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Young students really like to interrupt the teacher. They want to verbalize every thought they have. The teacher must have incredible patience and work out a classroom management system at the beginning of the year for how students can share their thoughts. The teacher I observed, Mrs. Augustine, had the students raise their hands if they had something to say. While the class sang through their pieces, she would call students up one by one to share what they had to say.

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The students really loved the teacher. They frequently wanted to do what the teacher asked because a relationship had been established. They knew that the teacher cared about them, and it was actually true. She wanted to see them succeed. Because of that, they tried harder.

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Often, the young students were disrespectful to fellow peers. They would interrupt and be rude. At this young age, they are still learning how to act appropriately with one another. The teacher must teach them interpersonal skills and not just skills related to their classroom subject material.

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The square-shaped music classroom was at the end of a hallway. It was carpeted and had a small hallway leading to the door. The children sat on the floor. Sometimes, individual colored carpet squares were utilized to keep the students in their assigned spots.

The piano and a whiteboard were at the front of the classroom. Instruments were in the back corner, as well as cabinets with musical posters on them. The posters included visuals about solfege, dynamics, types of instruments, and other musical terms.

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The procedures were very well established for how class starts and ends. They enter quietly in a line, sit in their assigned spots, and wait for instructions. At the end of class, they silently stand up and start walking in a circle. The teacher will choose someone from the circle to break off and start leading the line out the door to meet their regular teacher.

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When the entire class is not mastering a hard section of a song, make it a solo or small group. That way you can showcase some students while still having everyone sing the easier sections and sound really good.

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With young students, not every activity has to be completely musical. It can be a good idea to incorporate other skills like reading books. These activities can still pertain to music. For example, books can have sounds the students can act out. Stories you act out with motions and sounds can help them understand how we can make different sounds with our bodies and mouths.

Props can be used to provide students with a tangible way of learning.

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The classroom can be decorated for various holidays to promote a fun spirit during the various seasons.

Activities and lessons can be based off holidays. For example, the students were celebrating the 100th day of school with different activities on the third day I observed.

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There was one girl in particular who really liked me. I would sit by her each class and sing with her as we ran through the program. I moved around to other kids as well to not be exclusive, but I loved getting to sit with her and even provide some advice on how to sing. It made me realize that in the future, I will have students that I like more than others. I must be careful to focus on all the students and not show favoritism.

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In the last class of the day, there were two boys who really did not like each other. They would sit on the opposite sides of the classroom and yell at each other from afar. They would make snide comments and even venture closer to the other despite wanting to be far away from them. The teacher had to frequently talk to them and tell them to ignore each other. One of the boys ended up having a para assigned to him as he has some sort of special need. It is hard as a teacher because you want to help them, but you also have a whole classroom of kids. Having another adult whose only focus was one of these kids helped so the teacher could continue to teach to everyone.

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On my fourth day at Woodrow Wilson, they had a school-wide assembly. It was very eye-opening to see how hard it is to hold the attention of a very large group of kindergarten-6th graders. I experienced a few tactics that I can use when I am a teacher at assemblies. First, the teachers for each classroom sat in chairs right next to their class. When a student would not stop talking, the student would be asked to come sit in front of the teacher. A little bit of isolation usually solved the behavioral problem. The principal, who was leading the assembly, utilized the Woodrow Wilson wolf pack sign of holding up your hands in the imitation of a wolf and being quiet to help rein in the students.

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I frequently saw one student helping another. They would show a peer where we were in the music. They would use integrity on each other by asking a peer to be quiet so they would all be doing what was right.

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The school was very colorful and kid-friendly. There were posters and pictures hung up all throughout the school. It was organized and geared toward young children.

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I was very impressed with how amazing all the teachers were. They knew how to interact with young children. They were also very nice to their fellow teachers. Every teacher I talked to was very helpful and kind.

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I got to watch a rehearsal of The Star Spangled Banner for a performance by 5th and 6th graders. It was so refreshing to hear harmonies and older singers after being surrounded by kindergarteners and first graders. I was able to experience the teacher conduct and provide feedback to her singers. She even let me tell the students a couple things I would have them work on! It was so exciting to be a part of the process of putting together a song.

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The teacher provided a safe environment to make mistakes, learn and grow. She would ask questions and encourage answers, even if students were unsure. The teacher was friendly and welcoming. She knew all their names and really cared about them.

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Many of the students had good friends in the classroom. I noticed that the teacher often had them not seated by each other so that everyone could focus. This sometimes led to students wanting to communicate across the room to their friends. They would yell over the rows of children are often turn around to see their friends. The teacher handled this by asking students to look at her at the front or to be quieter.

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The atmosphere of the school was very safe. No one could simply walk into the school. Visitors have to buzz the front office. Once let in, visitors also have to buzz into the office. Once there, visitors explain why they are visiting and also sign a log. There was even a folder for K-State students who were visiting for observation hours. This way, clear records are kept of frequent visitors here for occupational purposes.

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At this young age, many of the students cannot read yet. It is important to incorporate activities that do not require reading. However, you can still stimulate the growth of learning to read by adding small pieces of reading into activities. For example, the teacher would read a book to the young kids and show them the pages. They would often pick up on some of the words that were repeated often.

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The first graders were struggling with some of the difficult verses in a few of the songs in their program. For some, there were simply too many songs to learn. The teacher would pay attention to see who was mastering the hard parts. She then would assign those parts as solos and give the other kids spoken or dancing parts instead. Before assigning, she asked each student what they were comfortable with doing. If they did not want to sing a solo, she was not going to assign one to them. She was really considerate with how she handled this situation.

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When many students were being disruptive, the teacher would praise those who were doing the right thing. This often motivated the disruptive students to want to do the right thing as well. This subtle classroom management idea and others would be a good idea to think about before teaching.

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It was very eye-opening to see how often activities must be repeated with students this young. It is easy to want to teach at a level of understanding that is too high for your students. I learned that activities must be simple and easy to repeat. Getting the students excited about activities by putting a lot of creativity into them is a great way to produce productive results from these activities.

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As a teacher, we can expect a lot out of ourselves. We should really understand the material we are teaching. However, we will never get to that level of understanding with elementary school children. I learned that I cannot share every bit of knowledge about music I have to kindergarteners because they will not understand my college-level information. Instead, we must find ways to teach students the basics of the subject. Getting them started on a good foot will help them quickly learn deeper levels of the subject as they get older.

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After a long assembly, there was about fifteen minutes left in class. As we took the children back to the music classroom, we knew they would be too distracted for a lesson or to practice their music. However, we did not want to just waste time. Therefore, the teacher decided to play music videos on the projector through a website geared towards kids. It was very similar to Just Dance on the Wii. The students were exposed to music as a fun activity that proved music can be recreational and fun with friends. We danced and sang along. It was really fun to just relax and be silly with the students. While it was easy on the teacher because she did not have to provide a lesson and only had to manage the classroom, it also got the students exposed to different ways that music can affect our lives.

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As I took notes in my iPad, the first graders were singing through their program about the alphabet. I really loved the repertoire and wanted to remember how one of the songs went so I could look it up later, so I recorded this video for reference. I didn’t wanted to include any of the children just to be safe. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to sing with the children and be involved in the process of putting together a program.