Blog 11

2c. Teachers treat students as individuals.

Today I am thinking about how all of our lesson presentations went! I think we all did well, and I was super pumped to see everyone doing their thang! It's great to see such capable and competent future educators! It makes me excited for our generation to get into the classrooms and change the field for the better! 

One thing that I think we all (mostly) excel at is treating each student as an individual and giving time and attention to the thoughts one another has. I know that during everyone's lesson I definitely felt like the teacher cared and was concerned that I was learning what they were teaching! You guys took time to make sure we understood the concepts or to answer the questions we may have had! 

I would like to think that I am good at incorporating this standard into my lessons. I am beginning to get to know some of my peers in a better, less-shallow way, and I love to teach them new concepts (especially about music)! It's great to be in a class with so many great people!

Austin

Blog 10

5c. Teachers function effectively in a complex, dynamic environment.

I think that this is an essential aspect of teaching. We will have students from a million different home lives, socioeconomic backgrounds, disabilities, gifts, etc. But through all of that, we must ensure that they are learning and growing in knowledge! I think that our combined teaching class was a great experience for those who got to teach! I really enjoyed seeing everyone doing what they love to do: teach! I think that everyone did a great job and admire their courage for getting up there and going at it! I am excited to do so next week after Easter Break! Katie and I like to make a ruckus during classes, and I know that teachers deal with that on the daily in K-12. I hope that karma doesn't come back to bite me and that I have a class full of students who don't listen and act out! This brings me to my reflection for the week: I will have to be able to deal with these types of behaviors without taking it personally that my students aren't paying attention and are acting in a way that is not warranted. I get pretty passionate/heated rather quickly (there was an incident that happened today that made me realize this) and take it super personal when people don't like me...

But I am going to have to work on this! I can't be a teacher who overly cares if my students like me or not. I am going to have to manage behaviors and keep my class rolling-keep it functioning effectively!

Happy holy week!

Austin

Blog 9

4e. Teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

Although we haven't covered this in our Ed316 class, I have encountered this specific standard a lot in my Music Education classes.

In my Secondary Music Ed class we must teach each week and then watch the videos and reflect upon our lessons. Our professor also asked us to create a Professional Development worksheet in which we set two specific goals for ourselves that we want to implement in our teaching.

One of my goals was to ask more questions that lead my students to think critically. I noticed today (I mean over Spring Break) while working on revising my 6PLP for 316 that I don't do that as well as I should/would like to. Yes, it is important for teachers to teach and show their students how to do things-but how much more important it is for us to help our students learn to think for themselves! We aren't just teaching our students facts and concepts, we are helping to mold them into capable people who are well educated and responsible.

I had to finish up my Student Teaching Application yesterday and I am so thrilled that I will be Student Teaching next Spring! It's crazy how fast it's approaching! But also terrifying! I have all of these ideal goals for myself-I want to be engage students and help them think deeply for themselves, but I'm not there yet! It's frightening to think that I have one more semester and then I will be in front of a real group of students (hundreds of them throughout the day) trying to tell them about a thing I love so much...

I guess I should focus on getting through this semester first!
Austin

Week 8

3c. Teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines.

As we learn more and more about different approaches to improve our instruction and hopefully aid student learning, I find that teaching is teaching.

I came into this class thinking that I wouldn't really find anything useful or relevant to my subject, but the more we talk about strategies and procedures to aid our teaching, I am seeing how it all connects.

The other day we had a Student Teaching (Spring 2017) meeting and Dr. Parker asked me what grades I am wanting to student teach in. I told him I wasn't sure because I'm not. I know I want to do elementary or middle school music. But I can't give an answer as to which one I want to spend an entire semester learning about. So I have been asking professors, family, friends what they think. A helpful bit of advice was given to me from one of my music professors-and what was this:

Teaching is teaching. There are different methods that you use for different ages, and there are different ways to give instruction appropriate to the age of your students. But the concept of aiding students learn information and then apply it to their lives is the same across age lines or even content areas! That has definitely helped take some stress off of my shoulders as I try to decide between ages!

I'm excited to finally make a decision (hopefully I will soon!)

Until next time,

Austin