Uni Stuff > The University Journey Journal
Katie’s journey back to the classroom (music education)!!
katie,rinos:
20/11/19
Week 10
My last class of the term finished today!! I only need to come into uni 3 more times: for the wind sympth concert, part checking and performance exam.
Music studio teaching: This has probably been my favourite subject so far. We got to give 2 mini instrumental lessons (15 minutes) and get feedback on how we were teaching. I also got to have 2 piano lessons and a flute lesson (I got so excited when I made a note!!). For the last two weeks, we’ve been doing group lessons (teaching any practical skill because we don’t have 5 clarinets). One of my friends taught the ‘were all in this together’ dance from High School Musical and our lecturer was really confused about how we all knew the song. I added a few new rules into uno and we played uno as a class. Our class for this subjects pretty close. After our last class this week, about 10 of us (out of 18) went out for lunch and then over to someone’s house (who lives near uni). I’m hoping to start teaching some beginner clarinet students next year.
Performance Lab: The lectures for this class have still been a bit boring-I’m hoping when we have a different lecturer next year it’ll be better. I have my wind sympth concert this Friday and next part checking for that on Tuesday. I have 2 performance exams this year-pretty much in the same week. My 8th grade exam is on the 30th of November and then my uni one is the 2nd of December. I was hoping that they’d be slightly more spread apart. Some of the pieces are the same but there are other things that don’t really cross over. It’s been frustrating because I’ve been wanting to practise a lot more (closer to 1 1/2hr a day) but I’ve been busy with other uni assessments/placement/work.
Placement: This has been different to what I was expecting-I think I may have hyped it up too much. I’ve been in music since the 3rd week of placement and as well as classes have watched choir/string ensemble/rock bands. I still have 5 days left of placement (I finish on the 5th of December) but I’m starting to get really bored of just observing. I would really love if we were able to plan and run a small 15-30min part of a class. I need to leave early on Friday because of the wind sympth concert so I’m hoping their okay with it.
The class times have come out for next term and it looks like I’ll be at uni for 3 days!! Monday is 6 hours straight of classes (2 lectures/2 tutes), Tuesday is just wind sympth in the afternoon and then Wednesday is a 1 1/2 hr lecture.
Bri MT:
--- Quote from: katie,rinos on November 20, 2019, 04:52:05 pm ---
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Congrats!!
Do you usually only have 10 weeks a semester or is this an early finish?
Do you know what type of lesson you'd like to run? I imagine it could be pretty frustrating having ideas and wanting to step in but being unable to :/
I'm glad to hear that music studio teaching has been really good :D
It has such a strong impact having a small, tight-knit cohort. Have you decreased in size much or is this all you started with?
katie,rinos:
--- Quote from: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 05:49:19 pm ---Congrats!!
Do you usually only have 10 weeks a semester or is this an early finish?
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With trimesters now, UNSW has 3 10 week terms. So now we have 30 weeks of class instead of 26 but all the class content is squeezed into 10 week terms.
--- Quote from: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 05:49:19 pm ---Do you know what type of lesson you'd like to run? I imagine it could be pretty frustrating having ideas and wanting to step in but being unable to :/
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Haven't got any strong ideas but I've been at placement for 5 weeks/10 days now and it's starting to get annoying not being able to do much. Would prefer to be able to plan/teach something small for years 7-9. It's been a bit disappointing because when I did work experience in year 10, because I knew the teacher I got to run two different classes (kindy and yr 1) and I've done less now in 2nd year uni.
--- Quote from: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 05:49:19 pm ---I'm glad to hear that music studio teaching has been really good :D
It has such a strong impact having a small, tight-knit cohort. Have you decreased in size much or is this all you started with?
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I'm really excited for the other 2 pedagogy classes in this stream next year!! :D
Our music cohort's really tight-in between classes we also normally hang out in the corridor of the music building and talk/study. A lot of the 1st year courses were bigger (around 80ish) because people also did them as electives or in an arts degree. Pedagogy's part of my stream (you can do creative practise/sonic arts/pedagogy or music inquiry) and there's only 18 people in my year doing it. My performance class only has 2 lecture streams and there's about 20 people in each. I think most 2nd year and above classes are pretty small in music (especially compared to the education courses).I think we have had some music people change degrees/drop but not too many.
caffinatedloz:
--- Quote from: katie,rinos on November 20, 2019, 06:04:32 pm ---Haven't got any strong ideas but I've been at placement for 5 weeks/10 days now and it's starting to get annoying not being able to do much. Would prefer to be able to plan/teach something small for years 7-9. It's been a bit disappointing because when I did work experience in year 10, because I knew the teacher I got to run two different classes (kindy and yr 1) and I've done less now in 2nd year uni.
I'm really excited for the other 2 pedagogy classes in this stream next year!! :D
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That does sound super frustrating, or at the least, boring. Will you get any opportunities to write up some lesson plans and run any classes before placement ends? ;D
katie,rinos:
--- Quote from: laura_ on November 20, 2019, 06:08:10 pm ---That does sound super frustrating, or at the least, boring. Will you get any opportunities to write up some lesson plans and run any classes before placement ends? ;D
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No, this placements just meant to be a 15 day observation. I go on 2 more placements in 4th year which I can plan/teach lessons. :)
I've had friends at different schools who are doing different things as well-so what you do on this placement kinda depends on what school you go.
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