STANDARD 1: Learner Development
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
Every student is unique; likewise, every student has his or her own way of learning. An educator should recognize that there is more than one way to teach a concept or subject. An effective educator acknowledges the myriad of learning styles and constructs lessons that appeal to more than just one of the learning styles. That said, in addition to individually, students learn differently as a group as well. Each class of students will have its own style of learning, that is different from the rest. An effective instructor recognizes these differences and caters the lessons to many styles of learning. Too often educators fall back to lecturing and listing information onto the students. For many, information presented in that manor is overwhelming and not ideal. In order to be more effective and grow as an instructor, a teacher always has to be willing to search for and learn new ways of presenting information.
​I am in a continuous state of learning from others and understanding the various learning styles of my peers. Often in my flute lessons, when I am struggling with a certain section of my piece, my flute professor will stop and ask me how I would teach that section to a student. That change of mindset helps me in two ways: both in improving my technique as well as my ability to teach others. By changing my mindset and thinking from the student perspective, it helps me become a better educator. Now, when I look at a piece of music, I think of a variety of different strategies for teaching that section. This is just the beginning of understanding how to incorporate different teaching methods in order to best educate students of differing learning strategies.
With this past experience in mind, I am constantly learning to understand and execute various teaching methods for all learning types. As a student of Ball State University, I w continued to progress in this part of my education through my involvement in my Music Education courses. Through these courses I continued to have opportunities to teach in front of my peers. By doing so, I was evaluated and given feedback in order to improve my teaching ability. This opportunity allowed me to experiment with different teaching styles and discover the one that is not only the best for me, but the best for my students. Beyond my education at Ball State, I improved my skills and strategies by teaching in variety of occupations be it from marching band, summer youth orchestras, music history courses, or my future career as a music educator.
MUSE 353: Secondary Methods
Adolescents are a very unique age group. During this age they are changing and beginning to understand who they are and finding their place among their friends, family, and the world. In response, this means that their social development is especially acute and refining. Therefore, as a teacher, it is imperative that I create a safe and structured environment for my students that allows them to work together, be creative, and learn in a way that works best for them. This includes making opportunities for them to work in groups as well as on their own in order to help with their social development.
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Adolescence Paper
This paper covers the issues of bullying and how peer bullying in school can affect student learning in the general music classroom and in the school setting. Every student has a different learning style; in addition, bullying effects every student different. Their reactions to bullying can cause depression, anxiety, loss of interest in school, etc. Every student reacts different and it is the teacher's job to help those students to learn and regain their confidence as well as report any bullying instance.
MUSE 355: String Methods
Every student has a different style of learning. As a teacher, it is my job to understand their different learning styles and adjust my lesson plans accordingly to account for multiple learning styles. As a string teacher, this means alternating between speaking and describing concepts with modeling the concepts on a string instrument. A good example of this would be my lesson plan over the piece Cripple Creek for string orchestra.
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Cripple Creek Lesson Plan
Developmental Standards Project
Improvisation Mini Project
MUSE 375: Band Methods
As a teacher, it is my job to understand their different learning styles and adjust my lesson plans accordingly to account for multiple learning styles. As a band music educator, this means alternating between speaking and describing concepts with modeling the concepts on an instrument or through singing.