Recent Changes

This page will serve as my outline of the major ideas and components of a curriculum document I will be developing for a Pre-k through Grade 2 curriculum centered on inquiry-based learning. Four components (basic idea, focus, scope and rationale, and context) will be addressed in order to help organize my thoughts.
Basic Idea:
I want to gain an idea and put into practice an inquiry-based learning curriculum designed for early childhood, namely grades Pre-k through 2. I want to develop ideas and activities (and possibly even projects) that can be implemented with children of this age. Through the process of designing a curriculum, my capacities as a teacher are able to be stretched and extended because it will allow me the critical time to ponder, formulate, and develop meaningful and pragmatic experiences for my students. It will also allow me to extend the philosophy of inquiry-based learning to the younger students, thereby cultivating the dispositions of creativity, inquiry, self-motivation and assessment, and many others during this critical developmental age.
Focus:
My focus for this curriculum will be specifically on the primary grades (Pre-k, Kindergarten, First, and Second grades) for the general music program. This focus is worthwhile for me because I want to know and discover ways to use this philosophy with the youngest students at school. I want to know what kinds of actions I can take as a teacher, and what kinds of activities are developmentally appropriate for students of these ages that involve inquiry-based learning. I feel that with students of the elder primary grades, the inquiry-based learning curriculum is able to be used in a more straightforward manner. With the younger students, I want to discover and implement the curriculum, which is bound to be less straightforward because of their stage of development, which is why I feel this focus is a “good fit” for me.
Rationale and Scope:
I want to design an organized framework for the Pre-k through grade 2 general music program. This will envelop four sets of curricula (one for each grade level) that are based on inquiry-based learning. The scope will encompass one year for each set. With this project I hope to narrow my focus to the elements that should be included in such a curriculum and what is developmentally appropriate to students of this age.
Identify and Describe the Context:
The context in which I want to implement this curriculum is that of a rural, Central New York district that encompasses two elementary schools, for which I am the only general music teacher. Students will benefit from this new curriculum because it will allow me to begin the process of cultivating attitudes and dispositions within students that I will want them to have later on in their elementary careers. My particular setting, being a teacher in two separate buildings with two completely different sets of students and ability levels is rather unique and will give me the opportunity to work at different rates. I also have at least 5 sections of each class, which will allow me to really hone in on the actions I take as a teacher and a guide to facilitate student learning. However, the uniqueness of my situation also poses particular challenges because I am in two different settings. I need to take into account all ability levels of all 150 children in each grade. I also have different accesses to resources and space dependent upon the building I am in, which compels me to consider how I shape my curricula. I cannot deny certain students an experience that I can readily provide to others. My goal in developing this curriculum is working with this dichotomy to create a curriculum accessible and beneficial to each one of my students.
*These ideas will serve as my compass as I ponder, formulate, and develop this curriculum.

The Significant Seven
In order to develop a curriculum, certain steps need to be taken in order to get myself to the starting point of putting it all together.
"The Significant Seven" serves as a guide to help map out my curricular needs and interests. There are seven areas for reflection that will help to take inventory of my thinking in order to better develop my own curriculum.
If you would like to view this page in PowerPoint format, click here. {The Significant Seven.ppt}
Autobiographical Reflection as a Learner:
I believe, to some degree, that teachers do incorporate they ways in which they were taught into their own teaching models. Things that affected me as a student include:
Practices I liked and enjoyed/wanted to reproduce in my own classroom
Practices I swore I would never reproduce in my own classroom
Units/concepts/topics of study (either enjoyable or un-enjoyable)
What I was taught were "important" things students should know
Drawing on my own experience as a student, I am able to use my experiences as a source of insight by reflecting on:
Practices I saw/experienced that were successful
Practices that were creative and made students think
Practices that did not work
Practices that were either relevant/irrelevant to both students and the "real world" at large
Treasured Values as a Teacher:
Beliefs and practices that remain central to my curricular thinking are:
Expectations of excellence (excellence as a way of thinking/as an attitude)
Expectation of enrichment (teacher providing opportunities for student enrichment through the units of study/curricula)
Inclusion (fostering an atmosphere where all students feel welcome and their opinions/ideas valued)
Aspects of my prior teaching I will likely perpetuate, maintain, and deepen as I return to the classroom:
Maintain my expectation of excellence
Preserve the important of my performing ensembles (but deepen and shift their purpose where the focus becomes collaboration and teamwork, rather than the actual performance itself)
Deepen the aspect of inquiry within music activities (use more questions to direct student learning, curiosity, and exploration)
Fresh Perspectives and New Ideas:
Ideas gathered from both my undergraduate and graduate study I use in my teaching:
The concept of learning units/spreading learning out over an extended period of time (and revisiting concepts to build new knowledge)
Music as a part of culture (both past and present)
Performing ensemble importance (specifically for me: chorus)
New ideas that I have incorporated into my thinking about teaching and learning:
"Curriculum of Questions" where inquiry (both student- and teacher-centered) serves as the driving force to discover core musical concepts and ideas within the topics of study
Music as a comprehensive whole (implementing ALL the National/State Standards v. focusing on your "favorites")
Hook Activities at the beginning of projects/units (to inspire motivation, interest, and a "need-to-know" attitude)
"Disposal Site":
Practices, strategies, and beliefs I no longer see fitting for my newly acquired ideas which I feel are ready to be discarded and left behind:
Teaching songs for concerts by rote/modeling/direct instruction while students sit in their seats (I believe they aren't truly engaged in the learning process at this point- they aren't given the opportunity to take ownership of what they are learning)
The view of the teacher as the only fount of knowledge
Teacher as a "dictator"
The idea that students are incapable of directing their own learning
Totally teacher-led and teacher-controlled activities (i.e. allowing students to take ownership and giving them a chance to lead)
Influencing My Particular Field of Teaching:
In my area of specialization (general music/vocal/choir) I am well-suited and willing to contribute to its needs by:
Allowing for student input and interest to drive decision-making in selecting topics of study
Collaborating with other teachers to get a feel for interdisciplinary connections that can be made during music
Staying connected to fellow music educators and professionals to provide current, up-to-date, relevant topics and learning opportunities to my students
I am able to exert influence upon my professional peers and their ideas by:
Collaborating and providing feedback (i.e. through professional networking, through conversation within my department, etc.)
Relating My Work to Music Education at Large:
The relationship between my plans and music education at large includes:
My aspiration and continual goal to provide relevant, thought-provoking, current opportunities to students (that deal with music in today's society)
The cultivation of dispositions
My ideas will contribute to the profession and the students it serves by:
Creating and cultivating opportunities for students that incorporate real-world musical experiences and skills
Creating musical activities that highlight current innovations (such as technology) and rely on musical practices that are relevant in today's world
Forging a Focus for this Semester:
This course can serve as an opportunity for me to really concentrate on the truly important aspects already in place in my curriculum as well as reigning in the newly-forged ideas that I have developed as a result. Questions I may want to ask myself in the process are:
What have I been doing that has been successful and meaningful to students?
What can I do to improve the current practices I have in place?
Is there anything that I need to eliminate due to irrelevancy or redundancy?
How can I synthesize and form a marriage between my "oldies but goodies" and new ideas?
Some goals, ambitions, and aspirations I would like to adopt during this semester are:
Allowing students to indicate topics of interest they would like to pursue (and putting them into practice!)
Developing a curriculum that is not only comprehensive, but also leaves room for growth in ways that I could not have predicted (striving for "optimal ambiguity")
To weed out topics, activities, and/or practices that are irrelevant or redundant and need discarding
Through these Significant Seven I hope to streamline the development of my curriculum which focuses on topics and projects that are relevant to students' lives and to the current culture around them. I hope to weed out unnecessary practices, topics, and/or activities that do not connect with students, and to listen to what areas of interest they might want to delve further into.

Timeline of Project Implementation:
To see a Microsoft Word document of the proposed timeline of our project, please click the link below:
{Project Timeline.doc}

Welcome to Miss Beasley's Wiki Page!!!
This is My Plan for Getting Started:
From Chapter 3, I want to keep these things in mind as I begin planning my project(s):
What important and enduring concepts are fundamentalspace to each subjectdocument a project Mrs. Kate Kenyon and I teach?
Why do these concepts matter? Why are they important?
Outside school, who cares about these topics? What is their relevancewill be implementing in different peoples' lives and in different parts of the world?
What are the interdisciplinary connections? What other subjects could be incorporated?
Howspring of 2011 with our fifth graders. We will I push past rote learning?
How can I incorporate waysbe collaborating with one another this coming spring and allowing our students can engage using 21st-century skills?
What aspectsthe opportunity to collaborate with one another via blogs and "E-Pals".
This project will span the course of these topicsthe entire spring semester. The students will interest my students?
What learning dispositions do I wantcompose their own lyrics to cultivate?a song for their graduation/moving up day in June. They will explore the emotions surrounding graduations, how we can express those emotions through lyrics and music, and experiment with writing a melody and an accompaniment for the song. Students will document their journey through the use of blogs and "tweets" and record their ideas, thoughts, areas of growth, and other wonderments they may have.
I Want Your Help!
to my ideas as the authors in Chapter 3 suggest.ideas. Help me have meaningful!

Feel free to contact me: sbeasley75@gmail.com or sbeasley@hpschools.org
Also, you may be interested in visiting my blog!
misssarahbeasley.blogspot.com