This was the tough session for me, working with just the teachers from the three pre-schools I’m working with – Creative Beginnings and Young Audiences. Michele Russo, my mentor, helped out. We discussed what I ‘m trying to do in my class work with the kids, and then help them focus on using “musicality” in their work. It dawned on me that ‘musicality’ is an interesting way to approach some teacher’s fear of singing.
We worked on the rhythms of speech, (we dissected the rhythm of ‘what was the first thing you thought on Monday morning’), played shakers to that ‘beat’ of the words. We talked about what phrases they already use in the class room, and see if they can make them musical moments. Some good stuff came out of that. I tried to present adding musical notes to these phrases, but found out that the ‘tool’ I would use (xylaphone -type instrument) was not found in any of the rooms. So, I presented the concept of picking the numbers of the notes, and created simple melodies. I gotta work on that – something I learned in CT Hot Schools training. We also talked about taking familiar books in their room, and finding musical moments in them.
The teachers now have homework for a couple of weeks. They have to design an exercise with what we’ve shared, and then, Michele and I will go back and mentor them on what they’ve worked on.
These next visits this week are back with the kids, round two, and see if I can stretch my intentionality, and slow down. (That’s my homework.)