Week 2 Reaction Post - Beckie Lamborn

Week one reading proved a creative feat. I used a PDF preview from the Internet that provided the majority of the first three chapters. Now in week two with a hard copy in hand two topics come to mind, one referring to the chapter on “Giving an A”, and a second comment from the chapter “Leading from the Chair”.

I was reminded of the importance of music and the impact it has on the emotions of young children after reading (p.43) the Zander’s story about the violinist from his orchestra. The story is about a little 5 year old girl whose aunt was the violinist mentioned. The aunt had made up a fairy tale story about the music she had been playing (Mahler’s 9th Symphony), but after repeatedly hearing the music the little 5 year old asked for the “real story” behind the music. Learning that the music was really about the life of a dying man, whose childhood had been surrounded by the death of his 7 sickly siblings, an alcoholic father, invalid mother, and later the death of his own child didn’t deter the child’s interest in the piece and makes me realize the depth of children’s capabilities. The child recognized that the story was not about a fairy tale princess, and she recognized the emotional quality in the piece. Zander’s recounting of the incident makes me want to hear this classical piece with the dramatic sound that caught the ear of the little five year old. With the invention of YouTube I actually have had the opportunity to listen to the music as performed by Myung-Whun Chung’s orchestra, and I have embedded the video above

Secondly, in the chapter about “Leading from the Chair” I was reminded of the many times, I ask my students to help each other out during an activity. Students in a Cuban and American orchestra came together to play a piece of music with a Cuban beat that was hard for the American players to perform. Even with the instruction of the Cuban conductor they could not get in sync. Zander suggested to the American students that they learn from the best teachers, the fellow Cuban musicians. The students taught each other and the music came together remarkably. Later playing an American piece the Cuban students learned from the American students. The conductors were essentially overseeing two groups and watching the leadership skills growing in the hands of their students.

I think it is a good learning experience for students to help each other not only because it develops leadership skills, but also because it can foster the development of good character traits like compassion and kindness. There are additional benefits that blossom from this kind of teaching. Students gain independence and confidence, and they also build connections strengthening their own understanding of the topics they are sharing with classmates. One of the most exciting activities that one of our fourth grade teacher does is she lets a student be the teacher for a day. Both teacher and students love the role reversal, and the day is always a memorable one for the children.

1 COMMENT

THERESE LUNSFORD

Beckie,

Your last few sentences in your last paragraph make me laugh. I wrote in response to the chapter reading this week about my almost accidental experience where I let a student be "art teacher" for a day - or class period, to be more exact. Of course, when it came to clean-up time, I had to take back over, but that was one of the most fun moments I've had as an elementary school teacher.

And thank-you for embedding the video, I am going to give it a listen! I look forward to looking over your AR work again very soon, too, now that I have the url from the MAC class document. It will be wonderful to see who your work compares to mine, as we both have a component of technology in art.

Saturday, May 15, 2010 - 09:19 PM

Mahler’s Symphony #9

as played on YouTube by

Myung-Whun Chung