This page shows my ability to apply my music knowledge and pedagogical knowledge actively in a classroom environment.

Featured below are three different assessment tools I created in the Fall 2012 semester to use in my high school student teaching internship. The first is a visual checklist that both I and the students can use to assess their posture in the classroom. The second is a performance rubric which assesses student singing in the choral classroom based on evaluations of tone, posture, expression, and diction. Finally, the third is a written assessment which evaluates student knowledge of note names and pitch names.

During the assessment unit, I also created a time signature assessment for students during my high school student teaching experience. The time signature assessment tested students on their knowledge of 4/4 and 3/4 time, with a bonus question in 6/8 time. Below I have included the scores and averages as calculated values as well as visual charts.

To get a true, hands-on teaching experience, in my Fall 2012 semester I was required to create a powerpoint presentation about Gamelan music and teach my peers in the class. This presentation is an introduction to Indonesian Gamelan music and is designed for a general music class. I thought this presentation was fairly successful, but I feel that I could have brought more props and tangible materials to the lesson in order to keep the students engaged. Most of the presentation consisted of me lecturing when it really should have had the students more involved. However, I did create a well-organized powerpoint presentation that will work well for me in the future if I ever decide to introduce Gamelan music to a class again. Below is a 20 second clip from my presentation to the class.

The next two examples of my work include a budget project and a travel project and their accompanying reflections I completed in class Spring 2013. These projects helped me understand the importance of planning a budget for a choral classroom as well as all of the elements involved in planning a field trip including bus fees, medical forms, and permission slips.

Budget Project:

Travel Project:

To conclude this page, here is my final reflective blog that sums up what I'd learned Spring 2013 about my teaching thus far and how it impacts the students:

"When I came into middle school for student teaching, I didn't know what to expect at all. I heard my step-mother telling me that students can be really rough at that age and that I might have a hard time with that age level. However, I never quite felt that way. But there were times where I was very surprised at how some students would talk back to teachers without any regard for consequences. I think this was because of the way the discipline matrix was set up at the school, though, because more often that not students would be written up and any ISS or OSS would not be enforced by anyone in particular. Sometimes students could completely skip their ISS without anyone knowing! So, I'd have to say that was the main thing that took me off guard - to see the students with such blatant disregard for the rules because nothing would really happen to them if they broke the rules.
Even with some students disregarding the rules, I managed to get through to most of them by talking to them and asking them what was wrong. By paying specific attention to them and being genuinely concerned about their well-being, they came to respect me more. I think this is something that I will take with me when I have my own classroom. I want to create an environment of mutual respect where students feel comfortable approaching me with any kind of issue whether it's within the classroom or about their own personal lives.
Another thing that I learned from my student teaching experience was specifically from my cooperating teacher and that was how to conduct better. She coached me on specific pieces we were learning in class and helped me conduct expressive nuances in the music from phrasing to dynamics. Now when I conduct I use both hands equally and with expressive purpose instead of simply conducting meter like I used to.
The class this year has also given me a lot of practice creating practical projects including the budget project, curriculum project, and travel project. The curriculum project in particular helped me with the interview I had last Thursday when they asked me how I would set up a curriculum in music. Had I not had prior experience putting a curriculum together, I would not have been able to properly answer that question.
I also learned that I do indeed have a lot of patience and I care a lot about my students. When we were on the Dollywood trip, we had one small student with special needs whose parents did not dress her well for the rainy weather. She had no raincoat and not very substantial shoes. My cooperating teacher could not find us to meet up with us inside of the theme park the whole trip, so the student became my responsibility. Since she hardly had any money to spend on the trip, it would've been unfair to ask her to use it on the ponchos they were selling in the stores. So, I gave her my raincoat while we spent 30 minutes in the pouring rain looking for a store that sold ponchos. I got soaked so I bought a poncho for myself and let her borrow my raincoat for the rest of the trip. I think that was the first instance where it really occurred to me how much I was willing to do for my students. I think this will be a great asset to me as a teacher because I always want the students to be the priority, even if it means I have to stand out in the rain for a little while. :) And apparently this translates to the students as well, because on my last day, my cooperating teacher told me that she had never heard so many "I love you's" and heartfelt "I'll miss you's" on a student teacher's final day.
To conclude, I will remember this student teaching experience fondly for the rest of my life. It has taught me how to have fun with teaching but still make sure that each student has a meaningful musical experience."