Scales

Each string teacher I know focuses on different things in their teaching. One of the things I concentrate on is teaching my students scales. By the time they get to 5th grade they can play at least 3 scales rock solid. There are so many great reasons to do them and I like to have fun with the kids when we do them. My hope is to help them make connections between the scales we learn and the songs we are playing in lessons and orchestra. And ultimately...show them how to use their knowledge of scales to help them figure out notes and fingerings in a given piece of music.

Last week one of my 5th graders randomly said (very enthusiastically) in the middle of his lesson, "I love doing scales!" It was rather amusing because this is the same student, who, as a 3rd grader in one of my music classes played a harmonic minor scale instead of natural minor because that was what he was taught in recorder. (i.e. when we were playing the a minor scale on the keyboards, he started throwing in the G# because that's what his ear was used to hearing). So...I explained to him the difference between natural and harmonic minor as a third grader. The "scary" part is that he understood it.

Also last week, one of my more advanced 4th grade viola groups came in and started bugging me to learn how to do the A scale. I usually don't teach the violas this scale until later in the year because the finger pattern is different from our normal finger pattern. But they were not liking the fact that they had to sit out during that scale in orchestra. So we changed the lesson plan a bit and I showed them. After that one of the kids goes, "That's it?" "Yes," I replied. "Well, we thought it would be really hard." Go figure!

Playing the A scale on the cello is a whole different story, and I don't even broach the subject unless I've got an advanced player. So it's the one time in orchestra where they get to just sit. For the most part they find it quite humorous. Many days I'll have a cellist say they want to do the A scale just because they find it so funny.

Ok, that's enough technicality for one evening!

I Survived a Full Day!

Well Praise the Lord! I made it through a full day and got home in one piece! Tuesdays are a great day for me--only one beginner group and most of my fifth graders. I was able to to keep my foot up for all of the lessons except the beginner one, so that really helped. The funniest one was at the end of the day...a string quartet of 5th graders, but I am the cellist. So here I was trying to play cello with my leg up and direct a lesson at the same time. Needless to say, it was quite difficult because my bow kept hitting the leg that was up, and if I took my foot down, it hurt right away. Fun times....

Just Some Thoughts on Union Publications

I was reading through an article in one of the union publications about the importance of family involvement when the kids are in middle and high school. Most of what was in the article seemed like common sense. There was a very interesting statement however. The article talks about a "new brief from the Harvard Family Research Project" and its recommendations for "policymakers, practitioners and researchers." One recommendation is to "facilitate parents' ability to monitor their adolescents' growth and progress." This seems to be a suggestion that says a lot in a few words. It sends the idea that parents are not capable of knowing what is best for their children and that as public school teachers/administrators, we need to tell them. How backwards! But this is the attitude I find in general after teaching for five years. And it is easy when you, as the teacher, spends more time with a child than his or her parents do. It is easy for the role of teacher to supersede that of parent. And perhaps that is why the Bible says that parents are supposed to raise, teach, and have authority over their children's development; because it sure is easy for a society with mass public schooling to think that it is the school's job to completely raise their children, instead of focusing on academics.

I Survived!

Yes, I did survive, but was very glad to leave after a half day as my foot was killing me. So far it has been happening that the first kid to arrive in the room has been setting up the music stands. Well today the first kid to walk in was the smallest kid in orchestra. As he walked in I was thinking, "oh dear, is he going to be able to do it?" This thought went through my mind because he is usually the first one to ask if we can sit down during a lesson (the kids normally stand). So I asked him if he wanted to help and he said yes. So he proceeded to move a cello rack and music cart that were both bigger than he was and then proceeded to set up all the music stands for me. Go figure!

Getting Ready....

Well, tomorrow is my first day of teaching my string kids with a cast on. I'm sure it will be an interesting experience if nothing else. I found out Friday that because I'm so short I can sit on a piano bench and put my leg up at the same time--not too much hangs over the edge. Where I will have to get really creative is teaching the beginners. This will be their second lesson and there is usually a lot of physical demonstrating and moving about on my end...so...we'll see how it goes! No matter what, I'm sure I'll have some good stories to share by the end of this whole thing.

Orchestra

Last Tuesday I had a wonderful first rehearsal with my orchestra kids. I was blown away how good they sounded as we did our first scales. It was a blessing to see that my work with last year's 3rd grade orchestra had indeed prepared them for this year. Of course, after that I went home and sprained my ankle, so I missed the rest of the week. But tomorrow we'll be back at it again, the only difference being I'll have a pair of crutches with me.

Stringfever Bolero