Week 3

Something that I have been thinking about recently is creating a class where understanding is the main goal. I reflect on my middle and high school music experiences and realize that I was taught pieces of music-not music itself. My teacher would teach us parts and then we would sing them back to her and believe that we had done great work that day... However, were she not there-could I have replicated that process? Could I have learned on my own the music? Probably not-because I did not really understand music.

Now that I am in college and getting closer and closer to Student Teaching- I am contemplating what will be most important to me as a teacher. We have to teach mini-lessons on Fridays for my Secondary Music Education class-and I am constantly striving to get students (my college classmates) to figure out the music on their own, rather than me just playing it on the piano and them mimicking what they hear. 

I believe Backwards Learning is a great way of planning in a way that will enable students to best learn. When I watched the videos about essential questions-I initially did not see a way that could work in a music class-but upon further thought I found a few that I think could work:

-what is the mood of this piece of music and how is that mood demonstrated/executed?

-what stylistic considerations were made by the composer to portray their meaning?

Anyways, I missed having classes today.

Hope to see everyone Thursday.

Peace,

Austin

Week 2 

I have been learning a great deal about implementing and deciphering standards. I have always heard terribly negative things about Common Core, but have never understood its purpose (or anything about it, really). 

However, I now find Common Core very useful in a school. I think it is a great idea to create goals and standards that we expect our students to be able to achieve by the time of their departure from our classes. Common Core helps guide us as teachers, reminding us of our end goal for our students. Having these end goals guide us as we create our curriculum in our classroom, they don't replace our curriculum. I think I would feel like I was completely lost if I did not have the standards to help guide me as I tried to figure out what to teach my students. It takes a load off of our shoulders to be able to focus on differentiating instruction, using different methodologies, and assessment! 

Flipping our classroom is a flipping awesome idea. 21st Century students are technologically savvy and enjoy learning online, so I think it is a great idea to send them home where they will need to watch videos, interact with websites, etc. in order to learn the content needed for the next class period which will be filled with discussion and application of what they had learned the night before. My only concerns about this would be if students had a sticky situation at home where they didn't have internet access or legitimately didn't have time to do the work. Further, what do you do with students who didn't do their homework (for whatever reasons)? I also don't see many practical uses for this in a music class room, but I am open to exploring/creating uses for it! 

All in all, I feel that I am getting a better grasp at the flow of this class and I am genuinely excited to come to class every week! We have great discussions in class and I am definitely learning a ton!

Until next week,

Peace-Austin Beasley

Week 1

Beginning new classes each semester is always a fun and exciting time! I am excited to find out what I will be studying in each course, and trying to predict how I can use the knowledge I learn at the end of the semester!

Ed 316 at first seemed like a course that I was not so sure about. I was excited to have another education class (speciality concentrations have only a select amount of education classes to take). I was not so sure as to how this class would benefit me in my content area: Music. How does literacy factor in to teaching music to students?

As far as I can tell, this class is about much more than simply integrating an essay project every once-in-a-while. I'm glad that we are in CLCs that will aide us in working together for the common goal of bettering our students. I'm excited to think about our professional development and testing out different methods with each other. I am excited to learn from peers and our professor about different tactics they use on lesson plan delivery and differentiation! Assessment is also a great area in which I know I will find interesting ideas about how to better assess student learning! 

I'm nervous about not keeping up with assignments! I am usually spot on with organization and keeping on task, but for some reason things just haven't clicked yet for this semester! I'm taking 21 credit hours, so that probably has a lot to do with it! I think I work better under schedules and when I know for sure what is expected of me. I think I will do better once I get into the swing of things and know exactly what course work has to be due when, etc. 

Anyways, I am excited to get to know everyone better and to learn from everyone in the class. I know we all have great things to offer to one another and ultimately to our future students! 

Until next time,
Peace
Austin.