MUED 352: Week 7

After reading some of the comments that were posted, I will attempt to cover more of the readings in my weekly updates. So without skipping a bit, I want to focus on two topics that really struck me from the readings; summer work, and outcomes.

So, the article by Roger R. Rideout was an eyeopener for me. I never really gave much thought to how much work a band/orchestra teacher has to do over their summer break. That is to say, I have never actually experienced a teacher doing any work during their much deserved summer break. However, because many band/orchestra teacher live music, whereas a math teacher may not live math, the summer tasks are fundamental to the running of the band/orchestra program.

I will definitely keep "Summer Tasks for the First-Year Band Director" handy because of its value as a reminder and motivator. While I have considered the majority of suggestions that Rideout suggests, I never really thought about how I would implement them.

The other topic of the reading that struck me was outcomes, and how we as educators are supposed to come up with them. This is a topic that I feel has been neglected for a long time in my education. I have had to write lessons with outcomes in them, but never really thought about what the outcomes mean. As a future teacher, I feel that I should take the outcomes much more seriously.

What has me thinking the most is; "Wow, I am in charge of what these students learn, and the method which they learn it." Now, while I could write a long narrative about how much this scares me to death, I would rather express a fear that is probably much more pertinent to my situation this semester.

After observing this week, I noticed how different my methods and outcomes were for the students than the teacher/program at the school were. I was very aware of all of the techniques that I do not wish to emulate and the techniques of mine which would probably not work in the situation. But, I found that I had way more problems with the outcomes and methods than I did my own teaching style.

First off, I would never use a given tempo as much as the educators I observed. This ranges from Dr. Beats to snapping or clapping. I do not think that this is okay. In fact I have been learning how to teach very differently in my method classes; where students need to be able to keep a steady pulse.

Lastly (I know there are only two), the topic which I was most concerned with was one of the outcomes that was expressed. Again, this may be my 5+ method classes talking, but not having the students watch a conductor at the beginning of their musical training is absurd to me.

What is so concerning for me is that, I would want my students to be conducted and learn/get used to having a conductor. To come full circle, I am not sure I am equipped to teach in the manner that these students have been learning and how the music program wishes the students to learn. Although I am looking forward to teaching, I am very frightened that I will break some norm of teaching that may hurt the students in some way. For my lesson plan, I plan on emulating a lot of techniques that I observed, but I will put my own flavor into them, because I would like to see some different outcomes for these students.