So, many of you probably don't know that I teach full time as an elementary music teacher and I ALSO am earning my Masters Degree for Music Education online at the same time. I am currently in my LAST class of the program (which is turning out to be a ton of reading for this one) and then, for the fall semester, I will be working on my Capstone Project.

This project, I am told, is supposed to be at least 50 pages on a research topic of some kind.

Holy moly I am in for a ride.

But I thought it might be cool to detail my progress in a thread, so here I am starting one!

Project Topic

The topic I would like to work on is concerning sight singing in the elementary music classroom. This is a topic that really interests me as I LOVE to sight sing and I am a firm believer that young kids must be taught to sight sing in order to become proficient musicians later in life.

Timeline

Week of June 23rd
-Committees assigned and communicated to students
Week of June 30th
-Students to start meeting weekly with Capstone Advisor
Monday, August 11th
- Capstone Project Proposal submitted to committee
Monday, August 18th
– Deadline for the advisor to send Program Head an email
stating the Capstone Project Proposal has been approved by the committee.
The proposal needs to be attached to the email, and the message should be
copied to the second committee member. IRB Application due if approval is
required for Capstone Project.

Important Dates

Monday, August 25th
- Fall semester begins
Friday, September 5th
- Fall payment deadline
Friday, September 12th
- Degree application deadline
Friday, October 10th
- Deadline to verify GIMS record and clear any
discrepancies
Wednesday, November 12th
- Abstract due
Friday, November 21st
- First submission due
Monday, December 1st
- Oral defense deadline (logged into GIMS by
4:00PM, students should defend by 30th)
Wednesday, December 10th
- Final submission deadline
Friday-Saturday, December 19th
-20th
- Fall commencement (exact date
TBA)- yes, you are invited to walk across the stage at graduation!

Progress

July 3, 2014 -

I just skyped with my professor who is acting as my Capstone Adviser. He likes the idea of my project and encourages me to make it a bit broader in order to meet the 50 page maximum requirement. He gave me some helpful tips on my project proposal. But stated a normal proposal needs to have at least 15 references already and that, with my subject, I will probably need 20 in the proposal alone in order to prove that I can get enough materials and sources for this project. I currently have 10 references identified. So this will take a bit more work. But I can do it!

July 8, 2014 -

I am working on my proposal. It is due on the 11th and I want to finish my proposal today so that I can send it to my adviser for him to look over before it goes to the review board. He told me a normal proposal needs only 15 annotated references. However, since there might be some question as to there being enough resources available for my topic, he suggested I find 20 references instead. So I am at 17 right now. I need 3 more references that I need to annotate and finish the abstract and the other small details concerning the proposal and I should be done with it! We'll see what my Adviser says!

OPEN to posting

Oooh, interesting topic.

I've actually never learned to sight-sing. Hell, I can't even read music anymore, and I had that stuff drilled into me in elementary school (I dimly recall the basics, but there's no way in hell I'd be able to play something I didn't already know with just the music sheets). It's half of why I've never seriously pursued music. Certainly seems like the sort of topic that would be easy to research. :3

And hot damn, 50 pages. Here I am, struggling with 8 page papers in my classes. :lol:

Originally Posted by Exaggerated Rebellion

Oooh, interesting topic.

I've actually never learned to sight-sing. Hell, I can't even read music anymore, and I had that stuff drilled into me in elementary school (I dimly recall the basics, but there's no way in hell I'd be able to play something I didn't already know with just the music sheets). It's half of why I've never seriously pursued music. Certainly seems like the sort of topic that would be easy to research. :3

And hot damn, 50 pages. Here I am, struggling with 8 page papers in my classes. :lol:

Sight-Singing is hard. I feel that if you introduce it and prepare students at a young age, they will better grasp the material as well as retain it for longer. But so many times it gets ignored in elementary music. And even if it is introduced in elementary school, many music teachers only see their students once a week or once every two weeks. Some teachers I know see their kids once every 3 or 4 weeks! So the kid will NEVER retain that which is so unfortunate.

haha 50 pages is going to be insane D:

If you think about it, sight-singing helps booster connections between the left and right sides of the brain, so learning it probably definitely helps with memory and retention. :3 I'd be willing to bet you'd find a lot of material on that in your research.

Originally Posted by Exaggerated Rebellion

If you think about it, sight-singing helps booster connections between the left and right sides of the brain, so learning it probably definitely helps with memory and retention. :3 I'd be willing to bet you'd find a lot of material on that in your research.

It definitely is helpful! I can see so many benefits of learning to read music. It opens up so many possibilities for students!

I'm about to update my posts with a new entry :)

Of course I, just this morning, realized that the proposal is due AUGUST 11th and not JULY 11th.

Oh well...I have it done at least.

Now to work on homework for my actual class that I'm taking. This class is ridiculous...this week alone they want us to read 2 chapters from one book, 3 from another, and 2 from a third. In one week. Good thing this class is over the summer. I have more work to do with this class than any of the other ones in my degree. I will definitely be noting that in my review of the class at the end of it. As well as all the inconsistencies of the class thus far.

Its only savings grace is that the material is actually interesting. We are learning about music in other cultures - what ethnomusicologists learn. And we each had to pick a country to do a project on and I chose Ireland (HOORAY I love Irish music) and the material is really interesting so far.

Whoever had the bright idea to have my last class end on the due date of this project proposal is a moron.

---------- Post added 08-11-2014 at 09:37 PM ----------

My brain is so fried I just can't think right now.

I have my Capstone PROPOSAL Defense tomorrow afternoon and I have no idea what this entails. Great. Wish me luck!

Good luck! You can do it!
Incidentally, I am the WORST sight singer if someone doesn't play whatever "do" for me is on a piano.

Hey, just saw your abstract is due tomorrow. Good luck with it! :)