Reflecting is the best way to grow and learn as a human being and especially as a teacher. I gave another mock general music audition lesson yesterday. The topic again was tempo and ironically enough I definitely changed the tempo of my lesson. Last lesson I relied to heavily on technology and although I believe technology can help teach a lesson, I have noticed that it can hinder a lesson and stop it dead in its tracks. If a teacher is not fluid with the computer then there is a lot of dead time that needs to be filled up. I think I need more practice multitasking to better incorporate technology.
So for this lesson I cut out as much technology as I could and just tried to switch the flow of the classroom. I tried to get my students more involved in the class and not talk as much as I did last lesson. I began by getting the class clapping together and asking questions about tempo while we clapped and changed the tempo of our clapping. I then wanted them to break into groups, use a metronome, and create their own rhythmic patterns which would then be subject to varying tempos. I did not give many requirements aside from having at least one steady pulse rhythm to keep them grounded and having at least 3 varying rhythms and body percussions. I let groups work independently and they were able to come up with good rhythm patterns that worked at varying tempos. I might reconsidered letting students make their own rhythms because that could take a majority of the class period. I might have made some rhythms samples that they could choose from and play around with. The lesson was about tempo, not creating rhythms and I need to stay focused in my lessons. While I was teaching during the lesson I got held up trying to put up the clock example. I think this slowed the lesson down but I recovered quickly from it and let the students use their own metronomes to practice different tempos. I think it was good to have the students try out different tempo markings to help learn the name of the tempos and feel how fast or slow those tempos markings are supposed to go. At one point the whole class was stomping along to the beat of one group to assess whether each group was getting the right tempo. This can assess how groups understand tempos and how other groups can learn to feel tempos.
Overall I think it was a more enjoyable lesson for my students because it didn't have them waiting to get to the activity and kept the active the whole time. It evens gives students a chance to be a part of the assessment process for each other which is a good skill to have.
