Good afternoon everyone :)

So this is it for the LSKM module! One more assignment and then we are finished for the semester! Well done for making it this far.

At the beginning of this module, I knew the basics of music and integrating music into the foundation phase classroom (which I learned by working in a school environment). This module taught me a lot about integrating music into the classroom, as well as a lot about inclusivity and how important music content is for inclusivity.

The individual reflections were useful in that we had to go over the information and actually absorb what we were reading in order to blog about it. This meant that the information stayed in my head and was actually teaching me something. However, trying to fit a blog post in amongst all my other due dates was pretty challenging. I had to juggle a lot of other work from my other modules, my 3 jobs, the gym, and a social life. This meant that I missed a couple of due dates for the blogs. I do believe that the blogs were meaningful though as they gave me an outlet and allowed me to consolidate what I learned. If I had to change something in the future, I would have put aside a bit of time each week to plan and write my blog posts.

The only thing I would change about this module is the due dates for the blogs. I think in order to meet deadlines, the due dates for the blogs should have all been at the end of the semester before the final assignment is due to consolidate and prepare for that assignment. There is nothing that I don't understand, and I found the majority of it useful for use in my future classroom

Have an amazing rest of the semester and enjoy the holidays when they do come around :)

xoxo Megan

Good Evening everybody,

This week has been quite a week. We have been very busy at work this week, and we had quite a dramatic situation outside of our school on Tuesday. Now that things have finally calmed down, I can go back to focusing on my university work.

I learned some new things about the characteristics of a well-planned music lesson. The one thing I learned that I found quite interesting was that music lessons should go from lower to higher order levels of thinking. It seems like a very obvious thing to do when planning a lesson, but I hadn't really thought about that.

Many people believe that music is a useless subject and should only be done for fun which is why they often neglect to actually assess music. But music is actually a very good way to assess different subjects, such as maths or language. You can always enhance your lessons with music. 

I will say that music is very important in teaching topics such as the seasons, or counting in twos, or even things such as sequencing. If music is not assessed, children could miss out on important skills such as rhythm, rhyme, and counting beats. If children miss out on these skills, this will effect them later on in life when they are needing these skills in High School. 

I hope everyone has a good week and enjoys their weekend!

Hi everyone,

I'm sure everyone can relate to me when I say that this week has been insanely busy due to these WIL assignments that are due tomorrow. Besides that the week has been good. My school has gone on holiday so I have 2 weeks to catch up on my studies. 

I don't know about you, but I didn't realize that there were so many different types of play! when reading through this study unit, I realized I obviously don't know a lot about play because I only knew about solitary play, and free play. but there's actually so many levels to play!

with regards to the case study:

1. a few things that could make learners uncomfortable is singing a song they do not understand, the children who do understand the song might be uncomfortable that children are mispronouncing the song, and if a child is socially anxious, then they would be uncomfortable dancing in front of an entire class of children especially if they do not know that kind of music.

2. one learner was uncomfortable because he did not understand the lyrics, and another child was uncomfortable because she didn't want to dance in front of boys due to religious reasons.

3. Whilst teaching the learners the lyrics, I will also teach them the meanings of the songs so that they don't feel like they don't know what they're singing about. I will also ask the class who is comfortable doing free dancing and who isn't. because it is free dancing, it is not necessary that everyone join in. if I do need everyone to join, I can also ask the class which songs they would like to dance to.

4. We should be aware of religious beliefs, as well as their parents beliefs at home. We should also be aware of children with anxiety as they may be uncomfortable taking part in certain activities. In order to accommodate this, we could send a questionnaire home to the parents to fill in where they can write down their beliefs and what they do not want their child to take part in.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead and that its not too stressful!

Megan :) 

Hi everyone. 

gosh this week has already been crazy and it's only Tuesday.. last night my grandfather tragically passed in his sleep so today has been quite busy for me, but I want to write this blog post while I am free in case I don't have time tomorrow. 

one new thing that I became aware of in this study unit was texture of sound. I didn't even realize that this was something that exists! The most significant part of this study unit was the inclusivity. I am someone who feels very strongly about inclusivity and I do believe that there is often cases where children are excluded from activities or lessons because it is believed that they can't do something that other children can. Seeing as I want to specialize in special needs education, having knowledge about music will be extremely helpful as, in my experience, music is a very good way to soothe a child who is spiraling and also for children to communicate through.

I think that utilizing contemporary commercial music is the best option as this is the music that the children listen to and are interested in. If I am trying to grab my class's attention, my go-to song is old town road. they instantly stop what they are doing and focus on me and I think this is a good example as to why you should incorporate this type of music into lessons. 

I do believe that majority of the content is inclusive. this study unit makes use of songs in other languages, and the activities are straightforward ones that most children will be capable of doing. however, I do think that there was not enough provided for children who might be non-verbal, children who have hearing or sight problems, and for children with disabilities. I can adapt activities to provide for children who cannot do these activities.

providing songs or activities for children who are non-verbal or disabled is a good place to start. when doing singing activities, non-verbal children could act out the lyrics in the song, or they could play instruments to back up singers. for disabled children, when playing instruments, they might not be able to play these instruments so finding special music mats or giving them a buddy to help them play an instrument could make them feel more included.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of this cold and rainy Tuesday! 

Hi everyone! so I am aware that I am very behind with my blog posts, but I have only recently recovered from covid-19 and I'm just trying to catch up. I contracted the virus from one of the little boys in my class.

The section that I enjoyed the most from this study unit and also feel I learned a lot from, was "Music development in the foundation phase". One new thing I learned that I found very interesting is that children are believed to be able to read music notes at the age of 6! this is significant to me as I was a music student for many years and I didn't realize that I most likely could have started using these abilities at the age of 6.

I am quite confident in my ability to teach music in the foundation phase at this point in time. I took music as a subject in primary school as well as high school and I work at a school that teaches music to the children and uses music through movement as an integral part of their lessons every single day. because I observe teachers who use music through movement every single day, I have picked up on different teaching methods and I am quite confident that I could teach an effective lesson. 

I would incorporate music education. I think that it is the most reasonable choice as you can actually incorporate physical education in music lessons through dancing. This means that music education would actually cover more areas holistically than P.E would.

I hope that this week ends well and that the rain and cold weather disappears so that I can go for a run on the beach this weekend!

Hi everyone. My name is Megan Naude, I am 22 years old, and I am studying foundation phase education. I currently work as a teaching assistant at Crawford International and I have been there for a few years now. The reason I have chosen to be a foundation phase educator is because I believe that the foundation phase is the age where children are most impressionable and I have seen a lack of passion from many foundation phase teachers recently and want to try and bring back some of that passion. I am most passionate about special needs education and I want to move into that as a specialty after I've completed this degree. I am quite nervous about this module as there are so many small tasks and assignments attached to it and I already feel like I have so little time. I am expecting to learn many new things from this module and hopefully these things will help me in my work place now.