The group of people that we worked with for this project was a group of international JMU students called BRIDGES. Davina Miaw got in contact with their student coordinator. From there, we all exchanged contact information, and scheduled a few meetings to discuss our plans. In these meetings, we discussed logistics of time, place, attendance, and more. Then we started to brainstorm our actual experience.
The student we worked with told us that the overarching lesson of this meeting was to teach the international students about what Thanksgiving is like in America. She told us that our experience could go along with that theme. So, we decided to teach a song on Ukuleles, Bucket Drums, and Xylophones about thankfulness. We chose a simple song from the religious show: Veggie Tales. It was simply called “The Thankfulness Song”. There were 6 of us in this group, so we paired up and tag teamed the teaching of each instrument. We then split off into groups with the students and worked with them to write their own songs about what they were thankful for. When we taught these instruments very informally, and by rote. This is something we have discussed multiple times in this class. The sequencing we used scaffolded the experience well. We listened to the song, taught the song, performed the song, split into groups, wrote new songs (Facilitators floated), and then performed them for each other. This experience was one of the best ones I’ve had at JMU so far. The Bridges community was incredibly welcoming, kind, and thankful. They treated us so kindly, and were so selfless throughout the entire process. I am also so glad to see that the students had so much fun with our experience. Ultimately, though, this experience could not have happened without the other Music Education Majors that were there with me. Through this experience, and even now, the six of us (also known as the Jam Fam), have become very close. I am confident in saying that the members of this group are some of my closest friends here. Without their individual talents, hard work, and dreams of changing the world through music, this experience would not have been possible. I am incredibly grateful to study something that matters so much to me, at a place that is so welcoming and inspiring, along with some of my best friends in the world. |
EricaThis page will be for videos of myself teaching, lesson plans, and reflections. Archives
February 2020
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