Educators Engage in professional learning
Educators engage in professional learning and reflective practice to support their professional growth. Educators recognize and meet their individual professional needs through various learning opportunities. Educators develop and refine personal philosophies of education, teaching and learning that are informed by research, practice and the Professional Standards for BC Educators.
On April 28 I attended the 2023 Spring Fling Education Conference. My highlight of this conference was the workshop “Sing, Move, and Play with the building blocks of ORFF with Lori Jane Froese. Lori started the workshop with some movement activities that focused around beat and feeling the 8 beat pattern in music. I really loved these exercises and have since used them in my teachings.
The one activity I use the most is centred around the song The Longer The Faster by Shenanigans. This song starts slow with a strong beat and a bell on the 8th beat and speeds up slowly. For young groups I will have them march to the beat and clap together on the 8th beat. For older groups I have one person move on the beat and tag someone else on the 8th beat. Usually I have everyone form a circle so we can all see each other.
In the workshop Lori also taught us about Borduns. I have utilized these in my older groups as a way to grow musicianship skills and improvisation. Once the class knows a couple patterns each student picks one pattern to play and that serves as a background for the soloist that is improvising. I haven’t been utilizing these for long but they have been very useful in classes.
