Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth

http://youtu.be/VTRHuNjQwx8

This is the video of the kids of Creative Planet School of the Arts singing. This is the entire school which consists of about 80 kids in all ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade. 

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

How can music instruction most influence a child's ability to perform publicly?

Music instruction can most influence a child's ability to perform publicly by teaching them discipline on and off the stage. 

Positive reinforcement is one of the ways to teach a child discipline and is most applicable when teaching music in any form. There are always rehearsals where you can enforce a positive train of thought even when a rehearsal doesn't go well, but when speaking on performances this is different. Each performance is a stepping stone to another performance, so there is always room for improvement. There are going to be problems in a performance,but the way you word a negative statement can be positive to a child such as, " You didn't hit that high C at the end of the chorus, but I'm sure with more practice at the next performance you will be able to hit it perfectly!".
Also helping a child be a part of their learning of discipline as well as their peers keeps a child focused on the goal at the end, performing publicly. A child's mind in mold-able in their young age so anything said to them or taught to them is much easier for them to retain and reuse. Simply teaching them things isn't as useful; they need to be involved in their learning so helping a child develop their mind, to discipline themselves and help keep others on task is a way that music instruction can help a child.
To help teach arts related discipline more thoroughly also is something that isn't used a lot or required for every teacher but should be, which is the ITA Program. (Integrated Teaching Through Arts Program) Its the teaching of teachers how to integrate arts into their everyday courses and all activities. This disciplines the children to know that their teacher, the adult, and themselves use the arts in all situations of learning. 

Teaching Choral Music in the 21st century, my third interview with Amy Rodriguez and my first independent component, " Your Child's Strengths", "Voices from the Field", and several sources from Chorus America including "The Chorus Impact Study" helped me form my second answer. 

The discipline of a child can be given in any type of situation, but in an art motivated environment the teaching may be easier and more efficient for the child.The positive enforcement that an arts related environment surrounds a child with makes it longer lasting and more enriching to the child. It also gives the child the ability to learn with their peers or from their own experiences, which makes them a part of their everyday learning. 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. I plan to work the 30 hours at my mentorship. I plan to work under
my mentor Mr.Billy, the music teacher Mr. Arafiles, Mrs. Rodriguez 
the piano teacher, and Ms. Hope the solo voice teacher. I plan to
watch classes, and help when necessary. Also I will substitute when 
I am approved and will work along with the kids when I can.
2. I will work at my mentorship which I attend twice a week or 
more and will be more than enough to to cover the 30 hours I need to
finish this component and the remaining of my 50 for mentorship.
3. I will be working closer with my mentor and with people who work
in jobs like my mentors so I will be getting deeper and better ways
to answer my essential question. I will now have different point of
views and more people to interview. 

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

1. 

I'm most proud of my sources cited and mentorship part of my lesson. I feel as though I went very in depth and correlated the two together. I feel in my sources cited I brought out a lot of good information from several different sources showing that I really did well in the research component of senior project. Also I feel my stories and documentation from mentorship shows how closely I work with not only my mentor, but also the place I work with. 

2.
       a. I would give myself a P, since I feel I met all the requirements.

       b. I feel I deserve a P on my Lesson 2 component because I put a lot into the presentation and talked for more than the 10 minute requirement. I also feel that my interactive activity and sponge activity worked well and kept the audience captivated. My information was in depth, and really thought out, though I did stumble whens peaking at times it was because of nerves of speaking in front of the class about a topic I enjoy so much. 

3. 

The lesson template really worked for me by giving me a way to organize my information better than I would have had I not had the template. Also it showed me where I should put things in order for my presentation to make sense.

4.

I would improve my power point if I wanted to improve my Lesson 2 presentation. After presenting I felt I needed more slides and more spacing on my current slides to make the presentation as easy to understand and flow better.

5.

I think my answer two will be something along the lines of, Music instruction most influences a child's ability to perform publicly by teaching a child the values of discipline. 

Blog 14: Independent Component One

Literal:
(a) I, Samantha Torres, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b) Billy Rugh at Creative Planet School of the Arts
(c) linked on the side under Independent Component Log
(d) I used my mentorship as my independent component so I worked with kids from Creative Planet of the ages 5 to 14 as they prepared for the annual winter show. I got to look in on classes as well as watching over and helping with rehearsals.

Interpretive:
My Independent Component helped me look deeper into my topic and spend more time with my mentor. I got to watch rehearsals and work with the choir and soloists as they prepared for their show.

I watched the whole show being performed full out without costumes, I got to help with the numbers that weren't completed at the time and prepare the soloists as they were about to perform. 

This was a view I often saw, I sat in the back of the class so I didn't distract or with the class occasionally as they rehearsed for the show. I also got to sit in on classes where it was simply music being taught or practiced.

This was a music class I assisted, they are in groups to start practicing the recorder and learning new songs from the workbooks in front of them.

Applied:
This helped me understand the foundation of Music Instruction because I got to witness first hand what it takes to teach every type and grade level of a child. No one class is the same every class has their ups and downs but the teacher is what keeps it together. For example in the Music I class there are a lot of pictures, and games to keep the kids attention since they are the younger of the school, where as in a Music II class the children are expected to be able to do work from a book and practice among each other. they work as teams to achieve the next song or next level of difficult in the piano books it just depends on the class.