Innovative Leader

Grade 5 Lesson Plan - Plattekill and Leptondale Elementary Schools

During my student teaching experience, I was given the freedom to create my own lessons. Almost immediately I was met with the challenge of adapting my lessons to 2 different classrooms varying in student/classroom size, as well as seasonal school-wide activities. One school was preparing for a school-wide MIOSM assembly, the other was not. So, I had to find other activities to do with the other school that were still engaging and beneficial. Both schools got to participate in all the activities listed, just at different times. Both classes said the conducting portion of the lesson was the most fun activity they had done all year because they felt like a part of the music being made! These lessons were very inspiring for me. It was the first time I felt I had made a difference for them and their experience in music class.

Reflection on Informal Learning

This is a reflection I presented based on a reading about informal learning in the music classroom, and how we all know so much about it, but the classroom restricts, and often deems the knowledge void of meaning and impact. As stated in my teaching narrative , "we, as music teachers are lucky enough to see that students seek our subject beyond the four walls of the classroom, sometimes involuntarily." This knowledge is valid, and should be welcomed in the classroom. This shows that my pedagogy is one that wants to use this informal learning to the students' advantage.