It was one of the busiest weeks of this semester at the high school. There was an open house for a couple of days, the first rehearsal for the “Messiah” at Carnegie hall and also there was a cabaret performance from Friday through Sunday night. I was able to see how much effort and professionalism as well as the love for music and the students was necessary in order to be a good music teacher. By preparing many different schedules, both students and teacher were getting tired and a few students were neglecting to do what was assigned to them. There were moments when the teacher had to shout to the students as they acted out in a bad manner or talked back to the teacher. I felt bad for some students because it seemed that they were missing important values that come from working with other people. Especially when it deals with a rehearsal right before the concert, they should try to be there unless they had something urgent. Otherwise the students should let the teacher know and explain the reason why they were not able to present themselves for the rehearsal ahead of time. Some students thought that it was okay for them to inform of their situation the next day and the conversation between the teacher and students end up terribly. One student just didn’t show up because he was extremely tired or so and he kept on insisting with a negative attitude, which made the teacher angry. Aside having unpleasant discussions with some students, the teacher had to think about many things related to the concert; selling tickets, getting permission slips from students’ parents, black out rehearsal, decorations, table setting, bringing food, making a floor chart (where tables, kitchen, waiting areas will be), how to perform in limited stage area and so on. As a student teacher, I had a great opportunity to watch how to deal with all these different preparations; also it gave me the opportunity to know the students better while preparing concert.
At all times I try to think of the different qualities that make a good teacher or how I can improve the way I teach to be a better teacher. Once I thought that I could be a good music teacher if I have enough musical knowledge, good class management, and a warm heart to love and care for the students. From the experiences I have learned from NYU and as student teacher plus my own philosophy of music, I really hope that I could be a teacher who communicates well with students with discipline. I have seen many teachers had a good, well-written lesson plan, but they were not really concerned about how much the students were getting the lesson and just kept on moving to the next lesson. Some teachers had the whole class really be more focused to him/her to prevent any disturbances or any noises. But is this a good way of approaching the students? I would say maybe yes, but not always. There are many students who are staring at the teacher, but they are not really paying attention to what is going on. In one choir class, I tried to make everyone look at me, and follow my instructions. At the same time, I tried to look at everyone’s eyes while I am teaching so that I could show the students that I am interested at what they are doing. Unfortunately there were still some students who did not really care about my instructions and what I was saying. At the time I was discouraged by the way they reacted at me but I didn’t want to show any unpleasant feelings. I think speaking louder or calling out to them individually can’t be a solution. I believe and I really hope that I express myself well enough to communicate with the students through music. But how? I am still in the process of learning how to teach better. I believe that teachers should concentrate on how much improvement they can bring to the students and they should give praises and comments on what the students are doing better. Second, teachers need to explain very clearly and specifically enough so that the students can understand. Third, teachers need to have certain discipline and authority. I have heard so many times from people not to try to be friends with students. I guess it depends on who are in the class but generally it is important to have a certain kind of control over them.
I noticed in music appreciation class that I am watching, the teacher was overall very dynamic and encouraged the students to be more involved in the class. In the beginning of the class, he reviewed the previous lesson that the students had learned last time. When explaining, he gave enough examples until students understood the lesson. He often asked questions, not always but to those who were not paying attention. I also noticed he tried to keep the class moving forward with energy. He made students ask questions, which were relevant to the topic (he refused to answer the off-topic questions, he let them take notes the way they could understand, have them listen to the music and connected to the concept, and let them read the book by paragraphs out loud). I could see that most of the students in the class were paying attention and were very engaged throughout the class. Interestingly, when the same students are in keyboard class, it was really hard to get their attention. I guess it is because they were making noise with the keyboard. I don’t know what is the best way to solve this problem yet.
Last week I didn’t get the chance to teach choir class for the whole period due to several announcements that were needed for the concert. So I thought it might be better to slightly modify the lesson in order to fit for the time that I had. I shortened the warm up exercises and I skipped the sight-singing activity. Since we have been singing the same song from last week, I wanted to start by singing the whole song once. They sounded quite nicely but there were couple of places that we needed to practice in each part. I made them sing the given notes to the pitch that was required. If the first note was the middle C and it went up to Bb, I reminded them to think about the 7th chord (dominant) that they had learned in the keyboard class. They haven’t worked on all of the intervals, so I didn’t want to explain too specifically about the intervals between the notes. There were only two tenors in the class, sometimes only one person; it was hard to hear the balance between the parts. After the lesson, my cooperating teacher suggested me that I could ask the choir to stand up in some parts while singing because she thought it gives more dynamics in the class and by switching singing positions, it helps them to be awake, especially in the hot room without any shades. What I am concerned about this group of students is that they are used to singing the music by listening to the piano and they don’t really look at the music sheets and notes sometimes. I believe that by the time they learn new music; they should be aware of the notes written on the music as it would help them make harmonious sound as a group with correct pitch. There is a limitation to improve music of the class due to the lack of an accompanist so the teacher cannot always conduct the choir. I really hope that they could sing together by understanding and listening to every sound they make.
