WEEK 4 (YEAR 1 Semester 2) -- Teacher Musicianship and Culture Bearers

Week 4 synthesised previous learning into practical strategies for teacher placement, emphasising our role as culture bearers and sharers. The Basque Clapping Dance (Esku Dantza) demonstrated how providing cultural context enriches student engagement -- knowing this dance was historically used as battle practice could resonate with junior high school boys. This activity reinforced the importance of ethical sourcing and respectful presentation of music from diverse cultures.

Movement-based activities, though challenging for some students, develop the corpus callosum through cross-body coordination.

The "Come Follow Me" canon exercise illustrated how simple pentatonic material can develop complex multiliteracies. Adding two ostinati created individual part work, training awareness of others while developing each student's musicianship through layered complexity -- exactly what we discussed in Week 2 about building from simple to complex, and based on the concept of Bruner's spiral curriculum model.

The focus on contemporary music (Jessica Wells' Zodiac Animalia) reminded me that classical music analysis needn't involve only textbooks and dead composers. 

A pivotal discussion emerged: Why must we be the best musicians we can be? When teachers possess strong musicianship, we can flexibly adapt lessons in the moment, provide accurate models (an in-tune lead singer creates in-tune responses), and diagnose students' needs with finely attuned hearing. Kodály believed music education requires the best musicians leading classes. This challenges me to continue developing skills requiring rigorous, regular practice through organisations like ASME, ANCOS, Dalcroze Australia, and Kodály Australia.

The practical preparation checklist grounded everything: collecting song files, gathering worksheets and resources, understanding classroom management systems, and joining networks like EMTN.