11th week(12/6/10-12/9/10)

On my last week of student teaching, I was thought that in overall everything went very well and I found myself to have improved in teaching and dealing with students. I thought teaching choir and keyboard was a quite suitable position that I could pursue in the future. Every experience that I gained each day in school made me reflect about the purpose of a teacher is and also what I as a teacher could do for the students. And once again I found myself understanding how important music was for my life. Sometimes I felt as if I had wasted so much time in studying piano performance before I decided to pursue music education at NYU. However those times that I spent time for training myself for a performer was not worthless at all. I was so happy to assist for the choir as an accompanist in high school during this semester.

Another lesson I learned during this semester was to never limiting myself as a musician. As much as I have devoted my life into the piano, I realized that I didn’t spend much time learning other instruments or especially vocal music. After I noticed that my voice was not projecting due to the lack of breathing support, I started to practice by singing by myself and also in school while my cooperating teacher taught the classes. Sometimes teaching could be effective without many verbal explanations, but also there were times where the teacher needed to demonstrate and describe in order to give clear instructions. On the final rehearsal for Messiah, the orchestra conductor visited the school. He had been conducting for many instrument ensembles and orchestras but not many choirs. He also helped the students sing better but didn’t mention about the mechanism of voice as a choir. I realized how important it was to know about the mechanics of sound before teaching the students.

I couldn’t forget my last class on Thursday. I taught chorale on my last period of class. After the students practiced some sight singing activity, I let them sing the song they have learned. The title was “This is the Moment”. There were so many mixed emotions in my head while I was accompanying as the music was overlapping in my mind. Even though there were times that I was very upset with the students and I had to yell to the class, I thought I could have done much better as their teacher, but there were no more chances. That is why I had tears in my eyes. After the bell rang, the students who knew I was leaving the school came and they hugged with me. Many students including the students that never smiled at me came and said “Thank you Ms.Kim, and you are the best teacher ever”. That was the moment when I felt so rewarded as a teacher and motivated me to be a better teacher in the future.

As I finish my music education program at NYU, I look back at what I have done in and out of school. I think many different classes helped me learn about what I could teach better for the students, but student teaching experiences were the most valuable and unforgettable in my life. While I am pursuing a career as a music educator, I will also develop myself as a musician, which is an integral part of teaching music.

10th week(11/29/10-12/3/10)

This week, there was a test for both an evaluation for the end of the semester and also for an effective rehearsal. Unlike the smaller choral class and theory class, it was difficult to spend the time to evaluate each student in the larger sized classes; especially with the concert coming up soon and also the teacher needed to spend time rehearsing all the parts. In concert choir, which we have been singing ‘Messiah’, my cooperating teacher used a form of quartet to test them. Since the music was written in a contrapuntal form, it really needed the exact pitch and rhythm. There were many parts that needed to be studied with the exception of fixing incorrect notes when rehearsing. The students promised that they would go over their part every night, however the next day when we sang together, it didn’t get any better. The students could have accessed the website, to listen to each part of Messiah. However in the class, their lack of practice obviously could be seen during the rehearsal.

On the day of the test, I could see a lot of the students being concerned about the test and looking at the score while singing along. Even though we had to spend a whole period for the test, the test made the students spend their time practicing music. Sometimes there was one student who kept singing the part with wrong pitch, the other students had trouble finding their notes. My cooperating teacher has been reinforcing the importance of the students’ preparation before each rehearsal and told the students to not expect every single stuff to be fixed by the teacher. I definitely agree with her because the learning process comes from the cooperation of both students and the teacher. What they learn would reflect the improvement on their performance. I could see many students depended on the other students when singing and how they had neglected their assignments. Often they did not look at the score and they just sang whatever they remembered. I believe that the students should have a responsibility as members of the choir and try to be more professional every time when they deal with music.

Students in general seemed, as they did not prepare well for the evaluation tests. They depended more on what they had learned so far and did not really consider much about studying the score for their parts. Observing this, I realized that there are many students who lack the motivation to do well in the test. I started thinking of many different strategies that might help students be more engaged in class. However I can see how difficult it is for a teacher to try to focus to each student individually while trying to teach the whole class. It is hard to accommodate each student, I guess as a teacher it is important to find a way to deal with the class individually and as a whole group. The students understood that they were getting tested, and still they did not prepare well, which was very surprising for me to see. I thought that they would spend some time to get ready. The more I experience in teaching, I realize that there are many challenges that a teacher needs to face to educate students.

9th week(11/22/10-11/24/10)

This week was the midterm period in the school. In the musicianship class, the students took music theory and music history exams. Unlike student in the keyboard class, it seemed that most of the students had a good grasp of the learned material, however at the time of the exam I saw many students were having hard time figuring out the questions during the exam. One student didn’t do anything and he was just looking around instead of trying to figure out the questions. After the exam on Monday, my cooperating teacher also was surprised at the fact that most of the students were not as good as he had expected. He again went over the material that we already learned and asked them more individual questions. He asked one of the students to pretend that he/she was a teacher who was teaching the freshmen students. So the person who was chosen as a teacher had to explain clearly so that the other students who didn’t known about the material could understand. In that way, they were able to verbalize what he/she knew about the material. I thought it was really good way to help the students realize how much they understood the information.

When we met again for the next class, the cooperating teachers again gave the same material which was to figure out the key signature and to make different chords to the students to work on by themselves and they were allowed to ask me any questions that they had. Still I kept seeing that some students were putting sharps and flats after the note or putting the wrong order of accidentals. There was one student whom I had to explain the whole thing again from the beginning. I felt like a number of students seemed that they were not motivated by what they were learning in school. I believe that the reason that the students chose to come to this particular art school was to prepare well for whatever future they desired.

On Wednesday, I really had a hard time in school to teach by myself since my cooperating teacher was absent. When my cooperating teacher asked me if I could come on the day before thanksgiving, I hesitated a little bit because I started thinking about the days when I taught the students on the days when the teacher was absent. On the other hand, I wanted to have as much experience as I could no matter what happens. I reminded to myself that no matter how chatty students are or how badly they may act they would not distract me and that I would be focused on the subject that I wanted to teach. I had to raise my voice almost all day. I know already that the students would not listen to me the same way they do to their teacher. But that day the students were out of control.

There was a teacher, who works in the library and is familiar with students in the classroom with me. But it seemed that the presence of two teachers was useless, and they did not regard us as someone that they needed to listen to. There were real problem students. One girl never acted in that manner with my cooperating teacher but she moved her seat between two tenors and she was playing with the other male students during the class in the back row. I told her to move to her original seat. Later, another girl was lying on the ground and tried to hide herself. When we noticed her and asked her to get up and go back to her seat, she was dared to ask us what she did wrong saying she didn’t make any noise. And with a frown face, she left for the restroom. Many students were just so rude. I made them stop and told them what they were doing was wrong; they did whatever they wanted real soon.

I believe that when I have my own students, it is not going to be as hard as it is now. I was just so tired that I had to keep on yelling and asking them to stop talking all the time. I tried many different methods to get the students’ attention, however the classroom management methods that I knew didn’t work as efficiently as I thought it might work. It came to the point where I had almost given up teaching the students in the concert choir class. It was a new experience for me, although I had some students behaving badly, it seemed that this day the students were acting out even worse. Even the students I thought were respectful were being nasty. I guess the absence of the main teacher was a big impact, but also it could have been that it was the day before Thanksgiving. The day might have been a tough day for me, but it got me thinking of more methods of classroom management that I can adopt once I become a full time teacher myself.

8th week(11/15/10-11/19/10)

Along with choir classes, I am very thankful to have a chance of working with the students in musicianship class. Even though I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to teach the class because we meet every other day, I didn’t have many concerns dealing with the students. I guess it is partly due to the fact that I teach the same students in choir class and also my background knowledge in piano helped me a lot dealing with this class. Luckily I had a supporting cooperating teacher who always has a positive attitude towards students, so I was able to enjoy teaching this class. In musicianship class that I do not teach, but still observe every other day, I thought about how important is the teacher’s role in terms of teaching methods. The students are using the textbook in order to get musical history and knowledge, but the book itself cannot help the students understand the material well. My cooperating teacher always tries to make a connection between what is written in the book and what they actually learn and understand. At times he seems very animated and he is also very good at improvising when explaining certain musical styles and repertoires. I could clearly tell that his strength in vocal music really helped teaching this class. I have been afraid of teaching music history, in a way it is partly due to the fact I am not sure to how to approach the material to teach the class. However by observing this class I was able to get an idea on how I could approach the music history class.

I had my final observation last Wednesday for the keyboard/theory class. At the time the students were learning key signatures in major scale and they were able to play the song ‘Moon River” with both hands. Not every student learned at the same pace, but by reviewing repeatedly and playing different chords and scale practice, I could see the students were improving little by little. For my observation class, I picked the song “Try to remember” on my own since my cooperating teacher didn’t have any preference on the subject. One day I brought an easy piano solo piece, and they played the music quite well but the students seemed to be more engaged with popular songs. They seemed as though they were interested in learning different qualities of chords and also hearing the sound of the chords. For that reason I chose a popular song that have melody and chord names.

After the first bell rang, I wanted them to start with pentatonic and scale exercise, which has been a routine for the class. Then I introduced the song I brought and I had them clap the rhythm. I didn’t expect the activity to take so much time and I was concerned about the rest of stuff I had planned for the period. I couldn’t stop the activity because many students were still clapping in the wrong rhythm. After a couple of more trials they finally got it. After the activity, the students played the melody part but some students had trouble with playing the melody with the correct rhythm. By the time I explained about some different chord names, many students were not paying attention to what I wrote down on the board and what I was explaining to them. I kept asking the students to stop playing the keyboard, but they just kept on doing that. I had to make clear rule about when to play and when not to play. However I feel like I did not successfully deal with both managing the class and keeping the lesson going. Actual teaching the class was much more complicated than I expected. When I am standing in the front and looking at the students, I really had to catch what was really going on and at the same time try to get rid of all the stuff that was distracting. For example, there were always two girls who played the keyboard in a much faster tempo and they made unnecessary sounds while I was explaining. On top of that, two boys in the back rarely followed my instructions and played whatever they wanted to. When I asked the entire class, who wanted to answer my questions, the same students always raised their hands. That made me worry about the students and how much they understood the lesson that I was teaching. By spending a lot of time in the beginning, we didn’t get the chance to play the song with both hands. I think a lesson could be adaptable to what the students really need to know and it could be slower than expected. After the class I felt that I should have been more aware about managing the class along with keeping the lesson flow. When I had a conversation about this with my other cooperating teacher, she said that it is important to know that class management is also a part of the lesson plan and also to be able to anticipate what the students might do in the classroom. Through this experience I definitely believe that I have learned a valuable lesson that I need to work on and I feel that I am gaining more confidence with the students.

7th week(11/10/10-11/12/10)

Last Monday I had to teach all the classes by myself since my cooperating teacher was absent. There was also a substitute teacher in the classroom but he was not specialized in music. I was a little concerned about how I was going to manage the classroom but I thought it shouldn’t be a huge problem since I have known and taught them. As soon as the students knew that my cooperating teacher wouldn’t be in school that day, they changed their attitude and it became hard to have control over them. In smaller class like opera, I really had a great time with them while we sang individually and also by sharing with each other about how they performed.

In concert choir class, which is made up of about 50 students, we were supposed to practice two pieces in ‘messiah’ that my cooperating teacher assigned to me. When the second bell rang and all the students had to be seated in their seats, they were just all over the place, in and outside of the classroom. I tried not to get angry or feel bad in front of them because I wanted them to realize what they were supposed to do by themselves. Later I had to speak louder and louder in order to take attendance for everyone. It took about 15 minutes in order to make them realize that they were in a classroom with two teachers and it was an on going class time. But silence didn’t last long. I saw many students that would not stop talking and of course they didn’t listen to me. A few students acted out really badly, but a number of students who were worried about the class tried their best to pay attention. We didn’t have time to rehearse due to the many disturbances.

In women’s choir class, I had the same problem controlling the class. It seemed that just because the cooperating teacher was not present they could take advantage of the situation. Due to the noise and the constant interruptions, we were not able to advance far with the rehearsals. In many ways it was a learning time for me, I was confident that I could work well with them since I knew them, however it ended up being the opposite. I realized that managing a class is not easy and it takes a lot of time and effort to try to advance with rehearsals. After class I made two of the loudest students stay, so we could have a talk. At first they were hesitant and did not want to stay, making up excuses that they didn’t have time. I told them that it would only take about 3 minutes. I scolded them because they would not stop talking during class. It seems that they felt sorry and ended up apologizing. The funny part is that the same two girls were so quiet in the other class that it surprised me seeing their reaction. The substitute teacher told me that I had done well by scolding them, but I need to do the same in the actual class time in order to take control of the class.

6th week(11/3/10-11/7/10)

As I taught as a student teacher this week, I thought that an important fact dealing with teaching was to know how much and how fast the students are able to understand the lesson. Without considering this aspect in each different class, both teacher and students will have a hard time understanding each other. While I was preparing the lesson plan for the class on Wednesday, I tried to make an organized, clear, and enjoyable lesson while analyzing the piece. Since the Women’s Choir sings many different genre of music and usually they understand the lessons pretty quickly, I didn’t worry about them having trouble singing the piece. In class, the majority of the students seemed unfamiliar to classical pieces such as “alleluiya”. It took much more time than I expected to get all the correct notes from the students. Even though the piece seemed to be written in a very straightforward manner, I could see that the students had difficulties identifying the note value, intervals, and how the consonants went in the text.

When I was teaching in the elementary school last semester, I often introduced ‘solfege’ singing in each piece to the students. It worked very well however we had to put extra time working on the piece. As I taught the choir, I spent most of the time working on about only three or four phrases and in the end I felt as if I taught so little considering the lesson plan that I came up with. At the same time, I thought about the true meaning of education dealing with students who have so many different levels of learning ability. After the class, I honestly felt that I had learned a huge lesson for myself. I believe that lesson planning should be focused on the students, and should not be something that I want to present to the students regardless of the level of the class.

I believe teaching is not always associated with people who already have a certain level of knowledge in music. I realized that I did not pay attention on how to present the lesson in a matriculate way. I guess the problem is that sometimes things do not seem difficult in my eyes, but it might require a lot of work for students. I cannot expect the students to follow the lessons that I have come up with at all times. In my opinion I guess the better way to go with this matter is planning a lesson that is approached one step at a time. Such lesson might take longer, however it could be an easier path for the students to understand. Breaking down the lesson I think is good way to start if I see some problems arising from the students. However I cannot always slow down the pace of the lesson and not give the students might not receive all the knowledge that they are supposed to receive.

One day in chorale class, I was reviewing some sight singing for their test for their next day, but many of them seemed to be not ready. Unconsciously I kept working on what they wanted to go over, but at the time my cooperating teacher was very upset about their irresponsibility and asked me to move to the next part of the lesson. She said to me later without tests it is hard for them to learn and go over by themselves even though she didn’t wanted to do so. Is there any way for us to get the students’ attention? Can there be any way to make them stay focused in the class without yelling all the time. As I see the students in the school, I thought that they needed to mature more even though they looked like adults physically. Whenever I was frustrated from the way they talked and responded to me, I thought about the development of a human being and that it is part of what the teacher needs to acknowledge when educating the students. At the same time, the teacher should be aware of the students’ improvement as they are learning and not let the students take advantage of teacher’s kindness.

5th week(10/15/10-10/29/10)

When I first started student teaching last semester in elementary school, I didn’t have a lot of confidence due in part to my personality and also the lack of experience I had in teaching in front of many students. I have been teaching piano privately for a long time and so far I didn’t have any problems with teaching children individually. However dealing with a group of students has definitely showed me that it is a completely different matter. My previous cooperating teacher always told me that I needed to speak louder even though I tried my best to do so. I practiced at home in order to have a “teacher’s voice” and I tried to make every word come out clear every time I spoke, being that English is my second language. I wrote a “script” about what I was going to tell the students and I observed very carefully the way my cooperating teacher presented her lesson. From these prior experiences, I was able to learn how to approach and what to tell the students in order to make a clear point in a lesson. While teaching in high school, I find myself to be much more confident compared to last semester. I wanted to show my strengths instead of being concerned about my weakness.

This week was a tough week for me because I had a hard time handling some students. Since the students know that I am a “student teacher”, most students are more attentive of what I am teaching and sometimes I can feel them judging me if I am teaching correctly. It depends on who they are, but some students have been showing their lack of respect throughout the class as they disregard to what I am asking them to do. Some of students did not seem to consider me as a their teacher. What made it really hard was that those who thought that they are pretty good at singing or reading music didn’t listen to my recommendations about how they were singing or the corrections I made of the errors that they made. Another concern is that so many students suggest and even insist their ideas “at the same time” during rehearsals. For example, when I made the students stop singing since they were singing incorrectly, the students kept on saying, “we need to go back from here.” or “I can sing that part if I start singing from here”. Although I didn’t like the idea, I decided to take the suggestions as long as they could sing successfully. But they kept making incorrect pitches because they didn’t know how the harmony sounded. I explained how each chord sounded and its value of harmony and I emphasized on understanding music correctly and precisely. Some students sang very well but they are so used to hearing the melody without looking at the music that they don’t realize the importance of reading music accurately. I agree singing might be fun, however I believe that fun comes after students learn music in a correct way instead of just singing over and over again.

For my first observation teaching chorale class, I was able to see how much more concentration and experience I needed to have to be more comfortable with students. I tried keeping a reasonable pace while teaching, as well as thinking what to do next. I also needed to watch the students in order to give them better suggestions dealing with the lesson. On the day of the observation, I prepared a much longer time than I actually prepare, however I wasn’t able to teach everything I wanted the students to learn about the music in one period. When I was teaching sight-sing, I allotted 15 minutes since I really didn’t expect the students to have trouble with sight-singing. But 15 minutes somehow felt very short. Although I was going to give them the prepared lesson, I had to change my plans and instead I taught them some new stuff. I did not want them to feel too overwhelmed when learning music and also to spend too much time on sight singing. Instead, I thought it would be more important to make the class move forward with dynamics. The recommendations that my advisor and cooperating teacher made were:

- Make a concise and clear lesson plan

- If I decide to give students homework, make sure that I check it next time.

- Don’t give the same homework twice

- Check if students sit up straight

- While rehearsing each part, ask other parts to sing together with them

- Instead of me repeating the answer, ask the students to speak loud enough for other students to hear

- If they don’t get the beat or everybody has their own tempo, have the students tap or clap the beat all together before reading the music

- Ask students where the trouble spots are in the piece to solve any concerns or problems

I have not had many experience teaching choir but I have been accompanying for different choir groups. While I have been observing many other conductors rehearsing, I found many effective ways of teaching a choir. I think I have to be a good listener while the students sing in order to find any troubles that they might have as well as to think about suggestions that they might need. I noticed that sometimes it is hard for me to listen very well during rehearsal if I accompany the piano for the choir or I am distracted by some other stuff. However to be a good teacher and musician, I believe it is the most important to listen to the music and the sound that student make.