I'm feeling better and better about the class I teach (T132). Today there was excellent attendance because there was a quiz. And the students were responding--usually it seems like you tell them things over and over and you assume they know it all, and then you ask an easy question and they have no idea what you're talking about. But we talked through Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and it seemed like, at least for the most vocal ones, of course the melody elaborates a descending scale, or of course I would have no problem remembering ten chords because they just make sense harmonically! It was a good feeling.
I feel like the class has really succeeded this semester in a few ways in particular:
1. Facilitating a relaxed class atmosphere where students feel they can and should contribute, even in the large class.
2. Introducing different kinds of music (today was Gangster's Paradise by Coolio compared to a violin sonata by Bach, and then Somewhere Over the Rainbow as performed on the ukulele by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole), without sacrificing the principles I'm trying to teach (harmonic progression, root motion, good voice-leading, intelligent thinking about music).
3. Helping students to understand the reasons they would want to learn aural skills and the reasons we use the systems we use.
I feel like things could have gone better in other ways:
1. Attendance is always a problem, especially in the 8 o'clock class. I don't really know what else I could have done about this, though.
2. My preparation for class was sometimes later than it should have been, and I'd schedule activities we'd already done.
3. Encouraging or requiring individual student responsibility.
4. I'm not particularly good at being strict with course policies.
But overall I feel the semester's been a success. (No, it's not over, but next week is a practice exam, then the make-up/final exam.)
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On an entirely different note, I found Respect Wordsworth, a tourism advertisement for England's Lake District, pretty hilarious.
2 comments:
OK, you can be an entertaining and clever educator and hope your students just "want" to show up to class, or you could simply schedule a quiz every week!
I know you can't do this because deep inside there's a strong need to please the audience out there, even if it's only a bunch of first year music students! Still part of Thespian troup 427, or whatever it is....
SuperEducator MOM
Tim, I can tell that your class is awesome, and I kinda wish I could take it, or at least sit in on a class. I hope all those students see you as the ultra-cool hipster that you are.
On what Mom just commented: actually, my Software Design professor does just that--he has a 5-minute quiz at the beginning of every single class that is not difficult but comes straight from the required reading. They're worth 10% of the grade for the course. Because of these quizzes, I am never late to class, and I always at least skim over the readings (which I cannot say I do very regularly for other classes). So, it might be an idea to consider!
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