Final Presentation Topic

My topic I am choosing to do my final presentation on is a language arts topic. The topic is finding the main idea in nursery rhymes.

Teachers paid based on student performance

I do not believe that teachers should be paid based upon whether or not their students are performing well or not. There are a few reasons for this. One reason is because some students simply do not want to be in school so they will not participate or listen so they will not perform very well no matter how hard a teacher tries. Another reason is because some areas may perform better than others. For instance, one school may have lower income families that go there and statistics show that they perform lower. Another school, perhaps with higher income may perform better. These schools may be in the same district so it is not fair for teachers to have to be paid differently based on student performance. Also, some students may be behind from previous teachers so they will not perform as well since they are not caught up to the material that you should be covering at that grade level.

Teachers Unions and tenure

I feel as if teachers unions and tenure are both good and bad ideas. They are good because they protect the teachers if they are falsely accused of something they did not do. It's awful when something like this happens and it is really hard to be able to afford a lawyer on a teachers salary so teachers unions are great for great teachers! However, every once in awhile there will be a "bad seed" teacher who really needs to be fired and kick out the school districts and it is nearly impossible to do so because they have tenure and the teachers union they belong to will protect them. Overall, I believe who ever created or had the idea of teachers unions and tenure had the right idea but I do not think it was thought through very well and still has a few kinks in the ideas.

Balance

In today's society, it is very hard to balance things. Most people think they can multitask and end up taking on more than they can handle. A lot of students enjoy being a part of something at school such as a sport, drama, choir, or any other extra curricular activities. In fact, at my high school it was a requirement for all freshman and incoming transfer students to partake in at least one extra curricular activity. The motives behind it were something along the lines of "if we were involved in school activities, we would be able to enjoy school more and be less likely to drop out or become depressed or feel left out" It is a great idea to be involved because then you can feel a sense of community. However, sometimes students become a little too involved and allow sports and other extra curricular activities to take over school and they become distracted. In my high school, in order to balance out sports and school, we could not participate in games, meets, or events if we had more than 2 D's in our classes or 1 F. We could partake in the activities once we got our grades up but until then, we were placed on academic probation. This is one way to balance extra-curricular activities with our expectiations in the elementary classroom in a Sports-Driven society.

Introduction of Instruments

There is an "appropriate" time for students to be introduced to musical instrumentals. This is because at a certain time, children's skills are developed enough to be able to perform and learn new instruments.
Instruments such as the Kazoo and rhythm sticks should be introduced first because they require less fine motor skills and more gross motor skills. Instruments such as the finger cymbals, I think, are sort of a "gateway" instrument that bridges the gap between gross and fine motor skills instruments and should be introduced after kazoos and rhythm sticks. I think that the recorder and xylophone are a little more complicated and deal with fine motor skills so they should definitely be introduced after the other instruments. If a teacher just jumps right in with a recorder, students will feel stressed out and defeated because they have not worked their way up and to spring an instrument that requires such skills on an innocent student is simply not fair to them.

Carl Orff

I think that Carl Orff's philosophies would be perfect for the 21st century child. I think this because his philosophies allow students to experience music at their own level of understanding. Today, it is very important to understand that not every student understands things the same ways. This particular statement is very important because it allows students to experience the knowledge in a way they can understand

importance of sequential learning

In the general classroom, sequential learning is very important. Sequential learning basically means learning in order. If a student learns in order, they will be more likely to actually learn the material. If a student is not taught in order, they may become confused and not learn the material. A lot of topics, such as learning music, need to be learned step by step starting from the most basic elements and building their way to more complicated material and elements.

Rote learning steps
1. sing the song together while tapping a steady beat
2. use hand signs to sing the song
3. practice moving fingers in the air while singing
4. play the song on the piano, one phrase at a time