Week 2 of Diva JC Music Teacher

Dear Joan,
The things you had in your blog were great suggestions. You had the kids write down how they feel about music and their emotions that they may be feeling. I will give it a try and let you know what happens. The kids have less and less attention span than we ever did growing up which is a challenge.
Wendell Harrison and Pamela Wise

Wendell,
This is truly the case. They don't get discipline like we did from our parents, teachers and neighbors. They have so many material things that make them think they are "grown" including cellphones, computers, cd players and telephones. They are not afraid of anything. They know they can report us just like we can report them. It is a tough job being a teacher, from the get go, but without the means of disciplining the students, it is closer to "impossible".

Today, I found out that they do not want an "F" or "0" for assignments. They will cheat from each other's work to get the assignment done. It is really difficult when you prefer that they cheat or copy from another student than fail to hand in the assignment at all. So, for their first assignment, MUSICAL WORDS, half of the students did nothing. The other half got grades ranging from B to A- to A, once they did the assignment and handed it in to me.
Diva JC

Also, see my blog, divajcpursuit.blogspot.com

Day 4 - Musical Careers

Today, we discussed capital, business, free enterprise, products, services and Careers in Music:

Vocalist, musician, composer, lyricist, publisher
Producer, Engineer, Booking Agent, Manager, Marketing,
Graphic designer, manufacturer, distributor (bar code)
DJ, Critic, reviews

One class of 8th graders was very responsive. They sang my song "Dreamin'" in the Reggae style, while one young lady and young man beat the drums.

In the last class, someone raised the thermometer to 80 degrees and the room was very uncomfortable. Students were out of their seats, talking uncontrolably and very rude. They were throwing things at each other. I wrote up four young ladies and asked them to leave the room. I called the mother of one of the young ladies whom I asked to leave the day before for cursing at the security guard and announcing to the class that I was the next to be cursed out. Her mother was not happy to hear from me.

Day 2 and 3 - Musical Insturments and Elements

Music classes involved identifying instruments, rhythms, voices, intervals and styles of music.

On Tuesday, students read the lyrics to my song "Dreamin'" and two poems from my book - "Untitled" and "Alone". They were responsive to the messages of the poems. They learned the word "omnipotent" in "Untitled" and realized that their personal power is at stake, if they allow someone else to believe that they are powerless.

However, most of the day was spent commenting on the behavior of out-of-control students. These kids have been left back one, 2 or 3 times. Their self-discipline is minimal.

It will be interested to see how they learn keyboarding. The challenge will be to retain their attention long enough for them to learn scales.