Kyla Smith
kylaband@ksu.edu
Musical Background
Music has always been in my life for as long as I can remember. My mom plays the piano, and she used to play every Sunday for church. We have an upright piano in our living room and she would practice all the time for church. When I got into the first grade my mom got me started with piano lessons from the school’s music teacher. I continued taking lessons until the eighth grade until my teacher got a full time job at a bank. This caused her to have to dropped all of her students. But, before I had to stop with my piano lessons, I had started band in the fifth grade. I started on clarinet. In the fifth through sixth grade I started out with one band teacher that the students loved. He would tell us jokes all the time, but that was just about the only thing he really taught us. I was only able to play very few notes. By my seventh grade year we got a new band teacher that happened to be a clarinet player. She knew how to keep a class on task and she would challenge us with harder pieces and concepts constantly. After having her for a few years and being able to observe the way she interacted with students and how much fun she had, I decided I really wanted to become a band teacher like her. I had seen a good amount of ineffective music teachers that didn’t teach very much in their classroom or challenge the students, but Mrs. Harrison was definitely an exception. She not only taught in her room, but out of class when students needed help with anything. Students could come to her if they just needed someone to talk to about school work, even if she couldn’t really help them with it. I really liked the way that she could connect with her students all while teaching them, and it makes me want to be a music teacher like her someday. The influence that she had on me has influenced me to teach and influence other students lives.
National Association for Music Education
Kansas Bandmasters Association
Music 670 Blog
Post 1-
Job Migration: A Collaborative Effort
By: Cynthia L. Wagoner
This article lays out three main steps to making a clean and successful transition to a new job. Wagoner lays out the three steps as a) preparing for the successor, b) migrating into a new job, and c) bridging the gap. The rest of the article goes on to explain the finer details of these steps. Preparing for the Successor explains that when you are leaving a position that you have to come to terms that you are replaceable and you need to keep the students’ learning as the top priority. There is no room for an ego and putting down the new teacher. You should also make things easy on your administration by giving them some resources to find a suitable replacement. Leaving information to help your successor is also important. This can include a guidebook that has information about the program, inventory lists and financial information. This will help your successor have a smooth transition. The next step in transitioning is migrating to your new job. You need to acknowledge that you can not “change the world” right when you get there. The students are transitioning too and change can be hard for them. If you try to change the entire program in your first year students will be defensive. Try not to show you predecessor’s ideas and techniques in a bad light. Finally, bridging the gap with your predecessors and successors will make the transition easier for both of you.
This article had a great take on changing schools. My biggest concern with changing jobs is the students’ attachment. Students get into a routine with another teacher and they do not want to change that routine. If this change is not carefully taken care of by the teacher that is leaving and the incoming teacher the change can be harmful to the program. Teachers who are moving on need to be open with their students and prepare them for the change. Teachers that are coming into a new school have to be mindful that they can not change the program in their first year. Students will want to do things just as the previous teacher because they liked that teacher and take offense when you want to do thins differently. I thought that Wagoner had some great insight on how to help the incoming teacher. I really liked the idea of providing inventory list and financial information. This will help the new teacher adjust and be successful in their new program.
Wagoner, C. L. (2012). Job migration: A collaborative effort. Teaching Music, 19(6), 28-30.
Post 2-
The Key to Success for Students with Special Needs
By: Patience Moore
In this article Moore talks describes how Mollie Nusz, a
music teacher from Pleasant Ridge Middle School in Overland Park, Kansas, uses paraprofessionals
as the key to engage students with special needs. Nusz explains what a
teacher can do with a para to help make the learning experience better.
First, she meets with the para before class. This way she can find
out what mood the student is in and any anxieties they have that day.
Next, she meets with the para and student and goes through the plan for the
day so the student will know what to expect and what the teacher expects of
them. Nusz also uses the para in the class activities by having them
"track" for the student when singing lyrics. The para can also
use a hand over hand technique when playing drums with yarn mallets.
Finally, headphones help students who are auditorily sensitive.
I thought this article was eye opening. It gave me some great ideas on how to involve special needs students and their paras in my music classroom. A music class can be very therapeutic for these students, so we should try to involve them as much as we can. After reading this article I hope to apply this in my classroom by setting aside time to meet with the student and their para before class to discuss class activities so the student is not surprised or anxious in class. I also think that when singing lyrics I could do "tracking" for all my students to help not only my special needs students but other students who might have problems following lyrics.
Moore, Patience. "The Key to Success for Students with Special Needs." Teaching Music 20.5 (2013): 57. Print.
Post 3-
How do students learn music?
I believe that students learn
music a variety of ways, through aesthetic, physical, cultural, and personal
experiences. We are surrounded by music our entire life whether we
realize it or not. We are exposed to music when babies and some would
argue even earlier, prenatally. As music educators we are not
"introducing" students to the idea of music, we are giving them ways
in which to label, discriminate, and play music. We do this so students
can go beyond the casual listening and dig in to the depth of the music, such
as the meaning, the expression, the aesthetic experience and its purpose.
As a music educator I want to guide my students to a musical experience
that will challenge them in a variety of ways. Aesthetically, I want to
challenge my students to reflect on different genres and types of music.
I want to give them an opportunity to think in depth about how different
types of music affect them. Physically I want to challenge students to
become the best that they can be on their instrument. So many students
hit a wall of "good enough" and do not get challenged to achieve
more. Students also experience music through their culture.
Cultural music can come in many forms. Some may be religious music,
ethnic music, folk songs, or music that they have grown up with. Students
will be more willing make musical connections if they can culturally connect
it. Finally, students learn from their own personal experiences.
These experiences may be private lessons, family experiences, or even singing
in the car.
Post 4-
How should I teach if this is how students learn music?
Since students learn music through their aesthetic, physical, cultural, and personal experiences, I as a music educator should strive to use this to teach in my classroom. I believe that all four of theses experiences should be incorporated in the music classroom. Aestheically I want to use techniques such as reflections and journals to have my student think on how different styles and genres of music make them feel. Music is an emotional experience and I want to strive to help my students express the affect music has on them. Physically I want to challenge my students in my classroom to achieve as much as they can musically on their instruments. I want to hold my students to a standard of excellence that pushes them to work without discouraging them. Culturally I want to incorporate my students music culture into my classroom along with cultures that they are not familiar with. Finally, I want to provide my students with a personal music experience that is best for them. This can be challenging because there is only one of me and 20-120 of them. I want to strive to create the best musical experience for all of my students.
Post 5-
Post Class Discussion
After discussing post 3 and 4 in class I have grown a deeper but also more cloudy understanding of how students learn music and how I should teach it. Ultimately students do learn music from experience. As music teachers we are not introducing music to students. We are just giving them pathways in which to understand, create, and express music. As we dove more into this topic the question of "What is music?" comes up. Even though I love music and want to teach it I can not give a definative answer to this question and as I found out in class, even musicians that are much more educated and experienced than I can still not answer this question. Throughout my career I believe my thought on this question will change and evolve, but I may never have "the answer". That is the great thing about music. It is so many things that is almost cannot be defined.
Post 6-
Listening Guides Draw Students Closer to Music.
By: Patience Moore
This article by Patience Moore talks about the new trend in
general music listening. Listening Guides are visual maps to a piece of
music. Melanie Halsell, music teacher in Filer, Idaho, says that
"listening guides use words pictures and shapes to represent sound."
Teachers are starting to use these listening guides more and more because
they have found that students can pay attention and actively listen to a whole piece
of music. Attention spans of elementary and middle school students is so
small that it is hard to have students listen to a whole piece of music unless
it is a pop song. Listening guides give the students a visual to follow
along and to guide their listening to important parts.
I have actually had the chance to experience students using
listening guides in some of my observations in an elementary music classroom.
The listening guide was electronic and when the music played the pictures
would come to life. This really got the students attention and they were
listening. A whole classical movement or piece could be played and the
students would be fully engaged in the piece and the movement on the board.
I also observed that not only did the students pay attention, but they
could answer questions about the piece afterwards. Listening guides can
also be made by the teacher and the teacher can point to the pictures they have
drawn as the music plays. I think I could use listening guides in my
general music class to get my students engaged and interested in classical
music. Once students are familiar with listening guides, I could have
them make their own and present them to the class.
Moore, Patience. "Listening Guides Draw Students Closer to Music." Teaching Music 20.6 (2013): 65. Print.
Block 2
Entry 2- Contextual Factors and Student Learning Adaptations
Entry 4- Analysis of Classroom Environment