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A very important part of teaching is knowing how student learning is achieved successfully, how to measure student learning and growth, maintaining many strategies to assure student learning, and regularly assessing students.  A scoring rubric (as seen below) is a great assessment tool for communicating expectations of quality to students about their work.  The great thing about a rubric is you have a standard set to base the work off of and you don't have to worry about discrepancy, because the rubric determines the grade.  

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DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

An important part of student learning, as a teacher, is reflecting on what students do well and what they need work on.  I have always been very detailed with reflection on student learning.  Below you will see the beginning of my reflective experience during my elementary field experience.   

 

5 March 2010

Elementary Methods

            This week at the elementary school I began teaching each of the classes I saw each day.  The lessons I taught varied for each grade, but were all in preparation for their Olympic themed program at their Fine Arts Festival.  My advisor also came in to observe my teaching on Tuesday for the first time. 

            With the three third grade classes I see, I taught a singing song called “The Bobsled Song!”  My advisor did an evaluation on this the first time I introduced it to the students.  Due to the range of the song I thought I could not present it to the students in falsetto, so I did not the first day.  This caused problems with the students being in their head voices.  They tried to lower their voices to match my lower voice.  It did not start to get better until my cooperating teacher came to sing along.  After class I talked with her about this and how I could make it better since I did not feel comfortable in my falsetto yet.  She reinforced that it just takes some getting used to with the students because they are used to her voice, and if I had my own class all year long they would be used to my voice.  On Thursday I introduced the song to two more third grade classes.  This time around I went ahead and used my falsetto voice.  Despite being uncomfortable for me, the students responded much better.  They were in their head voices and were overall more accurate.  It did feel to me that my voice was very week in the falsetto and I felt as if I was not loud enough. My CT and I discussed this and she didn’t think that was a problem. 

            During the fourth and fifth grade classes I introduced a different recorder song to each grade. This week consisted of mostly reviewing the notes they already knew, which included G, A, and B.  I also introduced C to both grades and D to fifth grade.  With the short amount of time before the program I do feel kind of rushed with the recorder tunes.  I would have liked have done more with the introduction of the notes, but instead I have to jump right into these pieces.  The fifth grade song is much shorter than the fourth grade song.  I think the fourth graders will have more trouble with their song because it is slower and relatively long, which might lose their attention.

            On Tuesday, my advisor evaluated me and said I seemed very comfortable with teaching the recorder.  This really gave me some confidence going into the next day of teaching.  With the singing he pointed out some pitch problems in the beginning and that I needed to relax.  The pitch problems and accuracy seemed to improve Thursday due to more confidence of being in front of the students. My CT wrote me some notes on Thursday, which was very helpful.  Also, she stressed that I need to reinforce everything over and over again, even if it seems like I am repeating myself too much.  She also pointed out that I say “alright” a lot, which I never realized. 

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Finalizing the elementary experience and middle school experience, below you will find my final reflection in teaching elementary general music and middle school instrumental music.  Some of the things I reflected on with elementary include my singing ability (which has improved, greatly) and  my confidence in front of a group (which has changed so much, I am very comfortable in front of students and enjoy leading them). Middle school reflections include classroom management and planning.  


24 April 2010

Elementary Methods

Final Reflection

            Throughout my field experience at the elementary school, I learned that there are many different approaches to how we teach music to elementary students, and some ways work much better than others.  In methods class we went into great detail about the Kodaly methods of teaching and also the Orff methods.  My cooperating teacher chose to do parts of each of these, but with a main focus on a music appreciation style of teaching.  I thought that much of what she taught was good information for the students to know, but it also seemed like it could be too challenging for them a lot of the time, such as the lesson on Wagner’s Ring Cycle.  While we would expect the development of their skills and singing to be priority, this was not really the case.  With my CT’s 20+ years of experience, she always seemed to be successful in her process, so it is proven that it works for her, even if it is unique!

            Being in the field and getting the experience teaching in real situations really made me realize I enjoy teaching.  I feel like my strengths include being prepared and organized, which is a big issue for many people.  I like to think things through and have everything laid out in detail.  I also think I am very professional in the school environment. Also, being a percussionist I am very confident in many of the instruments that are used in the elementary classroom, and I even became very confident with the recorder.  On the other hand, I feel like my singing still needs to improve.  It did seem to improve a lot over the course of the semester.  At the beginning of the semester I was very shy and nervous about singing on my own in front of a group.  As the semester progressed I became more confident and I didn’t think twice about singing in front of the class.  It even seemed to help my accuracy and confidence when we did choral music in lab band.  I also think I need to improve on anticipating what could go wrong in lessons.  Sometimes an issue would arise and I wouldn’t always expect it and it would throw me off.

            For the remainder of my teacher education preparation I would like to become more confident with being in front of a group all the time.  Elementary students did not seem to really phase me in the confidence area, but this might be different when teaching lab band with my peers, or even secondary level students.  I also want to become more confident in teaching wind instruments since my ultimate goal is to be an instrumental band teacher.  Conducting is also an big interest of mine, so I would like to continue to develop with that because I don’t want to become one of those band directors who just waves his arms keeping time, but rather showing a great deal of expression and technique.  I think it should still be an art, no matter what level you are conducting. 

 

Fall Semester 2011

Middle School Field Experience 

 

My overall growth was very impressive to me during my fall semester middle school field experience.  I never envisioned myself in front of a middle school group like that so comfortably, before. I became very confident and very open with my students, and we gained a relationship that helped the overall learning environment.  At first I didn't connect very much to the individual students, it was more of just I stand in front, they sit and listen environment.  As the semester progressed, I was able to help more students on their overall progression and dive into their learning. I moved from just leading to guiding them through their growth.  This included reacting as situations occurred, not just always sticking to the plan I made prior to the lesson.  I think if I continue to rely on the current situations rather than what I expect, that I will become more and more successful.  

 

I learned throughout my teaching that I can teach middle school, and I can be successful at it.  I learned that I don't always need a detailed plan to be successful, as well.  Yes, it is extremely important to plan ahead in order to gain the most out of your teaching, but I didn't have the opportunity very often this semester.  Generally I would plan first period for the rest of the day, and it worked well, so I know I can do that if it's needed in the future.  I learned about my students that they really are mostly innocent.  They just need guidance and support, no matter what. If they act out, generally there is a reason, and we should not always assume they are just being purposely disruptive.  We must figure out what will help them and gain a connection in order to help them achieve success.  I think I still need to learn how to help more students at one time.  I must figure out how to multi-task throughout teaching to manage all of their problems and needs, not just the initial ones and those that are comfortable.  I must be able to fix more problems on the fly, as well. I am going to improve this by continuing to find strategies for all situations, especially on individual instruments.  This will help with continued growth when modeling on instruments.  This relates back to when I was in the elementary experience.  There I was more engaged in getting through the lesson, and I think the beginning of this experience was that way, too.  As time went on, I became more able to adapt and help my students.  I became more willing to stray away from the lesson, in order to successfully teach my students.  

 

The best part of being in this 6-8 setting was the difference between the 6th graders and 8th graders.  Although I didn't work with the 8th graders as much, I did some individual work, as well as sight read with them one class period.  The 6th graders adapted to me well, and would be engaged in everything I would do, while the 8th graders had a harder time getting used to change. Also, it was so inspiring to see how an 8th grader wanted to play a required scale 3 octaves instead of 2, and a 6th grader learning their chromatic scale without being told!  These students really take the initiative, and want to be pushed. They want to succeed and they want to be competitive.  This all makes them grow as musicians greatly.  The worst part of the experience was having to deal with the classroom management and discipline.  The students didn't always listen to my directions and would generally get very chatty. This was difficult and stressful to deal with, but that’s going to happen everywhere, and I’ll have to gain a better grip on the current situations to get better at that.  Differentiated instruction was something that took some getting used to for me, as well.  It was difficult to utilize it with such large classes.  I think differentiated instruction will continue to grow in my teaching, as I become more comfortable.  It will also grow as I am more consistently in a classroom.  I still want to be a teacher because I have only grown to love the experience throughout this education.  I want to grow even more and help each student as much as I can, no matter what. I want every student to have a chance and I want him or her to get every opportunity possible.  

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Next you will find my teacher work sample website.  This site accompanied my fall semester field experience and showcases much of my work from that time. It includes an important related arts lesson, which I presented to my peers, about Africa and African music.  This is a great lesson for learning across the curriculum, as well.  It also includes assessment tools, and actual results from teaching related arts in the field.  You can see those charts in detail, below.  It also includes all of the instruments the students had the opportunity to play in the 6th grade related arts course.  

 

Below you will first find the link to my teacher work sample website.

Then you will find proof of student growth on a pre/post assessment chart. Following that are visual charts showing the student growth.  It is important in today's time to be able to show student growth, and pre/post tests are just an example as of how to achieve that.  

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Below is a video collage of a lesson for the intermediate level concert band I taught in my high school student teaching experience.  This video begins with an excerpt of a piece for their spring concert, Abracadabra by Frank Ticheli. Students had a difficult time lining up a consistent eighth note pattern. I related this to a consistent pattern we use in their warm ups.  After that, I broke it into sections to relate it to the familiar in their music, on a neutral pitch.  As you can hear, students had a hard time with this, so we clapped, which helped a great deal when we put it back on the instruments.  Also, the second group of students had an easier time, most likely because it was more familiar after hearing the previous group.  Once I put it all together again, it locked in much better! Finally, you will hear the original excerpt, again, which improved! Student growth all in one lesson! Below the video clip you will find the lesson plan for this particular class period, complete with VA SOLs, objectives, procedures and assessment.  

 

These clips are just a few of the ones I took throughout my teaching experiences.  It is important to do this to reflect on my own practices and to improve over time.  I taped myself daily in order to get better.  I have 60 clips in March and 45 clips in April, alone! 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Motivating students involves many different concepts.  I think first it involves taking interest in each student as an individual.  This means not only teaching them in the classroom, but connecting before and after class.  It is important to find out how each students learns and find every way possible to assure their success.  Motivation also involves building a sense of community in the music program, because all students come to respect each other, and motivate each other.  Motivation comes in many forms, but ultimately comes from teacher interest and student support.   

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Finally, below you will find a collage of my conducting experiences and growth over time. This video begins with conducting the Virginia Tech Lab Ensemble, a group made up of music education majors.  This was my very first band conducting experience. Next you will see me conducting the VT Percussion and Marimba Ensemble, a group I was a member of during my time, and I gained a great deal of experience through being assistant conductor in concert and during rehearsals in the director's absence. Next you will find a conductor view clip of my graduate conducting recital with the members of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, which you saw a complete video of under Music Content Knowledge. To end the collage, you will find my conducting during my high school student teaching experience.  I feel I have had a great amount of opportunities conducting, and my growth technically, and musically has been tremendous.  From the beginning I was very flowing, and straight forward, but now I am comfortable trying new things and being very expressive! 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Finally, you will find very important grade sheets and rubrics, as utilized by the Virginia Band and Orchestra Director's Association (VBODA).  These include full ensemble evaluation, sight reading evaluation and jazz evaluation.  


It is important to be familiar with these sheets, and to regularly expose students and ensembles to them.  Not only can we use them as evaluation ourselves, but our students can use them to become critical of a musical performance, to continue developing their active listening skills. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.