Weekly Reflection #2

This week was not a boring, repetitive time in the music-teaching world! I saw many different types of teaching this week: Mrs. Densmore, the substitute, the Junk 2 Funk program and my own teaching. Each style demonstrated a unique aspect to teaching and even as a teacher, I learned quite a bit! The flexibility within senior project also allowed me to pursue other music performance venues: my bassoon lessons and the quintet tour. Even though everything did not go as planned this week, I had a great time and really experienced a lot.

I learned so much this week from the different teaching styles. On Monday, Mrs. Densmore started class and I got to watch her navigate through David Coffin’s website. Although she was lecturing in a way, she used the smart board to keep everyone engaged and each student got to pick an early instrument to listen too. One class even commented on the blog; it was great to see them so excited! I learned that in elementary music, even when you have to lecture, it’s very important to be creative and keep the kids interested. I also got to show and tell my bassoon on Monday. As I put my instrument together, I watched the kids eyes get wider as the bassoon grew taller. I led a discussion on why the bassoon plays in the bass clef and how it makes such a deep sound. I played “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and had the students sing along with the last verse. Then I played a more classical piece and took questions afterward. I think Mrs. Densmore asked me to do this because she knows I am really passionate about bassoon and it’s a subject with which I’m very familiar. I was very comfortable in front of the class and it was fun to show them my gigantic instrument.

The Junk 2 Funk program was also a great learning experience. Jeff Irwin had the challenge of keeping 20+ students attentive with the added distraction of noisy percussion instruments. Mr. Irwin did a really good job of connecting with the kids. His way of getting them quiet was to shout, “Yo!” and they would answer, “What’s up?!” It was cute and they enjoyed doing it so they quieted down right away. It also crossed their sticks so they couldn’t make noise on the drums, which was really clever. I really enjoyed the program and I even got to pound away on the drums a couple of times!
One thing that didn’t go quite as planned was having a substitute on Thursday. However, it was a good time for me to take a leadership role. The sub had never taught music and so I was available to help. I started the tone chimes and helped them sing along. I also took a more prominent role in discipline. I talked to a couple of guys and used the clap method to get their attention. All in all, having a substitute and seeing the Junk 2 Funk program was very informative.

I really appreciated the flexibility of senior project this week. My bassoon teacher was only free Wednesday morning so I was able to take the morning off and become a student again. My lesson went really well. On Friday, I also toured with the Scholarship Quintet. We played at four different venues for about a half hour each. It was a playing marathon and very challenging mentally. If I was to major in music, I could branch into music education or performance. This week was great because I got to explore each venue.