Questionaire for El Ed. Teachers using music in the classroom

[apav1]

A. Subject Information
No names are necessary. Please do include
• The grade level of your class.
• The number of years you have been teaching.
• Public or Private School?
• Special area (if any.)
• Musical training that you have had (Instruments played and years studied.)
• Classes taken in music appreciation, history, or theory.
• Performing groups in which the teacher participated in
 Grade school
 Middle school
 High school
 College
 In the community


B. Teacher Questions
1. How often do you use music in your classroom?
2. How much time do you usually spend on the music portion of the lesson?
3. For what purpose or purposes do you use music as part of the lesson? (e.g. class management, useful transfer to other subjects.)
3a. Do you use music to facilitate reading? How?
4. How do you incorporate music into your lesson(s)?
5. What materials or sources do you use?
6. Where do you acquire the materials or sources?
6a. Do you ever use a music series text?
7. Are there music specialists in your building?
7a. In what specific areas? (e.g. general, band.)
8. Do you combine or integrate your efforts with music specialist(s)?
9. Have you seen any specific benefits from your use of music?
9a. If so, What are they?
10. How do you handle special student needs when using music? Do you find that students with special needs benefit more or less from use of music in the general curriculum?
11. What other words of wisdom or cautions could you impart to a new teacher regarding the use of music within the general education classroom by an elementary education educator?

[JEC]

<font face="Verdana, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by apav1:
A. Subject Information
No names are necessary. Please do include
• The grade level of your class.
• The number of years you have been teaching.
• Public or Private School?
• Special area (if any.)
• Musical training that you have had (Instruments played and years studied.)
• Classes taken in music appreciation, history, or theory.
• Performing groups in which the teacher participated in
 Grade school
 Middle school
 High school
 College
 In the community


B. Teacher Questions
1. How often do you use music in your classroom?
2. How much time do you usually spend on the music portion of the lesson?
3. For what purpose or purposes do you use music as part of the lesson? (e.g. class management, useful transfer to other subjects.)
3a. Do you use music to facilitate reading? How?
4. How do you incorporate music into your lesson(s)?
5. What materials or sources do you use?
6. Where do you acquire the materials or sources?
6a. Do you ever use a music series text?
7. Are there music specialists in your building?
7a. In what specific areas? (e.g. general, band.)
8. Do you combine or integrate your efforts with music specialist(s)?
9. Have you seen any specific benefits from your use of music?
9a. If so, What are they?
10. How do you handle special student needs when using music? Do you find that students with special needs benefit more or less from use of music in the general curriculum?
11. What other words of wisdom or cautions could you impart to a new teacher regarding the use of music within the general education classroom by an elementary education educator?</font>

I am a first grade teacher with 29 years of experience. I use music a great deal in my classroom. I can sing, but I do not play an instrument. I have had no formal music training, just love it. I have developed a workshop for teachers where they find a song to use in the classroom, and put the words of it in a "Big Book" form. This will support the science and social studies curriculums of your district,and be an extension of your reading program. We sing our vowels, our spelling words and number facts. I even have a song I sing when someone in the class has been mean with their words! If you would like more information, contact me- jecreations@hotmail.com

[Newbie]

4th grade
first year of teaching
public school
no special area
Bachelor of Music from conservatory
piano, guitar, voice (multiple years in all)
Courses required for degree in music (history and theory)
Multiple performing groups in all grade levels and professionally

I use a weekly music segment. When the kids are restless and tired on Friday afternoons, it's a great way to slip them a little "culture" whilst letting them dance or draw to the music. I have a list of pieces I think kids will especially like and a huge collection of recordings. If I don't have a piece on CD myself, I borrow it from one of my friends from conservatory days! Examples: An American in Paris, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Rodeo - Hoedown (yes, every single kid yelled "hey! that's the beef commercial!"), Coppelia, Wedding March from Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven's 5th - 1st mvmt., "Mambo" from "West Side Story," the list goes on. We have no music teacher, but I would do this even if we did, and I would integrate if we had one and s/he was up for it.

Specific benefits - they looooove this time! It's great for classroom management (they don't want to lose this privilege), I'm able to work in either a little exercise or a little art project, and even the ADHD or ADD kids usually find some focus from the music (they do still have trouble with taking in the facts I give about the composer, however).

Caution: I make a lot of mistakes as a first year teacher. The first one with this lesson would be not having them clear their desks COMPLETELY to the sides of the room in an ORDERLY FASHION before I let them dance. It was like a rave with furniture. Bad move. So the next week I said "okay everyone, move your desks to the sides of the room!" and they all leapt madly to their feet at once and began playing bumper cars with their desks.

I'm learning, I'm learning. Slowly. Some day I will come home and not fall asleep right away.

Wisdom: Make sure to "mix it up" with the tempi, the orchestration, the genre (opera, ballet, orchestral) because the kids have uncanny memories for little things and will say "we listened to this last week!" if you play Beethoven two weeks in a row.