The teacher is a reflective practitioner who uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (students, families, and other professionals in the learning community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.
In music, a teacher needs to be completely fluent with what they are teaching their students. The teachers cannot be unsure of topics they are teaching, because students need to have assurance of what they are being taught. Teachers need to evaluate their own teaching based on their students and how well they are doing in the class. Teachers need to know what students may simply just struggle with the material they are learning versus how they, as a teacher, are teaching the material. Teachers need to be able to see their impact on students and everyone they work with. Once teachers see how they are affecting the lives of those people they are in contact with, they will be able to see what they should do or not do to make things better. Teachers should be familiar with how students learn, and adapt to what they see and what works for students. Teachers can base their evaluations of themselves on how well they cater to the needs of all their students and their progress in the class. Teachers in music classes should use their knowledge to better their students and help their students learn in the best way possible for them to be successful.
I would say I do not have the experience of teaching to larger groups of students to understand how to work with them in the best way they learn. I do not know how I might implement this standard to my teaching, but I would think of it as catering to the needs of all the students, and helping them to the best of my ability. I believe with practice and more knowledge in music, I will be able to apply this standard to my teaching and master it like I believe all teachers should.
To prepare myself for teaching, the courses I will take at Ball State with involve many music classes like piano, theory, aural skills, and conducting. These are just some of the many I will take, but these classes will help me to have the full knowledge of music so my students know that I know what I am teaching them. Students will understand that because I took the classes I did, I truly do know how to apply what I learned to my teaching. Most of all these classes though, Music Education will help me the most, because it is the class that teaches us how to teach in the proper way and how to incorporate these principles to our own teachings in the future. I wish to gain the knowledge of how to properly work with students, and how to evaluate my own teachings to benefit my students’ learning. I hope to help my students learn in the way that works for them and adapt to changes I may have to make when teaching. I hope to also realize what I need to look for in myself as a teacher to see how I should act and present myself in the way that is proper and teacher material.
MUSE 258- Vocal Techniques Artifact: Two Minute Peer Teaching Reflection Rationale: I am learning in my vocal technique course how important it is to reflect and evaluate on my practice in the classroom. This reflection of a peer teaching gave me the opportunity to evaluate what I had done well and what I could improve on for future lessons. I understand from these lessons that for my teaching career, I should evaluate and reflect on how I am benefiting my students, and should strive to continuously grow.
MUSE 356- Choral Methods 1 Artifact: Peer Teaching #2 Reflection Rationale: In my choral methods course, I have been creating lessons and teaching them to my peers and middle school girls in my cooperating school. It is a requirement to reflect on these teachings and address strengths, areas of improvement, and skills of preparation and planning within them. Doing these reflections has helped me to realize what I can do to make future teachings better than those previous. The artifact I have attached is a reflection on my second peer teaching in my choral methods course.
MUSE 376- Choral Methods 2 Artifact: Peer Teaching #1 ReflectionCowan Field Observation Rationale: This artifact I have attached is a reflection upon the first peer teaching I did in my choral methods 2 course. Doing these reflections upon my teachings to my peers and to the students in the cooperating schools allows me to know my strengths and areas of improvement while teaching. I have learned a lot about myself by doing these reflections, and have improved myself as a teacher throughout the years here. Another artifact I have attached is a lesson plan with feedback on it from the cooperating teacher at Cowan High School. After leading warmups, she sent me my feedback written on my lesson plan. I feel this is a good artifact because it is a physical evaluation of my teaching.
Student Teaching Artifact: Reflection Rationale: While student teaching, I have watched videos and thought back on my teachings to figure out how to make myself better. I learned in my courses at Ball State how important it is to reflect upon your teaching and figure out what to do better for next time and what went well that can be continued next time. I did much of this while student teaching, especially when creating goals and figuring out what to do to make things better for each new class. The artifact I have attached is a reflection I created while student teaching after watching one of my videos. In this reflection, I have goals, things that went well, things that I can improve, and small details about the teaching overall. This reflection provides the information about what a reflection on a teaching can be, and how one can look at their abilities and figure out how to make them better. I have realized while doing these reflections what my personal idiosyncrasies are, what areas of my teaching could use work. and what InTASC standards I have accomplished. I feel that as a future music educator, I will continue to use reflections to analyze my teachings and make them the best I can.