http://successintheclassroom.com/5-blog-posts-that-every-new-teacher-should-read/

Thank you,
Sam Rangel
SuccessInTheClassroom.com

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-Pete

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I stumbled upon this blog like I did yours. Though their insight on work was very meaningful: http://burisonthecouch.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/our-house/

Thanks for the post! I’d love to see more like it.

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God has granted me 7 students in my sixth grade band this year. At first, I was leary of this because most of them have some sort of learning disorder such as ADHD, for instance. I had all these children when they were in fifth grade general music last year. I didn’t know them all that well because I “inherited” the entire elementary when the other music teacher left after Christmas last year.

Well, needless to say, the curriculum guides I wrote for this class went out the window because they were written for last year’s sixth grade band, of whom none had learning disabilities.

So far, this year, two of my students have been trying and trying and sometimes not trying to improve their new-found skills. They understand if I ask them “what note is that?” and other basic music theory terminology. No problem, right? Up until today, they couldn’t play a song to save their lives. Something wasn’t clicking. One of the goals I set up specifically for this class is that each of them become an “independent player” meaning they should be able to play their instruments and parts regardless of who is sitting near them. *Note: 6 of the 7 have some sort of disability whether one wears hearing aids or glasses and has a specific degree of a learning disability. The other child falls within the norm in an average class. I’ve been told that these kids have behavior issues in every class except for mine! That was some good news.

I have been observing them throughout the process and about 5 of them are officially independent players and can successfully play beauteous music and their part while others are playing different parts. I have 1 sax player who has just made his first attempt at independence with some success. The other is still struggling with playing his notes with consistency. We’ve switched his instrument from French horn to Baritone TC. He has made leaps and bounds of progress in a matter of weeks after the switch. I think it has something to do with the mouthpiece being larger.

Today, something clicked with all of them. I handed out “Winter Wonderland” for the first time. I wanted to experiment. Something happened and all of them really got into the music and for the first time, sounded like a band! I was so proud of them. The middle school principal came up because she thought I was playing along with them and I wasn’t. She was very impressed. They have a ear for music and one of their goals, they decided, as a class they wanted to learn to play jazz as an ensemble. I told them they needed some background on the basics before we jumped into that. They agreed. This song is kind of the bridge into that world.

We will be playing that as part of the Christmas Concert in a few weeks. I’m glad this came along because I wasn’t sure what those kids were gonna play. Some have been practicing 1-2 hours a night all semester and are very good and some not so much. One of the things I had considered since I have three beginning bands this year is to include all of them for two pieces and then show off each individual band by itself. That’s time consuming on the audience’s part.

So, we have a good time in that class on most days and get most things accomplished, I fund it interesting that when given a class of average kids, it’s actually harder to gain control than that of a class with mixed levels of learning. Is this odd? I know that most musicians, past and present, all have some sort of learning disability or can’t related typically unless tis through musical expression.

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Keep at it!

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