This is an assignment where I chose to have them aurally learn solfege by identifying it in the popular song "(I've Had) the Time of My Life." After identifying the solfege, they are asked to dictate it by writing it on paper. Here is the outline of the full activity. 
This project is in place of projects I would have done if I was in the classroom (in person). 

This project was designed to implement a music activity in a middle school chorus class. I chose to do a listening map to help the students understand what iconic notation is and what different elements are of pieces they sing and hear. For instance, some elements I decided to focus on in this activity was rhythm, pitch direction, solfege, and form of a piece. The design of the project that I ​would implement (if school was not closed) is outlined below. 

This project is of the same design as block 3's. I only had to modify things a bit to show that I can change it for the middle school students I would've had during this block. I modified to fit their needs. The project is described in more detail below. 

This project is a technology project that utilizes technology that enhances the music learning in the classroom. (Full description on the document). 

This projects purpose is to obtain background information about two students each block of student teaching. The requirements are: 
1) observe them carefully
2) discuss their background with your cooperating teacher and other professionals in the building 
3) ask permission to view their permanent records 
4) write a one-two page profile of each student indicating how you might modify your teaching in light of their background. 

This is an edited 7 minute lesson plan written for a choir rehearsal as part of our practicum in MUED 376. There were 3 total lesson plans and rehearsals we did for the semester. 

 I have engaged with others in many ways. I have engaged with my peers through the choirs I have been in here at JMU, including University Women's Chorus, Treble Chamber Choir, and the JMU Chorale. Working with them in the alto section as well as a choir as a whole. I also engage with others in music in projects I have done. In "MUED 271" which is the intro to the JMU conceptual framework of music education courses, I partnered with a peer of mine in the class and we planned a musical activity for "Keister Music Night" at Keister Elementary School. We planned a "drum circle" where the students who came to the music night, got to participate in the activity. Here is the link to the post: http://ailishhall.weebly.com/engagement/keister-music-night. This experience engaged the students/participants in music by having them learn rhythms by kinesthetic touch to the drum and copying it themselves as well as bringing out or engaging their creative side by having them create their own rhythms as well. It also showed that they are able to "perform" which is a part of music learning. Another way that I have engaged others in learning music was JMUke @ The Explore More Discovery Museum. A group of MUED372 students as well as MUED273 students planned and executed an event of teaching ukulele songs to people in the community who come to the museum. Not only did I get to engage the young kids in learning how to play ukulele but, I also got to be the curriculum developer and develop that and be in contact with the students in MUED273 which got them engaged in the project as well as learn the chords and music for the event. Here is the link:  http://ailishhall.weebly.com/engagement/jmuke-preparation-post. In MUED 380 we designed and planned for an experience at an event called "The Harvest Festival" at the Edith Carrier Arboretum. I designed an experience for the creative station where I decided to do an activity centered around drawing on white paper to popular songs young children would enjoy and most likely know. The activity is called "Musical Masterpiece." The kids got to listen to Disney songs they would most likely know and draw on paper to the music they were hearing. ​ http://ailishhall.weebly.com/engagement/mued380-engagement-portfolio-project-experience-design.
Overall there have been many opportunities for me to help others engage in music as well as I engaging with others in music settings for all of us to experience music in teaching settings. 

JMUke is something JMU music education students do where they go out into the community and teach community members how to play the ukulele. There have been events at UREC at JMU, the Friendly Fermenter in downtown Harrisonburg, and at the Explore More Discovery Museum also in downtown Harrisonburg. Usually the event covers teaching uke chords then playing songs using those chords with different processes depending on the event and who is coming. 

Present the information so it makes sense to an outside reader:

1. Description of the engagement experience. What was it? What did it look like/feel like/sound like from the perspective of an outside viewer?
2. Media that demonstrate what happened (embedded images and videos)
3. Any designed materials: Embedded PDFs or google docs of experience designs, songs slides, posters, etc.
4. Reflective commentary that discusses the following (you make consider splitting this reflection text up so that you can specifically reference the other evidence (images, videos, designs, etc.) in the text:
   • The meaning of this experience in the lives of learners/community members. How do you know (think about evidence).
   • What you have learned from designing and facilitating this experience in relation to being a leader, musician, and scholar. What surprised you? What worked particularly well? What would you change? 
   • The meaning of this experience and designing the experience for your current/future teaching. What big takeaways for you have that may have lasting impact (what Janet Barrett calls "residue" of learning). 

A group of JMU students went out to one of the locations for JMUke and helped facilitate an experience with Ukuleles, teaching the children and their parents how to play. We had many slides put up with the ukulele songs and chords. Before putting that up we thought we would go into groups and teach them the chords but it ended up being one junior calling out what chords to teach and the other JMU people going around and teaching the children how to play the chords. After we got that we started to sing and play the songs because the children knew them. The slides are featured above in this post. A lot of the songs are young nursery rhymes we thought that age group would know also popular Disney songs like "How Far I'll Go" from Moana and "Let it Go" from Frozen. During the jam session and singing all the songs on the slides. We would continually remind them of how to play each chords in the songs and go over harder chords (like Em) and then someone would go up to the microphone and sing (and play) the song to guide the musicking experience. From the perspective of an outside viewer, this experience would look like a bunch of people in a room watching a screen and singing along and playing along to ukulele songs with JMU students walking around helping people and singing and playing alongside them while one person leads a song with a microphone. 
One thing that I have noticed with doing JMUke for 2 years is that, going into facilitated/planned groups doesn't really work when we don't know how many people are coming. If it was an on-going class like in the school day, this would work much better. So even though we planned it this way, it didn't really work and the best thing that worked (in the moment) was having one person sing and guide the songs with "floaters" walking around and helping people. This also worked last year when I did JMUke at Urec with JMU students. Also, in a school classroom, people can't just come in and come out as they please so we have the same amount and same people in there for the whole duration, whereas at Explore More, people could come and go as they pleased. This experience seemed to go very well, but one thing as the the collaborative facilitator (collaborating with MUED273) is that they did not really know how to write an experience design and I helped them as much as I could, but they were confused as to what a experience design was and I think it might be helpful for them if they learned what it was and did a practice one earlier in the semester. Other than that, I think the experience was very successful because many children and their parents stayed for a long time (almost over an hour). I think it was an enriching experience for the members of the community that came and participated, again because they came and stayed for a long time. I also think that we could make it more enriching for the children by maybe having a time where they can get acquainted with the ukulele more and play around with it because we moved very fast and I think we definitely had time to slow it down and have them just enjoy the ukulele because many of them were too young to understand how to play the ukulele chords that fast. Essentially, slow down the learning process. Overall I thought it was very successful. There are some pictures of the experience under this. 

Last week was disability awareness week. This assignment is focused on what places hinder and help people with disabilities. A lot of the photos I posted were focused on physical disabilities but a couple were about mental disabilities and mental health that helps or hinders them. 

• Inclusion on campus can be good sometimes. There are a lot of places in normal buildings like SSC or Carrier Library that have handicap access points. However some places like the village for instance has no elevators in the buildings and the buildings are not hall-style and have small narrow hallways. So the layout of the buildings themselves is very confusing and not very accessible for people with disabilities, especially physical ones. On the other hand, SSC is the place for accommodations! It has a lot of services like, learning centers, office of disability services, the counseling center, just handicap accessibility places in general like elevators. It is crawling with places that help students with every problem imaginable which I know some universities don't do at all. One thing about JMU in the sense of unspoken kindness is the fact that everyone holds a door for everyone no matter how far away they are. That is inclusion in and of itself which helps anyone no matter if they have a disability or not. I find that aspect of the culture here at JMU, endearing and kind and it speaks for itself where holding doors helps people in nee, even though it is a small, seemingly insignificant thing to do but it is done anyway and shows that people are social and kind here at JMU which caters to the inclusion aspect of Disability Awareness. Some suggestions I might make would be to have a ramp that goes inside Madison Union because that building seems to feel flatter than walking up that curved steep hill. Also, redoing the layout of the Village buildings because so many more students could be accepted to JMU and it would start to be diverse if there were elevators or accommodations in the Village dorms. For physical disabilities, this makes me think more about them. I have always thought more about mental disabilities and not physical. I would like to change that and maybe in my future classroom if a physical hinderance is brought to my attention at the school I am teaching at, I would try my hardest to try to accommodate to every single student, and maybe try and bring some music aspect to that. Specifically, if someone could not walk and I had an ensemble do a dance number for a concert I could have the student with a disability help with percussion or if they had other musical skills I would use those to have them be included. I am just thinking of options and it is not limited to just that. In respects to moving, I would see what and how much they could move and maybe have them be in a neutral place on the stage/performance space and move their arms or hands or even ask them what they wanted to do, also see where it would be best to put them in terms of blocking. 
• 
  
  

In MUED 380 we designed and planned for an experience at an event called "The Harvest Festival" at the Edith Carrier Arboretum. I designed an experience for the creative station where I decided to do an activity centered around drawing on white paper to popular songs young children would enjoy and most likely know. 

As a facilitator of my first experience design, I felt like it did not go anything like I planned it would. The age group was different than what I was told. I was told it would be ages 6-12 but it was really children under the age of 6 which is difficult to adapt to because my design had so much structure for kids ages 6-12. The children who participated really just liked to color and listen to Disney songs that they knew. There wasn't a lot of opportunity to show them to draw to the sounds of the music because they didn't really understand me because of their age and development of their brain. I was surprised when a couple of 8 year old girls came and drew a picture of Moana and the ocean partly because they saw the movie but partly because they heard ocean sounds in the song. So if the age group was older the experience design would most likely gone as planned. The younger children did learn however some new Disney songs and said they "liked them" they also learned that some colors associate with moods of the song like "Colors of the Wind" was playing and a couple of children picked out orange and yellow for the color of the fall leaves.  They did demonstrate and choose a favorite musical idea. They also did demonstrate personal interest in knowledge about varied musical selections as well. The rest of the standards they did not because of their age. In the future I know that if I ever choose to teach early childhood I will know how to change my experience design to fit their age. I might put a little more structure and instruction in to the activity so that they can slowly start to learn how drawing and art can relate to music If I use this activity again. My feelings have changed in the sense that I know I have to be extremely adaptive if I am ever put in this hybrid environment again and I do not know what age group I am going to get. I could also plan multiple experience designs to fit each age group so I can use that plan more effectively. Over preparation always relieves some stress and anxiety I have going into these types of events, so having more than experience design would help with that over-preparation. Another thing to add is that the experience design and handout in this post are the ones that I revised and fixed from the original which was written before the Harvest Festival.