2 things I bear in mind when I lectured about the history of Typography yesterday:
1. Why do my students need to know about things of the past when they live in today? It's all about the application of what they learned and the how-tos.
2. I try to make myself a better story-teller in narrating, analyzing and critizing the history. The overall impression is that students will think that history is mostly a boring thing (point 1 above) and needs of none of their concern. But I always remember how I enjoy my parents telling me stories and things happened in the past. It's always their 1st hand experience that make the stories exciting to hear and touching. So if I can make history as interesting as those... Sometimes its the personal reflections (yours, quotes from some contemporary musical giants) that make history not so remote.
You'll be remembered in our prayers. So do you need to quit your full-time job?
(Patrick, Foon can probably fill you in on the details about praying for my time management. Yes, I'm quitting the full-time but there's some transition thing going on. Pray that it can be quick. I'm so busy these two weeks that I can't find enough time to sit down and prepare for my teaching. Then it's the new church year and fellowship officers need to sit down for relatively long meetings... Time conflict wasn't a term in my book, now it is.)
Great teaching advice from Patrick, thanks! I remember I bored my last batch of studnets to tears! Need to learn from my mistake and make the subject relevant. Since it's a year's course, i can use the 1st class to lure them into liking music history, rather than diving into the details right away.
I love music history. It's really not as boring as many people think. Many questions we ask today have been asked before -- like the distinction Chinese music theorists/ philosophers made thousands years ago about "noise," "sound," and music" (or something similar) is dealt with in the last century in the West.
Music history includes the study of thinking about music in the past. A quick run-through of how these following people think about music: Plato, Confucius, Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, (and the the Communist countries) will wow you.
I can go on a little longer now when I'm not nervous ... :)
I guess you need some basic sound editing software for your teaching, don't you?
Import your teaching materials and sample audio clips and fit them into your teaching plan for every session. I find examples are also really important to make your point (and getting immediate responses from the students), instead of just talk talk talk -- just like Jesus using parables.
Regarding your first class, I guess it could be something like "What makes great music?" and fill the session with great (and popular) example clips, so that you can set the scene that this subject is about something really fascinating...
Oops! you know what, I like to brainstorm these kind of things...
Wow, I'm so proud to learn (a FOC distant learning)from both of you in preparing for your lessons. And your conversations attracted me to explore "How music makes our world" (copied from "How art makes the world, introduced by Ka Yiu a year ago). Thanks!
Oh, big head, please rehearse here (or to us privately, cause I will be very flattered to be your first or second student) after you have figured out your framework.
brainstorming is good. and you're very resourceful in terms of idea. keep them coming - some i can use, some maybe not at this point.
yes, "tune time" is a must in the class. can't just talk and talk without music.
making things relevant is an excellent point too. the challenging part is to know my audience/students. i'm sure you must know that making things relevant to the audience depends much on who the audience/ what their backgrounds are.
add oil!
got to go and finish this later. piano student coming...
Just read something from Thomas Frideman's book, "The World Is Flat", that "...when I think back on my favorite teachers, I don't remember the specifics of what they taught me, but I sure remember being excited about learning it. What has stayed with me are not the facts they imparted but the excitement about learning they inspired..."
In other words, if you could just ignite the students to share your passion about the subject matter, they would dig and learn the material themselves, given the vast resources on the web and elsewhere.
OK, now I can tell who is "et". You must be E----- T--, aren't you?
Nice to meet you in cyberspace. Although we only met once in real life, I heard enough from Lulu and your dad that makes me feel like we're relatives who seldom meet.
16 comments:
Wish it was a nice change for you!!
I hope so too, Foon. Let me announce my update here -- I'll be teaching music history part-time at Cal State U, Los Angeles, starting next week!
Music history? Wow!!! Just tell us more when you have time ah!
Next week (Tuesday). Noted and I will have it in my prayers too!!
God's grace be with you!!!!
2 things I bear in mind when I lectured about the history of Typography yesterday:
1. Why do my students need to know about things of the past when they live in today? It's all about the application of what they learned and the how-tos.
2. I try to make myself a better story-teller in narrating, analyzing and critizing the history. The overall impression is that students will think that history is mostly a boring thing (point 1 above) and needs of none of their concern. But I always remember how I enjoy my parents telling me stories and things happened in the past. It's always their 1st hand experience that make the stories exciting to hear and touching. So if I can make history as interesting as those... Sometimes its the personal reflections (yours, quotes from some contemporary musical giants) that make history not so remote.
You'll be remembered in our prayers. So do you need to quit your full-time job?
Foon and Patrick,
(Patrick, Foon can probably fill you in on the details about praying for my time management. Yes, I'm quitting the full-time but there's some transition thing going on. Pray that it can be quick. I'm so busy these two weeks that I can't find enough time to sit down and prepare for my teaching. Then it's the new church year and fellowship officers need to sit down for relatively long meetings... Time conflict wasn't a term in my book, now it is.)
Great teaching advice from Patrick, thanks! I remember I bored my last batch of studnets to tears! Need to learn from my mistake and make the subject relevant. Since it's a year's course, i can use the 1st class to lure them into liking music history, rather than diving into the details right away.
I love music history. It's really not as boring as many people think. Many questions we ask today have been asked before -- like the distinction Chinese music theorists/ philosophers made thousands years ago about "noise," "sound," and music" (or something similar) is dealt with in the last century in the West.
Music history includes the study of thinking about music in the past. A quick run-through of how these following people think about music: Plato, Confucius, Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, (and the the Communist countries) will wow you.
I can go on a little longer now when I'm not nervous ... :)
I guess you need some basic sound editing software for your teaching, don't you?
Import your teaching materials and sample audio clips and fit them into your teaching plan for every session. I find examples are also really important to make your point (and getting immediate responses from the students), instead of just talk talk talk -- just like Jesus using parables.
Regarding your first class, I guess it could be something like "What makes great music?" and fill the session with great (and popular) example clips, so that you can set the scene that this subject is about something really fascinating...
Oops! you know what, I like to brainstorm these kind of things...
Wow, I'm so proud to learn (a FOC distant learning)from both of you in preparing for your lessons. And your conversations attracted me to explore "How music makes our world" (copied from "How art makes the world, introduced by Ka Yiu a year ago). Thanks!
Oh, big head, please rehearse here (or to us privately, cause I will be very flattered to be your first or second student) after you have figured out your framework.
Add oil!!
ablogaday,
brainstorming is good. and you're very resourceful in terms of idea. keep them coming - some i can use, some maybe not at this point.
yes, "tune time" is a must in the class. can't just talk and talk without music.
making things relevant is an excellent point too. the challenging part is to know my audience/students. i'm sure you must know that making things relevant to the audience depends much on who the audience/ what their backgrounds are.
add oil!
got to go and finish this later. piano student coming...
Just read something from Thomas Frideman's book, "The World Is Flat", that "...when I think back on my favorite teachers, I don't remember the specifics of what they taught me, but I sure remember being excited about learning it. What has stayed with me are not the facts they imparted but the excitement about learning they inspired..."
In other words, if you could just ignite the students to share your passion about the subject matter, they would dig and learn the material themselves, given the vast resources on the web and elsewhere.
OK, now I can tell who is "et". You must be E----- T--, aren't you?
Nice to meet you in cyberspace. Although we only met once in real life, I heard enough from Lulu and your dad that makes me feel like we're relatives who seldom meet.
et,
i may just use that quote in my class.
ablogaday and foon,
my sales pitch on the first day may be:
1. Music (noise, sound, music) - What qualifies music (or "pleasant sound") for you?
2. History - playing detective in making a case (I have a game/ activity for that)
wow, the # of comments i have got here over this entry is a record. thanks for reading and leaving your marks!
ablogaday, 乜原來您鍾意周圍撩人傾計ga?!
我無所事事麻！（Yeah！成功幫自己賣廣告）唔係你呢篇得兩句既blog邊會有破紀錄既comment呀？響cyberspace係咁識人架啦！
我都想識多D cyber朋友﹐ 但呢邊D人(至少我身邊果D)無您咁勇架. e.g. some just come to visit my blog (which i welcome) without leaving any trace.
希望慢慢會被您薰化啦.
"願你有三十五份的看見"在我的晚禱中出現了數次，我想全是給你的！
願主賜福保守你！
Post a Comment