I work with the entire student body at my school (1000+ students) as their music specialist. They are comprised of a diverse and eclectic mix of cultures and socioeconomic classes spanning all ages and all stages of academic achievement. They stand as a beautiful celebration of the human spirit! Through music, my students creatively explore ways to communicate who they are, where they have come from, and the journey they are on. Henry Matisse once said, "Creativity takes courage." In my classes that is certainly the case!
Music provides me with a wonderful opportunity to help my students develop a healthy sense of self and community through creatively integrated experiences that enhance their ability to learn and grow.
It gives them what they believe is a "break" from learning when in fact, they are learning and growing continually as they perform, play, and create.
My Project
I am particularly interested in teaching the ukulele to my students because it is not only an excellent way to learn music theory, practice composition, and gain confidence through performance, but it also naturally integrates with language arts, science, and social studies too! I plan on teaching my students how to sing and play various folk songs from the United States and Around the World. These lessons will offer me opportunities to broaden the scope of my student's cultural understanding and provide them with musical connections to historical events. I also plan on helping each child create his or her own "folk" compositions individually and as a class. These compositions will require work with poetry, rhyme, meter, and form which have undeniable ties to language arts and expression. Finally, there is a beautiful scientific thread between the ukulele and physics which can be both easily seen and heard. Frequency, resonance, reverberation, etc. are all a part of producing sound on a ukulele, and they will easily be taught as we perform, experiment, and explore. Unfortunately, I am a new music teacher, and my school does not own one bit of music equipment to help me reach my musical and academic goals.
If you help me fund these undeniably versatile ukuleles, you will be making a solid investment in my students' musical, scientific, cultural, and overall academic achievement.
I will absolutely find a myriad of ways to teach music and academics with these ukuleles. Also, giving my students the opportunity to express themselves through performance and composition is of supreme benefit to their psychological and emotional grown. Finally, I will become an unending source of support for the teachers at my school in their extraordinary efforts to educate our children!
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