- This week I learned Congratulations by Mac Miller with sheet music! This song was a lot easier to learn than last week’s song, due to the simple and repeating chord progression, but also due to my increased confidence and patience in playing.
- I feel like I’m starting to get familiar with the sound of each key, so when I do hit the wrong key, I can easily correct myself.
- I’ve also realized how memorizing playing songs comes from muscle memory. When practicing both Je Te Laisserai Des Mots by Patrick Watson and Older by Lizzy McAlpine, if I forget a section, I can usually remember just by trying different things, because I can remember the shape of my hands.
- I have also realized that I learn best before bed, as I’m not worried about what I have next during the day!
- I’m grateful that I have this assignment, as it doesn’t feel like real homework, yet I still feel productive when playing, as well as calmer.
Month: October 2025
After our class this week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on how I would implement phone boundaries in the classroom. One point that stuck with me is that taking away phones is not effective. Confiscating a child’s property will only cause them distress and shift their attention away from learning, and children will eventually find ways around this by bringing burner phones to school, etc.
To effectively teach internet safety and phone use, we must educate students on why boundaries matter and how to navigate responsible use.
In my experience, I found it difficult to take advice from teachers who weren’t familiar with how kids are using technology today. Because so many educators didn’t learn about tech safety during their schooling, I think there should be more learning opportunities for them, and if needed, guest speakers should be brought in to approach this topic. Even though tech might not be used much in school, internet education is still an important topic that children may not have access to elsewhere.
I believe the best approach is to be honest about the risks and benefits of technology, while also giving students freedom to navigate their internet use themselves. Each child is different, so our approach will never be perfect, but being open and adaptable is key. In the classroom, I think having a phone pocket system for everyone to use at the start of class is the most effective way to build healthy habits and create shared expectations.
This week, I finished learning Older by Lizzy McAlpine! I used the same video tutorial and realized that I much prefer learning from sheet music! This was a real example of how, as a future educator, I must use Universal Learning Design as I teach. By presenting content in multiple ways and accepting different options of how students can demonstrate their understanding, I can keep students engaged and intrigued. As a kid, I think I fell out of love with playing piano as I didn’t like being told what to play, and having to prove each week at lessons that I had been practicing. When I got a new teacher, having the ability to choose what I was interested in made it much more fun and also easier, as by choosing the songs, I knew how they were supposed to sound. By putting myself in other students’ shoes, and reflecting on my learning as I kid, I will have the flexibility skills to meet students where they’re at and make their voices heard.
Happy Saturday! Today I decided to learn a new song, Older by Lizzy McAlpine! Instead of reading sheet music, I found a video tutorial by Taylor Mackall and learned by watching that. I had to replay the video over and over, put it on a slower speed, and learn one hand at a time to finally get it, as I found it difficult to see which keys were being played at times. Although I enjoyed learning from this tutorial, as it was the exact progression from the song, I learned that I prefer learning from sheet music. This song was also great for me to start practicing using the pedal, as each chord in this song must be distinct, so the pedal must be lifted with each changing chord. I tried playing on my real piano rather than my keyboard this week, which was decently harder as the heavier keys give it a different feel. At one point in the song I kept messing up the exact same part, which was the biggest challenge for me this week. I had to review just that part over and over and take breaks in between to really get it memorized. After taking a long break and coming back to playing, I was surprised at how much faster I could play it! I really enjoyed learning this song and I think next week I’ll work at getting the chorus down, as the chord progression changes.
For this week, I decided to reflect on the process of creating my blog and how I’ve been enjoying it so far. After the first class, I felt super overwhelmed and was honestly quite confused about where to begin. But with each week, I feel like I’ve been gradually learning new things as I explore with each blog post.
I’m grateful that our blog assignment is something we can work on at our own pace. I think learning is done best when it comes from curiosity, and when the student is given the freedom to plan according to what works best for them. Personalizing my blog has been a very rewarding experience, and having an outlet to reflect on my creative learning has helped me find new approaches to learning piano and plan for what I’m going to focus on each week.
Although I was confused the first week, working through that uncertainty has helped me expand my knowledge and gain confidence in technology. I’m looking forward to asking more questions and finding out more as I go!
This week, I have gravitated towards the piano when I need a study break, before going to bed, and when I return home from school. Now that I’ve memorized a full song, it’s been my goal to be able to play it smoothly every time. This week, I listened to the song itself and reread the sheet music of the parts I had already learned years ago. I realized that there were a few parts with the bass clef (left hand) that I have been playing wrong, and are now muscle memory. Working through breaking this habit was difficult, but because I love playing this song, I was determined to get it right. I found that every time I became frustrated, that was a sign that I needed to come back to it later, as it was only making it harder. After listening to the song more, and coming back the next day, I was surprised how naturally it came to me. I worked on using the pedal, lifting it before playing a new sound to create a clean transition, yet this is something I’m still working on. I decided to include an audio this week of me playing, which taught me to be content with my progress, as I’m still just getting back into playing consistently. This week was very fun for me, and next week I hope to start a completely new song!! Hope you enjoy 🙂
After visiting the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, I can’t stop thinking about the impact that this school system has on students. I was skeptical at first, but after the visit, I have been reflecting on the fact that our current school system is something that has been built over time, and followed just because that’s how it’s always been. Although I still have lots to learn and don’t fully understand how this inquiry model works yet, I find it so interesting how engaged students can be with this sense of freedom. One of the biggest challenges of teaching a large, diverse classroom is keeping everyone engaged and meeting a variety of learners’ needs. It was so refreshing to hear that the students at this school want to be at school on weekends and stay up late by choice doing their schoolwork, because they genuinely enjoy it. I definitely will continue to ponder how I can integrate similar strategies into my future classroom in even just small ways, like centers, to understand students’ interests and learn how to incorporate their curiosity into my teaching. After reflecting on what I learned on Friday, my few lingering questions that are…
- Does this structure work for every kid? Would this structure fit the needs of students who love the current traditional schooling system?
- How do attendance rates influence consistency in learning? And if this system were to be implemented in primary years, would attendance be affected?
- How are both math and indigenous knowledge appropriately included in self-directed learning?
