During the past 5 years I have continued to grow as an educator by learning new ways to present material to my students and to tailor my teaching to the individual needs of each student. All students learn differently and it's our goal as teachers to find new, challenging ways to reach each student!

Below you will see one of the first lesson plans I wrote as an undergraduate. The lesson was for a 2nd grade class during my elementary placement and you can see that I have some structure to the lesson but there were no specific long-term goals. I did use my previous knowledge to start with a familiar activity then move to unfamiliar and back to familiar in the end, which is a great way to structure elementary music lessons! In my reflection you can see that I could identify what my students were understanding or weren't understanding but I didn't offer any ways to fix that or tailor it to the group I was teaching. What works for one class may not work for the other and as teachers we must constantly be ready to change our plans if they're not working!

The next lesson plan you will see is from my fall student teaching experience at a high school. As you can see the lesson plan is much more detailed with specific objectives, assessment, and detailed procedures. My procedures include using imitation, chanting syllables, and modeling in order to assure my students understanding of the concepts. This lesson plan also shows my growth of anticipating what my students will have difficulty with, fingerings for example, and I have the corrections written in the plan! You will also see a rubric filled out about the lesson plan by my university supervisor.

During my fall student teaching experience I was given the opportunity to work with a student with Asperger's and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and follow his learning for a month. The case study I did really opened my eyes to how different every student is and that they each have something really special to offer musically. Below you will see the case study write up on my fall semester and then an adapted lesson plan for a class that has 3 different students with special needs. Being aware of the tendencies of each disorder and ways to keep each student engaged is very important and this lesson plan shows my ability to plan for multiple learning disorders.

In my spring student teacher experience I had the opportunity to work with a student with autism. Even though I did not keep a detailed case study like I did in the fall, I was able to observe the student while teaching and learn his tendencies and needs as a learner. Differentiated instruction is especially important in a music classroom because we have to teach a wide variety of skill levels and learning disorders. Below is a lesson plan from my spring student teacher experience that has modifications for a student with autism, you will see that I used my previous knowledge of the student to make sure he was getting a well-rounded musical experience. The student had the tendency to play mallet instruments every class and by noticing this I was able to move him away and get him to try new instruments! Trying to work with one individual student in a large class is difficult for pacing so I decided to place him near an advanced percussion student to assist him. By placing the student near a stronger percussionist he was able to pick up the rhythms and feel more confident in his abilities as a percussionist.

Finally, here are a list of websites that I have used frequently in the year during my student teaching experiences. 

• http://www.vicfirth.com/education/
  • I used this website when I had a question on something to do with percussion. It has videos of each rudiment for percussion and has been helpful in me developing as a percussionist.
• http://www.jwpepper.com
  • I used this website when I needed a reference recording or wanted to listen/find music for concerts. Typically there are high quality recordings and are helpful when I’m having trouble figuring out how a part of the song goes if I’m not near a piano.
• http://www.vmea.com/index.php/links.html
  • I used this website when I’ve needed to find something related to music education, either advocacy articles or links to websites for each instrument. This website has proven to be a very important resource and the links are those that I can trust to be credible.
• http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/
  • If I have a question about a definition of a musical term then I use this website. I used it throughout my undergraduate career and it always has very accurate and concise definitions that are easy to explain to students.
• http://www.wwbw.com/
  • I’ve used this website to find instruments and accessories for my  budget project and have used it to become more familiar with popular brands of instruments for instrument families other than clarinet.