Looking back on the very beginning of this course compared to how much I have learned to this point in time has truly been a very enlightening experiencing. I remember walking into the classroom on a Thursday night not knowing what to expect in any sense of the matter, and once I sat down and began listening, it all started falling into place- VERY quickly. I would have never thought in a million years that I would be this excited about creating lesson plans revolving around ELL students! For some reason, incorporating different aspects to a normal lesson plan has forced me into broadening my ideas into something so different and unique that normal teachers wouldn’t come close to touching. With that, I have started the making of a General Music curriculum that has the potential of being put to use in the near future. With many lessons still in the making, I decided to choose one of my very first lessons I developed a few months ago for the BLE Signature Assignment.

Originally, this lesson started off very short and had close to half of the final lesson I have ended up with. What made my lesson twice as long were the small different effects here and there that are aimed for ELL students. Keeping in mind that my lesson can be extended into multiple days or one class period (depending on time given and age of students), I made the lesson compatible to students of all ages and is also able to be revised if needed. With that in mind, take a quick look at both templates with the same lesson plan. One is the SIOP Template (Some Nights-FUN) Activity Revised that shows a broad look on the lesson as a whole, and the second Some Nights – FUN Activity Revised lesson is the lesson I developed with concrete details of what needs to be done.

Looking back upon the very first time I taught this lesson in the BLE classroom, my experience definitely led me into revising the lesson and, in a sense, “twerking” it here and there. First off, the amount of time given (20 minutes) was definitely nowhere near close to what I was aiming for when teaching university level students in the classroom. Like I had mentioned before, depending on the actual time in a real classroom setting and being able to have multiple days laid out for such a high academic group of students, this issue wouldn’t have been a problem. Secondly, I noticed that I needed to give my students something to do at the very beginning of my lesson when they were not following along with their verse phrase. During my teaching, I noticed many of them staring into space and doing absolutely nothing when their verse phrase had yet to come or had past already. With that in mind, turning to my lesson plan that I was revising, I added in a “lyric lead sheet” to have the students follow along during those moments in time. I also noted that as they follow along with other verse phrases, underlining important words that stick out to them (with the intention of using those words in a later discussion part of the lesson). Thirdly, although not as noticeable in my lesson plan compared to when I was teaching, I changed one small aspect at the very beginning of the lesson as the students find their seats and settle in: as I continue having the music playing for them to be listening, the teacher should be passing out the three documents and markers needed to save time. During this moment, assigning the students the task of listening and staying focused as soon as they walk through the door is a great way to start off any class period (whether it be with or without ELL students). Just as all teachers say, “time management is constantly a struggle when it comes to teaching a classroom”. Might as well try solving that problem now instead of later on in life right?

Backing up a little bit, the one thing that really pushed me into creating my own General Music curriculum was reading the two books entitled The Circuit and Breaking Through. The way Fransisco Jimenez developed his writing and dove into the book, almost as if the reader was experiencing it himself, really hit a soft spot in my eyes. After reading both books in less than a week at the very beginning of the semester, I immediately knew what I wanted to work on. In the future, I don’t want to be known as the teacher who never taught anyone anything, just like Fransisco had when he first started school. I aim at being the teacher my students will never forget. The teacher who did all and everything to connect and guarantee the success of her students, and the teacher who was confident enough to try new things to better their lives. Although I may be “too young and inexperienced” to even think about creating a brand new curriculum for my future students at this point in time, I see myself as a student who is trying excel in her career by doing something she loves. Call me crazy, but I consider it “striving for the highest”.