Afternoon Ti

 Season Six Episode 134 Three Things 2020 Taught me That I Didn't Want to Learn Welcome to the Afternoon Ti Podcast!  I’m your host Jessica Grant.  This is the second super simplified podcast episode that gets to the good stuff right away.   I’m focusing on simplifying what I can as I soak up time with family and finish out this crazy year.  Last week I talked about the importance of rest and why it’s just as important as our work.  In this episode I’m sharing what 2020 taught me that I didn’t want to learn: perseverance, waiting, and hope.  And how these three things have prepared us for what’s ahead. I love this definition of perseverance:  It is persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.  Isn’t this what we’ve done all of 2020?  We didn’t know at times from one day to the next if we’d be teaching in-person or online.  We didn’t know how many students might be in our classrooms compared to learning virtually until we showed up to teach tha

 Season Six Episode 133 Rest in the Chaos Welcome to the Afternoon Ti Podcast!  I’m your host Jessica Grant.  Today I’m sharing thoughts on rest and after the year we’ve had, I hope you’re making time for rest this holiday season.  This episode is simplified more than most without much of an introduction, intro or outro music, and instead includes just a few thoughts.  Why?  Because as much as I want to consistently put out content that I hope is useful and encouraging, I’m choosing over the next two weeks to simplify even more so that I can rest.  And that meant choosing to streamline so that editing was easier and I could share a few thoughts about something that I’m working to prioritize the next few weeks:  rest. Rest can look different to each of us.  Maybe you feel rejuvenated after spending time with others in conversation or actively doing something with someone else.  Maybe you feel rested after having a favorite food, reading a book, or doing something quiet.  Maybe you wa

 Season Six  Episode 132 Sequencing Rhythmic Concepts What grade should students learn sixteenth notes?  How long should we focus on a specific note value?  What should be taught first:  tika-ti or ti-tika?  The answer to all of these questions is “well, it depends.”  There’s no ‘must’ in terms of when students should learn specific notes or how long we should spend in making sure students understand the concepts.  Some years my students move at a faster pace and other years students demonstrate that they need more time practicing certain rhythms.  However, it is helpful to know the order that you will be teaching rhythms so that you know not only what students already know, but where they’re heading so that you can build sequential learning over many lessons. I’m going to share the sequence that I use with students and the why behind it.  Let’s start with the why. When we look at the musical pieces that we are using with students, we want to think about a few things… okay a lot of

 Season Six Episode 131 Carol of the Bells We’re in our series on rhythm!  This episode is all about Carol of the Bells - you likely hear it as often at this time of year as we hear piano students playing Fur Elise the rest of the year.  This piece is simplistic and difficult at the same time.  The triple meter is awesome - a great way to emphasize strong-weak-weak with students, it’s usually fairly familiar for most students, they enjoy it and feel proud to be able to play a familiar piece.  Maintaining a steady tempo and not rushing can be a challenge with this song so it’s important to have students move to it, speak the text, find ways of doing things in the rests that supports movement through space so that they can feel the length of the rests and not rush.  It’s also a great piece to have students learn about motifs! In Episode 130 I shared about how the tech tool Pear Deck can be a great way for students to engage in learning.  One of the great things about Pear Deck is that

 Season Six Episode 130 Pear Deck and Rhythm Writing This short series of episodes is all about rhythm.  In episode 129 I shared four systems for counting and speaking rhythm.  One is not better than the other.  It just depends on which system works best for you in your teaching situation and then being consistent with it!  In this episode I’m going to be sharing how I’m using Pear Deck to engage students in rhythm writing.  In episode 114 I shared nine tech tools that I wanted to use this school year.  It’s taking me a bit of time to figure out each tech tool as I go, but with each one I’m building confidence and learning new ways to make learning engaging and creative in a technology kind of way.  As I’m learning how to use each tech tool, creating content and growing in confidence with what I’m seeing in my classroom I’m sharing with you! So what is Pear Deck?  Pear Deck is an add-on within google slides.  You can allow students to follow the lesson at the same time that you are

 Season Six Episode 129 Rhythm Systems: Ways to Speak and Count This school year I am unable to sing with my students as a result of Covid so I’ve been spending a lot of time on rhythmic concepts.  There are so many ways to count rhythms in music and reasons you might choose to use one system over another.  It is not helpful for your students if you use multiple ways to count using several systems because they will get confused.  That said, you may decide to use one system over several years with students from grades K-4 and then bridge your 5th or 6th graders into using the counting system that you know they will be using in middle school band, orchestra, or choir.  This can be helpful if students are used to one counting system in elementary, but your middle school music directors use another system.  Older students who are familiar with your system could benefit from having an introduction into the system they’ll be using in coming years in middle school.  Or your middle school d