Reflections on Music Pedagogy Thus Far...

-Very into the "teaching implicitly" method.

However, I realized that it does not work BECAUSE students only have 1hr a week. If we had Music 3 times a week, we would have ample time to teach implicit learning. However, because we only have 1hr ONCE a week, it is very difficult to do implicit teaching. Although the students will definitely have fun, it is difficult to retain.

These are my own views, not sure if they hold true. Or maybe it is my method of teaching. I am sure a more experienced teacher would be able to do better- but is implicit teaching more effective than explicit teaching with the condition of Music being 1hr a week?

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PLT: English Department Summary/Reflections:

Project-based learning: Time-Consuming (because same no. of compositions and work), although the skills learnt are multi-dimensional. BUT SO USEFUL!

e.g. P4: Fractured Fairytales & Travelogue

Change It Up: How do we make things more interesting for students (does not need to be fancy, can make minor adjustments) e.g. for Reader's Theater, Rinda created a 'stage' in the classroom using a table, and students stood on it to perform.

Quality Learning: How can students learn it better? You don't have to repeat all the time.

Be Specific- focus on 1 thing at a time, and give feedback accordingly. The learning points should be clear.

After sitting in the PLT, I realized that I am very free to do whatever I want, because teachers of academic subjects like English struggle with parents who ask "What is this project for? Will it help me child score well in the exams?" They are stressed out and torn because they want their classes to experience the joy of learning, and yet parents are seemingly only concerned about results (to be fair, not all the parents are like that, the majority is fine.

i had an answer that pooped immediately into my mind: "Well, I think that we are preparing your child for life, not just for the PSLE. According to MOE guidelines, and if you read up on the theories of learning, it is very important that students enjoy learning. If we only drill students on grades, we might attain good results but we will very likely get students who dislike the subject."

Of course... this is easy to say when you're not in the position where you actually face tons of parents. And I am not a parent (yet), so I readily admit that I do lack perspective.

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On a side note, found this paper while I was clearing my FTPPS stuff (there is starting to be no space for FTPPS on my table, and I have to start clearing :'( ). I feel like going back to visit but I don't see when I will have the time to visit while the students I know are still in school and not busy in class.