Alison Coleman

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Music Lesson in School – 7th March 2014

April 21, 2014 by · No Comments · Music, PSHE

I taught a music lesson to a year 1class in school  which I planned from a scheme called ‘Music Express’ and involved exploring pitch which the children. The lesson was based upon the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears and used pictures found from the internet to support the children’s learning by using them as visual prompts. The lesson involved going through the story and the children, having been taught the different voice pitches for each bear, joined in and they really enjoyed it. Then we progressed on to singing a familiar song eg ‘twinkle twinkle’ or other favourite song and the children had to change the pitch they were singing in according to which bear I held up. As they became more familiar with the concept of the game, I speeded up the changes between the bears and the children managed it really well and thought it was truly hilarious. It supported their understanding of the learning objectives of the lesson and they were able to fully demonstrate their understanding through their engagement with the lesson. Strongly recommend it as a quick warm up activity to use at the beginning of any lesson to gain the children’s attention and develop their concentration, especially once they have the idea, as you would only need to present the images of the bears for the children to know what activity they would be doing. Children could also take turns in showing the bears to lead the activity themselves. You could also introduce a new voice for Goldilocks, or perhaps something that the children have to say for her to develop the game eg ‘ Oh no, Bad Goldilocks’.

 

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Art Lesson in School

April 14, 2014 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

The use of various media is always popular in schools and as such it was nice to be able to deliver a lesson using marbling inks which the children really loved. The activity was carried out with small groups on a carousel basis with other activities and was a very positive experience for all of the children involved.  While it was nice to have TAs to help to set up the resources ready for the activity, from a personal point of view, I like to get the majority of them ready myself, 1) to ensure the activity is set up in the way that I would like it to be, 2) it is often necessary to rely on TAs to clear away and wash the resources after the activity, so it seems unfair to leave it all to them. 3) I have had experience when I have been told to leave the setting up of resources to the TA while I introduce the lesson, but the activity was not ready when I was ready to start, so I had a difficult time supporting the TA to finish getting the activity ready, while keeping control of the class, therefore I would rather be sure that it was ready for when I needed it.

IMG_1384[1]IMG_1385[1]

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Music Lesson 10th February 2014

April 10, 2014 by · No Comments · Music, PSHE

This was a fabulous session with Sue Nicholls which, due to the fact that it lasted for the whole morning, enabled us to explore and experience  number of different ways to use music in our teaching across a range of subjects and themes. I have used the musical greeting when either introducing a new child to a class to help to make them feel welcome, and also when I began my second placement as it gave me a good introduction to the new children. The story telling using instruments was particularly  enjoyable and as we discovered focusses the concentration as it was necessary to listen carefully to each part of the story to know when to play the instruments and when not. This would be very useful for children who have short attention spans who I would wish to extend their focus time in an enjoyable way. Having worked in a nursery for five years I was very familiar with making instruments from junk materials, although Sue was still able to provide me with some new ideas of the types of things that could be used to make instruments.

What I like most about using musical instruments is that it is wholly inclusive as any child no matter what their ability or educational need can make sounds and music on a level that suits them and it takes minimal  effort or skill to be able to create musical sounds. Having investigated how to teach the understanding of pitch, I found that this lecture supported me when I was teaching music to a year 1 class, with really good results and in such a fun way that the children continued to use what they had learned during their play activities.

I have attached the link to Sue Nicolls’ website which would be really useful to anyone who would like to access some of her ideas and materials or to contact her with a view to having her run a workshop for a staff training day.

http://suenichollsmusic.com/

 

 

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Art Lesson 17.3.14

March 23, 2014 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Our art lesson was based around a book that has inspired us, or that has particular interest to us. Having been working on ‘The Rainbow Fish’ in my second school placement, I decided that I would like to do some work based around that and Megan and Michelle seemed to be happy to go along with this. As part of the ‘Talk for Writing’ scheme that we have been working on in school, the children had innovated the story to have a mermaid as the main character instead of the rainbow fish. This gave me the basis for the artwork that I wished to work on, so Michelle did a background seascape using colour wash and collage while Megan and I worked on the mermaid and the octopus. Once the colour wash and characters were done, we put them together and the results were really good.

This kind of activity would be a really good subject for a unit of work which would link in with the English lessons and with appropriate could be carried out over a full half term with children having the opportunity to access and experiment with the different kind of media used, giving children the time to plan execute and evaluate their own work through the whole experience.

This is a link that could be used to provide the children with reminders about the story which they will have learnt very well during English lessons to the story. It has the sound effect of waves which may help children to use their imagination to produce their piece of creative art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvIwxe1_0Us

 

Creating the Background

Creating the Background

Using clay as a medium to create characters

Using clay as a medium to create characters

 

 

 

 

 

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ICT in Music 9th December 2013

March 10, 2014 by · No Comments · Music

I did not attend most of the lecture on this day as I had a tutorial. However I was informed that the group were using technology to change sounds such as voices etc. Having done some research into this subject I have found out that Bernard Rands, John Paynter and George Self have been very influential in promoting experimental techniques in practical  music lessons.

There are many devices that can be used to support music lessons and with children’s knowledge of ICT they are likely to be able to interct and experiment with many of them. The important thing as a teacher is to ensure that any programs are age appropriate and suitable for use in a classroom situtaion. In March 2012 Ofsted reported that there seemed to to be insufficient music being taught in schools and that music technology in particular is very lacking and so it would seem important that as new teachers we need to be aware of the value that should be placed upon music in schools.

/http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/not-enough-music-music-lessons

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Music session 10.2.14

March 10, 2014 by · No Comments · Music, PSHE

In reference to the music lesson on 10th February, we  had  a lovely music lesson with Sue Nicholls where we used instruments to retell traditional stories with children. A very creative lesson which would be really easy to transfer to a lesson with children either in foundation or KS1. Having used a number of resources, both in the form of actual instruments and junk instruments, which is something that I have done many times with children in the foundation stage and so can develop ideas for doing this with older children.

In groups we told the story of Red Riding Hood, playing instruments to the story which was videoed and can be found in the link below

Adapted version of Little Red Riding Hood 

This will prove very useful as there is a shortage of specialist music teachers in schools and so the role of non-specialists is crucial to teaching children (Milliband 2004). Allen (1988) has suggested that although not all teacher are music specialists, they are in a good position to match their musical activities to the the children’s ability due to the fact that they have extensive knowledge of the children through their daily lessons.

Milliband, D. (2004) Excellence and Enrichment: New frontiers in music education. Music for Life Conference. London, 3rd March (2004)

Allen, S. (1989) Case studies in music consultancy. British journal of music education, 5 (3) 217-240

Using puppets to support story telling

Using puppets to support story telling

Materials for making musical instruments

Materials for making musical instruments

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Stories and music combined

Stories and music combined

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What it means to be a Values School

February 8, 2014 by · No Comments · PSHE, Uncategorized, Values Education

The school that I am at for my 1b placement is a Values school. This means that each month they have a different value to focus on. They have an assembly on the value and then a follow up class discussion to embed their understanding of the value for that month. The children then do a small piece of work on it and the best examples are displayed outside the classroom. They also have values pebbles that they may be given by a teacher for actions that reflect one of the values they have in the school. The pebbles are then put in jars, one for each value, and when a jar is full, the school council chooses a treat for the whole school to benefit from. The more jars that they fill the better the treat will be. They then have a values day when everyone benefits from it. They have had Circus Skills days, a visit from Ashleigh and Pudsey from Britain’s got Talent and a Hot Air balloon visit. All of these are provided free to the school, but then the school will then finance the children all having an ice cream or something like that. It seems to be a really nice way to reward the children for upholding the values of the school, without any huge financial burden on the budget. The school where I work is also a values school and it would be nice to take a similar idea back with me when I return in March.

Values in education is not a particularly new concept and while many theorists argue whether or not the values aspect of education should be assessed Veugelers and Vedder (2010), the school uses the values board as a means of assessing whether or not the children have understood by getting them to do a piece of writing in relation to the value after it has been presented in an assembly.

Veugelers, W. and Vedder, P. (2010) Values in teaching: Teachers and teaching: theory and practice [online] http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ctat20  (Accessed 10.3.14)

Responsibility

Responsibility

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Charlie mouse pays a visit

February 8, 2014 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

A couple of weeks ago we has a visit from the Wood Green Animal shelter. The girls were lovely with the children and did a really good session on what makes a good home for a pet mouse using a soft toy mouse. Once they had succeeded in creating a suitable home for a mouse, they introduced the children to Charlie, a little black mouse. He was so sweet and the children loved him. It is always so beneficial to have outside visitors in to school to enhance their learning activities

 

 

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Alien invasion

February 8, 2014 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Had a great day doing DT. Children had to design and make an alien finger puppet. The children had to firstly listened to a story about aliens with lots of colourful illustrations to get their imaginations going and then they had to design their own finger puppet and label it if they could with information about the textiles and resources that they intended to use to make them. They were then presented with the materials to make a puppet and were supported to sew the two halves of the template together and then they independently decorated their finger puppets according their original designs. Their imaginations were brilliant and the results were fabulous as you can see from the resulting display.

Alien Invasion

Alien Invasion

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ICT 18.11.13

November 18, 2013 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Talked about apps and use of layering  them to be able to develop a resource for use in the classroom. I already use the ‘Hat’ app as a tool when teaching the whole class. It allows me to choose children to take part in particular activity without the need for hands up. Initially I wasn’t sure about it as I felt it slowed the lesson down too much, but the children specifically asked for it to be used during our maths lesson this week and admittedly it saved all of the fidgeting and saying ‘me, me’ when I am at the stage of children doing a practical aspect of the lesson.

 

We have been talking about presentation software today and have managed to create a birthday greeting which can be found via the link below

 

http://animoto.com/play/Qs61J7NC65uoJjuYuflvvg

10.3.14

Have used some of the resources from the lecture on 18th November to teach children ICT. The lesson objective is to create a greetings card using ICT technology. During the first lesson I supported children in choosing an image to paste onto the front of their card, the second lesson was to type the Easter greeting on the front. I also supported another teacher who could not access the resources on the children’s laptops and helped her to deliver her lesson also.

 

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