As we gear up for the second face to face – I just wanted to get some words down on what I’ve been working on (or not working on as much) lately in terms of my ideas for my Cohort 21 experience this year.
As a music teacher – this time of year is very full on. Our end of term concert is coming up in exactly 3 weeks today and with three full grade bands and 4 co-curricular bands to prep and rehearse is taking up almost all of my energy and time. Also trying to get CISMF auditions submitted this week – to say it’s been tough trying to navigate the urgent vs. important concept this past week is an understatement.
I was able to carve some time to meet with my colleague in the English department and discuss some ideas regarding this new unit – it was great not only to bounce ideas off one another but also take a look at how she organizes her teaching and units throughout the year. It’s hard to pop into others’ classes when my own schedule is quite full during the day.
We were able to pin down a rough schedule of how the unit should be laid out – again it’s hard when she might be teaching her Grade 8 classes when I might be teaching another grade but with our supportive admin we will hopefully be able to work out a schedule where I can get support from another music teacher to be able to go into the Grade 8 English classes more often.
We were also able to express our concerns of teaching something we have never really taught before – I volunteered taking on more of the teaching of Hip Hop content (culture, history, art, music, etc.) while she’s going to focus on the literary side (poetry, figurative language, lyric structure, etc.) This also helps us structure our final project and what each of us will be assessing.
I am really looking forward to spending a little more time over the next few weeks getting into resources some of you sent my way (thank you!!) and also putting together lessons and activities for the students. I told them in class that we will be spending time learning more about Hip Hop and Rap music and they were so thrilled! It’ll be such a great experience taking this journey with them in the new year.
Anyway – thanks for reading! Again – just trying to hold myself accountable to avoid putting this off…
See you all Saturday!
@dsimpson This sounds great! I am looping in @lyorke so she can follow along with your progress. I know this is a busy time for music teachers around the world as you prepare for the upcoming holiday concerts. @jgravel @adamcaplan