Reflection Week #8 - Music

What 
Music is a form of expression that comes through song. It is a powerful tool for helping students not only learn and understand information, but also help them remember it. Students have a lot of information to learn, and it is important that we as teachers use creative ways to help them to do that. Music is one of the venues we can use. Music is also important for student so learn about because it is such a powerful expression of emotion. If students learn how to express themselves through music it is just one more tool in their toolbox.

So What 
My goals for using music with my future students include not only using it to help solidify and enforce the topics we learn about, but also using it in a way that teaches them how to correctly use it. I want my students to understand singing and how to do it correctly so it can be used by them to express their feelings. I also want them to understand that singing is not just screaming the words, and will use the 4 step process to help them understand that.
 
Now What  
After learning about music in our class this week my ideas about how I need to prepare to effectively teach music have changed. I feel like I need to practice the techniques we learned about how to not only teach our students the lyrics, but teach them how to sing the song.  I plan to practice the techniques we learned while also searching for new ones to use. One idea I liked that was used by one of my teachers was teaching solfege. I think that is one way that students can begin to understand how the notes of a song differe from each other. I think it is slightly more advanced so I would probably only use it with older students, but it is one example of the other techniques that I plan to find in order to help my students understand and be able to produce music.