Practicum Observation 3

This week I had the opportunity to observe 2 classes back to back. In the second class I was able observe and participate in some of the activities with the class. The first one was a self-contained class of Kindergarteners.  This class was interesting because it was only 15 minutes, and the teacher only sees this class every 6 days. They don’t get a lot of music time, and when they do it’s so short they aren’t able to do a lot of activites. The teacher started off the lesson by having the students tap the beat for Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.  Almost all of the students were able to follow along by watching the teacher. Following that they sang the welcome song, and the teacher went around to individually sing to each student. I liked this idea because she was able to connect with each student, and you could tell that the students were engaging with her in their own way. She then went through another song with them using the same procedure as the last one. All the students knew the song because they do it every class.  The lesson plan for this class stays the same from class to class. This is helpful because the students recognize the welcome song and know that music class has started, and then they recognize the goodbye song and know that class is ending.  I enjoyed observing this class because it was interesting to see how the instructor was able to connect with each student.  I got to observe the next class as well, which an inclusive second grade class. There were three students with various stages of either autism or Asperger’s, and there was an aid in the class helping them. What I enjoyed about this class was that I was able to participate in some of the activities the class was doing.  For example, we were doing an activity that involved dancing with partners, and I was able to help the students with the activity. The next activity involved finding rhythms. It was a game where there were rhythms cards in the center of the circle and two at a time were given a rhythm and they had to identify out of all the options which one it was.  I was able to take part in the game and help some of the other kids who were having trouble, or didn’t want to participate.  While I wasn’t able to teach a part of the class, being able to participate and aid the teacher gave me more experience working in a classroom that included students with disabilities.