Category: EDCI 306A
Learning Jingle Bells!
As I start to really learn Jingle Bells it helps me get more and more excited for the upcoming Christmas break.
I think having a festive song did allow me feel some more excitement to practice the ukelele and I felt like when I practiced the ukelele I was catching on to this song a little more quickly then when I had first started playing the instrument. I still find my stress has been high with all of the busyness of school but the time I take to practice has allowed me for a little stress relief.
Photo by Rushina Morrison on Unsplash
After filming my midterm video of myself performing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” I was a little disappointed that I was further along in my progress. It can be difficult when you originally have a goal and then realize that you can’t quite get there like you had hoped.
I was grateful for the opportunity to revise my plan and adapt my goal to include playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Jingle Bells” to my best ability.
This project has reminded me a lot of our teachings on a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset and the importance of training yourself to think of growing and learning and to not give up when struggling.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
Please find below my progress video for my Ukelele practice:
I have been trying to learn: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (which can also be transferrable to learning the ABC’s – which would both work great for working in the primary level).
While this is not perfect, I am proud of my progress as I have been trying and I don’t have any previous experience playing instruments. In my original Midterm Goal I was hoping to have learned two songs by now but I have had to revise this goal as I came up against some challenges when learning an instrument.
I think this is a good lesson – we can encourage our students to have big goals but we also have to allow them to revise this and learn from the process.
While at times I felt pretty frustrated when learning the ukelele, I also took this as an opportunity to feel like my students learning something new and the challenges that this brings!
Thank you,
Julia
In class, Anita gave us the opportunity to get together with groups and go over obstacles we’ve had when learning our instrument. I found this really helpful as some people had similar issues learning as well as finding the free-time to learn. We were reminded in class to make sure to treat this experience as an assignment, which is a good reminder as other things are easy to get in the way of practice. I am concerned that I am not playing as well as some of the others. I feel like I am trying my best but I don’t quite have a natural knack for it. I think that this is a good reminder for me, generally, I like when things come to me easily and I can get frustrated when these things don’t happen.
For my students that can be the same! A lot of them will get frustrated when trying something new and it can seem daunting taking on a big project like learning a new instrument. I want to encourage my students to learn new things and try despite how tricky it can be.
I also want to celebrate the little wins, so if I can’t play perfectly I will celebrate what I can do just like I would for any of my students who have been trying and wanting to succeed!
As I started progressing my learning of the ukelele by watching online tutorials and videos I soon realized that I play the ukelele a little differently.
I am left-handed and automatically I play the ukelele differently. This wasn’t something I had previously thought of (I don’t play any other instruments) and it wasn’t something I was asked when I went to UVIC to pick up the instrument.
But nevertheless, I play upside down in relation to watching the videos. This has been something tricky in some ways. But in other ways I am used to adapting to a right-hand model for a lot of things. I think this may be interesting when I go to teaching as for the majority of students they will have to learn in a different way and can’t directly model me.
Another challenge I have run into is finding the time to make sure I am focusing on practice. When speaking to other people in my cohort this is a common theme. Other assignments, class sessions and work on top of this have made things tricky. I also have found that I have some wrist pain when practicing. I have some pain issues already so I have noticed that I can’t practice for too long.
Here is the You Tube Video I was learning from:
Thanks,
Julia
I have to admit, having an assignment that involves me learning an instrument is pretty intimidating.
I never really had the opportunity to learn an instrument. My main extra-curricular activity growing up was dance lessons and those kept me really busy and there wasn’t always time for extra activities.
I had always wanted to learn the piano as I thought it was so beautiful. But unfortunately if you don’t prioritize this time seems to slip by.
Finally, now I am faced with learning an instrument.
I was excited… then time seemed to be slipping by. School work was crazy! I had been looking forward to starting this program for so long then it seemed like September was a blur! Top that with working and regular life stress and things definitely were busy!
I have to admit I didn’t exactly prioritize playing the ukelele as much as I should have. I tried and found it was challenging. Sometimes I find when I am challenged I tend to get discouraged.
Last class, Anita even mentioned that this was a common theme for students – finding time to play the instrument tended to be a last priority for students.
I continue to plug away at practicing but I have definitely noticed that it didn’t come as naturally as I was hoping.
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