I hate to make excuses, but it's been super busy with concerts! Since I teach in 4 schools, I have 4 spring concerts, plus the 5th graders do a festival to help recruit them into orchestra in 6th grade. Plus solo and ensemble contest in April. Plus my own playing. Ah, concert season!
But speaking of concerts, I think it's really important for students (well, really everybody) to be reflective about their learning. My beginners reflect on their learning after every concert (and hopefully more often than that!) I try to get a video of each performance, then I put it on YouTube. Even though I make it "Private" so no creepy people can watch my kids play, this is very exciting to them! The next orchestra day after the concert, we eat popcorn and watch the video. Then we reflect.
What did you learn?
What went well?
What could have been better?
I also have them "rate" their posture/playing position, bow hold, and how comfortable they were with the music, and have them tell me their favorite song and why.
The questionnaire is pretty heavily based on one the band teacher used at my previous job. It was so great, I had to steal it! The kids don't seem to mind filling them out--in fact, because I bring popcorn, they think it's a party! And we really do get some insightful reflections. They often surprise me, saying things like "I liked our tone" or "We didn't really play that together." These are beginners!
This activity is so great because it helps the kids realize how much they have learned, especially this time of year when the going is starting to get tough--more notes and more skills sometimes gets to be overwhelming. I also love that it helps us focus our learning and set goals for the next concert.
Of course, we always save some time for a fun YouTube video at the end. This time, it was the Piano Guys' version of Let it Go from Frozen. Fantastic!
So take some time to reflect with your kiddos. The sense of accomplishment and the sense of direction doing an activity like this provides is so valuable.
