The Learner and Learning

During the Fall of 2019, I wrote a research paper for a class titled "Children's Musical Development." For this final research paper, I tried to address the issue of participation in Jazz Bands. I looked at the factors that led to higher participation rates and I also challenged the way that "success" is defined in this context. The biggest takeaway from this research is that building a culture within the band of mentoring amongst the students themselves can have a big impact. In many of the high school jazz bands I examined, the schools with high participation rates had older students take on leadership roles to help the younger students. Not only did this help make the instruction more student centered, but it also allowed for the band to stay consistent even when the older students graduated. As a teacher, I also want to create student-centered learning environment and I think mentoring between students, especially in an ensemble setting, can be important to achieving this.

This is a video of me teaching beginning high school band students during my student teaching placement in the spring of 2021. In this clip, I work with a student who was playing the tuba but decided to switch to the trumpet. The student was working on getting a sound and playing the first note "E". I included this clip because in just a few short minutes, I was able to get the student to play the note. I was very intentional about being encouraging and supportive during this clip, and I believe that it paid off as the student was able to achieve success on a very difficult instrument. I really love working with beginning band students and I believe that this clip demonstrates the excitement of getting a student to make a sound for the first time.

This is a video of me teaching Pre-K-2nd grade students during my student teaching placement in the fall of 2020. In this video, we are learning the ways in which words can connect to the different rhythms in music. The goal of the lesson was that students would learn the difference between quarter notes and eighth notes. I think that this lesson was not only fun and engaging, but it was also an example of the way that arts can be integrated with other subjects. In this case, we see the overlap between music and ELA. As a music teacher, I believe that music should be taught in conjunction with other subjects and should connect with concepts that students are learning outside of music class.

This is a video that I made for my Pre-K and Kindergarten students when I was a Leave Replacement Pre-K and Kindergarten Music Teacher at an Independent School in the spring of 2020. Due to the pandemic, we had to make asynchronous videos for the students to watch and participate in while at home. In this video, I sing an intro song that I used for every lesson and then taught a lesson on pitch using a stuffed bird as a prop. This video shows my ability to make music fun, even in an asynchronous format and depicts the ways in which music teachers can engage our students in a creative, exciting way.