Teaching Philosophy Video
Teaching Philosophy statement
Students should be able to learn music with curiosity and interest, being curious and open to new knowledge is a great mindset to have when learning music. When teaching and learning music, it should be in a more student directed way of learning. Educators should help by giving helpful guiding tips and not through strict methods, letting them learn in a freer environment so they can experiment and discover. I think that giving students the freedom to play around with the instrument or piece may allow for them to make their own connections with music. Therefore, teachers should be giving me open instructions that should allow the students to have the freedom to use their own creativity and thoughts.
Teaching is a skill that can help a child improve and expand their knowledge. Educators can help students discover knowledge as they continue to be informed about new ideas they have not heard of. Learning is the same for any subject, students should be discovering what they want to learn more about and expand from there. When it comes to teaching and learning music, I think that giving students the freedom to play around with the instrument or piece may allow for them to make their own connections with the music and to understand music. We can allow them to make their own decisions and be there to answer their questions and concerns, not be there to just direct them in doing activities. We can be help students become more curious and open to new knowledge, though the learning process is always different for each student.
Praising plays an important role in both teaching and learning because it is something that the teacher can use in order to help the student gain encouragement, but it is also something that can affect the student negatively if not done correctly. I think that the way of praising is something that has to change, as a teacher I will not praise the students so often to the point where they depend on it. When a student is getting praised often for no reason, it is possible for them to begin to depend on it for approval and this can warp their interest in the topic as well as their success. I think that everyone should be praising by saying what you see them doing and talk less, allow the students to do things freely. This type of praising can be used when teaching and learning music as well, because not giving them that false confidence, we can help them have the motivation to improve as well as continue their interests. I think that praising is something used very often in the music classroom because it is so hard for the students to continue to be interested in the music or instrument that they are learning, so praising can be used to help continue that interest but it can also give them false confidence and stop them from improving.
Teaching and learning music are concepts that can be more self-directed, allowing students to be more engaged and interested in what music or instrument they are learning and how they want to improve. Learning in such an environment can allow the student to have a sense of freedom when learning and keep their curiosity alive, without the restrictions of strict directions from the teacher. To encourage them to continue to learn and be curious, teachers should be praising students by stating what they have done and talking less so they do not rely on the praises that teachers give in order to continue their interests. I believe that teaching and learning music should be free and creative, allowing the student to learn in a way that is good for them and for the teacher to teach in a way that does not restrict students from their creativity, curiosity and interests.
Teaching is a skill that can help a child improve and expand their knowledge. Educators can help students discover knowledge as they continue to be informed about new ideas they have not heard of. Learning is the same for any subject, students should be discovering what they want to learn more about and expand from there. When it comes to teaching and learning music, I think that giving students the freedom to play around with the instrument or piece may allow for them to make their own connections with the music and to understand music. We can allow them to make their own decisions and be there to answer their questions and concerns, not be there to just direct them in doing activities. We can be help students become more curious and open to new knowledge, though the learning process is always different for each student.
Praising plays an important role in both teaching and learning because it is something that the teacher can use in order to help the student gain encouragement, but it is also something that can affect the student negatively if not done correctly. I think that the way of praising is something that has to change, as a teacher I will not praise the students so often to the point where they depend on it. When a student is getting praised often for no reason, it is possible for them to begin to depend on it for approval and this can warp their interest in the topic as well as their success. I think that everyone should be praising by saying what you see them doing and talk less, allow the students to do things freely. This type of praising can be used when teaching and learning music as well, because not giving them that false confidence, we can help them have the motivation to improve as well as continue their interests. I think that praising is something used very often in the music classroom because it is so hard for the students to continue to be interested in the music or instrument that they are learning, so praising can be used to help continue that interest but it can also give them false confidence and stop them from improving.
Teaching and learning music are concepts that can be more self-directed, allowing students to be more engaged and interested in what music or instrument they are learning and how they want to improve. Learning in such an environment can allow the student to have a sense of freedom when learning and keep their curiosity alive, without the restrictions of strict directions from the teacher. To encourage them to continue to learn and be curious, teachers should be praising students by stating what they have done and talking less so they do not rely on the praises that teachers give in order to continue their interests. I believe that teaching and learning music should be free and creative, allowing the student to learn in a way that is good for them and for the teacher to teach in a way that does not restrict students from their creativity, curiosity and interests.
Inspirational Teacher Interview
From this project, I learned that there are many different reasons why teachers teach. I learned that music teachers just want to spread musical joy to their students, that they want to help students understand and music meaningful music. I learned that the most important thing a music teacher can teach their students is how to enjoy music, teaching them how to make the music their own and to express their emotions into the piece. I learned that to a music teacher and to teachers in general, there have been times they have wanted to give up and that they are not always like how they are during lessons.
I learned that I sometimes really do see teachers in a prejudice that isn’t really how they should be seen. From interviewing my inspirational teacher, I learned that I need to understand that they have times when they want to give up. They sometimes feel that they are not suitable for the job, and that gives them the desire to give up. I learned that I never really thought about the ways a student can impact a teacher, whether positively or negatively. From learning this, I think that it is something I will often think about and take into consideration since it will benefit my teaching of students. From this interview, what I learned about myself was that I never really thought about how the teacher felt when having to teach people, and about whether they are doing it right. I always thought they were automatically right in everything they are teaching, but they themselves have doubts as well and they take those doubts and uses them to help them improve their teaching. This concept is something that I’ve yet to fully be aware of even though I know it is there in the back of my head, therefore it is something that I need to pay much more attention to.
Some ideas and concepts that my mentor valued is the use of emotion within a piece of music. She believed that one should express what is in their heart when playing and that is how you make beautiful music. I also agree with this, I think putting one’s emotions into a piece is very important as it gives colour and personality to the piece of music which is something only present when adding emotion. My mentor also valued the importance of the continuance of learning and improving, meaning that you should be constantly learning in order to learn. That learning is continuous and never stops, it is what allows you to improve and grow. From what I learned is that my mentor’s purpose of education is to be able help students make meaningful and beautiful music. She encourages her students to think outside the box, to think about what they want to convey to the audience and how they want the audience to feel after listening to their piece. She wants them to be able to make music that is able to touch people, because to her that is the most important thing a musician can do.
This experience confirmed many of my assumptions about teaching and learning music. This is because I also think that from learning what my mentor personally thought, I agreed with many things she said. I also agree with what she said about how you need to continue to learn new ways to teach in order to improve and grow as a teacher. I think that it is something very important because it allows you to look back on your own teaching and think about what you should be improving on and how that will help your student more. My assumptions about teaching and learning were also confirmed when I learned about the impacts that a student has on their teacher, it is big, and it is something that really affects both parties. I knew that teachers have a large impact on students, but I also learned that students have large impacts on teachers as well. A student’s reactions to what they are learning allow the teacher to learn what they need to do in order to grow into a more mature teacher, giving them different experiences with different types of students.
I learned that I sometimes really do see teachers in a prejudice that isn’t really how they should be seen. From interviewing my inspirational teacher, I learned that I need to understand that they have times when they want to give up. They sometimes feel that they are not suitable for the job, and that gives them the desire to give up. I learned that I never really thought about the ways a student can impact a teacher, whether positively or negatively. From learning this, I think that it is something I will often think about and take into consideration since it will benefit my teaching of students. From this interview, what I learned about myself was that I never really thought about how the teacher felt when having to teach people, and about whether they are doing it right. I always thought they were automatically right in everything they are teaching, but they themselves have doubts as well and they take those doubts and uses them to help them improve their teaching. This concept is something that I’ve yet to fully be aware of even though I know it is there in the back of my head, therefore it is something that I need to pay much more attention to.
Some ideas and concepts that my mentor valued is the use of emotion within a piece of music. She believed that one should express what is in their heart when playing and that is how you make beautiful music. I also agree with this, I think putting one’s emotions into a piece is very important as it gives colour and personality to the piece of music which is something only present when adding emotion. My mentor also valued the importance of the continuance of learning and improving, meaning that you should be constantly learning in order to learn. That learning is continuous and never stops, it is what allows you to improve and grow. From what I learned is that my mentor’s purpose of education is to be able help students make meaningful and beautiful music. She encourages her students to think outside the box, to think about what they want to convey to the audience and how they want the audience to feel after listening to their piece. She wants them to be able to make music that is able to touch people, because to her that is the most important thing a musician can do.
This experience confirmed many of my assumptions about teaching and learning music. This is because I also think that from learning what my mentor personally thought, I agreed with many things she said. I also agree with what she said about how you need to continue to learn new ways to teach in order to improve and grow as a teacher. I think that it is something very important because it allows you to look back on your own teaching and think about what you should be improving on and how that will help your student more. My assumptions about teaching and learning were also confirmed when I learned about the impacts that a student has on their teacher, it is big, and it is something that really affects both parties. I knew that teachers have a large impact on students, but I also learned that students have large impacts on teachers as well. A student’s reactions to what they are learning allow the teacher to learn what they need to do in order to grow into a more mature teacher, giving them different experiences with different types of students.
Disability within the classroom
The issue of disability in the classroom from a music education aspect and how it applies in a musical context. He talks about the addressing these issues the resolutions that we can have to fix these issues as well. Abramo talks about the importance of using the correct language as well when talking to students with disabilities, we do not want to be letting them down or degrading, we want to be encouraging and treat students as equals. Abramo states that even though we cannot necessarily teach the same way for disabled studsents, you can see this as another opportunity for teachers to now “face a wider range of learners and a greater responsibility to diversify their instruction” (Abramo, 2012). He emphasizes on the idea of inclusion and the movement that has been happening in the United States, “where individuals with disabilities were afforded greater rights and integration into society” (Abramo, 2012). This issue that is being addressed is something that I have seen myself during school, this importance of inclusion whether that person has disabilities or not. In my high school, we always had joint gym classes with the special needs class, and it was always fun, we never payed attention to their disabilities and if they needed help then we would just help. There was no need for that stigma that seems to be surrounding kids with disabilities.
From this article, I found that the attention to language actually quite interesting. I never thought about this aspect as much because I think that when people think about accommodating to people with disabilities we think about the actions and not necessarily the words. I think we would pay more attention to our actions and do not think about the words that we say that may hurt them. It was definitely something that I myself never payed much attention to, but definitely I unconsciously pay attention to what and how and I say to them because I want to be respectful.
What surprised me in this article is that there are so many alternatives for people who have disabilities when it comes to music. I’m not saying that they have to rely on their other senses, more in ways such as braille notes and even doing listening’s to help them figure how their part would fit into the ensemble. I had always thought that there were not many options or alternatives that would be able to help them but there are actually many ways they can continue down the path including one hand pieces or instruments that you can play with one hand. Knowing this knowledge now, can allow me to expand my horizons when it comes to helping different people learn in ways that they are comfortable with and that will work for them. Though I have no personal experiences with such things, I think that it is very informative and good to know about such options.
My initial assumptions about this article were that it was going to talk about the difficulties that people with disabilities can have within the classroom and how educators can use these difficulties. I assumed that it would also talk about that different methods we can use to help them learn in a way that will work for them and be the most effective, but that is not the case. There is no one who can tell you the methods you should learn. The reading talked more in depth about the importance of inclusion that can be tied to my assumption about getting past difficulties in the classroom, because inclusion is something that is a difficulty. My assumptions are definitely something that I include within my worldview of teaching and learning music because I myself from my gym class have seen the effectiveness of having that inclusiveness within a classroom will definitely boost the student’s learning.
Definitely the idea about the careful use of language is something that I will incorporate within my teaching, I think that is something that will help improve my teaching. Also, I think that the idea of giving the students with disabilities many different aids depending on their disabilities is something that I would like to implement. I think that in doing so, it will help the student feel included in ensemble playing as well as help them understand their part better on a individual and group aspect. Also, I think that helping the student find ways that are suitable for them is something that can be implemented. For example, by finding different methods to teach altogether in order for each and every student to understand what they are learning regardless of whether they have disabilities or not.
Lastly, I would like to ask the author about if there are any teaching styles or methods that allow us to include or help all types of students, whether there is a certain way we teach things is a way that everyone can understand. I would also like to ask the author about if they believe that teaching people-first languages is something that should be implemented into the curriculum to be taught to the students, regardless whether this is for music education or not. Do you think this is something that should become common sense for people?
From this article, I found that the attention to language actually quite interesting. I never thought about this aspect as much because I think that when people think about accommodating to people with disabilities we think about the actions and not necessarily the words. I think we would pay more attention to our actions and do not think about the words that we say that may hurt them. It was definitely something that I myself never payed much attention to, but definitely I unconsciously pay attention to what and how and I say to them because I want to be respectful.
What surprised me in this article is that there are so many alternatives for people who have disabilities when it comes to music. I’m not saying that they have to rely on their other senses, more in ways such as braille notes and even doing listening’s to help them figure how their part would fit into the ensemble. I had always thought that there were not many options or alternatives that would be able to help them but there are actually many ways they can continue down the path including one hand pieces or instruments that you can play with one hand. Knowing this knowledge now, can allow me to expand my horizons when it comes to helping different people learn in ways that they are comfortable with and that will work for them. Though I have no personal experiences with such things, I think that it is very informative and good to know about such options.
My initial assumptions about this article were that it was going to talk about the difficulties that people with disabilities can have within the classroom and how educators can use these difficulties. I assumed that it would also talk about that different methods we can use to help them learn in a way that will work for them and be the most effective, but that is not the case. There is no one who can tell you the methods you should learn. The reading talked more in depth about the importance of inclusion that can be tied to my assumption about getting past difficulties in the classroom, because inclusion is something that is a difficulty. My assumptions are definitely something that I include within my worldview of teaching and learning music because I myself from my gym class have seen the effectiveness of having that inclusiveness within a classroom will definitely boost the student’s learning.
Definitely the idea about the careful use of language is something that I will incorporate within my teaching, I think that is something that will help improve my teaching. Also, I think that the idea of giving the students with disabilities many different aids depending on their disabilities is something that I would like to implement. I think that in doing so, it will help the student feel included in ensemble playing as well as help them understand their part better on a individual and group aspect. Also, I think that helping the student find ways that are suitable for them is something that can be implemented. For example, by finding different methods to teach altogether in order for each and every student to understand what they are learning regardless of whether they have disabilities or not.
Lastly, I would like to ask the author about if there are any teaching styles or methods that allow us to include or help all types of students, whether there is a certain way we teach things is a way that everyone can understand. I would also like to ask the author about if they believe that teaching people-first languages is something that should be implemented into the curriculum to be taught to the students, regardless whether this is for music education or not. Do you think this is something that should become common sense for people?
Works Cited
Abramo, J. (2012). Disability in the Classroom. Music Educators Journal, 99(1), 39–45. doi: 10.1177/0027432112448824
Creativity within the classroom- gUEST sPEAKER 1
In the presentation, she talked about creativity, and how in the classroom these days there is a lack of this, and this is especially prominent in music education. In the workshop, she started off with saying an escape room scenario, this room represents music education and our musical experiences. She asked us how we can escape this room in order to have more creativity in general and in the classroom. Barber continues on to talk about creativity, about what it is and how we can generate creativity. She states that creativity is many things, an individual capacity based on cognition, a form of human capital, syndrome or complex. She also says that creativity is like a constellation, in which there are many correlations with creativity such as discovery, invention and invention which are not related to creativity though they are similar. Thinking about the constellation to be in the shape of a bear, the paws of the bear constellation would be the part of taking action with creativity in ways like intention and mindfulness. She then closes the workshop with telling us that creativity is the master key to open the room to the infinite impossible and the role this plays in music education is that as educators, we must go out of the room as well in order to help students unlock their doors. These ideas and activities can be related to the quotes given because they each talk about creativity and the difficulties that you can face to achieve creativity. They all want to express that creativity is original, that there’s a result and it is something new.
From this workshop many things interested me, but I thought that the way she thought of the escape room was especially interesting. I enjoyed how she related our experiences of our musical journey to the room, because I thought that was very fitting in the sense that everyone had their own motives and experiences that got them to where they are today. This is because I think that those musical experiences that we experienced shape our teaching style and in return leads us to become restricted to what we experienced when we teach students, resulting in us limiting the students creativity since we ourselves as educators are not allowing to do things creatively. I believe that we rely on our experiences in order to come up with a way of teaching that we think is the most effective, but we do not think about a way of teaching that will allow students to use their creativity on their own accord. The example of the room perfectly depicts this box that we have kept ourselves in.
What surprised me in this workshop was when Barber talked about how creativity is a constellation. This surprised me because she explained that if you think about the constellation being in the shape of a bear, the different parts of the bear represent how certain things are not creativity such as imagination and innovation but another part will talk about how to take action in order to be creative. I rather enjoyed such an image because in the end, they will all lead back to creativity, though not always related there is some kind of connection that leads them to coexist with one another. I liked that Barber used a bear constellation because, it allows her to talk about the different parts that relate to creativity by body part since there are the front and hind legs as well as the head.
My assumptions about the topic that was presented was that we were going to be listening about how as music educators we could help students explore creativity more. Also, I thought that we would be talking about and giving examples on how a music educator can add more creative aspects within our teaching. I did not expect such an extensive exploration on creativity, the many different relations that it had to music education that I did not think of before. I also assumed that this workshop would be talking about specifically methods of teaching which allow us to help students to be more creative in making music.
The assumptions that I held were not challenged but I think that I can incorporate my assumptions in my “worldview into teaching and learning music because there is a need for creativity. I think that nowadays people are definitely following the syllabus too much which in turn makes us restrict the students from using their creativity. Like Barber said, our job as educators is to help them escape from that room in order to explore theory creativity. We should trying to find methods which allow for such a thing to happen, which is what was included in my assumption of this workshop. Though this was not directly mentioned, I think that Barber wants us to be able to escape this room ourselves first and then think of more creative teaching methods to help students become more creative.
I think the ideas said in this workshop can be incorporated into teaching and learning music in a context by freeing myself from the box that I formed for myself through my own musical experience. I want to be able to first open my room and discover my own creativity before helping others to open theirs. By opening my own “room”, I will have the skill to be able to help others, this is a method I think is of interest to me. I also think that I can thinking about different methods of teaching to find the most effective way to help will be beneficial to help students open up their creativity. A challenge could be in thinking of activities for the students that wouldn’t be too restrictive in any way to allow for them to discover their creativity more easily, since what we believe is creative could be different for someone else.
Lastly, Something I’d like to ask the speaker is her experience in teaching and how she overcomes such a problem and what kind of methods she would use to help her students? I want to know her opinion on this in order to apply this in my future once I become an music educator myself.
From this workshop many things interested me, but I thought that the way she thought of the escape room was especially interesting. I enjoyed how she related our experiences of our musical journey to the room, because I thought that was very fitting in the sense that everyone had their own motives and experiences that got them to where they are today. This is because I think that those musical experiences that we experienced shape our teaching style and in return leads us to become restricted to what we experienced when we teach students, resulting in us limiting the students creativity since we ourselves as educators are not allowing to do things creatively. I believe that we rely on our experiences in order to come up with a way of teaching that we think is the most effective, but we do not think about a way of teaching that will allow students to use their creativity on their own accord. The example of the room perfectly depicts this box that we have kept ourselves in.
What surprised me in this workshop was when Barber talked about how creativity is a constellation. This surprised me because she explained that if you think about the constellation being in the shape of a bear, the different parts of the bear represent how certain things are not creativity such as imagination and innovation but another part will talk about how to take action in order to be creative. I rather enjoyed such an image because in the end, they will all lead back to creativity, though not always related there is some kind of connection that leads them to coexist with one another. I liked that Barber used a bear constellation because, it allows her to talk about the different parts that relate to creativity by body part since there are the front and hind legs as well as the head.
My assumptions about the topic that was presented was that we were going to be listening about how as music educators we could help students explore creativity more. Also, I thought that we would be talking about and giving examples on how a music educator can add more creative aspects within our teaching. I did not expect such an extensive exploration on creativity, the many different relations that it had to music education that I did not think of before. I also assumed that this workshop would be talking about specifically methods of teaching which allow us to help students to be more creative in making music.
The assumptions that I held were not challenged but I think that I can incorporate my assumptions in my “worldview into teaching and learning music because there is a need for creativity. I think that nowadays people are definitely following the syllabus too much which in turn makes us restrict the students from using their creativity. Like Barber said, our job as educators is to help them escape from that room in order to explore theory creativity. We should trying to find methods which allow for such a thing to happen, which is what was included in my assumption of this workshop. Though this was not directly mentioned, I think that Barber wants us to be able to escape this room ourselves first and then think of more creative teaching methods to help students become more creative.
I think the ideas said in this workshop can be incorporated into teaching and learning music in a context by freeing myself from the box that I formed for myself through my own musical experience. I want to be able to first open my room and discover my own creativity before helping others to open theirs. By opening my own “room”, I will have the skill to be able to help others, this is a method I think is of interest to me. I also think that I can thinking about different methods of teaching to find the most effective way to help will be beneficial to help students open up their creativity. A challenge could be in thinking of activities for the students that wouldn’t be too restrictive in any way to allow for them to discover their creativity more easily, since what we believe is creative could be different for someone else.
Lastly, Something I’d like to ask the speaker is her experience in teaching and how she overcomes such a problem and what kind of methods she would use to help her students? I want to know her opinion on this in order to apply this in my future once I become an music educator myself.
Repositioning 'the elements': how students talk about music
In the reading, they attempt to address the issue of sticking to the “elements of music” too much. How the use of elements of music denies diversity in music and the how it prevents students from being able to act on their accord when it comes to music, holding them back from doing what they want to do. I think that the use of the elements of music restricts students from doing something they want to do to their own music learning. This is because it will be seen as not following the elements of music that have been taught to us our whole lives. Teachers are scared to address this situation because that would mean they would be against most teachers that adhere to the elements of music since that is a vast majority of music teachers that do so. To address this issue, they suggest that teachers need to be able to move away from the discomfort and fear of criticism, that we need to “encourage teacher candidates to questions received models of teaching, to embrace ambiguity”( Rose and Countryman, 2013, p.5). Another way they suggest that we address issue is that music educators should “create a space where performing, creating and listening are happening in community, shaped by pedagogy that recognizes the limitations of such curriculum fixtures as the elements and that builds on what students bring to experience” (Rose and Countryman, 2013, p17). I think that music educators should create a safe environment with a pedagogy that can address the needs of the students which enable them to have a better sense of themselves, to have more student-directed learning.
I thought that it was interesting that they found out that “students craved opportunities to explore the roles of music played in their lives” (Rose and Countryman, 2013, p.15). I was surprised that they went as far back as to recalling old lullabies and childhood songs that they remembered from long ago and the impacts these experiences had on their lives. I think that this information is very interesting because I did not expect that the students to be so interested in past influences and how they play a role in their musical journey. From knowing this information, in the future I would like to create an activity of some sort that would be able to cater to such a need that would allow them to understand themselves better musically and to find out what music means to them.
What surprised me in this article is that they see the elements as a curriculum that “regulates what to listen to, how to listen to it, how to respond to it and how to share it” (Rose and Countryman, 2013, p.10). This surprised me because as I was learning music, I never thought of the elements of music in that way, I always thought it was something to help us analyze music better. I never realized that it was something that controlled what we listened to and how we listened to it. Now, I realize that it does contribute to how we listen to music because we keep those elements in mind in order to describe the music, thinking it is the proper way to understand music. In reality, there is no one right method to understand music.
My assumptions about this topic before reading the article was that it was going to talk about changing the elements in order to help students understand music better. I assumed that it would be talking about better elements that students can apply when they are analyzing music that will help them understand the music better. The assumption that I had was challenged, because in the article they talk about making alternative framework for the students to follow that will have more student-directed learning. This challenges the assumption that I made about this article because I assumed that this article will be adding elements, not about making an alternative framework that will counter this one. I will incorporate these challenges into my “worldview” of teaching and learning music because it is not always possible that you can change the framework easily. So, I think that if one is able to help students expand on the elements to give them more freedom on their own opinions and make more self- directed activities that help them realize what they think about the elements will be beneficial.
Like I said in the paragraph I think that the idea of giving more self-directed activities for the students is something that is of interest to me. I think that this will allow the students to further expand on their own musical ideas, to let them expand their own ideas past the restriction of the elements. I think that the elements should be reminded just as a foundation, but I do not believe that it is something that they need to be reminded of all the time. When I analyze and understand music, I don’t think back to the elements. I think that the elements of music are a good foundation that has allowed me to contextualize my own ideas, but I think that being able to elaborate more on your ideas past the elements is what is going to help the students understand music better.
I would like to ask the author what kind of alternative frameworks they have thought of. I want to be able to understand what kind of methods they believe is the most effective for students to improve on their listening skills. I want to know how to be able to think of more student-directed activities that will be able to tackle this problem.
I thought that it was interesting that they found out that “students craved opportunities to explore the roles of music played in their lives” (Rose and Countryman, 2013, p.15). I was surprised that they went as far back as to recalling old lullabies and childhood songs that they remembered from long ago and the impacts these experiences had on their lives. I think that this information is very interesting because I did not expect that the students to be so interested in past influences and how they play a role in their musical journey. From knowing this information, in the future I would like to create an activity of some sort that would be able to cater to such a need that would allow them to understand themselves better musically and to find out what music means to them.
What surprised me in this article is that they see the elements as a curriculum that “regulates what to listen to, how to listen to it, how to respond to it and how to share it” (Rose and Countryman, 2013, p.10). This surprised me because as I was learning music, I never thought of the elements of music in that way, I always thought it was something to help us analyze music better. I never realized that it was something that controlled what we listened to and how we listened to it. Now, I realize that it does contribute to how we listen to music because we keep those elements in mind in order to describe the music, thinking it is the proper way to understand music. In reality, there is no one right method to understand music.
My assumptions about this topic before reading the article was that it was going to talk about changing the elements in order to help students understand music better. I assumed that it would be talking about better elements that students can apply when they are analyzing music that will help them understand the music better. The assumption that I had was challenged, because in the article they talk about making alternative framework for the students to follow that will have more student-directed learning. This challenges the assumption that I made about this article because I assumed that this article will be adding elements, not about making an alternative framework that will counter this one. I will incorporate these challenges into my “worldview” of teaching and learning music because it is not always possible that you can change the framework easily. So, I think that if one is able to help students expand on the elements to give them more freedom on their own opinions and make more self- directed activities that help them realize what they think about the elements will be beneficial.
Like I said in the paragraph I think that the idea of giving more self-directed activities for the students is something that is of interest to me. I think that this will allow the students to further expand on their own musical ideas, to let them expand their own ideas past the restriction of the elements. I think that the elements should be reminded just as a foundation, but I do not believe that it is something that they need to be reminded of all the time. When I analyze and understand music, I don’t think back to the elements. I think that the elements of music are a good foundation that has allowed me to contextualize my own ideas, but I think that being able to elaborate more on your ideas past the elements is what is going to help the students understand music better.
I would like to ask the author what kind of alternative frameworks they have thought of. I want to be able to understand what kind of methods they believe is the most effective for students to improve on their listening skills. I want to know how to be able to think of more student-directed activities that will be able to tackle this problem.
Works Cited
Rose, L. S., & Countryman, J. (2013). Repositioning 'the elements': How students talk about music. Repositioning 'the Elements': How Students Talk about Music, 1–21.
Bridget Sweet- Guest speaker reflection
In this workshop, I learned about the adolescent voice changing and how it is something that happens to not only males, but females as well. The speaker stressed the importance of the fact that females also undergo voice change as well in their adolescents, which is something that is not brought to attention a lot because it can sometimes be hard to tell. One of the main ideas of the speaker was how the body goes through changes during their time as an adolescent and how the brain and hormones play a part in this change. She talked about how voice change is something that is physical, psychological, emotional and mental. When they are going through such a difficult stage of self-discovery, as an educator I can encourage them to find what is right for them and not discourage. This is the same in music education, for example, if we put one person in a section that does not suit their voice and range, we are discouraging them and basically telling them that this is where they should be forever. The speaker talked about how we have a lot of influence on the students, they see educators as someone with a high degree of education who should know than them, so they know what is right. Lastly, she talked about how this use of voice classification is something that should not be followed strictly, it should be something that is used as a guideline, that we should be rewriting the parts to accommodate, adhere to the individual needs of students. The speaker said that we should change how we think about adolescents, validate why they are acting and feeling that way.
I found that how the guest speaker talked about how we shouldn’t be thinking about adolescents in such a negative way. That instead of thinking that they are irresponsible and rude, educators should be thinking about how we can validate why they are acting that way and not belittle them. Educators should not be isolating them that way and that we should be trying to understand their emotions so we can teach them to articulate these feelings that they cannot describe. I found it interesting because it is something that I definitely believe we should be paying more attention to as educators, because I myself had a teacher who gave me the chance to be able to learn about my own emotions and learn to identify them. Being in that class allowed me to expel any of those negative emotions that I had bottled within myself and understand them much better. I think being able to have that safe space to understand yourself is very important in this stage, but this does not mean that the teacher has to be there like a counsellor, they should be there to create a space that you can safely figure yourself without being ridiculed and judged on.
From this presentation I was very surprised about all the things about voice change that I learned. I have never personally learned about the voice and the stage of change that it has during adolescence. I was especially surprised about the fact that the voice does not stop growing after adolescence, that it continues growing after adolescence as well. I thought that was very interesting because people usually think that your voice is done changing once it sounds different, but it continues to grow after as well. Also, I found that it was very interesting to find out that an adolescent's brain is very malleable, that it is still being shaped and that your biography becomes your biology. This means that whatever happened during life is what shapes your brain, that the brain is still being rewired and getting ready for adulthood. I thought that was very surprising because I initially thought that the brain was already fully developed by them, but it is still under development and shaping itself for adulthood.
My initial assumptions about this workshop were that it was only going to be about music education techniques, which it was but it went such in depth that I was surprised. It also talked about some biological aspects which I did not expect as well, so that was surprising and very informative as well which can help me to understand adolescents better. I assumed that this workshop would be solely focusing on techniques, but it also handled the why’s and the origins of an adolescent's behaviour and how an educator can combat and understand the reasoning behind why they were acting that way.
The assumptions that I held were not challenged and were very much so what I anticipated the workshop to be talking about. though it was a bit voice-based, the methods and information that she said were things that could apply to any aspect of music education or education in general. I would definitely incorporate the information that she stated in this workshop because I believe that the things, she said were definitely very eye opening and is something that I would like to incorporate into my worldview of teaching and learning music. For example, what she said about choirs putting people in the wrong section for their voices for the sake of the choir and how it is something that is damaging on the student. When she said that, I thought that this was something that can be applied to instrumental ensembles as well, because having the student not enjoy their time in your classroom is something that indicates that you have not done your job properly.
Some ideas that I would like to incorporate are the importance of creating activities that meet some kind of need to the student and is able to bring them enjoyment in the classroom. For choirs, I would definitely not force anyone to go into a voice section that could potentially hurt their voices and lessen their self-esteem of their singing. I think that definitely finding activities that are able to help the students to discover themselves is also important in any classroom. For example, they can find out what kind of instrument they enjoy by making them try different instruments until they settle on one that they enjoy.
I would like to ask the speaker about her challenges that she initially had when she was teaching at public school, if her observations of these things were what made her go on and continue her education.
I found that how the guest speaker talked about how we shouldn’t be thinking about adolescents in such a negative way. That instead of thinking that they are irresponsible and rude, educators should be thinking about how we can validate why they are acting that way and not belittle them. Educators should not be isolating them that way and that we should be trying to understand their emotions so we can teach them to articulate these feelings that they cannot describe. I found it interesting because it is something that I definitely believe we should be paying more attention to as educators, because I myself had a teacher who gave me the chance to be able to learn about my own emotions and learn to identify them. Being in that class allowed me to expel any of those negative emotions that I had bottled within myself and understand them much better. I think being able to have that safe space to understand yourself is very important in this stage, but this does not mean that the teacher has to be there like a counsellor, they should be there to create a space that you can safely figure yourself without being ridiculed and judged on.
From this presentation I was very surprised about all the things about voice change that I learned. I have never personally learned about the voice and the stage of change that it has during adolescence. I was especially surprised about the fact that the voice does not stop growing after adolescence, that it continues growing after adolescence as well. I thought that was very interesting because people usually think that your voice is done changing once it sounds different, but it continues to grow after as well. Also, I found that it was very interesting to find out that an adolescent's brain is very malleable, that it is still being shaped and that your biography becomes your biology. This means that whatever happened during life is what shapes your brain, that the brain is still being rewired and getting ready for adulthood. I thought that was very surprising because I initially thought that the brain was already fully developed by them, but it is still under development and shaping itself for adulthood.
My initial assumptions about this workshop were that it was only going to be about music education techniques, which it was but it went such in depth that I was surprised. It also talked about some biological aspects which I did not expect as well, so that was surprising and very informative as well which can help me to understand adolescents better. I assumed that this workshop would be solely focusing on techniques, but it also handled the why’s and the origins of an adolescent's behaviour and how an educator can combat and understand the reasoning behind why they were acting that way.
The assumptions that I held were not challenged and were very much so what I anticipated the workshop to be talking about. though it was a bit voice-based, the methods and information that she said were things that could apply to any aspect of music education or education in general. I would definitely incorporate the information that she stated in this workshop because I believe that the things, she said were definitely very eye opening and is something that I would like to incorporate into my worldview of teaching and learning music. For example, what she said about choirs putting people in the wrong section for their voices for the sake of the choir and how it is something that is damaging on the student. When she said that, I thought that this was something that can be applied to instrumental ensembles as well, because having the student not enjoy their time in your classroom is something that indicates that you have not done your job properly.
Some ideas that I would like to incorporate are the importance of creating activities that meet some kind of need to the student and is able to bring them enjoyment in the classroom. For choirs, I would definitely not force anyone to go into a voice section that could potentially hurt their voices and lessen their self-esteem of their singing. I think that definitely finding activities that are able to help the students to discover themselves is also important in any classroom. For example, they can find out what kind of instrument they enjoy by making them try different instruments until they settle on one that they enjoy.
I would like to ask the speaker about her challenges that she initially had when she was teaching at public school, if her observations of these things were what made her go on and continue her education.
Teaching Clips
I chose the one clip from The School of Rock and a scene from Breaking Bad. I had chosen the scene from The School of Rock in which the class learns instruments and the teacher lets them experiment with the different kinds he had brought. It spoke to me because though it seemed silly, I was able to see the benefits it had to the child’s learning since it gave them the independence to discover the new instruments. I had chosen the clip from Breaking bad, because it showed that when being an educator, you cannot always be nice to your student when you know that they are not right. Being stern and telling them no is something essential to guide your student to the correct path.
School of Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMvpJDbWX_c
The context of this clip from School of Rock is about a rocker who takes his friend’s job to be a substitute school at a private school. In this scene he Is teaching them to play different instruments to create his own band when he found out they have music classes. From the School of Rock clip, his way of teaching the students creativity and independence in learning is quite similar to Dr. Wright’s workshop which had talked about allowing students to discover the instruments on their own. She talked about the importance to give the students the freedom to be able to have more student-directed learning, only giving them some advice and them letting them figure it out on their own. I think that this clip can offer an example of a good way of teaching, though it does seem quite silly in the clip, I think that some aspects of how he taught them was very enthusiastic. I also think that this clip shows some student-based learning, or on the verge of it since he wanted them to be able to create music and enjoy it. He is helping them create some tunes and though they already know how to play the instrument, they are using it in a much different context than they are used to. I found it very entertaining and fun to watch, as you continue to watch it you can see the kids begin to be more and more enthusiastic about it as well.
Breaking Bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAwbun0obF8
For this clip for Breaking Bad, the context of the this is the teacher is talking to the student about his low mark, asking why it is so low and the student replies saying that it is just sticking to his brain. The student continues to give more excuses like saying he has ADHD, then he asks to raise his mark up though the teacher has no reason to do so. In the clip from Breaking Bad, I think that it can relate back to our talks about praising because though it does not necessarily do any praising in this clip, I think that this clip shows the importance of not always being the nice one when it comes to students. While it is nice to be liked by many, I think having a backbone when dealing with students who are not behaving will benefit them as much as praising or being easy on them will. I think in this clip the teacher does a good job at retaliating the behaviour of the students who wants his mark to be raised without any good reason, because though he continues to say he has problems the teacher doesn't back down and is resolute to teach the student a lesson. I think that this clip does offer a fairly good example of some good teaching skills, such as the sternness as well as the fact that he went out of the way to have a one on one talk with the student about his difficulties. I think such things is something that a teacher should do, it is something that can help the student understand their wrongdoings or problems that they have. Being able to understand these difficulties can help both the teacher in understanding how to help, and the student, so they can get they help they need in order to do well.