It always feels good to be the one of the first ones to “get it”, whatever it is. It could be a joke, or an idea someone is explaining. For many of us, probably the pleasure of “getting it” has a lot to do with other people recognizing that we got it. For someone who really has mastery of the concept of symphony though, maybe they are often, at least initially, so far out in front, they don’t get that satisfaction, whether they are seeing patterns of human behavior, or patterns of planetary motion. People who really see the big picture probably have to wait sometimes for others to say “great idea”, and by the time they do, people may already be saying “of course it works that way,” as though it has always been obvious.
Gardner talks about lumpers and splitters. I probably lean more toward being a splitter, and an idealist, with hopefully some ability to bridge my islands. I admire people who seem to naturally look at things in terms of cause and effect and see people and situations as they are, rather than as they would like them to be. Being able to see things accurately seems fundamental to being able to connect them well; and being able to put those two skills together probably offers a life of both more realistic expectations and greater peace. But maybe people who really have that ability just have to get their satisfaction from knowing inside that they get it, even if no one connects with their idea at first, and from looking forward to more things they will be able to see as they have more pieces to put together.
When I started to write this, I remembered a quote about people starting out seeing everything individually. I couldn’t remember the whole quote, or even the writer, but in the age of computers and automation, it took about two minutes to find it on Google:
To the young mind everything is individual, stands by itself. By and by, it finds how to join two things and see in them one nature; then three, then three thousand; and so, tyrannized over by its own unifying instinct, it goes on tying things together, diminishing anomalies, discovering roots running under ground whereby contrary and remote things cohere and flower out from one stem.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
from The American Scholar – Mere Thinkers and Men Thinking
Monday, April 26, 2010
An Empathy Symphony Connection
I started out writing about symphony, but after I’d been typing a few minutes and went back to read, I realized I had drifted more into empathy than symphony. And truth be told, I’m probably better at empathy than symphony. I look a lot at how what I do fits into the human side of where I am, and I spend time thinking about responses I get to things I say or do; but that probably would be more about empathy and human relations than about seeing a bigger picture or making conceptual connections. I’m looking at how what I do affects other people and thinking about how they will feel about and respond to that. It doesn’t necessarily involve making broad connections – just individual ones. If the idea of symphony, and synthesis, is first about seeing, and then about connecting ideas, maybe this is more of a symphonette, since it’s about making connections to people and ideas on a small scale with a larger picture in mind.
If I want to work well within my building, I know I need to understand the people I work with, big and small, and be able to connect with them and even understand how they connect with each other. To the extent that they don’t get me and I don’t get them, we’ll probably struggle. If I only look at how things impact the band program, it’s going to be hard for me to foresee challenges that may come up related to how other people will react. I need to always be thinking about how what I do will impact other programs, and maybe especially other people’s daily school life. To the extent that I can do that, I will probably get more long term buy-in and therefore support. I think the same idea holds true for connecting with my students. I love playing the oboe, but not necessarily for the same reasons a third grader is motivated to learn the trumpet. If I assume the same things motivate us both, I’ll probably miss the mark and they’ll eventually lose interest. But in that light, if I don’t see for them the big picture of what is possible, and let my teaching be guided by that, whether or not those things are part of their 3rd grade goals, I will probably limit them because I won’t be helping them prepare for goals they may have later, and maybe that connects back to symphony as well.
If I want to work well within my building, I know I need to understand the people I work with, big and small, and be able to connect with them and even understand how they connect with each other. To the extent that they don’t get me and I don’t get them, we’ll probably struggle. If I only look at how things impact the band program, it’s going to be hard for me to foresee challenges that may come up related to how other people will react. I need to always be thinking about how what I do will impact other programs, and maybe especially other people’s daily school life. To the extent that I can do that, I will probably get more long term buy-in and therefore support. I think the same idea holds true for connecting with my students. I love playing the oboe, but not necessarily for the same reasons a third grader is motivated to learn the trumpet. If I assume the same things motivate us both, I’ll probably miss the mark and they’ll eventually lose interest. But in that light, if I don’t see for them the big picture of what is possible, and let my teaching be guided by that, whether or not those things are part of their 3rd grade goals, I will probably limit them because I won’t be helping them prepare for goals they may have later, and maybe that connects back to symphony as well.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Playing According to Pink
I finished reading Daniel Pink's book several months ago, but for some reason it's been hard for me to get started with the blogging. I almost never post on facebook, and I haven't kept a journal for 20 years, so I just don't do much of that kind of writing. In regard to the book itself though, I thought it was very easy to read. The ideas and the way he communicates are easy for me to connect with. I found myself thinking "of course" a lot, and being glad those skills would be more valued than in the past, since I'm not an engineer or a lawyer. I connected with all six of the senses he talks about, but since music class is all about playing, I though I'd start there.
I have two nephews, one 9, and the other 6, and if I need a lesson in connecting through play, that's a great place for me to get it. My 6 year old nephew and I have spent hours building things with GeoTrax. It's probably more like me handing him pieces and saying "That looks cool!", but I think that's an important part of it for him. Doing it by himself all the time just isn't as much fun. He has just about every set of tracks, bridges and buildings that have been made, so the different design possibilities are pretty extensive. I can actually see him being an architect someday. His dad is a city planner, and what he really loves about his job is the design piece, so if those sorts of things are hereditary, I can see that in Evan. He's not ready for a drafting board or a copy of autocad just yet, but he is developing a skill that interests him through play, and for me he's a good teacher.
Sometimes 3rd grade feels a little young to start band. Learning to read music and make a good sound is serious business:) Many of them are not really big enough to manage a full-size instrument, and the instruments don't come in half and quarter sizes like strings. There also isn't, I don't think, a really good way to do rote teaching with band instruments to just "get them playing". It's not that you can't do it, but I don't think it accomplishes the same thing it does for strings. So much of what strings are learning at the beginning is about position and posture, all of which is visual. The students can learn what they need to know by watching the teacher, and the teacher can evaluate for correctness by watching the students. If it's a homogeneous class, which Suzuki-type classes usually are, they can play together because they are all doing the same thing, and a lot of it can actually be done using games. It's not that a band class can't be homogeneous, but even when it is, a lot of what goes on is not visual, and the fingerings are not always easy to communicate in words, or even to see and imitate. Trying to teach even a simple song without the visual cue of written music can be tedious; and if you add the complication of mixed transposing instruments that exists in a heterogeous class, it can be even more so.
All that said, I think learning to read music in the beginning is important. The kids would definitely love to just get the instruments out and play, in both senses of the word; but without being able to read music, I think most of them would lose interest because they wouldn't be able to do much with it except make a sound. Even to develop play by ear skills, which I think are important, you need a basic way to learn new notes and fingerings.
So, a goal for me for next year is to make learning to read music more of the "fun" part. Eight year olds don't necessarily do delayed gratification all that well, so one of the "play" pieces for me I hope will be related to learning to read. I learned this year that they really like to write on the board, something that I don't remember being as appealing to 6th graders. We spelled words with music notes, but for a long time I did the writing. Next year I will try having small marker boards, or even just laminated posterboard with a music staff so each student can do their own writing and not have to take turns at the big board. I read a book by Reggie Routman recently, and something she recommends in regular classroom teaching is making writing an important part of learning to read, rather letting it be something that comes later. I hope that by doing more music writing, and hopefully more activities that feel like games, the reading skills will develop more quickly, and the students will be more engaged with that part. I think if I pair that with playing the songflutes, it will feel more like play and "fun" to them, which is what I want. They like to move, they like variety, and they like to write, all of which can be incorporated in playing, in both senses of the word.
I have two nephews, one 9, and the other 6, and if I need a lesson in connecting through play, that's a great place for me to get it. My 6 year old nephew and I have spent hours building things with GeoTrax. It's probably more like me handing him pieces and saying "That looks cool!", but I think that's an important part of it for him. Doing it by himself all the time just isn't as much fun. He has just about every set of tracks, bridges and buildings that have been made, so the different design possibilities are pretty extensive. I can actually see him being an architect someday. His dad is a city planner, and what he really loves about his job is the design piece, so if those sorts of things are hereditary, I can see that in Evan. He's not ready for a drafting board or a copy of autocad just yet, but he is developing a skill that interests him through play, and for me he's a good teacher.
Sometimes 3rd grade feels a little young to start band. Learning to read music and make a good sound is serious business:) Many of them are not really big enough to manage a full-size instrument, and the instruments don't come in half and quarter sizes like strings. There also isn't, I don't think, a really good way to do rote teaching with band instruments to just "get them playing". It's not that you can't do it, but I don't think it accomplishes the same thing it does for strings. So much of what strings are learning at the beginning is about position and posture, all of which is visual. The students can learn what they need to know by watching the teacher, and the teacher can evaluate for correctness by watching the students. If it's a homogeneous class, which Suzuki-type classes usually are, they can play together because they are all doing the same thing, and a lot of it can actually be done using games. It's not that a band class can't be homogeneous, but even when it is, a lot of what goes on is not visual, and the fingerings are not always easy to communicate in words, or even to see and imitate. Trying to teach even a simple song without the visual cue of written music can be tedious; and if you add the complication of mixed transposing instruments that exists in a heterogeous class, it can be even more so.
All that said, I think learning to read music in the beginning is important. The kids would definitely love to just get the instruments out and play, in both senses of the word; but without being able to read music, I think most of them would lose interest because they wouldn't be able to do much with it except make a sound. Even to develop play by ear skills, which I think are important, you need a basic way to learn new notes and fingerings.
So, a goal for me for next year is to make learning to read music more of the "fun" part. Eight year olds don't necessarily do delayed gratification all that well, so one of the "play" pieces for me I hope will be related to learning to read. I learned this year that they really like to write on the board, something that I don't remember being as appealing to 6th graders. We spelled words with music notes, but for a long time I did the writing. Next year I will try having small marker boards, or even just laminated posterboard with a music staff so each student can do their own writing and not have to take turns at the big board. I read a book by Reggie Routman recently, and something she recommends in regular classroom teaching is making writing an important part of learning to read, rather letting it be something that comes later. I hope that by doing more music writing, and hopefully more activities that feel like games, the reading skills will develop more quickly, and the students will be more engaged with that part. I think if I pair that with playing the songflutes, it will feel more like play and "fun" to them, which is what I want. They like to move, they like variety, and they like to write, all of which can be incorporated in playing, in both senses of the word.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
