Journal #1

1. In this unit, I learned that students need a base when they learn. The base in music is the steady beat. The steady beat controls everything in the classroom. How fast the song goes, how well the children work together, and the children can use different instruments or body parts. They are using a sense of imagination and learning how to use their bodies in different ways. I know what steady beat is, and the notes, but I did not know that the steady beat can be used for so much more. It is a sense of control. I also never realized is that music is a sense of learning, in no matter what subject the children are taught. We were taught to sing the alphabet, that’s how everyone knows that M comes before N. Also, math uses music too. It helps with multiplication problems on the fingers. The children rely on songs, to remember how to use certain equations or what comes after what in the alphabet. I learned that music is not just music class; It is a sense of control and a learning technique.

2. I learned these by noticing whenever we sang or learned different songs, we were told to play a steady beat. Then the instructor would always sing as we played to the steady beat. And I noticed that not only when she sang there was a steady beat, but that every song in some sort of way, has a different kind of steady beat, whether it’s the drums playing, a small bell or chime, or someone humming or singing a tone in the background. Just like when you build a house, there always has to be a concrete slab so the house stays up. There always has to be a steady beat to keep the song going in time. I also learned these by different examples my instructor showed and used from the class to show as evidence how the steady beat works.


3. It is important for me to learn this about the songs, because I have been in chorus for 6 years, and never realized there was some sort of steady beat in the songs. Now, in this class, I have been shown the basics of songs and how children learn to work together and learn the songs. We are always taught songs or different things, but never told really the basics sometimes. We broke down the songs and were shown how children can really learn and take in what a song means or how it can be fun. Children get excited over little things, and steady beat can be one of them if you sell it to be exciting. I also learned that as a student, you are taught these skills and don’t even realize that is a skill, until you have been told that it has a lot to do with a song. It is also important to learn just about steady beat, but also how to write out lesson plans and to break down how to teach children step by step. You become a great teacher by learning what kids like and how they learn to work that into the lesson, and show them different ways music helps, and how it is a major aspect in their lives. A teacher needs tips, secrets, and any different ways to teach because that makes them a better teacher, and in order to get a career in teaching, you want to be the best of the best.

4. It is important for elementary children to learn about the skills used in music because these are skills they will most likely use the rest of their lives whether they know it or not at this time. They need to know there is always a base or basic part of a song, or a lesson on why they are being taught that subject. The basic will lead them to a more complicated stage and easier to understand when it gets difficult if they know the basic part. Also, they learn to work with each other if there is more than one part of a song or if they need instruments, or if they need to hold a steady beat as a group. Certain songs that children learn help them learn their peers’ names without being shy and having fun while they do it. A chance for memorization, which elementary students will use that all throughout school and strengthens if they have to say everyone’s name and learn it. Elementary children learn the basics of every subject at school. They are young and their minds are curious and they are interested in learning, so whatever you teach them, they will soak it all up and remember for years to come. That’s why when babies learn to walk at such a young age, they know how to do it or when they are taught manners, it comes natural when they are older. Everything they do when they get older will be easier, if they are taught young.