journal

Photo credit: Ganamex via Foter.com / CC BY-NC

A couple of years ago I decided I was going to keep a journal while I taught that year. I wanted to chronicle what went on in my classes and use it to help further lesson planning. Well, as you can imagine, time became an issue. Like many of us, the required tasks of the year got in the way and I didn’t make it very far.

WELL!!! This year I am determined to finally carry this out and see what comes of it. I have already started and so far so good. I am especially interested in looking for patterns that will better inform me as to what and how I teach. I am always looking for a better way to connect with my students….so we’ll see!! Look below to read one of my entries…

2nd Graders: These guys are so cute! We had a great time! We played 5 different steady beats ~ using each of the different colors (gray, blue, red, yellow, terra cotta) on the drums. They had the great idea of drumming out food. I started out with “Big beat, big beat, now play anything you want”…. They changed it into “now eat anything you want” or something like it, so I stopped and had them drum out a food to eat. Each student came up with a food and a way to drum it. At the end, we played them all in order.

We also talked about the steady beat and how we would notate it. We went through the procedure of how we were going to do it for the next class….preparing them for what comes next. I have found this helps!!