Posts Tagged ‘teaching’
Life After Certification – Three Things
Although I could write a ton about everything I’ve learned so far this year about being an Orff teacher, I think most of it can be summed up with these three things: 1) Being an Orff teacher takes time. Teaching in the Orff-Schulwerk style requires educator mastery of the material, which can…
Read MoreLife After Certification – Long-Range Planning
Life After Certification – Long-Range Planning Hello, my name is Erin Clevenger, and I am a planner. I know many very successful music educators who can’t tell you what they’re teaching next month, or even next week, but for me that uncertainty would drive me bonkers. I think my biggest challenge is the…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 10
Orff Level I – Day 10 Friday marked the last day of my Orff Level I certification and the day was bittersweet; it was wonderful to look back at all we learned in our two weeks together but sad knowing we wouldn’t see each other and keep learning on Monday. The course culminated in a…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 9
Orff Level I – Day 9 A continuation of the improvisation discussion from Day 7: First, try and use predictable forms during improvisation pieces. You want the students to be concentrating on their improvisation skills, not their memorizing difficult form structures skills (remember that whole “working memory” thing from Day 4?). Second, there are many…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 8
Orff Level I – Day 8 I think it’s time to address the “c word”: concerts (get your head out of the gutter!). For the past two years, preparing for concerts has gone in a very predictable way for me: pick a theme, find songs with CD accompaniments that fit with the theme, and then…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 7
Orff Level I – Day 7 Today’s topic: improvisation! This is a core skill in an Orff classroom (remember, it’s all about creativity) so I wanted to review some of the things we talked about in class today. One big things Roger discussed was making sure we start improvisation really easy with the students and…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 6
Orff Level I – Day 6 This weekend I realized that I have not spent much time, if any, talking about my recorder class and I really want to share some of the things I’ve been learning from Brian Burnett. Almost immediately I learned that he likes to use big words and has very…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 5
Orff Level I – Day 5 In college when asked the difference between the Dalcroze, Kodaly, and Orff methods of elementary music teaching, I always went to a very concise definition: Dalcroze is movement based, Kodaly is singing based, and Orff is instrument based. Now that I am learning more about Orff-Schulwerk, I know what…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 4
Orff Level I – Day 4 Time and time again this week, I keep being reminded of just how engaging and active an elementary music lesson should be. I know that my students have been sitting and listening to me talk too much this year because they were off-task very frequently which was overwhelming and…
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Orff Certification: Day 3
Orff Level I – Day 3 When I found out I was going to be blogging about my experience in the Orff Level I class, I asked some of my friends that teach elementary school what questions they had about Orff-Schulwerk. The question I heard time and time again was: How much does it cost…
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