In my first post, I talked about the difficulties I was having with teaching my preschoolers Christmas songs for their Christmas pageant. Now it is quickly approaching, and the head teacher has asked me to teach them even more songs!
I had thought it was unrealistic to try to teach them many songs, with "music class" once every two weeks, and they had difficulty paying attention at first because they couldn't remember from two weeks ago. The head teacher finally realized it was important to practice every day, and that problem was solved.
We had an activity making jingle bell necklaces to go with our main song (Jingle Bells). While the kids kept pulling their necklaces apart, they really enjoyed playing (with) the bells while they were singing, and it made what became an hour of learning Christmas songs more bearable. I even managed to squeeze in another activity with the bells, practicing "crescendo" and "diminuendo" as we rang our bells and moved (normally this is a favorite activity that involves movement).
Adding these activities made the lessons more bearable for the kids, but there were still several behavior issues. I really question the head teacher's desire to teach the kids NINE Christmas songs when we had been working on TWO. Practicing every day helps now that she finally realized they need reinforcement, but I honestly don't see the value in teaching these kids songs they will sing once a year as entertainment for their parents (in my opinion, singing holiday songs should be a family, friendship, or religious activity, and being forced to "speed-memorize" doesn't really teach the kids anything).
However, we are singing the "Do(e) A Deer" with our Kodaly hand signs. Although this is purely to show the parents what the kids are learning, I am proud that I can show these techniques to the parents. Using the Kodaly hand signs allows the kids to sing advanced harmonic and melodic patterns that people would normally work on in a middle-school choir.
I know lots of you have dealt with difficult bosses. Let's commiserate! What are your stories? How do you DEAL with it?
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December 10, 2009 at 11:09 AM
Cara,
I think it is a wonderful idea to have them jingle the bells as they sing along. At that age they are very tactile and kinesthetics helps them to memorize the lyrics. I love the idea of kodaly hand signs. The music teacher in my former school had the kindergartners learn some sign language for a musical performance. Even though most of them were not syncronized in their movements the overall message was received by the parents and they loved it. I agree that 3 quality songs for the children to learn would be better than 9 songs where they cannot remember the words. Sometimes educators become overwhelmed with the responsiblitiy of holiday traditions and feel compelled to "do more" than what is really necessary. Keep emphasizing quality over quantity. Sounds like you are doing a wonderful job! I bet those pre-schoolers love you!
December 15, 2009 at 10:12 PM
The best way I’ve found to deal with what seem like ridiculous demands of supervisors who don’t completely understand what they are demanding is to look at the requirements as jumping off points for truly meaningful teaching and learning. Sure, training wingless parrots to squawk out holiday nonsense for the amusement of parents isn’t the big reward most educators are looking for, but… I’m sure introducing the concept of crescendos and diminuendos to preschool brain sponges was amazing. The trick is to keep jumping through the hoops set by out of touch administrators while constantly searching for and capitalizing on teachable moments.