Wednesday, July 20, 2005

We survived!

I have noticed that most of my posts have exclamation points, I wonder if there is something psychological behind that.... Anyway....

So still in San Marcos taking my class. There are three levels of this course. Each year you learn the pedagogy behind teaching certain melodic and rhythmic elements to kids. I remember when I was in level one we got to watch some level three teachers teach their peers in front of us. We call it teaching lab. They were such good teachers, they had beautiful transitions between games and their songs, I was in awe. Then the 3rd week of level one, we had to get up and teach a mini lesson for about 2 minutes, I survived. 2nd level was about 5 minutes, and today I had to teach for 10 minutes. That doesn't sound very long I know. I usually teach kids for 45, but those are kids! Today I had about 40 adults watching me, plus the 3 faculty members who were taking notes and checking my pitch with their tuning fork. But it went pretty well and I learned a lot about the language that we have to use to ask questions to children.

Then the 3 faculty members got in a heated discussion about how to present the concept that we were working on, one eighth note followed by a sixteenth. It was very interesting and they were very passionate about their theories. Who knew that teaching music was so much like a science?

It was such a relief when we were done that my roommate and I decided that we would celebrate and go and get a smoothie. As we were leaving our dorms we looked at each other and thought, I hope no one finds out that we didn't go straight home to start on our homework. That is when you know you are overworked.

7 comments:

Amy said...

You deserve that smoothie! No guilt! Slurp that smoothie and pat yourself on the back. You are almost through with this whole thing!

Anonymous said...

Becca,
I am so proud of you and what you are getting out of this class. I am looking forward to the last day when we can come watch the results of this year. I will call Dr.and Mrs. Gastler to see if they can come. You deserved the smootie.

Karen said...

Mom, what's a smootie? i want one of those!

Becca, that is funny that the profs sit in the back with a tuning fork! I'm so glad that you will be able to get the school credits for all this hard work! Hang in there!

Chris said...

Once, when I was an instructor in the Navy, I was scheduled to teach a class on a subject that I was a little fuzzy on. So I sat in on the same class taught by an old grizzled Master Chief who was an expert in the field. Bad mistake. He taught the class so well, that I was more nervous after the class, than I was before the class.

Anonymous said...

karen,
I will have to look up the definition of a smootie in the dictionary . I will make you one when you come home the next time. I am sure you wiil be anxiously awaiting the surprise!

Chris said...

May I have a chocolate Smootie?

Chris said...

Remember when people used to post things on this blog? Those were the days.