Final blog

My experience as a LSKM 221 student was very interesting and challenging sometimes. I had to remember what I learned in grade 1-3 and then find ways to put that knowledge to use to complete all of the assignments and to understand the work.

My attitude towards music in the beginning of the semester was complicated, I always thought that music is just another subject. Well boy was I wrong, I never realized that music can help you learn and understand the work better and see the work in different ways.

I feel that music is very important and each school should at least provide an opportunity for the learners to choose the subject and maybe develop their musical side.

The individual reflections really forced me to go through all of the work which is a very good thing, because I learned a lot of new things that will help me in the future.

The most challenging thing was to think of different and more challenging ways to think of games to help the learners learn in a more sufficient way and challenge them enough to know if they understood the work properly.

Yes, I did find the individual reflections meaningful, it helped me understand the work better and expressing my feelings and thoughts about each lesson.

What I found most interesting was all of the different things music can develop different ways we learn and understand things.

The most valuable thing I learned that I will definitely use in my future is that I will know a lot of different ways to create new, meaningful and very fun games which the learners can use to learn and understand the work better.

Study Unit 5: Lesson Planning

I had so much fun in the past week while working in groups to complete our assignment and every time I go through LSKM I learn new things about music that I never knew.

LSKM taught me the most important and valuable things to keep in mind when you plan a music lesson for your Foundation Phase students, a few of these important aspects are, put as many chances as possible for the learners to take part in as many music activities to help the learners listen better to the music, move to the beat, and create music while doing the lesson.

Teachers can create new and creative ways to teach learners new games and skills to help them perform at their best abilities and complete the lesson that was given to them. While the learners are completing their music activities, they learn different skills that will help them in their future, a few skills are improvising when they find a problem and find new ways to solve the problem, or just have to adapt to new things, and this skill will help them. Another skill the learners develop is examination, learners learn to examine the problems and then find a solution to solve the problems.

A few things to keep in mind while planning a music lesson, make sure to always add music to your lessons, you cannot let the learners only listen to what music is about and expect them to learn how music works and feels without letting them listen to music. The music that learners will listen to while completing the music activities should always have a lesson in them and that lesson should contribute to the aims in with the teacher wants the learners to learn in the lesson, for example, the ABC song is about the alphabet and the song teaches the learners about the alphabet.

Create new games and ideas for the learners to always guide them to listen to the music that is playing, for example, while the teachers want to teach the learners about their body, the music can be about their ears and hands etc. and the teacher can guide them to show that you should listen with your ears to the music. The teacher should always find new ways to get the learners attention by thinking of new and fun ways to do different activities and to start a new lesson. Teachers should help the learners to have fun in all of their lesson activities, by letting the learners to have fun, will help the learners learn the work faster and let the learners understand the work better.

Another way for teachers to motivate the learners to learn different activities is to give the learners a game related to the lesson and let the learners try to figure out what they should do in the game, the teacher should restrain themselves from helping the learners and explaining to work to the learners, before they had time to solve the problems themselves. After a certain amount of time the teacher can ask the learners what they should have done in the game and let the learners explain what they understood form the game. This way the learners will learn to solve problems by themselves and to see if they can work by themselves.

My opinion about the value of utilising arts integration in the Foundation Phase lessons is that it will help the learners feel more encouraged to take healthy risks, it can help the learners to recognize new skills that they did not know they had. Arts integration will also help the learners to develop their creative side, they learn to find new ways to solve problems, and it will help them to develop their motor skills and so much more.

Yes, my perception and priorities of music lesson planning has change a lot, I never knew that music is so important for the learners to develop the necessary skills needed to find new ways to solve problems, to help them perform better in school and to blossom in their social life and learn to take healthy risks to find the person they should be and becoming the best version of themselves.

Study Unit 4

Arts integration in the foundation phase

Hii all I hope everyone is good and is enjoying the rain season, this week started out wild, but my head is kept above the water. I found out that the child that I have been looking after for the past two years needs to go for a heart surgery, so we are just praying that everything will be fine and just to leave it in God’s hands.

This week I learned what art integration means and that is, a teaching-learning model which is based on learning through doing arts and with the arts. This will help the teacher know that the students understand the work by showing it in their art work.

I also learned that art integration is extremely important for the learners, because it helps the learners to engage in their art work and art integration offers a variety of new ways to construct and demonstrate how things should be done.

Arts integration is very valuable for foundation phase learners, because it helps the learners with the development of motor skills, language skills, social skills, decision-making, and inventiveness. Art integration is also valuable, not just for foundation phase learners, but adults too, because it helps them and teaches them to take healthy risks when needed.

It helps learners to recognise new skills in themselves and in their peers. Encouraging learners to demonstrate what they understand through art and that creates new and improved teaching and learning methods and environment, where learners can learn individually and discover different and new abilities.

Theoretical framework for arts integration in foundation phase, includes six different ways in which music can help in the foundation phase and which will help develop through teaching and learning, which includes, about, from, on, with, in, and through.

In conclusion, I believe that art integration is just as important as any other thing that all of the learners should be taught in school. Learners will learn to show their understanding and everything they need through their art.

I hope I covered everything and that everyone will have a great week.  

Hi everyone this week was really busy, but we got through it and a new week is on its way. Here is my opinion about Study Unit 3.

1. Discuss the basic elements of play.

Play teaches the learners anticipation, which will make them more anxious to learn different ways to play and to learn with different things, for example, playing with different and new toys and to learn how they work and what they can teach them. Learners learn to become more surprised with they find new ways to learn and to play with different and new toys and to learn new ways to play. Learners learn to feel pleasure when they play, they learn to relax when they are playing and that will give the learners more pleasure while playing and learning.

Learners find new ways to understand the different ways of playing and how different toys work and they learn how to play with other learners and how different games work, this will teach the learners how to become more patient. Strength in playing teaches the learners to know what are their different strengths which will help the learners to focus on those strengths and to improve on them. Poise in play teaches the learners self-assurance, to stay calm while playing, and to play with grace and dignity.

2. Give your opinion about the value of play for the holistic development and learning in the foundation phase.

I believe that holistic development for play is extremely important for learners, holistic development develops the learner's intellectual, metal, physical, emotional, and social abilities in a learner so that they are capable to face the demands and challenges, the everyday life gives them. Holistic development is a valuable thing for the learners to develop to help them to be successful in professional fields of work. 

The value of play for the learning in the foundation phase allows learners to use their creativity while developing their imagination, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. I feel that play is the most important things for young learners, because it help the learners to develop a healthy brain, play also teaches the learners to learn at a very early stage to interact with different things and people around them. 

3. Motivate the importance of including elements of play in as many teaching and learning activities as possible in the foundation phase.

It is very difficult to teach learners in the foundation phase new things, especially when the topic is not that interesting to the learners, they then tend to lose interest and they start to bother other class members and that just makes it even more difficult for the teachers to get the learners focus again and the teacher will probably have to start all over with the lesson.

But if you add the elements of play to the lesson, then the lesson will not be to boring for the learners and the teacher will be able to keep the learners attention for longer periods of time. When the teacher adds a game to the lesson instead of just having the learners to listen to her while the teacher explains the work, will automatically make the learners more interested in the work and they will understand the work better and faster which will also help the teacher and then the learners can move on from the one topic to the other faster.

4. Provide suggestions for how to include play in the foundation phase.

Teachers can come up with different games that is related to the lesson she want to teach the learners, for example they can dress up like the different types of seasons for the day, or when the teachers wants to teach them math, each learner can be assigned to a number and when she calls the number the learner can jump up and down, this can also be a good way to teach the learners to count and to concentrate and remember which number comes first and what number they are.

I hope I explained the work well enough, until next time ;)

It was a very long week for me, there are a lot of work in every module that we should go through and I am a bit worried that I am not giving my best in every subject all tough I try to. This is what I found the most important in Study Unit .

In study unit 1 I learned about the learning theories:

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development: this development focus on the influence of social interaction and relationships on learning. I learned that this development is very important for students, because every time they accomplish something they depend on their friends, family members and teachers to feel proud of the thing they accomplished.

Piaget's cognitive development theory: Students learn by seeing how something works in the real world, they then improve the skills and knowledge they already have with the new knowledge. Piaget also believes that student's cognitive development is that they think differently from adults. I also learned that Piaget's cognitive development theory falls between pre-operational stage and concrete operational stage.

Vygotsky and the zone of proximal development: I learned that this development draws attention to the socio-cultural factors that influence cognitive development. I also learned that Vygotsky believes that cultural development and thinking is learned and passed on through symbols relating to symbols and tools such as language, counting and writing. I learned that I as a teacher, should help teach the learners during the early stages of obtaining new knowledge and skills. Vygotsky believes that this way of learning is to allow learners to get the necessary understanding to solve problems by themselves. The concept of a zone of proximal development is one of the most important characteristic of Vygotsky's cognitive development theory.

Musical development in the foundation phase: 

I learned that by the time learners go to school, they already developed the ability to selective hearing and directed listening increases on-task behaviour and listening duration. This development is important because it allows the learners to focus on the specific musical aspects.

I learned that increased motor control can lead to the ability to play certain instruments, like the xylophone or keyboard. The learners singing ability improves during the middle childhood years, by the age of 6-7 years old they have a vocal range of approximately one octave. 

Music and the holistic development of foundation phase learners:

I learned that the only way to improve the learners holistic development is that they should experience music activities. 

Physical development: dancing to music. When learners play an instrument, they develop gross and fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination and midline crossing. 

Cognitive development: when learners participate in music activities where learners have to improvise, they will have to come up with new ideas of their own to create new dance moves or think of new ways to make instruments, this way the learners learn how to think for themselves and find a solution to the problem.

Social development: Music helps everyone to come together, and by playing music with your friends, the learners engage in social interaction. According to Erikson's psychosocial development theory, states that when learners participate in group music activities, they can experience success and this is important for not only the social development but for their personal development too.

Personal development: when learners play music with their friends, it gives the learners the experience of success gives to learners that gains the learner's confidence and believing in themselves. Playing music with their classmates can also give them the ability to be creative.

Emotional development: lastly I learned that learners experience music with more than one emotion and they then learn to identify the different emotions. When the learners experience these emotions with other learners while they listen to music, they learn to be sensitive towards each other.

I learned that Foundation Phase learners could be taught to be aware that the learners can use music to manage their emotions by listening to a certain types of music and that will explain how the learners feel.

 

 

My name is Megan Meyer, I am from Polokwane, I am currently working on a farm, I teach a three year old boy, with Autism and Kabuki syndrome, everything he will normally learn in a normal school, I also take him to speech therapy and occupational therapy. I want to be a foundation phase teacher because I love to see how the student's faces light up when they understand something. I love to teach the students new things and help them understand the work. I am passionate about art work, reading books, playing with my dog, Dexter, and my health and fitness. I am excited to learn more about LSKM, I am looking forward in learning how music can develop the student's knowledge and the way they learn things. I expect that I will learn how to teach the students to the best of my ability to learn music.