Music

 

Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential. Music contributes to mental health and can help prevent risky behaviour such as teenage drug abuse. (Chris, 2011).

Today in music we learned about different types of musical instrument that we may be presented with in schools. The instrument that we focussed on was the ukulele. 

As a class, we watched a video on the four basic cords before learning them. I had never played the ukulele before but I felt that I picked it up quite fast as I didn’t not struggle to hold it correctly or find the cords. However, as expected everyone learned in their own time so the lecturer helped to ensure everyone was supported in their learning. I found this inspiring and showed us an example of good practice and how we should act when in the classroom.

 

We were taught the different strumming techniques and then went through step- by- step how to play the song “Last Christmas” by Wham and then, we were all able to play it as a class. This was an enjoyable experience and didn’t not put anyone under pressure, as there were not any solos, and we were informed that it’s alright to get it wrong as we are all learners. Reflecting on this, I think it is important to allow children to be aware that we all make mistakes when learning and without them we will never improve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWlPLnHaIIs

(Above is a link to a YouTube tutorial on how to play ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham.)

I now realise that if lessons are not rushed and the children are given information in manageable chucks, it’s is possible for them to learn instruments that may seem challenging to play.

 

Drama

 

This was our last drama session. We continued from the last class with delivering micro teaching tasks. Since my group had already carried out our task, we could participate in others and pick up new ideas of teaching styles that could implemented within our practice. The other groups used drama techniques that we had been learning about throughout the course, enabling them to be hammered home to us as we could see them in practice.

 

Before the drama inputs from this module, I had never participated in drama and did not have confidence in my ability to teach it within a school. However, I now have a much deeper insight to how drama can be implemented within the classroom and how to make it enjoyable for all children.

 

Winston (1998) states that “quality classroom drama does not involve acting out what has already been decided, but focuses instead upon discovering the unknown, risking uncertainty, living with ambiguity, exploring new ideas and creating new meanings.” When I teach drama within school, I will ensure that I am allowing the children freedom to creative and express themselves through their own ideas and not just deliver and teacher lead activity. This module has allowed me to learn how to best teach drama within the classroom, which will give children a successful drama experience.

 

References

Chris, V. (2011) Advantages and disadvantages of music tech. [Online] Available: http://muedtechproject.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-music.html [Accessed: 8 January 2017].

Winston, J. (1998) Drama, Narrative and Moral Education. London: Falmer Press.