Reflection on JMUke event at Explore More Discovery Museum

I believe that I had a particularly unique experience working in the JMUke

events this semester, as a student of both MUED 273 and MUED 372. Working

as a facilitator for the Explore More Discovery Museum was a more involved,

but also more rewarding experience. The Discovery Museum is an exciting

place, even for college students, and I felt that our group did a good job

engaging students during the event, as well as encouraging new kids to join us.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with the kids, and felt so rewarded seeing them

first play a chord. I remember working with one pair of boys specifically, and to

see the way they lit up as we played a Disney song together was a special

experience. I think that I reconnected with the force that drove me to pursue a

music education degree in the first place, which is extremely important to

maintaining a healthy motivation and drive. I couldnt stop thinking about how

much fun I would be having if I did this every day.

One area of strength for my group was a general flexibility when facing

changing circumstances. Because we had spent a good deal of time preparing,

we felt as though we had a stable plan upon which we could rely. For instance,

the venue turned out to be a little different than we had planned for, but we

quickly split up into pairs and travelled around the museum, engaging

students all over the building. Additionally, we had to make some adjustments

in our designs for the actual event, especially in the collaborations between

ourselves and the 273 students. We encouraged them to sit in with the

children while we led the jam session, and after some time they were working

with individual groups of students and the PA system was abandoned. By

allowing for spur of the moment decision making, and a generally cooperative
attitude, we adapted in the face of difficulties as the y presented themselves,

and thought on our feet.

For the Pale Fire event, I was in the 273 group of students, responsible for

teaching at the beginning of the session. I thought that my group was

prepared, however we quickly ran out of material for our allotted 30-minute

time slot. Similarly, when I worked as a facilitator, I felt that our group (at the

Discovery Museum) had plenty of material for a jam session. In the moment, I

realized that we tended to hurry through songs, leaving us with even less

material to work with. On top of that, we encountered some technical

difficulties when the laptop provided to us died, and we did not have access to

a charger for around 20 minutes. Initially, Isabel jumped up front and tried to

salvage the situation, while I worked to get the information on a different

computer. When that didnt work, we called a 10-minute break in order to sort

things out. We lost a large chunk of the group at that point, which was

unfortunate. I think that to better prepare for unexpected situations like that,

(or when a rogue group of girls took the microphones and started singing less-

than-appropriate pop songs), we should have made better alternatives to our

traditional plan, as well as providing some safeguards. Finding a video to keep

interest would have been a great way to avoid the PA troubles, and plugging the

computer in before the event started would have bypassed that difficulty as

well.

I think that the Explore More Discovery Museum event did a great job

connecting families and JMU. There was a consistent crowd that turned over

several times over the 2-hour slot, including a few points where all 17 ukuleles

were being shared by the learners. I saw some faces I recognized, such as a

Music Education professor and his family, but many that I did not know.
Including fliers with lots of information about contacting us and finding

alternative resources enhanced our selling point in my opinion. I am very

impressed with the work done by our Public Relations team member, Lindsey,

in advertising four our event. I dont believe we would have been able to handle

many more people in that space, and all of our audience members were

engaged at different levels. The only improvement I could suggest is earlier

placement of visual ads, as well as the emails to local teachers. I saw a girl who

was barely able to walk (around one year old) holding a uke and trying to play.

That joy and elation of a child discovering music firsthand was a big marker of

success to me.

Although it is hard to say, as I am a procrastinator, I think that the best

advice I could give a student planning this event would be to over-prepare.

Much like collecting wood for a campfire, I found that I ended up needing about

triple the amount of material I expected. Luckily I felt that we had prepared

more than necessary, and that was quickly used as well. However, I felt that we

still could have made better decisions in the planning phase. My group was five

people from four different concentrations of music, and that posed some

problems in logistics. I know that we did use Slack as a collaboration tool

(which worked well), however there is no alternative to meeting up an

discussing in person. If I were to host another event such as this one, I think

that I would also go and scope out the venue and take pictures before the

event. I was not sure what to expect when I went into the Explore More

Discovery Museum, and I think I could have made some more informed,

directed choices about materials if I had done more research. Finally, I would

remember that nothing is going to go exactly the way that you plan, and you
need to have some ideas on how to confront the problems (technological,

human, etc.) that you may encounter.

Overall, I had several takeaways.

1. Never believe that you are in control. I found that as soon as I

surrendered my desire to be in charge, I had more fun, and worked more

effectively. Despite what many of us think, we are subliminally drawn to

the familiar, and that was reflected in my desire to create a classroom

setting in an informal environment. Once I shucked my preconceived

notions about teaching, and though about the various readings and

activities we did, I found that I had a better time.

2. Overprepare. As I emphasized above, we ended up needing much more

material than we anticipated for this event. This also applies to planning

a curriculum, unit, or even a lesson. It does not hurt to have options,

and those options only exist when you put in the work to make it so.
3. Allow for organic learning to take place. Like the first point, I found that

the impromptu, informal learning that occurred towards the end of our

experience was the most valuable. We had been having some technical

difficulties, and decided to abandon the PA system and slides. Instead,

we all found children and worked with them in small groups (2-3). This

way, we developed relationships with individuals, which (for myself as a

child) is much more impactful than students running a class.

4. ENJOY IT!!! My favorite moment in the event was when one little boy,

around 6, went up on stage and asked to sing a song. We all agreed, and

he sang Twinkle, Twinkle, which got the adults interested, as well as

inspiring the children to sing their own songs. That boys actions broke

an artificial barrier that we had constructed, and reminded me that this

is a fun event. We were not doing this assignment for any reason other
 than the fun of learning to engage in music, either as a teacher or a

player.

I worked as a facilitator, meaning that I oversaw leading the children and

encouraging the collaboration during the event. Although there were five

members of the team, as well as the students from 273, I think we all did a

good job at working collaboratively with each other, which can be a problem

as group size increases. I think if I were to place my contributions on a scale

from 1 (lowest) to 5, I would rate at between a 3 and 4. I am a natural leader

and extrovert, and I expected that I would be doing more of the work up on

the stage, as a lot of people tend to get a little nervous in that setting.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by my colleagues willingness to take

charge for much of the event, leaving me to run the slideshow and

troubleshoot when it went wrong. I think I did lightly more than what was

expected of me, however I personally would have liked to have done more at

the event.