Okay, to tell this story (stories, actually), you need some background info. Otherwise you're going to think I'm nuts. (If you don't already...) These past 2 weeks I've been in a workshop called Music Learning Theory (MLT). MLT was developed in the 1960s, and it's basically a theory on how children learn music. They emphasize singing, chanting (rhythms and stuff - not Gregorian), and moving. One of the aspects of moving is called "flow," which means moving your entire body with no focus on the beat. Sort of like seaweed. Imagine 60 adults doing this, all at the same time. Yeah.
So I was in a group with my girlfriends, and one girl (Marguerite) said we were pretending to be in a garden in her activity. "What kind of things could we move like in a garden?" she asked. Without thinking, I blurted out, "A radish!"
"Um...okay. Radishes are kind of half in and half out of the ground, so we would need to kneel..."
At this point, I lost it completely. I was on the ground laughing and crying so hard. Right about then, my professor walked up. "We don't know what's so funny," they said. "She's being a radish."
(Marguerite said she thought we would suggest things like flowers, or trees, or maybe the wind. Not vegetables.)
Story #2 (It's shorter, I promise...)
The whole entire class (well, half of the class) was participating in the peer teaching activities. One girl was leading us, and she said, "What do birds do in the winter?" Once again, I just blurted out, "Hibernate!" My Michigander friends turned to me in shock (and some disgust), and said, "No...they fly south!" One person said, "What state are you from?"
The reason for this blog post:
Later that evening, we were at a picnic. After discussing my ability to say random things and laugh out loud (I think I was trying not to spit food all over as tears ran down my cheeks), Ali said,
"Man, we should write down everything Liz says. Liz-isms."
I swallowed my food, and exclaimed, "That's what my friends in California do too!"
Nice to know that I have the same effect everywhere.
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1 comment:
Hello LiZ,
Your blog came up while I was looking for info about GMLT on google. I was looking for anyone that has experience working with GMLT. I read your blog entry and started to laugh. Very funny story.
I teach orchestra in Vancouver, WA and want to start using his learning sequence. I ordered his Jump Right In series for orchestra. I am curious, do you know anyone that is already using GMLT in the instrumental classroom? Have you had success using GMLT in the classroom? None of the teachers where I live have a clue what it is. It seems to make since to me, but I need input from other teachers that are already using it in their classroom. Thank you for your help.
Toby
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