On Wednesday April 4 Shannalee, Sallie, Jeph, Adam, and I Attending an elementary (5th grade) band program. The structure of this class seemed very loose and almost chaotic at times. Students were disruptive a lot of the time, and it took a while for them to get set up and to transition between pieces. The balance of the ensemble had a correlation to their technique, rather poor. For example, the percussionists weren't striking the drums in the right spot so that they would resonate, and there for they would slam the drum stick against the drum, often hitting the rim and crating a large loud dry sound. several wind players had poor posture which could be related to them being too quiet cause they don't have air or any air support. At the end of class we learned that the teacher was a voice only type teacher placed in a field she had little experience in.
So other than noticing some flaws in the instruction, did you get anything positive out of the experience? How are you going to be when asked to teach out of your area? What could have been done differently?
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Well the good that I took away from this expressed is that she maintained a positive bright attitude, which is why her students love her. I know elementary school will be most difficult to teach due to the shorter attention span, but I think perhaps sectionals, where I as the teacher would walk around each of the three sections (percussion, woodwind, and brass). I feel like I will be average the first two to three year teaching out of my regular field (which would just be band. but each summer I would be practicing on band instruments, attending workshops and private lessons, so that I may know the instrument even better and provide better instruction on how to play and correct technique on the instrument. I am expecting to be placed in a band job first, being that Orchestra jobs are the most difficult to get of the three genres. I plan after graduation to focus on band specific techniques and strengthen them
ReplyDeleteMuch better...good thinking
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