For the past few weeks, my students have been learning about “Land and Water.” They’ve been conducting experiments, learning about the water cycle, making it rain, observing erosion, carving out riverbeds and watching the power of water. This week, we started listening to the blues and to kick things off, I chose Backwater Blues sung [...]
Full Story »
It’s Jazz Appreciation Month and whether you teach music or love music, this is a great time to share this American art form with your students. As you may know about me already, I am a huge proponent of actively listening to music in the classroom (ALL classrooms). Sharing listening experiences with your students builds [...]
Full Story »
With April here, I can’t help but reflect on the ideas of improvisation! It’s Jazz Appreciation Month and National Poetry Month. Jazz and poetry: two art forms that emulate improv! “Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one’s [...]
Full Story »
Daffodils start sprouting, Rain comes showering down, A joke, a stroke of laughter And then there’s snow, a frown. A jazzy rhythm’s happen’n And poems fill the air April’s now upon us There’s so much to do, to share! I’ve come to realize how much I really love April. Not just because it sends us [...]
Full Story »
Judy DeFilippo supervises student teachers getting their MATESL degree at Simmons College and is an ESL (English as a Second Language) specialist. She has authored and co-authored numerous textbooks for ESL students including So to Speak 1 and 2, Grammar Plus, and Great Dictations. All her books are available on Amazon. Over the years, Judy and [...]
Full Story »
A few days back I saw this tweet from @educatoral: I followed the link to find this video by Sir Ken Robinson. I found his reply to be very complete. You truly need discipline and skill in order to release your creative potential. It also reminded me of a post from the “Freedom in Structure” [...]
Full Story »
What is jazz? It is the ultimate freedom in structure. The goal for me in teaching is to teach as if I were playing jazz. But how? First by finding the structure, and allowing myself to be creative and free. Here is what I mean. Growing up, my piano teacher trained me classically and she [...]
Full Story »
This month we celebrate POETRY and JAZZ. Here is an activity I would like to share with you that you can use immediately with your students to celebrate jazz, poetry and promote freedom in structure! DADA poetry was first written by artists and poets in Paris France. They clipped words from newspapers, scrambled them and [...]
Full Story »Click here to view the most comprehensive music integration teacher resource!
Click here to view and join our PLC wiki focused on Arts Integration!
Sign up for our Email Newsletter!
Recent Comments