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Katie’s journey back to the classroom (music education)!!

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katie,rinos:
20/6/19
Week 3

I haven’t updated in ages!! Holidays were pretty good- I didn’t do a lot besides sleeping in. On the last week, I went to the bible societies mid-year conference which was really good (apart from the food). I became closer friends with a couple of people from music which was great and learnt heaps of new information. Was pretty happy with my marks from last term as well!! :)

I don’t like my timetable for this Term-I’m at uni normally 4 days a week. On Mondays I have a 5 ½ hour break in between classes and have a lecture from 6-8. Wednesdays and Thursdays I’m only at uni for 1 ½ hours.
This is my timetable

M&S4: This is the last theory unit for my course!! Our tutes/lectures & studios are really small and there’s only around 20 of us in each. This course mainly focusses on jazz theory (which I don’t know anything about!!). So far, in our tutes we’ve been going over melodic dictation/sight singing and the pieces for our listening list, studio goes over jazz harmony and the lectures are going over a fugue composition we have due in wk 5. Honestly, am starting to enjoy these classes a lot more than I did last year. :)

Indigenous perspectives: I have friends who did this class last year and told me it was bad, and it is incredibly boring :(. It doesn’t help that the lectures are from 6-8 on a Monday night so I’m really tired by the end of it. This course is a first year education course but has a really high fail rate (which our lecturer and other students have said heaps). The first assessments due the same day as my M&S composition: it’s a 1500-word teacher standpoint about working with Indigenous students. Doesn’t sound too difficult but I’m not motivated to start at all (so far the readings have been so dry).

Performance Lab: We haven’t done too much yet. Our lecturer made a list of people who have to perform in front of class and I’m playing next week, and being assessed in wk 10. Our pieces for wind sympth are harder this term then last, so I’ve had to print them off to practise at home. We had a sectional rehearsal with the clarinets this week to work on some of the harder parts.

katie,rinos:
1/8/19
Week 9
It’s been a while in between updates. I think I found it a lot easier to update my HSC journal then this one at the moment.

Theres only 1 1/2 weeks left of term which I’m really excited for. I can’t wait for holidays (even though I don’t have anything planned yet), but I still have 6 more assessments!! This week’s especially been really busy-I’ve been at uni for 4 nights and all 5 days. I think I preferred trimesters more last term: it’s been really annoying this term because everybody (my siblings/other unis) was on holidays and we were only halfway through the term.

I’ve found this term to be (probably) the best socially. Because I’ve had heaps of breaks in between classes, I’ve been able to hang out with people in the Webster corridor or at CBS things, or on the train home. I think our music cohort is a lot closer then the education one still (I mainly seat with music friends in education classes). This is really good because I haven’t really been enjoying my units too much compared to last term.

We had to make our timetables on Tuesday for next term. I’ll be at uni 3 days and then on placement Thursday and Fridays. Next term, I’m doing Performance Lab, Music studio teaching (the first pedagogy unit) and placement. I’m really excited for pedagogy because it looks like there will only be around 15 of us and a lot of my friends. It also seems like a fun class. We had to fill in our forms for placement last week and I’m hoping to get a school close to home. I’m going to have to buy some more clothes for it because most of the stuff I wear now is too informal. I'm looking forward to it so I hope it goes well (although I think I'll be really nervous the first few days).   

A quick update on each of my units:

Performance Lab: Our studio classes for this has mostly been boring so far. I have a performance assessment next Monday which is a workshop presentation where I need to play a piece and then talk about it. I’m playing one of my HSC pieces (Schumann fantasy piece 2) and one of my friends is playing piano for it. Wind Sympth has our concert on Friday!! Our pieces are harder then last term but they sound cool!

Indigenous Perspectives: I’ve found this one incredibly boring!!! I was really happy with my first assessment mark though. In wk 7, we had a walk-on country excursion at La Perouse instead of tutes, which was a lot more interesting then the lectures. Our next assessment is a 1500 word essay & a 5 minute video which I’m not keen on.

M&S4: I was really happy with my composition mark but I’m a little nervous about some of my other marks that haven’t been released yet. We still have a test in our jazz studio, sight singing test and a music lit test left. I feel like I learn a lot in these theory classes but I’m so happy this is the last one.

katie,rinos:
18/9/19
Week 1

Feels weird going into a third term, because of semesters last year. I didn’t really get up to much in the holidays, & they seemed to drag on a lot towards the end (especially because I don’t have exams, so they go for a month).

I was really happy with my marks last term! I got my first HD, in my least favourite course (was also very surprised because lots of people have said that Indigenous perspectives has a really high fail rate)!!I also got a credit in my theory course which I was happy with because I found them difficult and it was my last theory course for my degree!!

I also had a job interview and got a job in the holidays!! It’s at a new kids play centre opening up near me in 2 weeks. I’ll probably be doing party hosting and cafe stuff. I need to fill out some online training for that this week.
My units for this term are:

Music Studio Teaching: I’m really excited for this course. It’s the first unit of our pedagogy stream and focusses on private tutoring of our instrument. It’s meant to be a more interactive/practical class. This week we had a small lecture about the course and then had to make and present a 3 minute presentation. Our presentation was trying to convince a class of 10 year olds to take instrument lessons with us. We got our instruments out and played parts of songs, and some people got really into trying to be engaging & present it to kids. It was pretty nerve-racking at first because we didn't know we were going to do it, but pretty fun to watch everyones. Throughout the term, we get to give someone in our class lessons and also receive lessons on an instrument we don’t know how to play well, in front of the class. Mines in wk 5, so I still have a while but I think it’ll be really cool to be able to get feedback from our lecturer/& the class on how we are starting to teach.

Performance Lab: I haven’t been enjoying these studios throughout the year as much as I wanted to. This morning was pretty boring, so I’m hoping it gets better. At the end of this term, we have our performance exam (my only exam for the year!) which goes for 25 minutes. I also have to pay for my grade 8 clarinet exam today which will be around the same time as my uni one. I’m doing some of the same pieces and using the same accompanies for both exams, but I hope they’re not on the same week!! On Friday, we have a masterclass for clarinets so I’m excited to see some of my friends play, and what she says.

Placement: We still don’t know our schools for placement & I thought we’d know weeks ago. It turns out we start placement the first week of school term 4 so we still have around 3 weeks left. On Tuesday we had an orientation morning (for 4 hrs!!) which talked about placement, assessments, child safety, and anaphylaxis training. It got a bit boring at times but was important info. I still need to buy some more ‘formal’ clothes for when placement starts. It’s a pass/fail course and we need to do 15 days placement and 7 blog posts on moodle throughout the term.

Joseph41:
Fantastic work on the HD! Awesome. Funny how sometimes you can best perform in your least favourite units haha.

katie,rinos:
20/10/19
Week 5

It’s only halfway through the term and I feel exhausted and ready for another holiday. A bunch of my friends are finishing uni for the year soon, and I’ve still got a while.

Music Studio Teaching: I’ve been really enjoying this class so far. On Monday I had to give one of my friends who plays flute a mini 15min clarinet lesson. I basically taught him how to se it up, correct embouchure and he played Hot Cross Buns at the end. This week, I’ve also had to observe three of my teachers private piano lessons so I can write an essay on them later on i the term.

Placement: I’ve been given a school a 5min drive (30min walk) from my house for placement! I know a bunch of people that go there so it’d be weird if I was observing their classes. I started placement this week on Thursday/Friday and it was a little bit different to what I was expecting. Initially, I was super nervous the first day and before placement. Because it’s the first observation placement, we can be put in any faculty, so I’m going to be in TAS for the first 2 weeks. On the Thursday I observed: yr 11 Software, yr11 graphics, and then 2 yr 7 woodwork classes and then on the Friday I did: 2 yr 10 woodwork, and a yr 7 woodwork/food tech class. Almost every period I was put with a different teacher so I could see their teaching styles. There periods were 1hr 15min long, which I though was really long compared to my school. The teachers were all really nice and helpful which was really good. I think I’m going to be put on the creative arts faculty in 2 weeks which I’m really excited for.

Performance Lab: We need to book our exams and submit our programs next week. There in the first week of December so I’m also going to need to start practising with my piano accompanist soon. In the last couple of weeks of term, everyone in my class needs to play for around 20minutes in front of he class to prepare ourselves for the exam. We don’t have class next week because we have a reading/practise week.

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