follow up from class on tuesday

We spent a majority of time contemplating the fact of ESL schools in our nation. The fact is (and this is really sad to say) that most school districts who implement ESL in their schools set up administration who know very little about the positions they're inheriting. For example... my former principal was caught committing an immoral act of cheating on his wife. Personally, I couldn't care less. But in a gossiping town like Scranton where everyone is related to everyone else, the word got around quickly...the local newspapers got a hold of it and wouldn't let the subject die. The superintendent was forced to make a decision. (p.s neither the super nor the principal have taught in a classroom). After the incident went down, a position was created for this person where he would actually be getting a raise to be the coordinator of the ESL program for the entire school district. ((as a side note:: what kind of message does THAT send to kids??)) While a majority of the population in the school district speaks english, there has been an influx of Spanish speakers of those families who are looking for someplace cheaper to live than Philadelphia or New York. Only a handful of the teachers that have been hired to be in the ESL system actually speak a different language. It's used more as a stepping stone for promotions to a standard classroom as well as tenure.

What's worse is that most of the students who appear in the classroom in October will be gone by December because of their migrating parents who can't find work to keep food on the table. So back and forth they go from Scranton, to Wilkes Barre and the Poconos to Allentown...the list goes on and on.

Yet another sad story is that some of these kids who grow up in dysfunctional housing units with parents that teachers can never get a hold of grow up with disabilities that can't be diagnosed because A.) the student never stays in more than one place to get diagnosed by a counselor and B.) the pure selfishness of the parents to ignore the fact that the child needs help!

It seems to me that white suburbia is just testing the waters to see what will work in the years to come with ESL. What do some of your home districts do with these problems? Or are these problems eliminated/worse back home?

follow up on britney and beyonce

Ryan, you've hit on a good point...I guess we need another 3 weeks of classes just to digest some of the material that's out there on mtv and vh1...the material that our students pay attention too, sing on their own time and absorb.

From an outsider on pop culture, I looked at the Britney Spears video first, mainly because she was a big part of my pop music life when I was growing up. I can remember back to the days of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" where "bringing down the machine" as cited in the movie half nelson, was nothing more than dancing in your catholic school girl uniform and just singing your groove. I looked back on the video to compare what has been done in the last ten years of britney's music career. the singing has gotten worse, the dance moves have gone from talented to highly suggestive in a sexual manner and overall the content of the song is just trashy. When the Backstreet Boys first came out, with Britney, Nsync and Christina Aguilera close behind, the music was really good, the dancing showed much talent, hell even the way the film makers shot the video was less suggestive. The focus was on their faces, the talents they had and the stories they were telling, not on how attractive they are (or aren't, depending on how you look at it).

Personally, I feel this is a bit too much for middle schoolers to handle. how many times have we heard of kids getting caught in the bathroom with someone else doing things they weren't supposed to in school? While we can't avoid the subject, I feel the content can be a little more censored and geared toward stimulating our minds in ways that don't involve sex.

On the contrary, I liked the Beyoncé video. After watching the Britney video first, I was hesitant to continue on and dig into this subject matter anymore. However, one of the biggest concepts I thought it showed was empathy. Recently in our Secondary class, Andrew and I have had the privilege to hear the students talk about their views on character education through the school district. One of the topics that is broadly covered throughout the curriculum during their middle school years is empathy. How do you think it feels when person does a harmful act/kind act towards another person/thing? Would you be able to do it differently? Beyoncé really takes care to put that sense of empathy at the highlight of her video, (as opposed to the unnecessary shots of naked Britney..) and I feel it leaves a good message...take care of each other! In a relationship, don't go through the motions for the sake of going through the motions. Realize that everything you do on a daily basis can and will be used against you (if that thing is a malicious, harmful, spiteful or selfish act), whether you're sleeping with that guilt or not.

Beyoncé & Britney PLEASE WATCH!!!!!

Ok, so instead of posting a lengthy blog this week, i figured YouTube would be better. These are two songs that are popular right now by Britney Spears and Beyoncé... If you could watch the videos linked below and tell me your thoughts on how we might use these in a classroom to raise awareness of sexism in the US. We always seem to have these lengthy conversations about "guys" and hegemony, and have been talking about how multiculturalism means more than just race and ethnicity. maybe these videos could serve as a catalyst for a conversation with our students. Maybe they couldn't. I would LOVE to know your thoughts!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Womanizer -- Britney Spears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZSLIq6YiRY

If I were a Boy -- Beyoncé
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVTyLqkez6A

"I Love Lucy" Inspired

I was watching “I Love Lucy” at the gym this morning, and it was the episode where Lucy and Ethel want to learn to speak French so they can order at a French restaurant. As they begin their lessons with their French teacher, one of the first questions Lucy asks is why some words have “la” and “le” before them. The teacher says that it is because everything is either masculine or feminine unlike in America. Lucy responds by saying, “apparently you don’t know this country.” It made me think about how much the time has changed since then. Lucy was in reference to the different roles of men and a women at the time.

This episode reminded me of an article by Nel Noddings I used in my last paper. It is titled “Care Tradition: Beyond 'Add Women and Stir.” I don’t want to go into how we all need to be equal despite gender or anything at this point, but I want to share a couple of thoughts on the changing roles of women in society. Nel Noddings brings out an idea that now that the women are not taking on the “caring” carriers such as a being a stay at home mom etc... there are many caring roles that are not being carried out. It now falls into all hands to take on these roles. I will add that I think that teaching, is one of these very roles. Any thoughts?

conservative way and right brain

The topic that what Katie brought up got me attention. If teacher teaches well on Western /folk ways in her methods and the students take to it well and enjoys it and eager to learn, I believe there wouldn’t be a problem.It is nothing wrong with a conservative teaching because, the student may learn from conservative way. However, if the teacher teaches too conservative way in Western music and the students get bored and not appreciate, that is a problem. Western music is appropriate for the music classroom. However, I think the reason why we try to incorporated “popular music” is that we can use it as a tool so that the students feel more open about Western music and make us easier to introduce Western music in more effective way. As we know, unlike any other classes like math or science, Music is more right brain process. It is very true that we need balance between right and left brain. However, if we even teach music in too much left brain ways like other classes, when and where in school can they develop their right brain?

Stuck in a Box

Without even realizing it, I had been thinking a lot about Katie’s blog Conservative Teaching. Reading the post really got me thinking about Practicum and teaching in general… I absolutely love being able to go into a classroom four times a week and honestly see what goes on in the world of teaching. However, as Katie had mentioned, this should be the time that we are experimenting with new ideas and taking risks in a safe environment.

The way I look at it, if I’m nervous already, I might as well try something new with the expectation and understanding that I may make mistakes. Working with three other group members, it is more difficult to get creative and compromise. Generally we go with the traditional ideas when teaching something new. The kids seem to enjoy our lessons, and they are successful, but they can become so regular. I am afraid that after another month, they will get bored of what we are doing and tune themselves out of the classroom.

So frequently, we fall into traps of doing things because they are common practice. We know these lessons, warm ups, songs, staged shows, etc. will be successful. This is mostly the case because several thriving teachers have used them in past years. Why do we allow ourselves to fit into molds that have already been created, instead of breaking out and executing our own ideas? Where are the experiments within lessons? Are we essentially being lazy by using other people’s ideas?

Which Category is right?

The three categories of multiculturalism are monoculturalists, liberal multiculturalist, and plural multiculturalists. How does a teacher now which way to go about teaching in his/her classroom? First of all lets just discuss the differences between each category. Monoculturalists are neo-colonialist in that the intent is to maintain the dominant culture as the superior or best culture. Liberal muticulturalists usually speak in the language of democracy, freedom, and justice, but fail to acknowledge systemic forms of oppression. Plural multiculturalism celebrates human diversity but fails also to acknowledge systemic forms of oppression, often reducing reasons for socio-economic or political inequalities to a problem of misunderstanding.(Morton 34) Personally I think I fall between the liberal and plural multiculturalism categories. I think that it is important to incorporate all different cultures in the classroom. Everyone should have a well rounded knowledge of the different cultures of the world, and being music educators, I think it is our job to introduce our students to different musical cultures. I think that it is great to incorporate the different types of cultures that your students are into the classroom, but I don't believe that it should be based on just one culture.

Conservative Teaching: A Bad Thing?

Conservative teaching is something that has it’s place in the classroom for some educators, but is it the type of teaching I want to lead my future classroom from day to day? I’m not really sure to be honest with you. In response to Katie’s previous blog, I completely understand what she is saying about conservative teaching and pushing the boundaries. I think, as a student studying to become a teacher, it is so easy to shun the idea of being a “conservative” educator.  The word conservative automatically brings about ideas of non-experimentation, the usage of outdated practices, and only sticking to a set way of teaching.  Being part of classes at Westminster has taught us to think outside the box, look at everything from different perspectives, and learn to teach in a way that will constantly be connecting to our students.  That is all well and good and I believe in those practices, but sometimes I find that this is hard because a large chunk of my education was conducted under conservative-style teaching. Even in my music classes. I think I turned out pretty well and I still have great passion for music and teaching. I feel like the classes I take here are sometimes saying that the way I was taught was wrong or not expansive enough. Furthermore, I know am I supposed to teach in a way that is connecting to my students’ world, but I know the conservative aspect of teaching quite intimately.  Sometimes I worry that once I get into my own classroom and practicality is more apparent than it was in the world of Westminster, that I will perpetuate a cycle of conservative teaching. A type of teaching that while not necessarily considered wrong, will not push the boundaries of my students in the way that effective teaching should.  This is not to say that I think I am bound to be a conservative teacher and that I will not use the tools that I have acquired here. I do, however, worry about teaching in a way that I, personally, wasn’t taught for a majority of my life.  Is conservative teaching wrong or are we just being idealistic college students? Maybe we will constantly strive to be out-of-the-box educators, but conservative teaching could have its place as well. I hope I don’t sound too pessimistic, but I have a feeling some people can relate to my thoughts. If you can, blog about it!

As Promised...

In my blog, "Democracy is Absent", I mentioned that I would be posting some interesting facts on the new resources I would be reading in lieu of my attendance in class.

I was fascinated to come across this book by David Sousa called "How the Brain Learns". Within the book the author demonstrates how learning happens, and how to facilitate in this process through good teaching. I found one page, 24, to be particularly interesting. Within the first chapter there is mention of how threats and emotions affect memory processing. I didn't take this too seriously. Sousa states that, "We have all had experiences when anger, fear of the unknown, or joy quickly overcame our rational thoughts...this happens because the hippocampus is susceptible to stress hormones which can inhibit cognitive functioning and long term memory...Under certain conditions, emotions can enhance memory by causing the release of hormones that stimulate the amygdala to signal brain regions to strengthen memory. Strong emotions can shut down conscious processing during the event while enhancing our memory of it." If our memories are as strong as Sousa says they are, then how come we can't control the feelings that cause the hormones in the first place? Why do we find it so difficult to examine a situation that we've seen before but just can't face?

To put this a little differently, I look at it from a alternative perspective. As a 9 year old, my 8 year old cousin convinced me to ride a local carnival rider known as the paratroopers. For any of you who have been on the ride before, you know exactly what to expect. The one thing I did not expect was to travel backwards after going forwards. Needless to say, my inner ear was off balance and my lunch was lost. The feeling of fear as I threw up on my cousin was excruciating; so much so that I have never been a ride that I know will take you backwards again. Ever. I'm sure we've all been in situations like this. But how do we face this as teachers? That pit in your stomach when facing a pedagogical or ethical conflict must be excruciating; but how do you pull it back together?

David Sousa goes on to mention at the end of the 1st chapter how to develop a classroom climate conducive to learning.
"Nearly all learning that occurs in schools involves complex cerebral processing. This occurs more easily in environments free from threat or intimidation. Whenever a student detects a threat, the cerebrum [the part of the brain that controls thinking, memory, speech, muscular movement and deep inside, emotion and reason] downshifts [aka the process where the hippocampus is susceptible to stress hormones which can inhibit cognitive functioning and long term memory] and thoughtful processing gives way to emotion or survival reactions. Experienced teachers have seen this in the classroom. Under pressure to give a quick response, the student begins to stumble, stab at answers, gets frustrated, angry, and may even resort to violence.
"Threats to students loom continuously in the classroom. The teacher's capacity to humiliate, embarrass, reject, and punish all constitute perceived threats to students. Many students even see grading more as a punitive than as a rewarding process. Students perceive threats in varying degrees, but the presence of a threat in any significant degree impedes learning. One's thinking and learning functions operate fully only when one feels secure [safety without safety anyone?].
"Teachers can make their classrooms better learning environments by avoiding threats (even subtle intimidation) and by establishing democratic climates in which students are treated fairly and feel free to express their opinions during discussions. In these environments students:

• develop trust in the teacher
• exhibit more positive behaviors
• are less likely to be disruptive
• show greater support for school policy
• sense that thinking is encouraged and nurtured."

Being the sacred music major that I am, I payed attention to the homily that the priest delivered this weekend... above all, I hope as teachers we simply learn to nurture and care for our students. This does NOT mean spoon feeding them. this means to challenge students in a way that best suits the needs for everyone in the classroom. Apathy is probably the biggest venial sin on the table at the moment. As the week begins, let's all take a deep breath, a step forward and remember that concern for the betterment of music in our schools starts with service to our students. If you're not here for those reasons: get out.

I'll shove the "ism" too

I mentioned in my earlier blog on Democracy in our classroom. For any of us, we have the power to make decisions in our own classrooms. But when those ideas conflict with ideas that students have, and we let the students take the idea and run, the only thing we're left to do as leaders is facilitate. It seems to me this is exactly what happened with multiculturalism.

When I walked into my practicum classroom for the first time, I felt extremely comfortable. The environment was extremely conducive for learning, the resources Andrew and I were told we had were remarkable and the kids were at the forefront, driving the music program. What I failed to recognize (and still do so) is how much of an affect the diverse backgrounds have on our classroom. The school district we teach in is a tremendous melting pot of students whose parents work in and out of New York City, Philadelphia and many other successful businesses around the greater Princeton area. It would seem as though these parents know their children need math and literature; however, it seems to be more of a necessity for these children to be studying in the arts. The arts have given these students a chance to put what they do in their classroom activities as well as their real lives and put them to use in their music classes.

For example, one girl in the 7th and 8th grade general music class studies dance. Accordingly, our co-op assigned her a piano piece entitled "Ballet Dancer". Within the piece, there was a sense of legato and the use of pedal helped the student connect the flowing use of her body in her dance classes to what was happening on the music page.

The Egyptian unit for 6th graders gives students a chance to look at some of the every day life activities of ancient Egyptians by means of a small play. This play consists of one group who is in charge of the music and the other group, in charge of the pantomime and acting. One narrator leads the children in a rehearsed script that looks at the typical day of an aristocratic family in ancient Egypt. Two children in this class happen to be Egyptian. One went home and discussed the lessons with his parents, and he managed to bring back to class some Egyptian money as well as stories about the traditional music sung and played in their families. Another student actually had a mother that was on a business trip in Egypt. As a present, she brought him back some sort of pennant or flag, but the meaning of the flag was unclear. All in all, this lesson is something I would definitely emulate in a classroom if I were to teach general music in the future. Why?

The answer does not lie in interest. When talking about culture in a classroom, its one thing to read about it in a book. It's another thing to experience it in person. This is not "multiculturalist" thought. This is simply having interest in all parties involved in a classroom. The experience in a classroom should be a shared one. As teachers, is that not the goal we thrive on each day? The hopes that one day everyone will show enthusiasm towards what we teach, how we teach it and everyone's discussions and thoughts? In short, I agree with what Ryan has to say about throwing the "ism" out of our vocabulary. Why can't we all just honor multicultural actions instead of having to put a label on all of the actions we perform in the classroom to meet up to standards that we don't trust in the first place? As teachers shouldn't we want to show our students other worlds that connect to theirs? Instead of being told by white philosophers, administrators and clinicians what should be taught in our classrooms, why can't we use intuition a little more often? If I'm a Latin American teacher teaching in an area where a majority of the students are Indian, am I going to sit there and demonstrate raga? Most of the kids already know what this is in their own family traditions. As a teacher, I would invite in some parents to demonstrate what's going on in their households with music on a daily basis.

To sum up, when one talks about multiculturalism, the term is boxed immediately. To explain what boxed means: a definition and hurdles fall into a teacher's lap: to explain what a definition of multiculturalism is it is the relating to several cultural or ethnic groups within a society. to explain the hurdles, it is the everyday moments that teachers deal with to make teaching happen.

Does this make sense?

Take the -ism and Shove It!!!

I don't even know where to start. 

I guess, going back to what I said in class on Tuesday, multiculturalism, in my opinion, is something that, while well intended, is a tool poorly used in the classroom. Far too often, teachers teach a unit on "music of the world" or "music from latin america/africa", but what happens beyond that unit? sad to say, nothing. This is because music from different cultures cannot be isolated into sections, but must be incorporated into the music classroom everyday. Even then, I don't believe this to be multiculturalism, because, as of right now, I do not feel that multiculturalism is something that can be taught in a classroom. It is a tool of the class. Educators can teach in a multicultural manner, but cannot actually teach multiculturalism. I think that's where we drop the ball. I also feel that this topic is too magnified in the classroom to a point where it hinders itself. It loses it's steam. And who decided that multiculturalism was such a hot button issue?! I'm willing to say it was the "majority" white, middle-class, upstanding citizens. To me, this seems like working at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. Yes, there are very good intentions, but what are we doing beyond that one day to promote hunger awareness? Oh, we just go to dinner parties and restaurants and go grocery shopping and throw away whatever we don't feel like eating. What a luxury. In many ways, I feel this is what multiculturalism has become. Something we say we're for- teaching to show equality and fairness to the poor, suffering minority- but in actuality we do not embrace it beyond the 40 minutes we teach it. Let's be real. And until we fully embrace it, why teach it. We're a bunch of hypocrites. 

thoughts?

All or Nothing

In class on Tuesday, a comment made by Dave sparked my interest. He had asked the question that if one does not teach multiculturalism authentically, should one even teach multiculturalism? This idea was brought up in the article we read as well. I would like to give my opinion on this matter. I think that to teach multiculturalism one does need to know what they are teaching. I might even go so far to say that a person needs to fully understand the culture of which they are teaching. It would be similar if a teacher was trying to teach students about music theory without fully understanding what figured bass does. The teacher has to be the one that has already experienced many instances with the given topic and has learned through that process.

In my practicum on Wednesday, it was brought to our attention that there were a couple of principles that my practicum team was not fully aware of, and that was evident in the lesson. I truly feel that this is the same for multiculturalism. In high school I found myself offended many times when my history teacher would speak falsely of my religious beliefs. It was not my history teacher's fault that he was misinforming the class, but there was no room to teach something that my teacher did not fully understand. I liken this to ones culture, and I would hate to do the same for someone else; let alone one of my students.

Conservative Teaching

I am currently enrolled in elementary praxis, and I'm having difficulties figuring out what I am allowed to do and what I am not. I feel like this is the time for me to experiment with how I teach, but on the other hand I am scared to go outside my CT's boundaries. The teacher is really great, and I LOVE working with the kids, but I find that I am almost holding back. Does anyone else feel that way? So, basically I know we just talked about how many teachers are "conservative" and stay in there ways, and now I'm realizing why it can be so easy to do that. It is hard to take risks, but I guess ultimately if you never take them then you will never know. I am observing that my teacher for the most part does stick with the "Western" / "Folk" ways, in her teaching methods. The students take to it well, and still have fun with the lesson, but I can't help to think that if we incorporated more "popular music" or honored their world more, that maybe they would be even MORE involved. I don't know, but I was just wondering if any of you feel the same way. Do you think that we are ever going to fully move on from the "conservative" ways?

Lets just turn on the LHC

The question of whether or not authenticity is necessary always gets me to thinking about this situation Haltmeier would often bring up.  It's a scenario where synth sounds have come such a long way that they are indistinguishable from the real instruments and you take a student, who has no musical background and only studies the piano for a short period of time, and you have another student, who for a much much longer period of time and more effort given, learns an instrument, say a saxophone.  The piano student would be given a synth instrument that sounded exactly like the other student's saxophone.  So through less time and effort the piano student could "play" the saxophone equally well if not better than the student who can authentically play the instrument.  What should authenticity mean in this case?  Both are "musicians", both practiced their craft, but it feels like the student who worked harder got cheated because he didn't have to.  What value does working that hard have if the same thing can be done and kind of faked?  As an instrument player I'd be a little upset.  With my biased opinion I think authenticity is very important.  I'm curious to hear how authenticity could not be relevant.  

Bi-partisan political activity

my parents are both registered republicans. my older brother is registered independant and my younger brother and I are registered democrat. All we need is my sister to register liberal or green party and the gangs all here. Yet, we can still live and communicate under one roof without problems. But I noticed that when I had conversations with a few people that their opinion of me or someones opinion of them changed based solely on their registered party. I found this to be troubling because their political party only determines their views on the ways in which certain things should be run or directed or dealt. This is not even the case 100% of the time. The person has not changed otherwise. I found these things to be shocking because I found myself arguing with friends and even some family members about the future of this country, be it good or bad. I am upset to find that silly things like politics can have such an impact on friends and family. Hence the power of a label:(

When I stepped out of the voting booth on Tuesday, I was glad that I had done my civic duty of voting for our next President. I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, because I believed that my voice was heard and that my vote was worthwhile to the election. I have not been a politically active person up until this point in my life, but I definitely felt the necessity to do my part in enacting change for our country. Afterwards, I interviewed three people who had also finished voting and asked them a few questions to see what they had to say about the campaign elections. It was fascinating for me to hear the different thoughts and opinions that came from these three people. They were each affected by politics in different ways. One woman was in a committee that campaigned for Darfur, another woman campaigned for her presidential candidate, and the man that I interviewed owned a business in NJ and it was being affected by the poor economy. After seeing such informed and active citizens, I hope to become as political as these adults.

"Freedom of mind"

Most of you may disagree with what Woodford said. However, when Woodford says about “Freedom of mind”, it reflects the most positive influence to music education today because I believe it is greatly impact on students to be creative. “…most kid lost the capacity of being creative and frightening to be wrong because we stigmatized the mistakes. National education system is where the mistakes the worst think that can make” (Robinson, 2006). It is so true that in reality, we all frightened to make a mistake and therefore I think causes our creativity to fade. If we as a music educator provide environment where they can have a freer mind and find their own identity of being creative, wouldn’t we see more potential of creativity in them?

I think this is really inspiring video to watch you should check this out!
- www.sirkenrobinson.com.

Try Something New: Chances Are, It Won’t Bite

Something happened last night that I had never expected: I actually had positive thoughts towards politics, and it wasn’t even because of an SNL skit. When I first heard of our task for class this week, I was unhappy and actually upset that I had to engage in something political. I have never liked politics and tried to stay as far away from them as possible. This was the case up until last night, when I saw how important this election was to those around me, and how it was affecting them.

Obviously this election is a big deal, and I wouldn’t doubt that for a second, but I literally could not escape it last night. So, I set out to find what the big deal was and why it did not have an impact on me. (Or maybe I felt guilty for not having yet completed our class assignment.) I joined my friends in the lounge and watched the results flood in. Once Obama took California, everyone around me went crazy. People were yelling, jumping up and down, calling their family and friends, and a few were even crying. For the first time it hit me. This could possibly be the most important election of my lifetime and I did not even have the desire to register to vote.

I think the main reason why I never felt strongly about politics is because of my lack of exposure to the subject. When I am living at school, I do not own or have time to watch TV. While I am home, I am either sleeping or visiting family, and the last thing I am thinking about is watching the news. Also, I do not read newspapers or online news articles. Most of my disinterest is because of my disconnection to the candidates and their views. Before yesterday, I could not even tell you one thing Obama or McCain stands for. But after watching both the speeches following Obama being announced as the newly elected president, I have nothing but respect for what these two men do, even if I still don’t exactly know what they want for the country.

Honestly, I am super excited to see what happens to our country with a black president. America has spoken and we are ready for change. Obama is young and willing to change things from the traditional views. He is one of the bravest people I have ever seen and I sincerely hope he will succeed in office. Plus, he’s a great father and that automatically gets my vote. Last night, history was made. I am SO glad I decided to be a part of it. ☺