I spent my CFE at two elementary schools (Marlborough Elementary and Cascade Heights Elementary) with a music teacher who travels between both schools. I helped organize the spring concert at Marlborough and taught mainly primary music classes at Cascade Heights.
I no longer know if all students have basic motor skills. This will help me as a music teacher because much of elementary music is based on moving to music.
I never really thought about children’s coordination skills before my CFE. What I learned is that many students struggle with basic instructions for movement. My sponsor teacher and I were teaching a kindergarten class to trot and gallop to a song about horses. Many students struggled with the lifting their knees to trot and having one leg catching up with the other, even with clear instructions and demonstrations from the teachers and other students. Another case was with the spring concert where the students were meant to raise and lower their hands gradually for a dance, and there were a few students who were not able to do it. They understood the high and low, but the gradual rise was difficult. This helps me as a teacher because if I teach elementary music, I now know the importance of incorporating movement with music so that children can learn how to coordinate their bodies, but I also know that not all students will be able to do it.