Anna Atkinson

Dr. Gault
F414
1. What observations can you make regarding the environment
a. The room is nicely set up. There is a big open floor space and the furniture is
pushed out of the way. There is a piano in the corner and there arent any
distractions. There is a big carpet that the kids sit on.
2. What teacher-related behaviors did you observe
a. The teacher was very encouraging and extremely positive the entire time.
b. Even when there were some kids not paying attention or not participating in the
activities, she used a positive tone and was very playful.
c. She was very good at making eye contact with all of the students and gave a lot of
compliments.
d. She would make sure that each child had a chance to participate if they were
playing a game, but if they didnt want to participate, she wouldnt force them to.
e. She asked a lot of prompting questions, for instance Do we remember from last
time there was a man who lived in a funny place?
f. She was very comfortable interacting with the students; there wasnt a divide
between the students interactions with each other and the teachers interactions
with the students.
3. What student responses did you notice
a. The students were overall very responsive to the teacher.
b. There were some students who really wanted to participate in each activity and
others who preferred to just sit silently and watch.
c. Most of them seemed to be very comfortable and playful. There were a couple
goofballs who appeared to be looking for a lot of attention and a couple of shy
students.
d. It was very obvious when the students were getting bored with the material they
were working on and when it was time to switch to a different activity.
e. After about 30 minutes the one really quiet girl finally volunteered to have a turn
but was still very shy about participating.
f. During the reading of the story, there were some students who were sitting and
listening, others were speaking along and some were doing their own thing.
4. What can you remember about the instruction and musical material
a. There was a lot of instructional material
b. The class started out with a warm up by shaking arms and legs.
c. Then they moved into sirens by following a bubble with their voices
d. They did some vocal warm ups by pretending they were a falling leaf
e. They then moved into a song Scotlands Burning. This was taught by echoing in
small and then in large chunks.
f. The students were getting squirrely so they played a game Pizza Pizza Daddy O
g. They sang Aiken Drum, one of their pieces for their concert
h. After this, they played another game Hunt the Cattle
i. They learned Kuckaburro as an echo
j. They ended the class with My Favorite Things as a story.
1. What observations can you make regarding the environment
a. The class started in a different space today because of the dress rehearsal
b. There were some more distractions in this room because there were parents
dropping off their children and a lot of people walking around
Anna Atkinson
Dr. Gault
F414
c. The class then moved into the big room with all of the different choirs, this space
had limited distractions
d. The class moved back to their room from my previous observation with a big
open space and furniture pushed out of the way
2. What teacher-related behaviors did you observe
a. Again, I noticed that the teacher was extremely supportive and encouraging.
b. The teachers are very participatory and are very playful with the kids
c. They are never rude or scolding when there are behavior issues
d. The teachers were giving compliments throughout the class
e. The teachers used extremely expressive facial expressions in order to excite the
students
f. The teacher asked questions such as What can I do to help you with that? in
order to get feedback from the students
g. One student was having a difficult time keeping his hands to himself so the
teacher said Everyone sit on your hands!
h. Great eye contact with the students
i. When the students werent listening to the teacher, she said I just want to thank
you so much for being such good listeners! and the students started listening
j. Shined a light on the students who were setting a good example by saying Thank
you middle row for standing up straight and tall!
3. What student responses did you notice
a. The students started off a little distracted because of all the extra distractions
b. When the students moved into the big room, they were very well behaved and
followed the examples set by the older students.
c. They continually were looking back at the older kids to see what they were doing
and how they were responding
d. When the students moved back into their home room, they were very rowdy
e. This was solved by playing a musical game at first to get some of the wiggles out
f. The students had a very open and exciting attitude about the music class for the
most part
g. There were a couple students who did not seem interested in the activities but then
occasionally would volunteer for the games
h. The students all had extremely different personalities, some were well behaved
throughout the class, some were hardly paying attention, some were shy, some
seemed very distracted
4. What can you remember about the instruction and musical material
a. Sang their song for the concert, maybe a little more challenging but was made
easier by singing with the older kids
b. A Rigady Jig this song lends itself to different dynamics and tempos
c. Practiced My Favorite Things worked with them on not scooping on the last 2
notes. They were having a little trouble with the words but the familiarity with the
melody was very helpful
d. Started humming Button you Must Wander this was played as a game and
gave students an opportunity to sing alone.
e. Sang Aiken Drum they were very good at this song, I thought it was an
appropriate level of difficulty for them
Anna Atkinson
Dr. Gault
F414
f. Kuckaburro This song was a little bit more difficult for them because there
were some tricky rests and phrases that repeated but had variations
g. Black snake This was played as a game and gave students a chance to sing
individually

During these observations, I noticed a lot of similarities between the classes and the
material we covered in class. The pacing and difficulty of the material was exactly how I
expected it to be after experiencing the sample Kindergarten lesson in class. All of the material
was of different difficulty levels so that the students were sometimes challenged and other times
were given a little bit of an easy fun break. The class incorporated vocal exploration, gave the
students a chance to be creative with movements and gave them a chance to sing by themselves
in the form of a game. All of these aspects were things we emphasized in class.

The biggest insights I had during this experience were the teachers attitude and the
pacing and variety of the lesson. The positive energy of the teacher was probably the most
important thing I noticed. The way the students responded to the excitement and energy that the
teacher exuded was amazing to me. I also realized how important lesson planning is during this
experience. After each educational activity, the teacher would incorporate a musical game to
give the students a chance to be silly and move around. The students would work so much more
efficiently after taking a little bit of a break throughout the class.