Newsletters

Music and the Brain Newsletter No. 7 – March 2002

Dear Music and the Brain Teachers and Interns,

It's finally spring and the long stretch after spring vacation and before summer vacation is looming before us. This is a letter to spark your creativity for the upcoming "long haul" and share more amazing classroom events and discoveries. Please continue to write to us with your experiences and ideas!

Concerts

It's wonderful for children to have the experience of preparing for a concert.  Whether they are simple open houses where parents are invited into the music room or large productions in the school auditorium like the event Paul Madden and Maria Schwab presented last year at PS 150, the children reap the same benefits. They are introduced to the excitement of presenting something for an audience and gain a sense of responsibility for its success or failure because they arean integral part. In many of our schools, students desire to practice and ability to concentrate has been enhanced by the idea that there is something to prepare for.

Concerts are also a good way to get parents and classroom teachers involved in what goes on in the music room. If parents like what they see, they might be inclined to donate their time as a volunteer in the keyboard lab, or offer to help replace broken equipment.

Michelle Turner of PS 36X held an open-house keyboarding concert for parents last week.  According to interns, it was a great success and many parents came to watch!  Among other repertoire, Michelle's classes played "Akiwowo" in three parts from Book 3 with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as an effective finally.   "All should be proud!" stated intern Charlene Marcinko.  Another intern said, "I wish I could make the recital on Thursday, the"Akiwowo" trio should be great!" The children were allowed to choose one song to perform for the concert. Knowing they were responsible for making their own piece sound good inspired them to practice. Michelle made invitations and sent them home to parents, adding to the children's excitement and feeling of importance. These concerts are just more evidence of the vast improvement PS 36X has made in the last couple of years. Congratulations on your accomplishment!

May 22nd Seminar with Dr. Gordon Shaw

We are excited to present a seminar with one of the scientists that inspired the creation of Music and the Brain! Gordon Shaw will be leading a seminar for all Music and the Brain teachers, interns and any other interested parties. If any of you have friends or colleagues that would be interested in attending, they are encouraged to come. (Please call us with the number of people you would like to bring.) The event will begin at 9am and last until 12pm. Breakfast will be provided. We are trying to book one of the new theaters on Theater Row forthe event, but we will send you a detailed invitation next month. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Warning

It is good to establish a routine in the classroom so students know what is expected of them, but that doesn't mean that every day should be the same. Even if your routine encompasses many useful and varied activities, if you do the same things every day your students will begin to lose their enthusiasm. Surprise your students with something totally unexpected. Don't be afraid you'll lose control of the class by being too playful. Even a game can become boring if it's played every day. Changing lessons from day to day is also important to keep thing interesting for you! The children immediately registeryour boredom. Play all the games that go with the songs. "Head and Shoulders" is a great one where kids can make up their own combination of body parts.  Dance and sing, laugh and experiment. Your children should leave the room singing, excited to come to music next week.

Reminder:

Interns,remember to get finger printed at the Board of Ed. If you do it between now and Summer, Music and the Brain will reimburse you for the $80 fee. If you are finger printed, you can become a regular substitute teacher and still work on days when the music teacher is absent. Many of our previous interns have take non jobs with the Board of Ed. Krista Wozniak is now THE music teacher at PS 149 in Queens. Irene McByrne-Pepe is now one of the music teachers at PS 164, and Sarah Kim is going on to be certified after teaching at PS 130 this year.

Perform for your Students

Liza Gibbs and Richard Johnson have been making the rounds with their instruments.  The children at their schools have been thrilled to see Liza's English horn and oboe and Richards array of trumpets played up close!

If you are an instrumentalist or singer, think about giving a performance for your classes. It's great when your instrument relates to a song the children are learning, but it's also great for them to hear all kinds of music. Teach them a little bit about how to play, the history and let them look at the instrument up close. You may be used to it, but the children will be ecstatic.

Stories From the Field

Maria Schwab of PS 150 has great words for "Ode to Joy": "Let us sing a song of joy for love and understanding. Let us sing a song of joy for peace and friendship everywhere." She then sang the song leaving out the last two measures and asked to children to fill in the endings. They had fun tryingto fit words into the rhythm of the song. Some of their ideas were:"heroes everywhere", "brothers and their sisters, too","families and all their friends".

At Krista Wozniak's school, PS 149, the children were asked if "Duerme Pronto" was a right hand or left hand song. A first grader said, "The treble clef is singing to the bass clef and the bass clef is sleeping."

Joan Schwartz and Richard Johnson at PS 24X have been asking the children which handor finger is on "vacation" for each song. One child had an elaborate story about how finger 4 went on vacation to Florida with the left hand and they went to the beach and all kinds of stuff! I guess they get the picture.

"Old MacDonald had a Band" was a great lesson Irene McByrne-Pepe used with the children at PS 164. Rhythm instruments take the place of animals and during each verse the different instruments get to play.

PS 149 Beethoven's Ninth Inning: Trying to find a way to express the meaning ofthe word "joy" Krista Wozniak created a baseball game scenario toaccompany the symphonic recording of Beethoven's Ninth. When the worst team in the little league came from behind to win the last game of the season right at the moment the timpani drums enter, the children felt "joy" and all exclaimed, "Again, again!"

Robin Casey at Midtown West has been using Xeroxed pages from the book as worksheets.This is an inspired idea. Children can write in the missing numbers, the letter names of notes, circle all the middle "C's", anything!

Eudella Grant Darrell Babidge and of PS 36 report huge improvements in some of their special ed. students. A couple of boys who started the year banging on the piano with there fists now use all five finger of each hand correctly without supervision! What a great accomplishment!

"Don't fall off the card!" PS 149 teacher Krista Wozniak reminds students not toclap too many beats or you'll fall off the end of the measure. Now the students help each other remember.

At Hunter Elementary the new favorite song has become "N'kosi Sikel' iAfrika". A song has finally superceded "Ode to Joy"! A South African parent was thrilled to hear his son singing this song at home. It was considered quite radical at one time. The parent was so happy that he donated many different African instruments to the school.

Vermell Rhodes at PS 46 has created a great game for recognizing melodic shapes. She divides a large chalkboard into 14 squares, each with a number. In each squares he draws a pictographic representation of a melodic figure, like ascending or descending steps for step-wise motion, a slanted line for a leap up or down, a straight, horizontal line for repeated notes etc. After explaining the game and doing some practice examples, she plays different melodies and has the childrentry to match them with the pictures. The children were very engaged and even used their bodies to trace the melodic shapes of what they heard in order tomatch it with the drawing.

I hope all of you are enjoying the vacation and gearing up for the end of the year! Keep writing to us at brainmusic@aol.com!