First day of class

There are approximately 150 people participating in the summer course from all over the world.  There are people here from China, Australia, Brazil, and all over the Europe area.  I believe there are only two other American's other than myself that are here this week, so we are definitely in the minority.  Luckily just about everyone speaks English as a second language, so I've had it pretty easy.  The accents sometimes get in the way of understanding one another, but it has been interesting to compare cultural backgrounds and perspectives with one another.  I believe later on this week there will be an "international night" where people can share songs, dances, or games from their country with one another.  There are so many great folk songs, play parties, and folk dances from America, I am not even sure what I would decide on.  Any ideas from my fellow elementary music teachers?

My schedule:

9:00-10:30 - Morning lecture (All participates together taught by Orff Institute staff)

11:00-12:30 - From Patterns to Composition in Dance (elective class taught by Sonja Stibi)

2:30-4:00 - Dance Approaches (elective class taught by Doris Valtiner)

4:30-6:00 - The Adventure of Rhythm (elective class taught by Ari Glage)

6:30-8:00 - Singing & Dancing (All participates together taught by Orff Institute staff)

The morning lecture today was on the history and direction of Orff-Schulwerk.  Manuela Widmer led the lecture and included various video from performances throughout the years, including Gunild Keetman playing the recorder and pictures of Carl Orff when he was three years old playing a drum.

Sonja's class today was centered on small group and large group mirroring based on qualities found in Turkish bowls that she had bought.  This idea was then transferred to designing a cheorography in small groups using the lines, colors, and shapes found in the bowls as inspiration.  The majority of the participants in this class I would say have either had dance experience or have taken an equivalent to a levels course.  The creativity among the group has actually been pretty good.  

Doris' class was centered on a tribal theme, which I thought was particularly interesting and something I thought would be very easy to bring back into the classroom.  She connected us to one another in the form of a circle using thick dol rod sticks that we balanced in the palm of our hands.  We were asked to explore various levels, while changing the formation of the circle so making our formation asymmetric in different ways.  I wish I could have taken a picture of this, but we're not allowed to take pictures in class.  The sticks then became a prop in a tribal dance, and singing game.  To bring all the activities together she cheorgraphed a basic form which we used all of these ideas to create one big cheorographed movement using the song in the last dance and singing game.  She ended the class by introducing a street game using bamboo sticks that we will learn tomorrow.

The last elective class of the day was filled with body percussion and improvised sound using harmony and polyrhythmic ideas.  Today I was reminded of the importance of giving an activity time for students to get comfortable with what is being taught.  Often times I rush the activity and don't allow enough time to really "milk it".  At first I was thinking "okay when are we going to do something else", but then I realized time was needed in order for us to really 'get it' and to allow the creativity and improvisation to develop in the group.

By the time class was over I was completely drained, but I went to the final class anyway.  I had some of my new friends ask if I was alright, I don't think I wasn't hiding my exhaustion too well. ;)  That night Karla (Finland), Joyce, Ginny, Laura (all three from Australia), and Suzanne (Germany) went to the local McDonalds for dinner.  I was a little confused at first when the Aussie's picked the dinner place because they said "lets just go to McAies".  Then I later found out that is what they call McDonalds in Australia, and apparently a few years ago a group of Australians were able to get the McDonalds signs changed to "McAies" (don't quote me on the spelling).  I had to tease them about that because I was already getting my fair share of teasing for saying "y'all".   I guess my southern upbringing comes out more than I think. ;)