more feet

stand in the place where you live

yes. another photo from burning man.

i went to an elementary music workshop today.. spent a lot of time singing little songs and doing all sorts of movements.. i liked the woman leading the workshop a lot.. it seems she has a lot to say, but felt pretty limited in what she was able to give to us.. time restraints and things keeping her down.. she was really big into giving her students a lot of freedom and opportunity to improvise and do whatever.. more about the process than the outcome.. which is nice.. a lot of teachers out there right now are so freaked out by N.C.L.B. (no child left behind) that they can only think about how they will satisfy the standards, what sort of assessment needs to be done, how are they going to know exactly what the students are learning.. but she wasn't that way at all.. (although she did admit that she retired before all of that.. she didn't even have to give her students grades..) but it's not like she wasn't teaching anything.. she taught and then figured out what fit into the standards.. just didn't let it get her down.. i guess..

i spent most of friday morning at an elementary school doing observations.. this music classroom was pretty restricted, formulaic.. very.. standardized.. and the teacher was pretty upset/worried about fulfilling the standards.. she was trying out a new process to teach a particular rhythm.. (she asked me during the break if i thought it was ok.. i didn't really think it was the best way, but it was all right..) and she was all worried about it because the kids had to be tested on it and she wasn't sure if they were going to be able to convey it.. i guess i haven't seen a music teacher (of any level) that worried about the standards..

she also did something i thought was completely inappropriate.. poorly handled.. there was a new kid (third grader) in class.."Omar".. it was his first day in the music class.. and since the environment is pretty regimented, the kids have little things they have to do when they are doing a particular activity.. and since Omar was new, he had no idea what was going on.. he didn't know what "putting the ghost beat in your hands" was.. so he wasn't doing it.. and she got on his case.. and the first time it happened, she asked the other kids, "Does Omar know English? Does he speak English?" to which they all gave a pretty emphatic "Yes!".. and she said "Well then.. you need to pay attention!" i didn't like that at all.. there are a lot of bilingual and spanish speaking students in the area and particularly at this school.. but there are better ways to find out if the kid speaks english.. better than asking the other kids in the classroom like he's not there.. i thought it was pretty disrespectful.. the poor kid ended up getting his name on the board followed by a checkmark.. which could've been avoided by either giving him instructions on what he's supposed to be doing.. or if she didn't have any time for that, she could've had another student help him out.. there's nothing wrong with a little collaboration.. kids need to learn how to work together, teach each other, learn from each other anyway.. argh.

she had another class, fifth graders, that she kept telling them they were dull.. and she told me prior to class starting that they were a difficult class, hard to get them to be enthusiastic and that she had been telling them they'd better "step it up" so to speak.. and when they came in, she told them that she had told me all about how they weren't a very good class.. it was awkward.. there's nothing like some negative reinforcement to really put a fire under their.. class.. ass.. ha. and they did pretty well during the class time i was there.. and she told them that they were all right, but still really really DULL.. and she told the following class how much better they were than the other class and how the other class is dull.. pretty sure that's not the way to get the kids to participate.. why not trying something different, something that will spark interest, make them want to learn what she wants to teach them.. i'm sure she'd blame N.C.L.B. on having to teach in this strict manner..

so that's what i've been doing.. trying to balance observations, classes, work, hazel and everything else..