones.
Students generated melodic ideas, decided as a class on the order. I helped w/ harmonies & chords.
Our 5th and 6th grade ed are doing this more now as the kids come up creating more. https://t.co/RHFNWNVaDx
We've done some small composition projects in 8th grade that culminated in a public performance.
thanks! I'I'll check it out.
They write rhythms first in music journals, then pick pitches to write the rhythm on, using a labeled staff
when I had littles we sometimes composed with our bodies at different levels.
we use plickers w/ e 6th grade band.
Q3: How have students surprised you (hopefully in a good way) with the choices they've made in your class?
My coworker has also used beanbags thrown on a masking tape staff on the floor!
ah, Fire-robin! (Feierabend?) I knew it was something that I knew.
A3 When students are given choice and voice and they create they participate at a much higher level.
A3: Beg band Ss developed hand signals for playing and putting inst. down. They take ownership and monitor each other.
A3: Ss got to choose their lit for our chamber concert. One kid wrote an original tuba quartet. Whoa.
A3: Said it before, but I really love witnessing Ss have musical convos w/ each other. They rise to the opportunities provided.
my littles HATE this, not dislike HATE!!!
Love when I am conducting and realize they don't need me. I just get out of the way! They encourage each other
Nice! We've had Ss figuring out how to transpose to fit pieces to the groups they want to play w/.
A3This is what my own kid is working on right now https://t.co/A1LCAVpAWj When we lift our reign it is amazing what they can do.
As teachers, we're always asking for more autonomy. Makes sense to pass some along to our students.
we are getting closer to this. With a ms full Orch I really need to get on transposition more.
A3: my 5th Grs asked if they could play for 6th graduation. "as long as you learn the song." gave them the first note (Bb)
In the long-run, I believe everyone is stronger for it! https://t.co/WyZQh9gBgq
As teachers, we're always asking for more autonomy. Makes sense to pass some along to our students.
...worked together to figure it out in a week on their own. Finally found an arrangement for them, in Eb. (oops)
A3: iPad off-task hand signal puts them in charge - I get email from Ss when a sub is there Ss in control even when I’m gone
if we aren't making independent and autonomous musicians why are we teaching?
We picked our new choir dresses as a team. Searched, tried on favorites, voted on Google Forms. We all love the new dresses.
Haha, whoops. Sounds like they really developed their aural skills though.
they were also lucky most of the song is diatonic
Can't wait to see what my 5th graders come up with for their promotion music video. They chose groups, moves, location
How many teach straight from the music? How does 1 become inde if all answers are given during rehearsal? https://t.co/1kXaW3Cinz
if we aren't making independent and autonomous musicians why are we teaching?
way too many in my area. Spoon feed music and brag about grade levels of rep. Ick!
Wow! Where did that hour go? Thanks to everyone that contributed to tonight - I will bring back to team. Follow someone new!
I need to run - have enjoyed my time with you!
Dictating from the podium isn't much fun. Those folks are missing out.
So glad you could join us tonight!
Most teach like they were taught. https://t.co/AYqfeKSOFS
Dictating from the podium isn't much fun. Those folks are missing out.
do you remember the first time you went off book? I thought it was going to be "Fame" ......it wasn't
so happy to have found this community of educators who is working to build musicians!
Thanks for a great chat tonight, everybody. Glad to have a few new folks join us as well!
