Coming through 2020 has indeed been a challenge. One of the things I learnt in lockdown was the need for individualised feedback through technology. Last year I worked on Feedback as a TAI and I had some success and also some not so successful outcomes. Feedback and Feedforward is still something I am constantly working on in Performing Arts. Because Performing Arts is very individualised, each student is working on a completely different piece of music and each student responds differently to how feedback is given. I am going to re-visit this, this term. I firstly need to decide on how I want to move forward with this and I will document that here.
Monday 24 August 2020
Wednesday 13 May 2020
Can we start over?...........
2020 started off as a very exciting year for me! It was the big 40th birthday, Lydia my daughter turned 10 and Mb ( The husband) also turned 40! The start of the year was going well, after a lovely summer break it was a nice smooth transition back to school.
As the news unfolded over the course of the term, we realised that things would be about to change! So, here we are 7 weeks later.... 4 weeks of full lock down and another 3 weeks of home learning. To be honest I have enjoyed being at home with the family, working from home has suited me ha ha! I have missed the hustle and bustle of school and teaching music from a distance is not that exciting!!
I have really been proud of how the kids have tackled online learning, it was really cool having google meets and being able to talk online and catch up!
For us at Hornby High School we were ahead of the game with our google sites. We already have our curriculum on our sites so transitioning into full online learning was an easier process.
We are now in the final week of our learning from home. Whilst I am looking forward to coming back to school I will miss being able to work when I went and get up when I want to! Also, going back to going to the loo when the bell rings will be challenging ha ha!
I feel incredibly lucky to have spent this time with my whanau, to have escaped COVID-19 and remained healthy and to be returning to a job that I love. Many have not been so lucky.
As the news unfolded over the course of the term, we realised that things would be about to change! So, here we are 7 weeks later.... 4 weeks of full lock down and another 3 weeks of home learning. To be honest I have enjoyed being at home with the family, working from home has suited me ha ha! I have missed the hustle and bustle of school and teaching music from a distance is not that exciting!!
I have really been proud of how the kids have tackled online learning, it was really cool having google meets and being able to talk online and catch up!
For us at Hornby High School we were ahead of the game with our google sites. We already have our curriculum on our sites so transitioning into full online learning was an easier process.
We are now in the final week of our learning from home. Whilst I am looking forward to coming back to school I will miss being able to work when I went and get up when I want to! Also, going back to going to the loo when the bell rings will be challenging ha ha!
I feel incredibly lucky to have spent this time with my whanau, to have escaped COVID-19 and remained healthy and to be returning to a job that I love. Many have not been so lucky.
Sunday 22 September 2019
PLG Progress
After taking some time to figure out what exactly I was going to get from this I settled on a few ideas. After doing the survey to get some student voice on how they like to receive feedback I got some good ideas!!
It was interesting to find out that students like their feedback on a shared doc so that they can access it all of the time. Great! This is what I usually do but this term we also added peer feedback. This was a really great opportunity to get some direct feedback from their peers. Also, it was a good exercise for students to listen and focus in on different aspects of different instruments. We also talked about what skills are required for each instrument. So for example if you are not a guitar player you learn about the skills that the guitar player should be reflecting at this level.
Teacher/Peer feedback
The only thing I have not tried yet is the feedback notebook. I did intend to start this during this term but decided to start this a s new focus for 2020. I did talk with students about having a book that they carry around with them. They all really liked this idea, even the students that prefer the digital feedback. These notebooks ( Rehearsal diaries, will be kept in the classroom) Students can also take them to their itinerant teachers and that gives me a good idea of what they have done in their instrumental lesson each week.
It was interesting to find out that students like their feedback on a shared doc so that they can access it all of the time. Great! This is what I usually do but this term we also added peer feedback. This was a really great opportunity to get some direct feedback from their peers. Also, it was a good exercise for students to listen and focus in on different aspects of different instruments. We also talked about what skills are required for each instrument. So for example if you are not a guitar player you learn about the skills that the guitar player should be reflecting at this level.
Teacher/Peer feedback
The only thing I have not tried yet is the feedback notebook. I did intend to start this during this term but decided to start this a s new focus for 2020. I did talk with students about having a book that they carry around with them. They all really liked this idea, even the students that prefer the digital feedback. These notebooks ( Rehearsal diaries, will be kept in the classroom) Students can also take them to their itinerant teachers and that gives me a good idea of what they have done in their instrumental lesson each week.
Sunday 19 May 2019
PLG - Feedback
A constant challenge in performance Music is the process of giving feedback and feedforward. As a music teacher you have lots of one on one conversations giving direct feedback. The challenge is how to give productive feedback so that the students remember and can look back on it.
My PLG group this year is on feedback and Joanne and I are working with our seniors on productive ways to do this! Things I have tried are having a running doc that can be a running diary of feedback, target setting like meetings with individuals ( I like this one as you get to have face to face conversations but it takes a lot of time, particularly with big classes! ) I have also done good old post it notes for quick feedback but of course these get lost easily! We now comment on blogs and this works ( if students have their devices) but I would like to look at other more efficient types of giving feedback. I am going to get some student voice as to how they like to receive feedback.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XLsPiAVgJwURvWwQBV-WFCkKaiyoJZhJLAL4jD7K5HA/edit#slide=id.g5484a8bcc3_3_5
My PLG group this year is on feedback and Joanne and I are working with our seniors on productive ways to do this! Things I have tried are having a running doc that can be a running diary of feedback, target setting like meetings with individuals ( I like this one as you get to have face to face conversations but it takes a lot of time, particularly with big classes! ) I have also done good old post it notes for quick feedback but of course these get lost easily! We now comment on blogs and this works ( if students have their devices) but I would like to look at other more efficient types of giving feedback. I am going to get some student voice as to how they like to receive feedback.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XLsPiAVgJwURvWwQBV-WFCkKaiyoJZhJLAL4jD7K5HA/edit#slide=id.g5484a8bcc3_3_5
Thursday 9 May 2019
Term 1 reflection.
Term 1 was exhausting. It was a term filled with some awesome stuff but also some difficult stuff.
My classes this first term have been mixed. My seniors classes are fantastic, I have a large year 11 class and they are so enthusiastic and just soak up every bit of knowledge that is thrown at them. My year 12 and 13 classes are smaller but an awesome bunch of talented musos that are always keen and passionate about their music.
This year as a school we decided that junior music would be offered as an option for year 9 and 10 ( it used to be compulsory at year 9) This is based on the success of the passion projects so giving students the freedom of choice to learn their passions. I was totally on board for this, I re wrote my junior units so that I had two semesters. The first semester would be a performance based semester where students cover lots of different aspects of Performing Arts and then work towards a performance. I was seriously amped to get into this but alas as my classes arrived I realised that they were not digging this idea and had no passion at all for performance arts and little passion for music in general. sigh!!! What did I do wrong?? At the end of the 2018 we had 40plus juniors perform in our Musical Theatre passion project, all willing to sing, dance and act to their hearts content! Being honest I was a little crushed...... What the hell do I do now?? I have changed all of my units and the students hate it???!!! It actually took me a while to really process this and figure out what to do next!! So, eventually I realised two things.
1. Some of our students just don't read the course outlines and hand books before they choose! So, they choose a subject based on what they think it is! ( listening to music, jamming on the guitar, watching youtube?) Who Knows!!
2. Most of the students that have chosen Music actually do want to do music. They have seen the musical theatre performances and want to be able to perform but they are too scared or they just don't know how!
So I swallowed my pride and changed the direction of what we were doing! Instead we went back to basics and learnt some skills on the keyboard and the guitar and started thinking about what music we liked and how we could eventually perform it?? This was reasonably successful and students definitely learned new things and enjoyed learning. Did we do a performance in term one? no! Will we get a performance done in term two? Who knows?? Are the juniors getting a cool musical experience and learning some practical and theoretical knowledge?? YES! So I am going to take that as win. It wasn't what I had planned or expected but in teaching nothing ever really goes as planned ha ha!
I still am a firm believer of always trying new things because sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Even though I was disappointed that my new course did not flourish this Term. I will still continue to push this as a subject option. For me I think that I need to make sure I go into the deans assemblies and talk about the new course so that students understand what the expectations are.
In the end Term 1 ended well. I finished We Will Rock You which was again a fantastic opportunity to be singing again this year! No more shows for 2019. Ready to take on the challenged of Term 2.
My classes this first term have been mixed. My seniors classes are fantastic, I have a large year 11 class and they are so enthusiastic and just soak up every bit of knowledge that is thrown at them. My year 12 and 13 classes are smaller but an awesome bunch of talented musos that are always keen and passionate about their music.
This year as a school we decided that junior music would be offered as an option for year 9 and 10 ( it used to be compulsory at year 9) This is based on the success of the passion projects so giving students the freedom of choice to learn their passions. I was totally on board for this, I re wrote my junior units so that I had two semesters. The first semester would be a performance based semester where students cover lots of different aspects of Performing Arts and then work towards a performance. I was seriously amped to get into this but alas as my classes arrived I realised that they were not digging this idea and had no passion at all for performance arts and little passion for music in general. sigh!!! What did I do wrong?? At the end of the 2018 we had 40plus juniors perform in our Musical Theatre passion project, all willing to sing, dance and act to their hearts content! Being honest I was a little crushed...... What the hell do I do now?? I have changed all of my units and the students hate it???!!! It actually took me a while to really process this and figure out what to do next!! So, eventually I realised two things.
1. Some of our students just don't read the course outlines and hand books before they choose! So, they choose a subject based on what they think it is! ( listening to music, jamming on the guitar, watching youtube?) Who Knows!!
2. Most of the students that have chosen Music actually do want to do music. They have seen the musical theatre performances and want to be able to perform but they are too scared or they just don't know how!
So I swallowed my pride and changed the direction of what we were doing! Instead we went back to basics and learnt some skills on the keyboard and the guitar and started thinking about what music we liked and how we could eventually perform it?? This was reasonably successful and students definitely learned new things and enjoyed learning. Did we do a performance in term one? no! Will we get a performance done in term two? Who knows?? Are the juniors getting a cool musical experience and learning some practical and theoretical knowledge?? YES! So I am going to take that as win. It wasn't what I had planned or expected but in teaching nothing ever really goes as planned ha ha!
I still am a firm believer of always trying new things because sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Even though I was disappointed that my new course did not flourish this Term. I will still continue to push this as a subject option. For me I think that I need to make sure I go into the deans assemblies and talk about the new course so that students understand what the expectations are.
In the end Term 1 ended well. I finished We Will Rock You which was again a fantastic opportunity to be singing again this year! No more shows for 2019. Ready to take on the challenged of Term 2.
Monday 4 March 2019
We Will Rock You.... Hopefully!!
So fresh after my amazing 2018 of being back into Musical Theatre, I auditioned for the first show of the Showbiz season We Will Rock You! I luckily scored a role in the vocal backing again which is ace! Finishing Les Mis was actually really hard, I had major after show sadness! The crazy thing about being in shows ( which I had Forgotten) is that you spend this intensive amount of time with the group of people you are working with and then the show finishes and you don't see them every day! It's a really strange feeling!! Whilst I was excited to get back into home life with my awesome Beer's it was really sad to leave the wonder of Les Mis behind.
So, just before Christmas, we went into music calls and initially I felt like I maybe should have sat this one out ( am I emotionally ready for another show). As soon as I heard the amazing score and the electric cast I new I had made the right decision. Doing Vocal backing is quite different than being on stage, you are really an off stage performer who is a back up singer. The work load for this is much easier so schedule wise it is a good way to start the year! We are now a month away from opening night so things are about to get crazy busy!
I know that not only do I get to be a performer again it really is the best Personal Development as a music teacher that I can get.
Term 1 is KICKING OFFFFFFF!!!!!!
I don't think I have ever had a crazier start to a Term 1. All good crazy of course but never the less crazy!!! One of my favourite parts of the school year is the start! I love catching up with all the teenagers after the big summer holiday and seeing all of my new classes. This year I have three awesome senior music classes. They are all super keen, eager musos and are full of enthusiasm! Long may it last!! I have three junior classes, one yr 9 and two yr 10 classes. This year Hornby changed the way we were offering junior courses. Instead of making everything a compulsory taster session in yr 9, students are now able to choose their passion subjects to do all year if they wish! Similarly in year 10, students can now change options mid year and not be committed to a full year of the same courses! Now..... this is a wonderful idea. Why make students take something they are never going to be into??? So, because we have a strong performing culture here I decided to be bold and make my junior courses a Performing Arts course where students would learn many aspects of the performing arts not just music. BUT you have to perform..... That is the part that often doesn't register in the wonderful minds of the mini humans! I have one of my year 10 classes that are going with it and have happily soaked up the wonderful world of Mime, Comedy, Salsa dancing and Musical Theatre. They have been pushed out of their comfort zones and have almost totally embraced it! The other two classes, not so much..... Initially I took it quite personally thinking "Why have I created this awesome performance course that covers all these wonderful art forms and they don't want to do it??????" Well, I realised after I got over myself that they are all awesome enthusiastic music students who are simply not ready to perform.... Yet! So, we have gone back a wee bit and are revisiting some essential Keyboard, Guitar and singing skills. Here they get to learn and play music without the pressure of the big performance. I have realised that with taking risks and trying new things, there are always going to be detours in the road and that's ok!
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