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A music teacher needs to be able to completely understand all of the aspects of the subject they are teaching so they can help their students more efficiently understand the intricacies of music and create lesson plans based around the necessary information to pass along to the students. For example, a music teacher would need to be able to have a command over sightreading, singing abilities, composition and arranging, improvisational skills, and music theory. If a music teacher were unable to understand the processes involved in learning the necessary skills for music, then they would be horribly ineffective as a teacher. Not only must a music teacher understand the subject very well, but they must also know how to make it interesting and let every student get engaged in the class in one way or another.
I feel I have a good start on this principle because I am already fairly skilled in many different aspects of music. I was also fortunate to be able to observe the music teachers in my high school since they did an incredible job of engaging the students, especially the choral director who had to deal with a vast number of students who were just in the lowest level choir to get their art credit and not do a lot of work. He was able to get the students interested in music and want to stay in choir even after they got their art credit. I plan on using some of the same methods he used, such as choosing songs that the students would definitely enjoy singing and encouraging them to do their best in everything.
To get more experience with this I plan on observing my college teachers and conductors and note how they get the students more engaged in the classes, especially my theory teachers as ideally I would like to teach college level theory and composition classes.
In order to be effective, a music teacher needs to be knowledgeable when it comes to the proper ages for teaching specific things in music. For example, a music teacher cannot really expect students at a young age to be able to sing a fugue. There are also different levels of ensembles at each age level, so a teacher must be aware of the collective potential of the group. For individual teaching, a teacher needs to be aware of the rate their students learn at so they can maximize the student’s potential. A student or ensemble that has an advanced ability in music should be treated as those at higher levels otherwise the student may become bored and lose interest in the music.
At this point, I would have to say I’m a poor judge of proper levels that music students should be at. The reason for this is that all throughout my childhood, I have been exposed to higher standards of music. The music program at my old high school was practically at a college level and I was trained to expect that from other musicians. It really surprised me coming here that there were freshmen who had issues with solfege, scales, and chord identification.
In order for me to better understand how typical students learn and progress musically I plan on paying attention carefully to the levels of other freshmen in theory classes and in ensembles to learn the average level of incoming freshmen. When I have a job teaching, whether it is at a middle school, high school, or college level, I intend to start out with difficulty I would expect from that level of student, and depending on the results of the ensemble, I would alter the difficulty as necessary. For individual teaching, unless I was the same ensemble teacher for the student, I would ask them about their musical training and ask for their personal opinion of their skill level and give them difficulty according to what they say and then slowly and gradually bring them to a higher difficulty.
When dealing with music students, especially in an ensemble, a music teacher must know the ways that the different students learn music when dealing with theory and repertoire. Some students may have grown up learning by ear and be able to instantly sing or play back something after listening to it a couple times where as others may be able to sight-read extremely well but be unable to sing or play back what they hear. Students may also be more used to a certain way of being taught before encountering another teacher who uses a different method of teaching and the teacher will have to be able to adapt to their learning style while gradually making them familiar to the teacher’s usual style.
I was lucky enough to have exposure to a wide range of teaching methods since I was in choir, band, and orchestra and I’ve played strings and woodwinds in addition to singing. Slightly different methods were used in each group, especially between choir and band or orchestra since in band and orchestra we were required to be able to sing to a small extent but were being taught how to sing as instrumentalists. Because of all the exposure I had to different kinds of ensembles, I feel like I have a decent idea of how to adapt teaching styles to suit the situation.
While I have a relatively good idea of how to adapt my teaching method for different students, I don’t have the best idea. In order to get a better idea of how to adapt my methods of teaching, I plan on looking at how teachers in all of my classes, not just music, adapt their styles to suit the situation and specific students.
An effective music teacher has to help students learn how to do well in music on their own instead of relying heavily on help from the teacher and can do so by encouraging them to use critical thinking and problem solving skills. A music student should be taught how to sightread music using logic and compose and arrange using problem solving skills. By applying those necessary abilities to music, a music teacher will be able to not only prepare students for their musical lives but also other situations in their life that would require critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Once again, I feel like I'm well set in this principle because of how long I've been training my critical thinking and problem solving skills. From a very early age I've been given all of these games and books and other things that were designed to train those abilities and I consider myself very good at it. In terms of applying those skills to music, I would teach students to think logically about melodic structure and progressions to help with sightreading as well as give them exercises in composing and arranging to train their problem solving abilities.
To get even more experience I would once again observe my high school music teachers as well as my current ones and look at their methods for helping with sightreading and composition and how they tie in to those critical thinking skills.
In order to have an effective ensemble, a director needs to be able to manage and motivate the members to maximize the group ability. If students are unable to respect the director or have a desire to do the best job they can, then the ensemble will ultimately fail since it cannot rely on the few members who always give their all. Respect and management are also important for private lessons or else the student will refuse to learn anything passing anything off as unimportant.
I have a very good idea of how to get respect and the desire to work out of my students because of the respect and motivation that my band and choir directors were able to get from their students. Also being in charge of a Renaissance music group in my high school and a Celtic music group here, I already have experience with trying to motivate and get respect from music students.
I have found that the best way to get respect and to motivate students is to know when to work and when to just relax and goof off a bit. Joking around every so often helps the ensemble relax and feel more comfortable with not only the director but with each other which helps with synchronization. It is of course important to get work done and to work out any problems, but when students feel comfortable with each other and the director, they are more likely to work harder to please the director and will perform better as a whole.
A music teacher should be able to use different media forms, verbal, and non-verbal communication to help teach music to their students. By using those means of communication, a music teacher will be able to help get students more involved in the class. Media communcation followed by verbal communication would be best for studying music since a teacher can play an excerpt of a piece for the class and then talk to the class about different techniques involved in the composition or the composer.
I haven't had a lot of experience with this other than listening to recordings of our concerts in band the next day and then listing things that we did well and things that we could improve on.
In order to get more experience with this, I should ask my previous and current music teachers what their opinion is on the matter as well as talk to my fellow music education students and get their input so I can get more ideas on what to do.
A music teacher should base their lesson plans and overall class goal on the skills and goals of the class and the community. A music teacher should not expect them to do anything completely out of their league such as a middle school choir to sing Mozart's Requiem. Nor should the teacher just be complacent with their students just doing well enough instead of excelling at the material.
I've done some indivudual tutoring in flute and voice lessons as well as composition lessons so I have some experience basing the classes on student skills and needs. Other than that I don't have a lot of experience.
To get more experience I will partially observe my teachers but also learn as I go through my student teaching since each scenario is different and the way to help the class in the best way possible will vary with each case.
One of the most important things a music teacher can do is have an assessment that accurately can rate the student’s ability. For ensembles, it is important to know who can carry their own weight and who is just relying on others to make up for their sound. For individual learning, the teacher needs to know where their student is so they can know what to help the student with more. Since it is impossible to judge a student’s performance on an academic style test, a music teacher must have a way to judge a student based on more than just attendance.
I have a fair idea on how to go about testing my students, except I plan on teaching choral music, and most of my experience with individual testing has been in band. In band, we would have random playing tests that would determine what chair we were in the ensemble. There would also be challenges from the next lowest player to try to move up a spot. In private lessons, at least, it is easy to rate the student’s individual performance since there is no one for them to hide behind.
Since coming here, I have observed how my choral directors are analyzing performers. In concert choir, we had octets that had to submit a recording to show we were learning the piece. I think that is a great way to make sure students are learning at a college level, but I’m not sure of what to do at a high school level. In order to get a better understanding, I plan to talk to some high school directors to see what their methods are.
A music teacher is one who teaches the arts and both the world of education and of the arts are constantly changing. A good music teacher must go out and find ways to improve their skills as both a teacher and as an artist. When a music teacher is able to reevaluate themselves and alter their teachings based on that, they will continue to grow and be a better teacher.
I've already begun doing some things to help myself in this process such as getting involved in the choral library here at Ball State as well as helping out at different music education conventions and organizations around the country.
To help myself in the future I plan on attending more conventions and hopefully getting more involved in them as well as letting my students evaluate me on my performance as a teacher. In the meantime while I'm still at college, I will stay involved in many music education organizations to not only provide my input but get feedback from many of my peers to help me grow.
In order to have a great ensemble, you need students who want to be there, and to help with that, you need to have an ensemble that doesn’t conflict with multiple school activities. If an ensemble conflicts with a sport nearly all of the time, students ultimately have to make a choice, and usually that choice is guided by parents into the sport. Another issue for students may be whether to be in band, orchestra, or choir since they are usually unable to be in more than one, let alone all three. In order to help students be in multiple ensembles, or ensembles and a sport, a music teacher needs to have connections with colleagues and community members.
This is one standard I feel that I have a really good grip on thanks to my high school music program. The music directors were good friends with the coaches and made it a point to get to know a student’s parents. Because of their networking, it is possible for a cheerleader to be in the drumline, or a basketball player to be a soloist. One thing I took advantage of was the possibility of being in all three ensembles. Even with scheduling conflicts, the directors made it work out for me to be in choir and band.
To help me with this, I plan on getting to know a lot of my fellow music education majors while here. When I get a job, I will try to make friends with the coaches and other ensemble directors so I can have a fairly open ensemble.