Placement 1Impact on student learning ProjectProject Parameters: The details of this requirement are described in a separate handout and rubric. Briefly, this is a short teaching/rehearsal unit (one for each block) with pre and post tests/rubrics to demonstrate that learning has occurred. Your second block supervisor will submit a formal assessment. Teaching Recording/response ProjectProject Parameters: You must record yourself at least twice during each block--once before the midpoint evaluation and once before the final evaluationand provide a one-page written analysis of your teaching, assessing student progress, how you might change the lesson and strengths and weaknesses you observe in your teaching. Check with your cooperating teacher regarding school policy on taping of students. You may need to create permission forms. If your school does not have equipment for taping, please let me know. Teaching no. 1 - 7th Grade Band For this project I had recorded myself teaching 7th grade band with 3 students working on similar pieces but split up because they had vastly different skill levels but still needed a group performance experience. For the first chunk of class I had decided that they should try and break through the music as much as they can while I and my cooperative teacher work with them individually one on one. After watching my teaching video I had noticed that the strategy worked fairly well. The only thing is that middle schoolers love making weird sounds on their instruments so stepping away from some of them gives them a little too much room to explore that leads to off topic practicing. Another point that was interesting with this project is that sometimes students actually do better playing on their own than with other people. I think the one on one playing most of the time went farther music and understanding wise than when we played together. I evaluated why that might be, I think it's due to the students being a bit more overloaded when others are playing the same part as them. When I watch the video you can see that the scale we had played had fallen apart but when working with them one on one it was almost too easy for them to play. I also think these are students that might thrive more on a one on one lesson as opposed to a whole class teaching. As we put together towards the end of class the whole group it was nice to hear them all together. I think earlier I could have addressed the similar parts to keep them from getting lost sooner, but I also think that telling them too early would take away the chance for them to figure it out on their own. I am glad that I was able to have this opportunity because they haven't gotten to play together all semester since I've been there due to waiting on the duet books that we had ordered. Teaching no. 2 - 7th Grade Band As I reflect on my second teaching I find it very interesting in the differences between this class and the last class. In this class I had more middle school students than any previous class I have taught. On top of that it was my last day working with this ensemble so it was a sad but good way to say goodbye. The piece that we had played had been pulled out of a set of flex duet books for the beginning band. I had everybody working individually for the first 40 minutes of class and as we got close to the end we put it all together. Since we had students of completely different ability levels I thought that working together most of the class would overwhelm some students and underwhelm others. When I watch the video this is the section of when the class had come back together to rehearse. The main issues I seem to run into when I pull the band back together is that the overall issue in ability level is still to spread out to make some students feel like they are meaningfully participating. I also run into the issue that I have to float around and individually help each student with their part. Now if I am giving each student 15% of my attention due to floating, that's another 85% of time where the students need to have accountability to stay focused and keep on working through the trouble parts. This means students who are not mature and lack focus abilities often do worse. In the video you can hear one of my students getting progressively more angry at the fact that he couldn't play his part. I had to individually work with him on his rhythm in front of the whole class and he was a bit embarrassed. I think that this was an appropriate approach to the situation on hand because first off he was messing up repeatedly and kept screwing other students up. Also he was a good example of the 85% time not being used efficiently, every time I checked on this student I was lucky if he was even holding his instrument. My approach that it wasn't meant to be a “hard” lesson for him but me having to work with him in front of the class had hopefully made him realize he could have used his time more efficiently. As for everybody else in the ensemble they had worked hard the whole time and the product overall was very good and the students had played the piece start to finish with right notes, dynamics, and articulation. I think this class has overall been a success. Background Information ProjectProject Parameters: One of the items on the student teaching evaluation form relates to ability to obtain background information. To help satisfy this item, please pick two students each block and: 1) observe them carefully, 2) discuss their background with your cooperating teacher and other professionals in the building, 3) ask permission to view their permanent records 4) write a one-two page profile of each student indicating how you might modify your teaching in light of their background. Do not list your name, the name of the school (level only) or the name of the student (call them "A" and "B"). The sooner in the block this can be completed, the more impact it will have on your teaching. Student A I had chosen student A because his lack of interest in academic preference had been apparent in class. I was hoping through this project I can better find an outlet to help student A find an interest in class participation and learning. I have had student A in 3 classes so far and each time they seemed interested in being there but had no desire to do work except for one time. When speaking to my cooperating teacher they expressed they had done everything in the book to help engage and include student A in an open learning experience. As I begin to do my research my coop also expressed to me that student A is part of the wrestling team and that they had become fairly good at it, winning a state title last year. I had begun to think about how I can find a drive for something like wrestling and put it into the class of band (which is not an easy direction to go). I had wrestled as well when I was a student in school so I thought about how I can use my internal knowledge to aid me in building this bridge. I didn’t think about it till now but I might have benefited from this project more to talk to the wrestling coaches and ask what student A seems to enjoy the most in practice (the teammates, winning, culture, etc.) I can't turn rehearsal into a wrestling practice but possibly if student A enjoys collaboration maybe we can work on more projects as teams. If student A enjoys winning I might make a more friendly competitive classroom culture where they can thrive. I had then taken a look at student As record, I had found out that they were one of many children in one family that had all done wrestling. My theory is it is some sort of obligation that they participate in the sport since those before them have. While in the record I had also found out that the students grades were dipping slightly since they had gotten to high school. Mostly in general education courses in band from years 7 through 9. I believe that school sports start at grade 7 after speaking to my coop. Before grade 7 the student had shown spectacular performances in classes receiving almost all As and Bs. A lot of the remarks to the students' bad grades were attested to their participation, attendance, and respect. I begin to scratch my head at the fact that school sports are a great outlet for school community and representation, but if that's all the student wants to do shouldn't that be addressed that they must participate as a student before a wrestler or any other sport? Why I have seen that in a few places in the school between students who are athletes at the school. Most of the student athletes I have observed have poor attitudes. So if this is an issue across the board is it the students fault really? My take is no, the school has set an expectation in place where students can act this way if they are a valuable piece to the sports teams. The students have gotten used to this and it is now undermining academic standards and the schools main point… to educate. I fear this is something I can't fix on my own in one class at one 8 week student teaching placement, but I can try and meet student A where they learn best by doing something. Such as working out music analysis or possibly design rap music as the student has addressed they enjoy. This is the route I would take to bring the student as best as I can. Student B When doing my second student evaluation I chose a student with a background that contains an IEP and adjusted scheduling to accommodate to ensure the best learning opportunities. Student B has been recognized by faculty, staff, and peers as an excellent student who is always trying to grow in any way they can. Student B primarily has issues with fine motor skills and has been diagnosed at a young age with Cerebral Palsy. This student needs walking sticks and oftentimes extra assistance with anything physically taxing. The student has been in some ways isolated in most classes due to some accommodations just requiring a different atmosphere for student B to learn. For example, the student was removed from regular gym class for safety precautions and has been moved to a special ed gym class. The student also has different testing times so in order to accommodate the student takes tests in different areas so the class doesn't have to wait for them to finish. The student has been described numerous times in the report as a loving and sweet child who always wants to be engaged with their classmates and participate alongside. For a student like this I would say removing them from a classroom would be one of the last things I would do, it would only be if it was absolutely necessary. In order to keep student B on track they oftentimes have an aid to assist with any extronus moving tasks and any individualized educational processes. I was interested to read about this part because I was not aware that an aid helps them? I haven't seen an aid with this student ever, I think having an aid in class would make the learning curve a bit easier with this student and would allow me to ensure student B is on task and is understanding the learning process. The student in my eyes has a bright future. The attendance is high and the parent engagement is also high. I think student B has a lot of resources to achieve the goals set in place by the parents and administration. This student is also achieving average scores for most of their classes which says to me that the adjustments made to the learning processes have been appropriately met. I wish that I had an aid or at least my coop would work with this student in collaboration with my lesson. Oftentimes I find this student excited and smiling (with their eyes since we are wearing masks) when we learn about music. Oftentimes I think educators think of accommodating these types of students as cheating but in reality it is about leveling the playing field to make an education attainable to all who come willing to learn and grow. I know my coop doesn't help me because when I am a real teacher it would be just me and sometimes you just can't spare an aid for class because of the limited amount of them or the staff don't see it valuable to that particular learning process. But at the end of the day I worry about my students learning and I don't think having aid from my coop would be the worst thing in the world. Music Technology ProjectProject Parameters: You will be required to incorporate one aspect of music technology into each block of your student teaching experience. This project is designed to familiarize you with the educational impact of technology in music education. You will need to submit a short description of your project and copies of any accompanying materials. You will need to discuss your technology project with both me and your cooperating teacher. Possible projects include: teaching with software--in the music room or computer lab--from individuals to the whole class (let your supervisors know if software is needed), introducing students to sites on the internet, creating instructional videos, creating data bases for the cooperating teacher, and preparing materials using Finale. At least one project should be instructional (as opposed to a helper application such as a data-base or preparing materials with Finale.) At least one of the projects should involve the computer. Short Description: For this project I arranged 4 pieces that the students wanted to play but were not able to locate an ornamentation that fit their ensemble. The four pieces were The Jurassic Park Theme, Erika, Zelda Theme, and the Tsuritama OST Theme. I had the students fill out an application and list 3 pieces that they wanted to play of any artist. From there I worked over the week putting them all together on finale. I will post the scores below. PLACEMENT 2IMPACT ON STUDENT LEARNING PROJECTProject Parameters: The details of this requirement are described in a separate handout and rubric. Briefly, this is a short teaching/rehearsal unit (one for each block) with pre and post tests/rubrics to demonstrate that learning has occurred. Your second block supervisor will submit a formal assessment. TEACHING RECORDING/RESPONSE PROJECTProject Parameters: You must record yourself at least twice during each block--once before the midpoint evaluation and once before the final evaluationand provide a one-page written analysis of your teaching, assessing student progress, how you might change the lesson and strengths and weaknesses you observe in your teaching. Check with your cooperating teacher regarding school policy on taping of students. You may need to create permission forms. If your school does not have equipment for taping, please let me know. Teaching no. 1 - 6th Grade Beginning Band When watching my first video, I had a good feeling about my teaching for that day. I think overall my plans went well and I executed them appropriately in terms of pacing, expectations, and feedback to playing ratios. As I began to watch this video, I noticed I was not doing one really important thing. I need to move around more, moving around more in a classroom setting changes the atmosphere in which the student is learning and helps them become more aware of the learning that is happening. Moving also allows me to help students who are having trouble with different sections and allows me to hear students better who might be playing softer or just might be lacking numbers in the class. Along with that I think if covid wasn't as big of an issue as it still currently is I would have the students move around also. This is important because it takes those very experiences I was just talking about and directly applies that to the students. When I was also watching the video, I noticed that sometimes I give the students the rhythms and I sing it for them. This is not helpful to the learning process because they are just regurgitating what I did. Yes this is working on their aural ability and teaches them to transcribe but the ultimate goal of these 6 grade band classes is to learn the basics of reading music and playing their instrument. If they aren't reading and they are just regurgitating the rhythms they arent be challenged in an appropriate manner. This class is one of our best 6 grade band classes, I think when you watch me teach you can tell I am proud of the progress they make and I am proud that they can have fun and do well within the course. This overall changes the attitude of the class to be very light and fun and feel a lot more like a hangout where we all jam instead of a required class they have to take to receive a grade. I also noticed that my talking to playing ratio was a little higher on the talking side, I still ended up playing more than talking but I want to get the talking part even farther down. That's something I have been having trouble with in most classes, but it's nice to see that problem with my own eyes and assess myself on that. I can say this was incredibly helpful and I am glad I did it. I hope I can take what I saw and in the future try and fix they things that need fixing or adjusting and continue on the good habits to help my students learn and grow in the classroom. Teaching no. 2 - 6th Grade Beginning Band After observing this video I had realized that this teaching was great. The class I was teaching was the slowest class in 6 grade band and I was lucky if I could get the percussion to participate half the time due to them being so disengaged. I was able to make great progress in the music, I was able to build that trust and relationship with my percussion some more today and I was able to reassure them that they are making good progress. I think the hardest thing with this class is that a good rehearsal with them is still not as good as a bad rehearsal with our best group. However, I am assessing this based on their personal progress as opposed to the overall expectation of the 6th grade band. I think that the progress made in this class will drastically improve them for future rehearsals. Now to talk about my overall observations of myself. The students seem to respond well in this class when I am up closer and more in touch with them when they play. The percussion especially, I think that in this class I really could have done that a few more times but I still did it now and then. A lot of the time I think I am eager to go up and play their part but they don't need that from me, they need me to stand next to them and reassure them that they can do that. Also within this class I demonstrate a lot on the instruments. I think that was really helpful and I think I did it in an appropriate manner because they could already play their parts. It just came down to a solo confidence thing. I think I did a really nice job giving them lots of positive feedback and that's what something a group like this needs. They know it doesn't sound good, I know in terms of a professional performance it doesn't sound good, but they need to understand they are better than they were yesterday and they also need to understand this is part of the learning process. I could have explained what I think to them. I think they are old enough to comprehend that and if I could show them I relate by bringing in instruments that I am not good at and making mistakes with them it would show them that everybody is learning all the time. Overall this was a really good class. I think I need to focus on confidence for the future so they grow their sound and fill up the room. MUSIC TECHNOLOGY PROJECTProject Parameters: You will be required to incorporate one aspect of music technology into each block of your student teaching experience. This project is designed to familiarize you with the educational impact of technology in music education. You will need to submit a short description of your project and copies of any accompanying materials. You will need to discuss your technology project with both me and your cooperating teacher. Possible projects include: teaching with software--in the music room or computer lab--from individuals to the whole class (let your supervisors know if software is needed), introducing students to sites on the internet, creating instructional videos, creating data bases for the cooperating teacher, and preparing materials using Finale. At least one project should be instructional (as opposed to a helper application such as a data-base or preparing materials with Finale.) At least one of the projects should involve the computer. Short Description: For this project I had worked with some of the chamber wind groups who were planning to record performances for their virtual concert. The students had requested if I could arrange a piece for them so I did that. Below you can see the piece I wrote for them using music technology to write it. BACKGROUND INFORMATION PROJECTProject Parameters: One of the items on the student teaching evaluation form relates to ability to obtain background information. To help satisfy this item, please pick two students each block and: 1) observe them carefully, 2) discuss their background with your cooperating teacher and other professionals in the building, 3) ask permission to view their permanent records 4) write a one-two page profile of each student indicating how you might modify your teaching in light of their background. Do not list your name, the name of the school (level only) or the name of the student (call them "A" and "B"). The sooner in the block this can be completed, the more impact it will have on your teaching.
Student A When Doing my research on student A I had discovered that this student has struggled with social awareness, sensory, and pacing issues in the classroom for quite some time now. Student A has become eligible for advanced learning course work as well as gifted arts programs but is always denied due to the lack of ability to contain their actions and function productively with fellow classmates. Speaking with my coop as well she has informed me that student A is at a playing level so high that they would be a leader even in the top ensemble as a 6th grader. However, the behavior management is so poor that the class would be off task and “would pretty much destroy the group” as my coop said. The students is hitting an age where their mind is also spreading to other topics that are very touchy and inappropriate for school such as sex, swearing, verbal and physical abuse, and more. My coop had also informed me that this student isn’t shy in terms of expressing themselves through these outlets, this student has drawn genitals on multiple school surfaces as well as been swearing like a sailor as soon as the student thinks they are alone. This student has scored an incredibly high multiple times for reading and writing, leading me to believe that this is their outlet of expression as well as arts, the student has an interest in Japanese animation. When speaking to my coop and looking at the private record. I had put together that the parents are separated, the mother is the supporter and the student has a large resentment for their father. This lack of support could be a reason the student is regularly acting out in order to get that extra attention that they are not receiving at home. I think something important to recognize with this student is that they are currently going through a big change in their life. Sometimes people completely change and I believe student A is currently feeling a lot of issues with themselves and tries to cover it up by shaming themselves and acting out. I know it can be a lot in class because I’ve seen how they can quickly derail an entire class. I think we need to cheer students like this on and show them that they are going to get through this even though they don't know what exactly “it” is. It can be really frustrating but you almost need to redesign your class norms for just that specific student and have a discussion with them about it. The student needs to understand you are here to do nothing but help and aid their growth. I think once the hormonal phase starts to slow by the time they are in 8th grade. The process of setting this student up for a successful life is easy. This is one of those students you want to build a strong line of trust with and possibly student A can use their creativity and ability to lead rather than mislead. One day I know student A will be somebody great! Student B After observing, looking at the file, and talking to my coop about student B. It is clear to me that this student has some serious attitude problems and poor self expectations. Student B has had a very hard time keeping up in school in terms of meeting social norms due to their lack of ability to read and write with the rest of their class. The lack of communication and comprehension is intense in terms of reading and writing and this student is seriously behind. This functions as a barrier and gate keeps the social ability of this student to simple minded conversations and short term thought processes. As we take a closer look at the background of this student we can see that student B has a very very rough home life. Student B has very young parents, one of them not even in their 20s. The student's mother has been deceased and the father does not have custody. The student lives with his grandparents and is only allowed to see his father once a month for an hour. This student had taken a head start program before getting to kindergarten and ended up failing everything on the exam. They also were recommended for the reading recovery program in 2016 because spelling became so much of an issue it was impossible to understand the students notes and writing in any way. This student has had issues with shutting down and accepting feedback from peers in the classroom setting. Any form of feedback is considered an attack and as soon as student B feels attacked they shut down and derail the learning process for everybody. As the student continues to shut down they lose all grasp on further concepts and when the student wants to jump back in the scaffolding in the learning process is too steep for them to understand, I’ve noticed this specifically in the music classroom. After reading about all this information I thought “...where to start with any of this” like the last student I talked about but even more so this student lacks the support system they need to function and learn in the society we have designed. I don’t blame this student for trying to find coping mechanisms within school to just make friends and stand out a bit. It really must be exhausting going home and not getting to see your parents. I think this is a student I would try really hard to make a regular connection with, try and have fun conversations or eat lunch with. Somebody needs to be this student's guide through their childhood and as a teacher I find it an obligation to be me. Sometimes we will hit a hard spot im sure but I think things will clear up in terms of the feedback issue once we have a well established trust. Also if this student is having issues accepting feedback from teachers I would say we need to find ways for student B to present their own feedback to themselves, even if it's still you giving the feedback. Make this student feel like it was their idea to change something or fix it. This student is also registered with an IEP and is labeled emotionally disabled. I think this student just wants a community of friends or people to support them, something I think all of us want. I wish I could stay here longer and help but I have spoken about this with my coop and I think we are going to be on the right track with them.
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A gathering at the end of the semester where presenters for the center talk about the work they have went over within the past year. Davina Miaw - Teaching abroadDavina talked about teaching and studying abroad. The experiences she had expanded her ideas of what teaching is, from Davina's presentation we learned that this all started from just an idea. We take ideas like this and turn them into purpose with the steps we take to make our dreams come true. When we talked about our experiences, it's a whole new level when you take it to a new country. Davina said that she experienced norms that she thought she would never see before, these forever sculpted her idea of what a public school education can be. Sophie Harrison & Rebecca Kenaga - music with juvenile youthRebecca and Sophie did their research in the prisons working with younger minds. Through this experience they were teaching music and creating hobbies for students who have been removed from society. I very much enjoyed this project because I really think that they are changing lives so much through this project. I think that everybody deserves an opportunity to make music. Music helps people in times like this become the person they are trying to become. I know that most people when coming out of prison feel closed off from the world but music and teachers like this are the reason these people turn around and really show the world that they are something special. Timothy DeSimone - Identity and Restorying the Museum Tim in his research goes over the identity of students as well as a way to look at the history of our students and their abilities going forth. He used examples such as a fake student named Hank and talked about how his identity can sometimes be predetermined based on what he already likes and how we should avoid that. He also talked about black history and how they helped develop our country and we should talk about them more because they are an important part of US history just as the founding fathers are. He also made a point that we should refer to them as enslaved people in order to make sure we are still acknowledging the stories and legacies they have contributed too.
Students can use their diverse backgrounds to contribute new elements to the lesson.
Music making and learning through electronics will have a focus on backgrounds
Students will have a sense of a composing process that they can grow on past elementary school.
Students will feel welcomed in every experience due to the culture and routine of the classroom.
Discussing Race and Racism in Music Education with Amy LewisWhen at Amy Lewis’s presentation we discussed the causal racist norms that are in today's music classrooms. We talked about understanding that racism is buried into a lot of common assumptions and views in music. Amy talked about how some of her teachers assumed she liked rap music because she was black for example, she also talked about encouraging having discussions about race in the classroom and that it's okay to be uncomfortable and to explore why something like this makes us uncomfortable and try and replace that with curiosity. I thought this was very enlightening because I am a white male and I am one of the least likely to be put in these kinds of stipulations today. I am always learning more about what is an expectation and what racism is buried in somebody's brain. Music Composition in the 21st Century ClassroomWhen in this session we talked about composing music in a non-traditional sense. We played a lot of games that involved music games that would be student composed pieces. One game was us being grouped up into 4 groups and we sang rhythms of state names that we picked in our group and then we did them in cannon. I thought this was a new and very casual way to compose and I was impressed that something like that went so smoothly because I never imagined that something like that would make sense or work but it did. During my time teaching through this practicum I had learned a lot specifically about percussion and the education process. During my time teaching through this practicum I had learned a lot specifically about percussion and the education process. I had observed and then eventually taught a small group of beginning percussionist. Through my observation I had learned it can be a long and tedious process when teaching them they will face a completely different array of challenges that most beginning musicians won't have to face. One of the biggest challenges that I had observed from this is rhythms are way harder than an average beginning musician. At a very young age percussionist are taking on rhythms most students won't see till they are in high school. Being able to draw attention to things that then can see they are playing together or even ideas that are playing off of one another. Also being able to help them find better ways to understand their instruments because each one is completely different and has their own secrets in which to play them. Reflecting onto the time I spent teaching, the group I was working with was actually sight reading at the time. That was unfortunate because I wrote my lesson plan out in a way that I was going to cover more than just notes and rhythms but I needed to adapt and almost completely do over my lesson on the spot. This gave me a lot of good practice for my on the fly teaching abilities as well as my percussion skills. From my teaching video you can also see that their seems to be a lot of transitional issues, that's just another unfortunate part of sight reading with percussionist, they have a lot of transitional things they figure out on the fly and that just happened to be while I was teaching. Overall I felt like there was a lot of good progress in my teaching I just with they were not sight reading so I could have had a better experience when I was teaching and wouldn't feel like everything was a mess the while time.
From what I got from my other practicums, we did a lot of observation on the jazz subject. I think I enjoyed seeing others in my class learn about jazz more than I enjoyed watching the kids. This soli being because I feel like we don't cover enough of jazz for as much as it is used in high school as an extra ensemble. I got from this practicum that a lot of jazz programs seem to suffer, I also went and saw another jazz band and it seemed to be the same problems with attendance. I really feel like a lot of this class is just trying to motivate the students in order to rehearse successfully. Below is the poster that I created for my MUED class this semester for my final. This poster was confusing and difficult at first, but as I figured everything out I learned how to design it and it turned out not so bad in the end. I wasn't able to take pictures for my poster, but I felt that if I had one thing that would have gotten my points across more is videos or photographic evidence. I think that taking the time to write down all the things that I have covered over the semester in my practicum, I had to think a lot about how the process was for writing my lesson plans for this practicum. It can be difficult writing for specific classes like I would help teach in EMIC, because it had to have a lot of very open processes to follow in a lesson plan, this was something I couldn't explain very in detail on the poster to many of my thoughts on this specifically, and their was a lot to cover so I constantly forgot to mention things. Im wondering in the future how I could possibly make sure how to cover everything I need to talk about without writing a books worth of information on the poster.
I will be discussing on what I have covered in my practicums that I have had throughout the semester and what experiences I have had in the process of being able to observe these classrooms. I was able to study my practicum at Spotswood High School, Elkton Middle School, and Mountain View Elementary School. One thing I have really learned a lot from these observations is, you have to establish yourself as the teacher, the kids will not follow instructions and will not listen to you if all you do is goof off and act like one of the students. This doesn't mean you have to be strict or see yourself as a superior being, it just means you have to have your students know that you are running the classroom and you make the final call on everything they do in class.
Another important part of being a teacher is that you have to always plan ahead, but you also have to be ready to improvise on the spot, especially with younger kids, I thought the younger they got, the more unpredictable they were. I also learned that each grade grouping has its different challenges, younger kids usually have a lot more energy and have trouble staying focused on assignments for a long time if the information comes off to them as boring. Students in the middle school area can start to use a little bit more technology and complicated instruments and systems, but they can also be a little more destructive then high school kids. Children in high school can comprehend and process a lot of really difficult information, but they also tend to be a little bit more sassy and can sometimes make teaching difficult because you feel like you are fighting your students. My favorite one had to actually be elementary school, I say this because I felt like they had a lot of energy and I think if I was an elementary school teacher I could really match that and get them really excited to do a lot fo cool things with music in class. I also feel like I have a lot of help with directing them to really develop as musicians early on in their life, something I personally wish I had more of. I enjoyed the idea of the practicum we did and the various differences we had but I wish that I got to be more hands on with the kids and teach them something, but I guess thats more for later practicums, I feel as though I need to sit back and observe a few more times but I am just os eager to get out there and help these kids experience music. Being a teacher I feel like is only like one third of the actual job you sign up for when you get a public school job. I feel like you are a teacher but you also need to be considered as a friend to give advice and help students out in difficult situations outside of school. I think you also need to be an example setter, for when we become adults, we are examples of what they should act like when they are adults, and if we act poorly and represent our maturity badly then thats going to be what our students think adults should act like, we need to represent well so our students know what being a quality adult looks like. I would like to say that I have been very excited with my practicums this semester and I am very much looking forward to the many more I will have in the near future. Surprisingly, as a music educator I have not gotten a lot of engagement opportunities since I have gotten to college. before I had almost no experience teaching and helping students understand the qualities of music, but now, I have had my final exam in Music Tech. This was to design a project and take it into the open and help others outside of the music program understand how it worked and how it related to music . This was a great experience that really helped me see how others see music from a different angel. Another Important engagement I have had through music education in the past was my practicum I had just this Friday Oct 20th, I was able to into the classroom and see how a current teacher engages with their students related to music and questions and challenges. I felt this experience particularly exciting because I have never been a part of a practicum before. I felt this was one of the most valuable Engagements I have had since arriving at JMU. I hope to be able to partake in more practicums and engage in the process of attending them and maybe even run a class with the help of a teacher one day. I will attach links of my notes I took at my practicum and my semester reflection for my Mustech class that includes portions on my final.
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Brandon RhinehartThis will contain my community connections and experiences Archives
February 2021
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