Professional Responsibility

During my student teaching placement in the fall of 2020, I designed a 9-week curriculum that could be implemented for my students. The content covered an introduction to music, allowed students to make their own instruments at home, and culminated with a vocal and instrumental performance. I adapted the curriculum to be applicable for an in-person or remote situation, as I taught the semester remotely due to Covid-19. I included this curriculum because it demonstrates my ability to write a curriculum that is appropriate for elementary school students with varying levels of musical instruction. In writing this curriculum, I thought critically about being culturally responsive and also about the ways in which students could connect with music despite the limitations of learning in the time of Covid-19.

During my student teaching placement in the spring of 2021, I designed a 9-week curriculum that could be implemented for a 9th grade beginning band class. During my placement, I was able to teach a beginning band class, an intermediate band class, and an advanced band class. I taught these classes remotely due to Covid-19. This curriculum covered an introduction to musical concepts, and introduction to the different band instruments, activities to help students learn musical notation, and a final performance. This curriculum can be adjusted depending on how much prior musical or instrumental knowledge students possess and can also be utilized for in-person or remote instruction. I included this curriculum because it's demonstrates my ability to create a meaningful, student-centered instrumental music curriculum for students. Even though these students are in high school, many of these students have not had prior music instruction, so I had to be creative in the ways that I taught musical concepts and the basics of the instruments to the students. This curriculum could be something that I will adapt should I be in a position to start an instrumental music program from scratch.

During my time at Teachers College, I was fortunate to take a course called Gender, Difference, and Curriculum which made a huge impact on my teaching practices. Throughout the course, we dissected the different ways in which Race, Gender, Sex, and Sexual Orientation impact the lives of our students. For my final paper, I analyzed the ways in which gender identification affects the instruments that beginning students choose to learn. I was really shocked to realize how ingrained gender roles are to music, especially for children at a young age. In writing this paper, I examined ways in which teachers can use role models to actively counter the current system which limits the choices of many of our students. As a music teacher, I want to ensure that I am also cognizant of the way in which gender may impact my students' choices and utilize what I learned from writing this paper to help my student choose the instruments they want to play, not choose the instrument they believe their gender should play.

This is an Assessment that I designed for 2nd grade students during my student teaching placement in the fall of 2020 who are learning the difference between quarter notes and eighth notes. I created a performance rubric, a worksheet, and checklist of understanding to assess the students. I was also able to assess the students using the visual checklist in class. I included this because it demonstrates the different ways that we can assess the students that we have in front of us. This assessment provides fun ways to help students understand the musical concepts and it is also flexible enough to be adapted for in-person or virtual instruction.

This is an Assessment that I created for one of my beginning 9th grade band Trumpet students during my student teaching placement in the spring of 2021. I created a performance rubric, a written worksheet, and a visual checklist to assess the progress made by this student as they explored the instrument. I included this assessment because it is an example of the ways in which we can supportively assess students as they learn a new instrument, something that is very difficult. While I created different scores to help measure the student's progress, these are not designed to be graded. I intentionally did not want the assessments to be graded because I think it is important to be encouraging, rather that discouraging, to a beginning instrumental student. In creating this Assessment, I learned how to write out the different steps that are necessary to have a solid foundation to continue to learn the trumpet, as well as other band instruments.

This is my Teaching Philosophy statement. In all of my classrooms and ensembles, I try to create a student-centered and culturally responsible environment. I utilize my experience as a professional jazz musician to inform my teaching practices and try to connect music to the world. I believe that all students can love music in their own unique and individual way and I believe that my role as a music educator is to facilitate each student's connection to music. I included this statement because it reflects the values that I have as an educator and is indicative of the values I plan to bring to all my ensembles and classrooms throughout my career.