Last week, I wrote about the QI philosophy and lamented about its absence in modern education. Not being a whiner or complainer, I'm trying to teach my classes in a QI type of way. This means that last Wednesday first period somehow ended up on my explaining plate tectonics to a group of fascinated 4th graders. How we got there from solfege, I'm not really sure, but does it matter? They were completely absorbed finding out where earthquakes and volcanoes come from. Yes, I did have to yank us back to music, but that's why I get paid the big bucks.
That same Wednesday, when learning "The Cat Came Back," I asked if anyone knew what the phrase "man in the moon" meant. No one did, so I talked about how some of the craters, if you look at them the right way, look like a face, and how early people had no idea what the moon was and made up stories about it. The kids tied it to an old Chinese legend about the rabbit living on the moon and the moon being made of cheese and Wallace & Gromit. We had a laugh, and then went back to singing. It was fun.
None of this is on the official lesson plans. All they talk about is learning the song and defining the word "ostinato," which we do as well. How dull. And the students don't learn the music as well. After every digression my classes take into the meaning of the lyrics or music, the students come back singing or playing stronger. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
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