Alison Farrand's
Website

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My Philosophy of education

Here are some of the latest things I have been working on in the classroom...
 

    We are studying colonial history, so I read the book The Battle of Lexington and Concord, by Neil
Conrad.   A friend of mine is one of the British soldiers in the book.  I asked the children what they thought life must be like for a British Soldier in America during the start of the Revolutionary War.  I pretended to choose my friend from the book at random to talk about.  I "named" him, Major Paul O'Shaughnessy.
    Meanwhile, I had color copied the picture from the book and enlarged it.  I then made it into a poster.  I had the students write letters to Paul as though they were colonial children.
    On April Fools Day, the children arrived at school to find me dressed in colonial garb, speaking like a colonial teacher.  After an imaginary trip back through time, the children were shocked when Major Paul O'Shaughnessy arrived in the classroom, alive and well.  He talked to them for two hours and they were able to ask questions.

The Major and The Teacher

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Introduction

     Let's face it the kids have been off the walls all week, you forgot to grocery shop and your clothes haven't seen the inside of a washing machine in what feel like forever.  You're a teacher!  Of course you're busy, but wait, you realize you need a Math lesson plan for tomorrow.  Quick!
    Never fear the Math Menu is here!  The following menu has everything needed for a delicious and nutritious lesson.  Umm, now that's good teaching!
 
 

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Key to the Music Timeline

1900 & 1910 Ragtime:
Ragtime is an American musical genre, mostly written for piano.  Its greatest popularity was between 1897 and World War I. It is rooted in black folk-music and 19th-century European music. Ragtime was sold to the listening public by  way of piano rolls and printed music. James Scott and Scott Joplin were outstanding ragtime composers. Scott Joplin started a national craze for ragtime with "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899).

1920 Scat:
Scat is a vocal jazz improvisation, in which wordless syllables are used. Originally, scat was done in imitation of jazz instrumental solos.  Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald are both skilled singers of scat.

1930 Big Band:
The forming of  “big bands” in the 1930s and early ‘40s was a period that was known as the swing era. Attempting to fuse jazz with light classical music, some orchestras played jazzy symphonic pieces by American composers such as George Gershwin.  Benny Goodman was one of the most prominent players of the big band sound.

1940 Bebop Jazz:
A new style of jazz emerged in the 1940s.  This new style was known as bebop, rebop, or bop. During World War II, the wartime economy and changes in what an audience desired drove many big bands out of business. Their decline, combined with this radically new bebop style, resulted in a revolution in the jazz world.

1950 Rock N Roll:
Rock music began in the United States in the 1950s, but it was rooted in a wide range of cultures and musical traditions.  These included: gospel music, the blues, country-and-western music, classical music, folk music, and the popular music of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. During the 1950s rock and roll was synonymous with black R&B music. Rock and roll was first released by small, independent record companies, and promoted by radio disc jockeys (DJs) like Alan Freed.  Freed coined the term rock 'n' roll to help attract white audiences unfamiliar with black R&B. The appeal of rock and roll to white middle-class teenagers was immediate and caught the major record companies by surprise.    It started a revolution in marketing, by the targeting of teenagers as the primary audience.

1960 Rock Music:
As rock music continued to develop as a musical genre, it started to branch off into many different kinds of sounds. In 1964 the Beatles traveled to New York City to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.  This started the so-called British Invasion.
Janis Joplin (the first female singer on our musical timeline) was an American rock singer, considered to be the greatest white female blues artist of all time. In 1963, she went to California, where she witnessed the beginning of the student and hippie movements.

1970 Disco:
In the 1970s, couple dancing, enhanced by the individuality of the 1960s, returned with the hustle and other elaborately choreographed dances performed to disco music.  Disco music is a simple form of rock with strong dance rhythms.

1980 Rap:
In 1979, the first rap song, called “Rapper’s Delight”, was released.  It was by the Sugerhill Gang.   Rap is a genre of rhythm-and-blues music that uses rhythmic speaking over musical accompaniment. The accompaniment is generally electronic drum beats combined with sound bites from other recordings. Although the term rap is often used interchangeably with hip-hop, hip-hop also refers to a whole culture of music, art, dance, and fashion.

1990 Alternative:
The 1990s saw the invention of a form of alternative music called grunge.  It originated in Seattle, WA.  The major influences of grunge were bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Hole.  In the late 1990s a brand of music that involved the same sampling techniques as rap appeared.  Techno blends sounds from all musical genres and is usually set at a fast pace.  It is possible for techno songs to be completely created from sound clips with no actual vocal input from the artist.
 
 
 
 
 

Music Timeline
 

1) 1900/1910 Quality- Composed by James Scott
2) 1920 Hotter Than That-Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five
3) 1930 Let’s Dance-Benny Goodman and Orchestra
4) 1940 Shaw ‘Nuff-Dizzy Gillespie Combo
5) 1950 Blue Suede Shoes- Elvis Presley
6) 1960 I Want to Hold Your Hand-The Beatles
   Piece of my Heart-Janis Joplin
7) 1970 Stayin’ Alive-Bee Gees
8) 1980 Rapper’s Delight-Sugerhill Gang
9) 1990 Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town-Pearl Jam
 
 
 
 
 

Lesson Plan
Half hour
 
 

Goal:
This lesson will help children formulate a timeline through out the twentieth century through a study of popular music.
Objectives:  The students will:
1. Listen to a music tape.
2. Answer questions about their historical figure.
Procedures:  The teacher will:
1. Ask the students what kind of music they or their older sisters and brothers listen to.  Get them to think about what “popular” music is.  Tell them that 90 years ago teenagers also listened to “popular” music that perhaps their parents hated!  Make a chart of the decades of the twentieth century.  Ask the students raise their hand for each decade if their figure was born in it.  Write the names on the board.
2. Play the tape of popular music of the twentieth century.  Tell the students a little bit about each piece of music and the genre it represents.  Write the names of the musical genres on the chart.
3. Pass out the Teenager Activity sheet to the students.  Give them a few minutes to fill out the sheet.  While they are working, play the popular music tape again.
4. Ask the students what their figure might have been listening to when they were 18 years old.
Materials:
1. Popular music tape
2. Tape player
3. Chart paper and a marker
4. Teenager Activity sheet
Evaluation:
 Pre-Evaluation—
1. Were the students able to remember information about their figures?
2. Were they able to do the math and figure out the kind of music their historical figure would have been listening to?
3. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson?

4. What changes should be made if this lesson were to be taught again?

 Post Evaluation—
 
 
 
 
 
 

Name:__________________                               Date:________

My historical figure is ______________________.
 

He or she was born in ______________.
 
 

________________ would have been 18 years old in 19_ _.
 
 
 
 

If  __________________ listened to popular music, he/she would have listened to _________________.
 
 

Alison Farrand
 

E-mail: farrands@rcn.com
 

Teaching Experience

Long Term Substitute                 Spring 2000                  Fiske Elementary, Lexington, MA

•     First grade

• Kindergarten-Fifth grade

• First grade

• Third grade

• Fifth grade

• Third grade

• First grade

• Second grade

• Second grade, Fourth grade

• Taught a discussion section of a literature course with a writing emphasis.

• Provided tutoring for all elementary subject areas.

• Provided academic support individually and in a group setting.

• Organized diversity education programming and events, including community out-reach.
• Implemented the development of a resource library, utilizing books, posters, computer and audiovisual materials.

• Dealt in books with a specialization in children's literature and education texts.
• Assisted teachers in designing curriculum areas and filling reading lists for a variety of subjects with a primary emphasis on diversity and special needs issues.
• Organized and ran a children's story hour program.
• Organized and implemented publicity for literature tables at educational and community outreach programs.

• Managed the Used and Antiquarian book department.
• Wrote advertising copy and promotional materials.

1997 - 1999      Elementary Education Teacher Certification
                          Framingham State College
                          Framingham, MA
                             Wrote a Diversity Teacher Resource Guide that was distributed to both Undergraduates and to
                                            Faculty at an Educational Awareness Program.

                                           Passed all sections of the Massachusetts Teacher's Test, October 1998.

                                           Inducted into Alpha Upsilon Alpha, the honor society for reading.

1989 - 1992       English and Creative Writing B.A
                          Binghamton University
                          Binghamton, NY .

Associations

• International Reading Association
• Massachusetts Reading Association
• Nobscot Reading Council

• Extremely proficient in both Mac and PC platforms
• Designed websites that are used as examples by teaching programs
• Office 97/ Appleworks
• Website design
• Experience integrating computers into a classroom setting

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Coming Soon...

The use of technology to motivate students at all levels...