Antarctic Curiosity!

This week went really quickly with all of the little details to take care of. I’ll share more on that in an upcoming blog, as I’m waiting for an order to arrive to school that you all will love to see, I’m sure. I know I am excited about it!!!

Anyway, one of the skills I really love to develop in the music classroom is curiosity. It feels like the students I’ve taught in the past reach a certain age and lose the ability to act or share their curiosity. I have a few theories on why this happens, but it is my goal to prevent it from happening. As I get closer to leaving for Antarctica, I’m really encouraging the students to do deep into their imaginations and wonder about what Antarctica is like. I’ve created a bulletin board for them to put any questions they want me to find the answers to in a curiosity box. I set this up just in time for the parent teacher conferences we had on Thursday and Friday, so that I could encourage parents to ask questions, too. The box had a lot of questions in it before conferences, and it was fun to see students showing their parents the bulletin board and encouraging the adults to put questions in the box, too.

I’ve also been asking my colleagues what they would do with students if they were going to Antarctica. I have gotten so many great ideas. I have a fear of coming back from Antarctica and hearing “you know what you should have done?” With the help of my creative and passionate colleagues, I have a much wider and richer experience planned for the music students I get to work with, and I can’t wait to share this all with everyone! In fact, I am currently gathering a group of music educators with which to work with after I come back on these great musical ideas related to Antarctic and water! It’s going to be a great international collaboration, and this will also deepen the experience for the students I work with, as I’m hoping they will be the ones to connect up with our international musical partners!

So, now that I’ve shared my board with you, what questions or ideas do YOU have about Antarctica? 😀