Blog 18: Third Answer

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

By instilling confidence in a child music instruction can most influence their ability to perform publicly.

-Many teachers are unaware of the humanizing influences that an active arts program can give to not only a child, but to a school. they engage the student directly and in group settings leaving it open to be free from judgment and enabling a child to feel better and more confident in themselves.

- Amy Rodriguez told me of a student who she worked with and whom I have now met in an older age, who had a stutter that held her back in her academic education, but with the help of music(playing an instrument, singing in a choir, and extra singing drills) she is now able to speak with any interruption. I can vouch on this case specifically because I have worked with her and have gone to school with her; music gave her the confidence to be able to mess up her words publicly and not worry about judgment from the other students.
- Also children who do not speak English as a first language are sometimes given arts classes (singing, music, and acting) in order to correlate words with actions or to portray happiness within the music instead of words. They do learn English inevitably, but the music is said to speed up and enable the child, with less stress, in the process.

My main research source would be from my mentorship and also my third interview with Amy Rodriguez, the music teacher at my mentorship who has been working with small children for a long time. Brouillette and Jennings in Helping Children cross cultural boundaries in the borderands talk about how the performing arts help children to learn languages and express themselves with language barriers in better ways, more suited to the child's need. Also Liane Brouillette speaks about the comfort and confidence a child receives when they have an artistic background in How the Arts help children to create healthy social scripts: Exploring the perceptions of elementary teachers.

I believe music instruction gives a child a sense of confidence even if they are confident to begin with. A shy child is just as susceptible to positive feedback as a child with confidence.

Blog 17: Fourth Interview

1. How do you feel children react to music instruction?
2. What qualities does music instruction bring out in children? 
3. How do you handle an unruly music/voice class?
4. What does performing mean to you?
5. What does a person need to gain from a choir experience to be able to perform?
6. Performing publicly isn't for everyone, but can music instruction help this? 
7. What experience do you personally have in choir and/or solo voice?
8. What is the most important part of a vocal class or music class?
9. In an academic classroom setting how does music instruction influence your classes?
10. What does performing teach students?
11. What is the atmosphere of your arts classes?
12. What is the difference between the impact of music in childhood and in adulthood?
13. How are the students set up to rely on each other as a group?
14. What are some changes you've seen in your students this year?
15. When teaching a class what are some noticeable things(actions, feelings, attitudes, etc) you see in the students as they sing or do their work? 
16. Some children are more keen to music than others, how does this effect the teaching process?
17. The end goal of taking music classes is to eventually perform, how do music classes get you to this point?
18. From personal experience, how has music instruction effected you?
19. What aspects in a child's everyday life does performing effect?
20. Are there any experiences with students that specifically stand out to you as they have seemed to develop a skill needed for the future? 

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.