Secondary Newsletter 23 – January 23, 2020
Upcoming Events
Thursday, January 30 – School photos
Saturday, February 1 – BIS Maths Competition
Monday – Friday, February 3-7 – Mock Exams (Grade 12)
Wednesday, February 5 – ISA Trial tests (Grade 6-10)
Tuesday & Wednesday, February 11 & 12 ISA Testing (Grade 6-10)
CAS Corner by Gung Ale Bestananta
This teaching experience for 3 months is really fun and entertaining. I think for me is really fun because I got to play music again and also interact with an amazing local kid that is always happy when we came to teach them. Also by seeing the kid’s reaction when we are coming to them, I already now that they really enjoy the lesson and playing music together, also I think most of them are getting better at their own instrument. During the lesson, the kids have a choice to play the xylophone, Jimbe or Cajon, Maracas or Tamborine and some will sing. We teach them simple songs like jingle bell, Twinkle-twinkle, Ode to joy, and some Indonesian songs. And sometimes we just jam along for fun like a couple of minutes before the lesson ends.
The goal of this CAS:
To able to help kids to learn and understand music for their benefits in the future and also give them a vast amount of knowledge in the world so on also giving them the chance to perform and play instruments to further strengthen their confidence and performing skills to use in the future.
How I achieve my learner Outcomes:
LO 1 – The main challenge I think is patience, because sometimes the kids are not focused and talking to each other, or sometimes they cannot play the song correctly so I need to give the specific kid a private session. Also because they are kids and don’t know the music that well when playing the song together, many off them are playing offbeat which is sometimes faster or slower. But this problem we can solve easily by telling them the correct speed, or while playing I will become the metronome by clapping my hands to keep them on the beat. But I think all of these problems that I faced make become a better teacher and making myself become a more patient person and also a better problem solver.
LO 2 – So every twice a week I and my friends will change the song that we will learn so that the lesson will be a lot of fun, more challenging and not repetitive. So before the lesson, we need to choose the song that probably kids know and like, but also simple or easy to play. After we chose the song we need to learn the song, and after that, we can actually teach the kids.
LO 3 – Everything that we do on this CAS experience has been work collaboratively, starting from planning the song that we are going to teach, preparing and giving the instrument to the kids, gathering the kids, and finally teaching them. There a good amount of kids come every week to our lesson, so we split the kids to play different instruments that they like. And in this case, I will teach them how to play the drums or jimbe, and my friends will teach them how to play the xylophone, and some times to keep the flow of the song I will play the guitar and ask the children to play while singing.
