I feel that Ball State University is giving me the knowledge and tools I need to become a successful music educator. Developing a professional growth plan is essential to any teacher to assess how they are doing in a classroom, especially their affect on their students. By creating this plan and revising it as I, myself improve and grow in my education, I will be able to continually reflect on and evaluate my practices of teaching, and examine my readiness for teaching.
With another year of experience under my belt, I feel that my readiness for teaching has grown tremendously. I have taken the courses of Elementary General Methods, Choral Methods 1, and Choral Methods 2 throughout the past year and feel that they have helped me with become more ready to teach. These courses have also given me a chance to evaluate where I am a student and how I can improve certain aspects of myself to become a future educator that will be successful in teaching my students. I know I have much more growing to do in these areas, and I will continue to evaluate myself as a teacher to be aware of how to make myself better.
InTASC #1 I have learned that students learn and develop in different ways, and teachers need to be aware of this when instructing them. By taking Educational Psychology, I have studied how students at a variety of ages learn and develop, and how I, as a teacher, can accommodate and help them to succeed. I feel that I still have much to learn when it comes to actually adhering to individual students' needs, but I know that I will continue to take courses that will make this clearer and feasible.
I have observed and taught in elementary, middle, and high school general music and choral classrooms, and feel that I am learning more about how students develop differently. I feel that I have experienced students in a variety of settings by teaching and observing them, and notice by how they respond in my lessons that they all are very different in a developmental sense. I understand that I need to develop lesson plans that challenge students but also allow them to succeed and develop as individuals. With this standard, I still feel that I have a lot to learn, but most of this learning of how students develop comes through experience. I will continue to observe and teach in classrooms throughout the rest of my time at Ball State and become more knowledgeable about how students develop and how I can be beneficial to them.
InTASC #2 I have learned that students learn in a variety of ways that are unique to the individual themselves. As a teacher, I will have to accommodate my lesson plans to fit those needs of my students, and help them to learn the best. In my courses, I am learning how to incorporate diversity in terms of cultures and genres of music into my lesson plans. I have also taken a multicultural education course, which gave me an insight to different cultures and how they act and want to be treated. I feel that I will continue to grow in this standard by furthering my courses and fully understanding how to incorporate different cultures and learning differences in my classroom.
It is clear to me while observing and teaching in the elementary, middle, and high school classrooms that students learn differently from one another. By having classrooms with diverse students and implementing lessons that teach broad concepts, I am understanding more clearly how learners are different. In my choral methods courses, the teaching of many different cultures and the music that is produced is encouraged and we study how to approach teaching these lessons. By covering this aspect and then taking that out into the field, I feel that I am growing in my knowledge of the differences of learners and how to present lessons and a learning environment that will benefit them the most. Along with learner development, this standard also has a great deal of real life experience needed to completely understand the differences of learners, and I will do so by teaching and observing in the field.
InTASC #3 A safe, comfortable, inviting learning environment is incredibly important for the achievement of students in a classroom. In my vocal techniques and secondary general methods courses, I am learning how to present myself as a teacher, and encourage students in a classroom. I have not had much field experience to know how to properly implement this into a classroom, but I am practicing it now with lessons I teach to my peers. This is an area I need to learn more about and improve on because of its importance to students.
By observing at many classrooms through this year, I have experienced the learning environments teachers present to their students. I have also observed students' learning abilities due to the environments they are placed in and noticed what works and what doesn't work. There are different atmospheres needed for different ages and I feel that by going to these classrooms, I am getting a feel for what an environment for students is like. I am teaching students myself, and by presenting energy and an environment that is inviting and motivating, I receive a greater response than when the environment is not as lively. I feel that I have a better grasp on this standard due to the amount of teaching I am doing and the engagement I have experienced with the students while teaching. I look forward to having my own classroom and giving my students the whole package that comes with learning environment and motivating them to do the best they can do.
InTASC #4 I feel that my content knowledge and musical skills have developed the most this semester. Taking voice lessons and aural skills has definitely improved my vocal model in the classroom, and my ability to audiate and accurately sing. I have improved on my piano skills, by taking the required piano courses, and ending with private lessons. These private lessons have helped me most of all to grow in my score-reading, sight-reading, and accompaniment abilities. I need to continue to grow in piano especially though, because I am not up to the caliber of playing that I should be for teaching a classroom. I am also taking conducting classes to develop my conducting skills. I will continue to improve all of my content knowledge and musical skills by continuing my courses at Ball State.
Comparing last year and this year, I have improved immensely on my skills of singing, piano lessons, aural skills, conducting, etc. Through voice lessons, I have grown immensely in my control and confidence while singing that my lessons are improving and my vocal model is strong. I have practiced piano a great deal to improve on my skills, especially because it is a major weakness of mine. I will continue to practice so I become more comfortable with piano and present strong skills to my future students. By practicing and being knowledgeable of the content I am teaching, my aural skills are improving as well, and I am able to listen and find problems to fix while teaching. My conducting skills have improved due to a course I took this past year. I am much more confident and comfortable with my conducting technique and ability to lead an ensemble. I feel that overall, my content knowledge has improved greatly, but I will continue to work on all of the skills that are needed for an effective music educator. I plan to work harder on my piano and keep my vocal model strong by practicing as well.
InTASC #5 I have learned how to apply content to engage students in a variety of ways this semester. In my secondary general methods course, I was able to go to Wilson Middle School and teach a seventh grade classroom. I had to get together with classmates and plan lessons and strategies to teach these students, and keep them engaged. This experience was very influential to me, because I was able to think of different ways to apply the content we were teaching the students. I feel that I need to improve on this standard more though, because of the limited amount of time I was at Wilson Middle School. By continuing my music education courses, I know I will improve on this concept.
The courses I have taken through the past have made helped me become more comfortable with being innovative when teaching concepts to students. I learned in my elementary methods course how to teach young children complex elements of music such as tempo, form, and instruments using strategies such as movement based activities and listening activities. I have grown tremendously on this standard, and feel that I am more knowledgeable about how to approach teaching concepts in many ways. I feel this is still a weakness of mine, and will be sure to observe more classrooms and applications of concepts, and then get to teaching more myself to enhance this standard.
InTASC #6 When it comes to assessment, I believe this area of my teaching career has a need for much improvement. Having to assess students in in my teachings of lessons in my vocal techniques and secondary general music courses has definitely given me the chance to understand why assessment is needed and certain ways to approach it. These types of assessment can be formal or informal, summative or formative, and are incredibly important to the growth of students. I know that by continuing my courses, I will grow to learn how to assess students properly, and how to implement different types of assessments into my lesson plans.
Specifically in Choral Methods 1 and 2, I have developed methods of assessment such as rubrics, quizzes, and singing tests that are effective when evaluating students' abilities. In order to know how well students are doing in a classroom, there needs to be forms of assessment that assess if they are understanding the material they are being taught. I have learned how to use formal and informal assessment as well as summative and formative assessment in a classroom through these courses. I will use this knowledge of assessment and the tools that are used to evaluate my students' abilities and know how I can improve my lessons so they completely understand. I will continue to develop new ways of assessment and find those tools that work best in my future classrooms and use those.
InTASC #7 In my vocal techniques and secondary general methods courses, I have had to plan lessons to teach either my classes or a middle school classroom. Doing this has given me the opportunity to learn how to properly formulate lesson plans, and carry them out. I feel that this area of my teaching career needs improvement. I need to become better at judging time and lesson sequencing. By continuing my courses at Ball State, I believe I will improve my process for putting together lesson plans, and will strive to carry them out in the utmost proper way.
In every education course I have taken, I have had to plan lessons for elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as lessons to teach my peers. I am becoming quite comfortable with planning these lessons and preparing myself to carry out the lessons so the students can learn the best. I have used a variety of templates for different classes to plan the lessons, and found what sort of lesson plan I can follow the best. I feel that I have grown tremendously through these courses and have found what I need to do to prepare for a lesson and then how to present it effectively. I know that I will become so very comfortable with planning lessons by continuing my classes and will prepare well so my students can benefit the most from the lessons.
InTASC #8 In my vocal techniques course, I have learned a great deal about instructional strategies to take when teaching students. We have studied different instructional strategies, and why certain ones are better than others. I know that I will continue to learn about instructional strategies pertaining to certain concepts and classes of students in my courses at Ball State.
By teaching at different levels, I have used a variety of instructional strategies in my lessons to give the students new ways of thinking about concepts and also to change up the way I present the lessons to them. I learned that I can use different instructional strategies with the different levels, and how they respond to a change. By teaching lessons especially in high school, I realized how I could use different instructional strategies by asking different questions and getting the students involved in new ways right in the lessons. I am becoming more comfortable with experimenting with instructional strategies and know that I will continue to try new ways of instruction to encourage my students to learn and be engaged.
InTASC #9 In many of my courses, I have to complete reflections on my teachings or experiences, giving me the opportunity to look back on how I did when carrying out these things. I understand the importance of evaluating myself as a teacher, and trying to always improve my instructional strategies and lessons to adhere to the needs of my students. I feel that I benefit from doing these reflections already, and know that by continuing them in my courses in the future that I will grow as an educator and will succeed in meeting the needs of my students.
Throughout each of my courses, I have had to complete reflections of my own teachings to find my strengths and areas of improvement. Doing these reflections after every teaching has improved my overall teaching because I am finding what I can continue to do that is effective and what I can do better. Every time I carry out a lesson, I find that I have improved and changed due to analyzing the previous lesson. By comparing my reflections from elementary, middle, and high school lessons, I also realized how I can teach each of these age groups in the best way. I will continue to reflect upon my teaching so that I will better myself as an educator and help my students learn in the best possible way.
InTASC #10 As far as collaboration goes, I do not feel that I have had much an opportunity to collaborate with teachers, parents, and communities to take responsibility for students' growth and development. I have only been in lower-level courses this semester and have done much field work, so haven't had the chance. I have been in the field in my MUSE 353 secondary general music class, and have worked with a cooperating teacher to teach students lessons, but my time there was short and therefore was not beneficial to the magnitude that is collaboration. I know that with continuing my courses at Ball State, and student teaching, I will be given the chance to collaborate with teachers, parents, and communities to help students grow and develop.
Taking these courses in the past year, I have communicated with elementary, middle, and high school teachers to prepare lessons that would be best for the students. I feel that I have more experience with collaboration because of the amount of planning I engaged in to prepare the different lessons every week while teaching. I used emailing to collaborate with my cooperating teachers, and this was an effective way to communicate. I know that by teaching more and learning how to collaborate with the community, parents, and administrators as well as the teachers, I will gain more knowledge about collaboration. It was said in a previous evaluation of my overall teaching at Burris Middle School, that I did not communicate with the teacher about how I was doing in the classroom, and I feel that I did better with this while teaching at Cowan High School so that I could know from the teacher what to improve on for the future. Doing this will ensure that all of the community and school are a part of the children's education and well being.