Weekly Blog Post #8

Earlier this week I was exposed to a great way to elicit student voice. My future cooperating teacher does an Individual Performance Assessment after each performance that the group has. Students are to fill out this assessment rating themselves on a scale of 1-5 in various categories. I really like this idea and will be incorporating this into my future classrooms.

The last few days of school are upon us and there is a noticeable change in atmosphere at my observation school; teachers are even displaying signs of the year coming to an end. This whole week of observations has basically been a wrap-up week. On Tuesday the bands turned in all of their music and concert uniforms. Today my cooperating teacher had all of the students clean out their instrument lockers and turn in their locks. They also checked in their method books and instruments if necessary. After they finished this task, they watched the movie “Drumline.” Personally, this movie is funny to me because of how dramatic and inaccurate it is, but very entertaining, regardless.

The students will be getting their yearbooks tomorrow, so Friday will be a relaxed day consisting mostly of yearbook signing. On Monday the students get a “Fun Day.” There are different activities going on around the school that students may partake in. There is a catch to this “Fun Day” though. Students are not allowed to participate in the Fun Day if they have any unpaid fines, and I believe there is a minimum GPA requirement as well, though I am not sure what that is.

On a different note, I met my new cooperating teaching for the Fall Quarter. I am really looking forward to working with him at this new school. I think this will be a really good match because he is in a situation that I want to be in the future.  He plays professionally in the symphony as well as has a teaching job, which is what I would like to do. The classroom that I will be observing in is very proactive with technology. They have iPads in the practice rooms for recording playing tests/auditions and he even uses a whiteboard APP rather than the real one. I am really looking forward to working with him. He said that we would basically be team teaching. I really like that he plans on utilizing me and giving me a lot of experience. I’m as involved in my current classroom as I would have liked to be.

Weekly Blog # 7

I got my recorded lesson done on Monday. I wasn't sure when I would get to see any of the band classes because of MSP testing, so I was relieved to have done so.

I actually didn't plan on teaching a lesson that day but my cooperating teacher asked me if I wanted to do a lesson. I jumped at the opportunity unsure if I would get another chance. I had no lesson planned that day, so everything I did was improvised.

My cooperating teacher was telling me that the students in her percussion class are thrown in there if they need another class to take. The music director for the district informed her that the point of the percussion class is to allow other students who want to be in music an opportunity. In generally percussion is easier to pick up on than a wind instrument. Now that the point of the class had been divulged, she’s going to go a different way with it. All that needed to happen was a conversation and everyone is happy.

During home base everyday there is usually nothing for them to do. I was unaware of this because my cooperating teacher always has them doing stuff. For Memorial Day she printed off crosswords and word searches in the memorial theme.

It's nice to be working with a teacher who cares about her student's education and puts effort into teacher.

Because of MSP testing and the fact that my cooperating teacher teaches at two elementary schools every afternoon, the middle school bands don't get to rehearse very often. This is really unfortunate especially since they have a concert coming up in a couple of weeks.

A lot of equipment at the middle school is not in the best condition, especially the percussion mallets. It would be really useful to ask one of my percussion friends to teach me how to re-yarn them.

This past Friday at the middle school was teacher appreciation day. All of the teachers and staff were delivered geranium flowers as a thank you. During connections, one student walked up to my cooperating teacher, shook her hand, and thanked her for everything she does. This student then came up to me and did the same. This was such a small gesture that she thought nothing of it, but it made my day.

Weekly Blog #6

Not a lot has been happening this week because testing is still underway. On Friday I observed my cooperating teacher subbing for the art classes.
After observing a couple of art classes I feel pretty grateful to be working with the music students. This is only a stereotype but, I feel that the majority of students in this band program are well-behaved.
The students in that art class were quite raucous. Trying to maintain  management seemed to be a struggle. There were students chasing each other the room with pencils and yard sticks. The students seem to be generally more disruptive than the ones in band class. This could also just be the result of having a sub in the class and trying to get away with something.
The jazz band had three more rehearsals until their last concert of the year. My cooperating teacher seems to think they are not quite ready for it.
Last Friday during the Jazz band hour I witnessed a great act of cooperation. Usually the drummers are goofing off, but on this day they were all working together.
As described in previous posts, there are three drummers in the jazz band that rotate playing for different songs. One plays the drum set and the other two wait for their tune to be called. Well, one student was playing (we'll call him "Josh") and he accidentally dropped one of his sticks. He proceeded to attempt playing  with only one stick. Right after the dropped it, one of the drummers on deck grabbed the stick that was dropped while the other waiting drummer handed Josh a new pair of sticks. At this point the poor kid now has three drum sticks; one in one hand and two in the other. Both hands are busy trying to keep playing so he was unable to ditch the third stick.
Drummer boy on deck comes to the rescue again. He begins playing the right hand part of the music with Josh so that Josh can use his right hand to consolidate his stick situation. Success! He sets the extra stick down and now has one per hand. Great teamwork.

Weekly Blog # 5

 The end of last week I was on tour with the EWU Wind Ensemble, Concert Jazz Ensemble, and Code Red. Because of this I missed two observation days. This week’s schedule is going to be very different for me because the school is in their second week of testing. A couple of days, my cooperating teaching will be subbing for the Art teacher and other days the Art teacher will be subbing for the music teacher. Because of this schedule, I will be observing a music teacher teaching art – interesting. I think that the value of this will be to see how my cooperating teacher handles a whole different group of students in a different atmosphere.

 Today the students had second period for two hours. I was present during the first hour of instruction. The class that my cooperating teacher has is percussion. I imagine it would be quite difficult to keep a group’s attention for an entire two hours; 50 minutes is long enough. They key in these types of situations is incorporating a lot of variety and keeping the pace. Obviously you can’t just rehearse the group for two whole hours – professionals can barely do that without needing a break. Besides needing a break, these young musicians just don’t have the chops or ability to play for that long.

Regardless, as I said earlier, I was only present during the first of the two-hour block so I didn’t get to observe how the class behavior changed. Hand drumming was the primary focus of the first half. All of the students made one long arc in the middle of the room. They did this drumming activity where someone would start with a rhythm on their drum, and then they would go down the line, adding people in. As students were reached, they came up with their own rhythm to layer on top of the others. Once they got through adding everyone in, one student played the rhythm from some famous oldies rock tune, and then everyone began to add in to that. The students really enjoyed this opportunity for creativity. As a prospective teacher, I see this value in this type of exercise; it boosts self-confidence by allowing student expression, but without singling any one person out.  However, I believe that the student’s could have done much better. For instance, when it was someone’s turn to add in it was rare for it to be in time with the others. Because of this I would have prefaced the activity telling them that the tempo needs to stay the same throughout and that everyone needs to be playing in the same tempo. To do this, everyone has to be listening to everyone else.

They were discussing the idea of incorporating this short activity into their next concert. That could be a cool idea; to have something that the students are improvising on the spot to be performed publicly. I believe that the structure could be altered a little bit to make the group and the improvised music sound more impressive.

One thing I noticed was the technique that the students were using on their instruments. Overall, most technique was not up to par. Students basically grabbed a random percussion instrument and begin to bang on it in whichever way they thought seemed correct. Their playing technique would be something else that I would address in addition to the listening for tempo.

Weekly Blog #4

This week I had my observed lesson. I was really glad to get it out of the way earlier in the quarter. I received a lot of very helpful and guiding feedback. One comment that really struck with me was that the lesson plans we make are only our “ideal” plans. I have heard this many times, bit it seemed to click when it was reiterated in reference to one of my own lessons. I got to experience first hand what following a lesson plan is like versus letting things go. In my lesson I wanted to get through two different pieces. I had worked on the first one longer than intended, so I only had minimal time to go through the second one. My observer told me that I should have just ended the lesson after the first piece and saved the second one for next time.

After I warmed up the band we moved to the first piece. Percussionists needed instruments from the office; I waited for them to get back. Those 30 seconds felt a lot longer than that because I was ready to go and so was everyone else, but we had to wait for the percussionists. While I was waiting I felt a bit unsettled, thinking maybe I was waiting for too long, but my observer told me after the lesson that I did the perfect thing in that situation.

On Friday I had to run the connections class and first period last minute because my cooperating teacher had a meeting with a parent. One of her student’s knocked another out during lunch and the discipline was to be decided upon. Both of the students ended up being suspended and not allowed to participate in the lilac parade.

Monday began off with jazz band. As expected, the drummers were very disruptive and goofing off. This goofing off includes: drumming while being spoken to, playing the foot pedal with a hand, and trying to mess each other up when playing. In my opinion, this rude drumming when the teacher is talking could be solved with a simply drawing the attention to the fact that you shouldn’t be playing when the teacher is talking. Another way that might prevent them goofing off with each other is to not allow the students who are not on the drum set to sit directly behind him – there must be some amount of distance. This is probably only an issue to me because I sit right next to them and see that their behavior goes unnoticed or ignored.

I received a couple of recommendations from my cooperating teacher regarding securing a teaching job. The first was that, during the interview you should ask about the classes. For instance, is percussion included in the band or do they have a separate class? Also, one thing I had never thought of was to drive around the neighborhoods near the schools. You can get a feel for what the school environment will be like, but also, are their any apartments (if you plan on renting) for you to live in? Some areas only have homes, forcing you to look for housing in another nearby city.

Weekly Blog #3

 During one of the Jazz band rehearsals I heard my cooperating teacher say, “I want to know what you guys want to do for the gig.” This is an interesting idea. I am a fan of this kind of thinking in the music classroom. By giving students a say in what they will be performing makes them feel like they are more a part of the group. Not only that, but students will usually pick the pieces they feel they are best at. So asking them what they want to play is a good way to gauge what they think they are playing well and what they have fun playing.

I have learned that when planning anything that involves your students, such as an off-campus concert, you need to over-plan, have more than one backup plan, and anticipate any issues that may come up. One of the groups at the middle school I am observing just recently had a performance. Seeing how my cooperating teacher led the students up to that performance and all of the day-of logistics was very useful. On the day of the gig, my cooperating teacher went over where they should be and by when, MANY times. She even had them recite the information to her so she knew they knew.
She also had to bring all of the accessories: music stands, extra patch cords, amps, drum set, extension cords, surge protectors, and even button-covers for their tuxedo shirts. You literally have to think of and anticipate everything.

Students and parents need to be informed of every little detail. It is best to give students an itinerary of the upcoming performance early enough in advance so parents will be prepared. However, the problem with giving a letter to the student instead of directly to the parent is, sometimes the letter doesn’t reach the parent and ends up crumpled up in the bottom of a backpack. Maybe there can be a more efficient/direct way to contact parents, such as email lists.

Always keep cool-headed. Like we have discussed in many of our ED classes, you shouldn’t make it into a power struggle. It’s not worth it to let a student get your goat. I have yet to see my teacher loose her cool with the students, even in difficult situations. I am always slightly surprised by her reactions when something happens and she just responds like any other day, very politely and understanding.

I did recently experience one situation that could have been handled differently. I’m not sure, but I believe my cooperating teacher wasn’t in as good a mood as she usually is. One of the 7^th grade students forgot a pencil again; he has a reputation for coming to school without supplies. My co-op teacher has lent him pencils several times in the past and he always loses them. On this day she scolded him in front of the entire class, saying it was pathetic to borrow a pencil as a seventh grader.
Here is how I would have dealt with the situation:

Just by looking at this student, you can tell that he is probably on the lower end of the financial spectrum and what I have learned from my cooperating teacher is that his mother never shows up to any conferences and such. I conclude that his mother isn’t very supportive of his education or is unable to support it because she is working trying to make ends meet. Because of this conclusion, I would ask to talk with the student privately. I would lend him another pencil, but also talk with him and tell him that I will lend him this pencil, but it is a really good pencil, and I will need it back again tomorrow. I won’t actually take it back from him; I just want him to bring a pencil to school. I will also mention how important it is to come to school with supplies. Since he has trouble keeping track of his supplies, maybe he should just leave his pencil in his locker everyday after school.

Assessment Article Response

The article I found on assessment is titled “Music Education for Life: Music Assessment, Part 1: What and Why” by, Scott C. Schuler. I chose this article because it is directly applicable to my content area and offers a multitude of useful information on the topic, including the role of assessment in the music classroom.

The article begins with a section called “Roots of Assessment Phobia.” Schuler states that many of us have had some sort of bad experience with testing. Throughout my secondary years all of my grades were based on a test score. Most often these test were multiple-choice exams. To my knowledge I haven’t retained much from those types of assessments.

Even in college most of my general education classes were lecture-style and had two assessments that determined the final grade, a midterm and final. It wasn’t until I got further into my major that I began to see first hand that there are more ways of assessment other than test. I cannot remember the last time I have taken a multiple-choice exam. Most of my assessments are now dominated by projects that require research and creating and reflecting on my own original thoughts. Assignments like these require more thought as opposed to memorization of one “correct” answer. In my opinion you learn more by answering questions that don’t have one simple answer but a variety of all equally valid options. As a result of this active thinking and learning, I have retained and learned so much more.

As a teacher we can take away testing but there must be some other kind of assessment to take its place. I remember my first experience with a professor who said he didn’t believe in testing, so we never had any. We also didn’t have any other type of assessment that effected out grades. I’m not saying we didn’t have any assessments; we have plenty of assessments, just none that affected our grades. At the end of the quarter the professor asked each of us individually what we thought our grade should be and that was the grade he gave us. Even students who did terribly in the class and never did any work were passed. There might be some good ideas behind this type of class but it wasn’t effectively put into practice.

One of the more important ideas I pulled from this article is that “the best and, ultimately, most important measurement in any classroom is self-assessment” (Schuler par. 16). According to Schuler, we, as music teachers, must set the standards for the development of self-assessment by providing students with examples of quality playing and musicianship coupled with providing accurate feedback.

Schuler goes on a rant in his article about how kids these days receive too much praise. This has been a popular issue for some time and many people feel the same way Schuler does.

Being too nice or over-complimentary in a performing art could kill all drive/motivation for improvement; what’s the point of getting better if you’re already being told you’re good? Imagine Picasso was a child taking an art class, painting what is supposed to be a friend’s face. The teacher comes by and praises him, “OH! How darling, very well done.” This painting does not look like his friend at all – it’s a bunch of shapes oddly placed. Picasso is pleased with the praise and moves on from painting. But… He never becomes the widely known artist because no one was there to tell him that his painting was shit and he should never pick up a brush again! He never built up resentment and vowed to become a great painter (obviously success blossoms from pent up emotions…).

Obviously this whole story is totally false, but the point is that if there is no one to hold students to a
higher standard then the world will be full of happily mediocre humans who don't thrive for anything because they are never pushed.