Teachers sometimes refer to a desire to "shut the door and teach". This is usually meant to refer to solace from annoying administrative policies; however, it can also be a mindset that keeps teachers from collaborating with others. I have learned the importance of gaining information from many resources "outside the door", so to speak: working with paraprofessionals, communicating with parents, and discussing students and ideas with teachers of other subjects.

This final section contains a rubric showing my professor's assessment of my professional disposition, my personal philosophy and rationale for music education, a video project demonstrating my ability to reflect critically on my teaching, an example of student feedback, a reflection on my attendance of the Midwest Clinic, my log of hours from my student teaching, and my résume.

This artifact epitomizes this area of my teacher education program. Developed by my professor, this rubric is used to assess ten facets of a prospective teacher's professional attitudes. My professor has found that I am consistent in each aspect of a professional disposition.

Certainly all teachers, but music teachers especially, should at any time be able to explain why what they teach is important. As teachers of what is typically an elective class and not a core subject, music educators have an even greater responsibility for this. The following text reflects my opinions on how and why music should be taught. 

Philosophy: How should music be taught?

Teaching music thoughtfully and effectively is best accomplished by considering the philosophical viewpoints of Existentialism and Pragmatism. The philosophy of Existentialism is based around a singular view: that purpose and meaning are intentionally created, not arbitrarily or automatically assigned. Applied to music education, I believe that the student must have the ability to personally discover what music means to him or her. The teacher’s responsibility is to enable the students to engage in multiple types of musical experiences in order to determine their relationship to music, or what place it holds in their lives. The philosophy of Pragmatism focuses again the curriculum’s focus on doing, on experiences to be had in and out of the classroom. Students should be actively engaged in meaningful musical experiences.

            My perspective, then, on the focus of music education is that it should be praxial. Music is not a lovely object that is put up to the light and subjected to aesthetic scrutiny. Ancient peoples did not invent music to be put on a pedestal; they created it to be used. And it is used, in almost every walk of life: social events, rituals and ceremonies, weddings and funerals, religious functions, and product advertisement, to name a few. When students are introduced to music in the classroom, it should be something they can use. Music is doing; music is an experience. Learning music should be done through composing, arranging, performing, and active listening. Teachers should look to encourage a feeling of flow for their students, and to constantly, repeatedly present them with ways to actively interact with the music.

            I believe that a full music education includes active engagement, authentic experiences, comprehensive musicianship, and a learner-centered environment wherein the teacher is not the sole proprietor of knowledge. Students should be intrinsically motivated to pursue their studies or their instrumental craft; they are not motivated by grades or by festival ratings, but by the desire to be part of something in which they can take pride. The students are the center of instruction, not merely the recipients of it. Constructivism has a strong presence in meaningful, effective music education. And after students leave the program, they should want to continue being musicians, in whatever capacity they deem most appropriate for themselves. They are the owners and the doers of music.

Rationale: Why is music education important?

            Music is a common human experience. It has origin in every country, and it has a place in every culture. Though it may have radically different forms, it holds many of the same functions everywhere that it is found. In North American society, music is constant. It is part of every form of social and informational media It is an enormous part of how adolescents define their own identities and those of their peers. It is a tool, a companion, a context, and a lifestyle. But exposure to this musical environment alone does not result in a well-informed or even necessarily musical person. Many people profess their love for music without being able to fully understand or react to it. People who are not educated in music are lacking a great part of the human experience. They need to be taught how to respond to their own culture. Historically, public schools were meant to help create a more uniform society by giving common knowledge and experiences to all children. What better place to teach a common experience than the institution made for that very task? Music education should begin as soon as children enter public school, for by then they have already become consumers of music. And as they grow older and their understandings become more complex and abstract, their capacity for understanding music increases as well. Students of all ages should be provided with a high-quality, authentic music education.

And since music programs have been instituted in schools, we have found that they do more than simply teach musicianship. Music programs very frequently become a community for students, lending them emotional support. Students feel less judged among their fellow musicians, and benefit from interacting with students from other grades and seeing the same students from year to year. Adolescents especially need to feel as though they ‘belong’ in a school environment in order to be academically and socially successful. School music programs provide that comfortable place. Research provides evidence that enrollment in a school music program can help students become more confident and more likely to come to school each day, both of which can lead to greater academic success. It is for the good of the individual students and for society at large that we have music education for all students.

During my student teaching this semester, I regularly took videos of myself in the classroom while conducting; took them home, analyzed them, and compiled clips into videos that analyzed my teaching across the semester. I believe that this is a valuable experience both for new and experienced teachers alike. We come into the classroom with an idea on how we will present the material; however, what we think we are showing to the students may not be what they are actually seeing. Recording one’s teaching on video allows teachers to get a third-person perspective on their teaching.

This is the third of three video collages that I made this semester. I took footage of an unconducted run-through of a piece by a 6th grade class, and included subtitles to explain my actions, things that you can hear in the video, and what students had learned and worked on in that piece up to that point in time.

Student feedback is underrated. In my student teaching experiences, I asked the students to give me "three stars and a wish": three things they thought I was doing well with my teaching, and one thing they thought that I could do better. Between the high school and middle school students, all of whom were surveyed, the high school students tended to give more specific and helpful feedback. The following chart shows how I compiled the feedback. I tried to preserve their wording as much as possible to stay true to their original intent. I counted how many of each type of response I received in each category, and showed how many students had responded. Thus, it was easy to see what percentage of students had a certain opinion about my teaching. I love this type of feedback because it lets the students take more control of their own learning. I always strive to take their requests to heart.

Teachers must be willing to seek out professional development, as this in the field of music is not frequently provided by one's school of employment. The following text is a reflection on my attendance of the Midwest Clinic multiple times over the last few years.

            Although there were obstacles between me and the conference this past winter, going to the Midwest Clinic is something I look forward to every year. It is the most educational and inspirational professional experience I could have. When I attend the conference, I make a point to attend as many individual clinics as possible. From the beginning to the end of the day’s schedule, I am going to clinics and listening to professionals speak. I try to attend a variety of clinics, and especially I try to find ones that cover my areas of weakness. Some of the clinics in the latter category that I have attended have been on the topics of the percussion section in a performing ensemble, an alternative, more contemporary method to teaching beginning strings, and how to teach jazz improvisation in high school. Sometimes the clinics also present me with information I hadn’t even considered before. At the 2011 Midwest Clinic, I attended a clinic concerning research on injuries sustained by performing musicians. I found that it is practically an epidemic, but underreported because educators do not talk about it with their students. Since I first heard it, I have not stopped sharing this information.

            The Midwest Clinic is also a great opportunity to interact with music itself. The variety of performing ensembles is wonderful; where else can I hear a Japanese all-girls high school band and Pershing’s Own on the same night? I can hear new music being read, and I can watch master educators lead rehearsals with elementary through high-school performing ensembles. The caliber of the music all throughout the convention center always refreshes my commitment to the performing arts.

            Though I typically think of the Midwest Clinic in terms of educational opportunities for myself, it also is really meaningful to the nationwide music community. I am always astounded at how many of this nation’s states are represented on the nametags of music educators attending the convention. It isn’t even unusual to see educators from Canada and overseas countries as well. And the range of types of educators, too: college students, first-year teachers, and veterans alike come to this convention to learn and perfect their craft. It really sends the message that being an educator is not a one-time event that happens upon graduation from a university. Being a music educator means continually seeking opportunities to learn more about the world of music, and bringing home that knowledge to the students.

This image demonstrates the sheer amount of time I spent at school or off-campus school activities during my student teaching. I attended parent-teacher conferences near the beginning; however, I am disappointed that it was early enough in my student teaching that I had not yet become familiar with the students, so as to really benefit from conferencing with their parents. I also helped administrate and organize the District Band event for the district, which was hosted by the school at which I was placed. I helped move students, set up lunchrooms, and obtain unusual auxiliary percussion instruments. I was also privileged to go on both of the trips for this band program. I was a chaperone on both trips, which let me learn about the students in a way unlike I could in school. I am grateful to my cooperating teacher and my host school for the number of educational opportunities I had during my student teaching.

Finally, let me present my résume.. This document reflects the accomplishments that I have made as a music student, a student teacher, and an employed teacher.