Acting as facilitators to encourage musical freedom so that children understand the difference between learning music and being taught an instrument. Our role is to guide this process enabling children to ‘speak through the instrument’. 

I found the question his mother posed him very powerful and one we should think about as Pre-service teachers “What does the world need with another good early childhood educator?”. I think the world needs them because children are our future, nurturing young minds in ways that lift them up. Like he discussed using your goodness to support others and help them grow, rather than ever looking down on anyone. All children should be supported, listened to and viewed as the capable individuals they are. Part of the educators role is to facilitate children to express themselves in ways that are meaningful to them.

 

If we take Wooten’s view on being born musical and learning to understand music from pre-birth, educators can empower children in their musical development and nurture freedom of musical expression.  Encouraging children to express themselves musically in ways that are meaningful to them supports social, cognitive and physical learning and development.  

Music can connect people to themselves and others around them, as music is a powerful language, a form of communication and expression, it can help us remember words to a song. Music holds so many things for everyone, just as Victor Wooten’s quote “You are already successful, the rest of the world just doesn’t know it yet”!

The Mutton bird are one of the main food sources for the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. They are large birds who make nests in the ground. In this way, they have a strong connection to land, and the people who share the land with them. The music symbolises the natural habitat of the mutton bird. The three bodily movements of the dancers represent the movements of the birds along with colours painted on their bodies represent the colours of the bird. The movement is used to create meaning and story along with connection to the land. Through educating young children about the traditional custodians of the land we can share the teachings and their learnings through movement to create meaning about the land and the children are able to think creatively about how their movement can reflect on their learning of the Indigenous community. 

 

Through a more contempory form of dance, it gives rise to investigating, expressing oneself and supports children to engage in their own ways, be curious and move more freely to music through movements.  It enables us to challenge ourselves and the children within the room, it aids in listening to music, engage, contribute to the connections felt, build self-confidence, be who we want to be and create our story through movements. 

We observe the Mutton birds played out, as these are such strong connections to land and the Aboriginal people who share the land with them. The movements are strong, powerful and gives us time to really think more deeply in the actions that portray spiritual elegance, sacred birds and heartfelt emotions.

It highlighted once again how the Aboriginal people work in partnership with each other, others, the land and animals within their worlds. Here we recognise the importance of connections from the human and non-human existence. 

The resources support ways to deliver Aboriginal perspectives, history, culture within a classroom. I would really like to provide the children within my future classroom the opportunity to be part of a ‘welcome to country’. 

R Murray Schafer explains that “if you listen carefully your life is enhanced” and that we have ‘sound overkill’ in our lives. I can relate to these points in my life. I have experienced moments of connectedness and careful attention to subtle sounds and recall feeling calm and peaceful in these moments. I also find it easy to become overstimulated with sound exposure in daily life and agree that we can make a conscious effort to reduce this sound overkill to help become attuned to more subtle, rich sounds. When he stopped his voice and held up the listen sign, I immediately became aware of so many layers of sounds that surrounded me, that I had not noticed before that moment. 

The video helped me better understand Watt’s concept of place-thought (Watts 2013 cited in Hamm 2015, p.57) as the video’s depicted the land as animate and humans communicating with the non-human world.   

These resources all link to ideas, and experiences for children in the outdoors, to move freely, be curious, investigate as children develop a sense of respect and care for the natural environment through positive interactions. 

It made me redirect my thoughts to another Educator David Sobel who highlights meaningful connections with the natural world, which begins in one’s own backyard and communities, through place-based projects. Engagements with the environments become so rich and rewarding.

 

This video made me extremely emotional. I went through the feelings of anger, guilt and despondent as the video showed educators were taking something away from the children. When children are telling you that they’re expected to listen and to not speak or to discover the world already there we are stripping their imagination, creativeness, and individuality away from them. 99 out of the 100 languages are stolen by educators alone, educators are stealing what means most to children as such a young age just because it might not fit onto the curriculum that they “must” follow. Children show be able to express themselves, who they are and who they want to be without limits and restrictions. This, will be something my practice will be big on as I want children to enjoy who they are and to express themselves in any shape or form. 

R Murray Schafer video, for me highlighted the pedagogy of listening. How listening should be open and sensitive to the need to listen and be listened to. To listen with all senses, not just our ears. Within an ECE setting listening is an important element, with listening comes questions, when we listen to ourselves it encourages us to listen to others.

Through play-based experiences, enriched resources enable ordinary moments possible for us, as Teachers and Educators to observe the learning occurring within these play spaces, in children’s time and space. Children are active agents in their learning and are a large part of the planning cycle. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color?language=en

After watching Victor Wooten's Ted talk, I have realized how freedom is especially important in learner music or movements. For me freedom can also be valued in various aspects of a child’s learning. He mentioned how music is also just like a language. When a baby listens to the voices or sound around them, they adapt the nature and gradually learn from it. A baby has no idea whatsoever they are trying to learn, say or do is correct, but they express and show what they feel is right for them. Music and movements are not taught to children, but they learn by the environment they are exposed to. At an early age they try to explore and discover different ideas and possibilities that become their identity. Just like my experience, I grew up in a different country and moved to Australia. I have no idea how the culture, values, and slang are, but I realized I could freely express myself and was slowly able to adapt to their language; not anyone telling me to change the way a speak or do. I was influenced by the environment and people that I am always with. 

The meaning of ‘Dadirri’ is very powerful message. She says that, “Dadirri the deep inner spring inside us. We call on it, it call on us”. As early childhood educators we can promote “deep listing” to children from their early years. Also, can teach how to connect with the environment around us. Dadirri video showing that how deeply Aboriginal people connected to the environment. Land is their everything. Their spirits deeply connected to the land and environment. 

 

 

In my role as an early childhood teacher educator, I will take children out in the environment on a place-thought walk where they can explore, play and learn in outdoor environment to form strong connections to their land. 

Victor explaining that music is not about playing the instrument, it is about learning to understand the music first also relates to our understanding of a child’s learning. For instance, it shows us that as educators, we have a responsibility to understand and see what each individual child’s interest is, because of course it is never the same and how we approach it will also be different too. 

And so when he says “a lot of people are taught out of music freedom when first given a lesson”, it resonates with me because when we are taught to do something a certain way, we often lose interest and cannot form our own individual ways of learning as well because, we are ‘fixed’ about our ‘pitch and beat’. 

A set structured environment won’t always work for every individual child as there are different ways how children learn and it’s not always the matter of being great academically, some learn creatively and visually while others learn auditory or learning through touch. Understanding what works for each individual child means that we can promote children capabilities to the best and that their voices are heard and supported. 

I think about my own daily life and how much sound I honestly listen to through all the sounds that I hear, I know there are a lot of sounds that redirect my attention.  I am reminded about how many times daily my children hear me but are not listening as their focus is elsewhere.       

The dancers are seen suspended in the air, with their feet secured by foothold that are built into a solid beam. The shapes that the dancers create with their bodies, reflect the mutton birds as they hover above the ground. The dancers move mostly in unison as they twist and turn, smoothly folding their bodies upwards and unfolding them back down.

As I watch the video, ideas of activities and ways to allow children to experience moving their body both individually and

with others, pop into my head. I could use this video to show and give them opportunities to develop an awareness of, and how they might be able to isolate different parts of their body and make specific actions and gestures.

I think about my own life and what sounds I honestly listen to through all the sounds that I hear.  I am reminded about how many times daily my children hear me but are not listening as their focus is elsewhere.      

This also reminds me of a Danish artist Olatur Eliasson, who works in many mediums, but widely known for the use of simple elements like light, water and mirrors, which generates amazing spaces to view.

I also loved watching this clip of a musical artist – Lindsey Sterling – shadows, worth watching.

Music in early childhood practice has become the most significant part of the early year’s developmental skills, as well as children listening and playing with music helps them to learn literacy, numeracy, and emotional skills. I strongly agree to Wooten (2013) video about how to have a music lifestyle by creating a freedom for children. Children naturally have desire for music and movement, and they learn that movement can communicate messages and actions. My view of music is a powerful resource of communication and the way we express ourselves through movements and listening.

As an Educator I will support children with numerous opportunities to get them moving, thinking, and inspire creatively. As Nilad (2009) stated, ‘children are given a musically enriched environment to bring out the musicality with which they were born.’  I believe having a play-based music education setting is the firmest foundation for children to listen to music will develop solid language skills, also supports children to retain their words and express more effectively.  

As an Educator, I can use the Bangarra education resources which has wide ranges of Aboriginal art performance of storytelling will advance my knowledge. The Mutton bird dance is a great experiment for children to do movements and use different actions by doing this as a group that will encourage children to use different levels and body parts of movement. As an early childhood educator, I would like to focus on movement performance for children. In my practice, I will make a dance sequence and do a mix of different movements for children to dance smoothly and calmly with the music. This will lead to cultural diversity that encourages children to respect and value Aboriginal Culture traditions.

Outdoor play in early years learning, displays evidence that nature play is significantly improves all aspects of children’s development. The nature play is a learning experience for children to have the opportunity to engage in unstructured play settings where they use natural materials to discover the real world around them.

 As an educator, I will incorporate outdoor and natural play into my practice that will improve their resilience, self-confidence, imagination, creativity, motor skills and allows children to learn all their senses during their play. Overall, implementing the ‘Common Worlds Framework’ in practice, children will be learning how the real-world works is by exploring the nature play.

Agreeing to Edwards et al (2011, p. 302) noted that “in our ongoing quest to give more excellence and quality to education.” As educator, we play a vital role in providing opportunities to work through children’s ideas and understand their world. In my practice as an Educator, I will use the concept of the Reggio Emilia’s approach by allowing the children to explore their own way of learning. Overall, I believe each child is born with full potential, therefore my goal is to embed 100 languages into practice.

As an Educator, I will promote the Aboriginal culture ‘Dadiiri Spirit’ of deep listening of sounds of nature, will help children to understand and respect towards cultural diversity. Developing acknowledgement for Aboriginal wisdom tradition in our practice will help children to value and deepen their connection with the land and nature.

 

This is a world that we share with children and we, as educators, have that responsibility to delve into children’s relation to place. By including the natural world into the teaching, children will explore the outdoors to feel, see, hear, smell, and touch the ground in which they stand on and form connections to the land. By using the common worlds as a starting point I can explore Indigenous concepts like the place thought walk. 

The game grants one to create a personal understanding of how we view the world around us. 

This game allowed me to focus on my teaching experience. Furthermore, this could work as a really great example for me to improve my teaching practices and comprehend how to use this strategy on the different learning program.

 

After watching R Murray’s video, I thought I really missed something around myself. After my babies’ sleep, I went to my backyard and listen what I can hear. It was amazing feeling and felt so relaxed after long time. It was mix feelings bit of anxiety. When we pay close attention to surround us, we can hear more thing we never heard before. Now I realized hearing and deep listing providing opportunity to connect with environment.