Teaching in front of people who are my age or older always makes me anxious which is strange because teaching students on Wednesdays never makes me stressed in any way. So, I was a little nervous going into this lesson as I am with all lessons however, I thought doing more drumming would be really fun and give everyone the opportunity to blow off some steam. My role in this lesson was more focused on the set up of the lesson so I mainly focused on the introduction, hook and the adaptions that could be applied. I unfortunately was sick on the day we were handing in the project so I could not help with the final polishing of the project that my other group mates did. I enjoyed working on the adaptions section as it is something, I find extremely important as someone who has spent a great deal of time working with and tutoring students with disabilities.
When it came to the actual presentation, we divided up the roles so we would all have an equal part in the presentation. My role was to introduce the topic, teach one of the skills and then conclude the class by asking some closing questions. I enjoyed leading this activity as in my elementary school we had Djembes in our music class, and we all had so much fun whenever we got to play them. Overall, I think the lesson did go well however in hindsight we could have made it longer and added more activities. In the end getting to play drums and explore music is always fun no matter how old you are.
When it came to embedding the First Peoples Principles of Learning we used the historical significance of the Djembe to the people of West Africa so the students learning would be in relation to the history and cultural significance of drumming. We found resources that used oral and visual story telling to explain the history of the drum with the person telling the story being someone with deep historical knowledge. We made sure that the learning that took place recognized the traditional history of instrument while also allowing our students to learn through experimentation as they tried playing the drum and making beats themselves.
