Last Day at Martinez for the Semester!

Yesterday was my last day teaching guitar at Clemente Martinez Elementary school for this semester. The kids have grown a lot throughout these past few months! To round out the semester, I was put in charge of teaching the class mostly by myself. I was supported by my co-teacher, Rachel, but I lead thereclass mostly by myself! We reviewed chords and rhythm because that is what we had been doing most of the semester! Towards the end of class we did a small showcase with the violin class next door. We first went over to their room and watched them play a short piece! After, the violin class came to our classroom and we demonstrated whole notes, quarter notes, etc using the E minor chord! I think it was very beneficial for both classes to observe the other because we have talked to the kids about how part of being a great musician is being a great listener. I feel that this whole day aligns with LO 3: demonstrating how to initiate and plan a fieldwork experience. I planned the contents of the class myself and helped plan the crossover class with the violin kids and their teacher! I look forward to returning in January!!!!!!!!!!!!

Browning- Writing a Song

Last week at my internship, my co-teacher Rachel and I decided to take on a new approach to when kids forget to bring their instruments to class. The approach we used was more creative than having them do a writing prompt. We ended up splitting the kids in the ukulele class up into wither they forgot or remembered their instrument. The kids who had their ukuleles went with Rachel and learned more chords and the kids who forgot went with me and I taught them about the structure of a song, like verses, chorus and bridge. We decided to have the kids write a song. I taught them the song structure and the kids decided they wanted to write a song about Rachel. I had them name their favorite things about Rachel and come up with rhyming words. We ended up with a short song about their favorite things about Rachel. To me, this aligns with LO3, Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process. The kids forgetting their stuff is a challenges but me as well as the kids learned new things even though the circumstances weren't ideal.

WinCon Nature Service

So, I am on the regional board for my youth group for Texas and Oklahoma and out most recent weekend on event was hosted in Houston, so I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me! I knew that for Saturday morning services, I wanted to plan something unconventional that gave participants a great experience, along with a taste of Houston. I decided to make the service a nature walk along Buffalo Bayou. I separated all of the prayers that needed to happen in the service and split them into five groups of two or three and assigned a teen and an adult leader to each group of prayers. I led the path along the bayou and located five stops that groups could stop  and recite or sing the prayers at. They day of the event. To me, this experience connected perfectly to Learning Outcome 3, demonstrate how to initiate and plan a fieldwork experience. Im very used to planning services in a conventional way at the temple, but this really pushed me to create a meaningful nd fun experience for all of the participants to experience services in a new way. So many people told me that they loved my service a lot and that they thought it was the highlight of their weekend! Im so happy with how my service turned out! Even though it was quite a walk and we were tired after walking even a little over a mile! Everyone had a great time Here are some photos from my nature walk service!