HAPPY ALASKA DAY!

Oh, beloved Alaska Day.

Fall in Juneau. :)

You can probably count on my blog posts sounding extra chipper any time Alaska bestows a beautiful three-day weekend upon me. It’s truly a miracle that I get a whole extra day to rest and work because I have had so much to do this weekend, I wouldn’t have gotten any sleep if I had to finish it in two days!

Last week was a nice, long week with some pretty big moments.
Some cute things first: I love rainy days because I get to see those adorable, tiny Xtratufs in my classroom. There was a violin class that had three little first graders in a row wearing their rubbery brown boots, and it just made me smile.
I also discovered that frowns can make you smile! We were teaching that first grade class how to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the violin this week, and when Lorrie noticed that the class was being squirmier than usual, she had them sit down as she read through a picture book of Mary Had a Little Lamb for them. Lorrie added little interludes throughout the story, during which Sophia and I would play the melody using different effects to depict what was happening in the plot. If the lamb was running, we played the melody with short, fast notes. If the lamb was cold, we did tremolo. My personal favorite, though, was when the lamb fell in the mud and was all alone and sad. Lorrie asked the first graders to pretend to be sad, and I joined in with my infamous frowny face. Those of you who know me well, know my frowny face. I should really get elected for some hall of fame because of it. But I am satisfied enough with getting the happy giggles of first graders, which I definitely received from a number of students once they saw my epic frown. Whether they were actually sad or pretending, I didn’t see any frowns after that!

So, classes were good this week. I taught a second grade all on my own for the second time, and it went pretty well! I understand what I could have done differently for the parts that didn’t go smoothly, which is exciting. At the beginning of my teaching experiences this year, all I could do was walk away from lessons feeling proud that I survived for those 45 minutes. I was never sure why the kids were reacting certain ways as I was teaching, though. After debriefing with Lorrie each time and learning more in my education classes, I now understand that scaffolding, good pacing, and credibility of my voice and body are significant ways to ensure a smoother lesson. I am getting a clearer understanding of what I can do differently each time. Yay for improvement!

I was able to visit Riverbend Elementary, one of the other schools in Juneau with the JAMM program, and work with their JAMM kids after school on Tuesday. I had a blast working with the librarian in the two classes she teaches. During this library class, kids go to certain music-learning websites that either help them with note-reading or introduce them to different musical instruments, and both of these platforms are engaging and educational. The kids in the first class were working on note-reading, so I walked around the computer lab to see if any of them needed help. I eventually came to a boy who was sitting at a computer away from everyone else and asked him if he needed any help. As I sat down to work with him, I could tell he was shy about the fact that he couldn’t read any of the notes he was supposed to be naming on his online activity. I worked with him for the rest of class and discovered halfway through that he is fluent in Spanish! So I asked him if I could practice with him and began talking to him and explaining everything in Spanish. With a little help from a treble clef cheat sheet, he was able to name a handful of notes in the timed game he was playing- it was so exciting to see him get it! I eventually took away the sheet to see if he could do it, and his knowledge of note names had increased significantly. It was awesome! I talked to the librarian, who is also a teacher friend I made from the Basic Arts Institute, and she told me that he has literacy issues and that I picked a great student to give special attention to. I have noticed for a few years now that in social situations, I tend to gravitate toward the people who are standing or sitting in the corner- I think mostly because I can be quiet and shy, too, so I understand that feeling. It’s neat to be able to go from doing that not just at parties and Bible studies, but also in the classroom!

On Thursday evening, I attended my second Juneau Symphony rehearsal and had a great time! I just love playing in orchestra, especially when we are playing repertoire like Dvorak’s New World Symphony. I have been having pain in the front of my right shoulder for a while now (actually, for the past 1.5 years, off and on…), but it’s gotten worse since being here. So it now hurts each time I play. I am kicking myself for not going to the doctor sooner, but I am thinking that if it gets worse, I might need to try to figure out another side of the Juneau healthcare system before I go home in December! If any of my Juneau friends are reading this, I’m totally open to suggestions for doctors!

A Wells Fargo representative also visited JAMM classes on Friday
to give JAMM a gracious donation of $2,500!

One part I love about playing with the Symphony is working with Troy Quinn, our new music director. He is completely supportive of our MAT program and has always been very welcoming and friendly. He is also very interested in the JAMM program and reaching out to the community, which he showed by coming to visit JAMM on Friday and working with the kids! He was able to witness the organized chaos of 3rd and 4th/5th grade orchestra classes. The quartet performed for the 4th/5th class, and then the class performed that same piece for Troy. He gave some comments to the class, and they worked through some things with him. It was a similar schedule for the 3rd grade class. I felt proud to show someone the magic that happens at Glacier Valley. I am really loving working with this JAMM program. As I continue teaching with JAMM, I have been thinking about my experiences teaching with the El Sistema-inspired programs in Chicago. Those programs will always be special to me, as they led me to fall in love with this music education philosophy, and they are very different from JAMM because they cater to a different culture and place. But there are some significant aspects of JAMM that I think make it a standout program: 1) JAMM occurs during the school day, in addition to being afterschool. Lorrie is the music teacher at Glacier Valley and is also the founder and director of JAMM. She sees these same kids during general music classes and knows all there is to know about the GV atmosphere. Instead of being a stranger who shows up to use a random school teacher’s classroom for a couple hours, she can use her own room and her colleagues’.
2) JAMM encourages the partnership of school teachers and artists in the community to bring quality music education to students. We have our two tech-savvy third grade teachers leading music technology classes for JAMM kids. This is where kids learn how to record themselves for JAMM online lessons and how to asses their peers using SmartMusic. We have a kindergartener teacher helping co-teach a class and handle the logistics (such as the significant task of collecting the afterschool attendance sheets from all 7 classes for the 130+ kids). We have teaching artists coming in from the community to teach ukulele, violin, cello, and bass. JAMM not only brings the students and their families together, but it also brings teachers and artists from around Juneau together, all in the name of providing a brighter future for these kids we love.

Having JAMM classes during the day (which is what our entire Friday is dedicated to- each grade has an assigned 45-minute period where they come together for JAMM orchestra) establishes continuity for the kids because they receive their music education in the same place with the same people, three days a week. It’s a good system, and it is sustainable and organized.

After the intense JAMM Friday’s are done, I hop on over to a teaching studio I am now using Friday evenings for my two private students. I have found one of these students through Meghan, my standpartner in the Symphony and co-teacher at GV, and the other through our quartet page! I knew social media was good for something. They are both 14 year-old high school freshman. I don’t have as much experience teaching older students, so this has been an interesting experience for me! I’m not worried about not being able to help them musically, but I’m realizing that I have to get out of “elementary school teacher mode” before they walk into my room. Let me tell you- teenagers are a lot different than fifth graders!! But I’m figuring it out. Last Friday, I assigned one of my students to choose her favorite pop song and figure out the tempo and time signature of it at home and bring it into her lesson this week. I did this because she had been having trouble maintaining a steady beat, and I was curious if it was because she couldn’t feel the beat or if she was distracted by the whole playing-this-abnormal-chunk-of-wood-thing. It turned out to be the latter! She was able to find the correct tempo and keep a steady beat, and we even danced and laughed to her music to celebrate her correct analysis of the tempo. My next step is to get her playing the beat on her cello. It felt like a shot in the dark to give her that assignment, but it seems to be working so far, so I’m excited about that! And I am really grateful to be making a little money this year through those lessons!

I have actually had my share of working with high schoolers this week because I taught two Spanish I classes three days last week! I am doing a short unit on Day of the Dead, and Tyree, my TMHS mentor teacher, has been helping me through the planning and execution of the lessons. The lessons went well, and I learned a lot. His main criticisms after seeing me work with the classes had to do with me adjusting my timing and language. Oh, right...they’re 5-8 years older than my GV students...haha! It’s sort of neat and confusing to work with both age groups at the same time. But how cool! Yay Spanish!!!!

Me, Tyree, and Sophia after the TMHS concert!

Oh, and I also conducted my first orchestra concert with the Thunder Mountain Orchestra on Tuesday night...I keep forgetting about these epic things I did last week! That was a great success! Tyree introduced me and Sophia to the audience, explaining the program we are doing and that we will be working with their kids this year, and a number of them came up to us afterward to congratulate us and welcome us to the community. So nice! It was an exciting night.

I think those are all the big things I can remember right now! I am beginning to plan a unit that I am required to teach in a month, and I have decided to do my unit with a fourth grade general music class at GV. We will be focusing on the connections between culture, music, and identity, all through the lens of jazz. I’m really excited about it! As soon as I figure out the details, I will lay them out on here. :)

I slept in for the first time in possibly months the past two days and have been getting a lot of work done, sprinkling in some time to relax as well. I took myself on a 2.5-hour walk today, revisiting my beloved flume trail (which was very slippery from the rain!), stopping by Sue’s to say hi, and making a very much needed grocery store run! After watching a movie with Rob and putting my new tiny grocery store pumpkin on my beautiful desk, I am ready to crank out some lesson plans tonight. But...I still have one more day!!!!

Little tiny pumpkins!