Dispositions Reflection

                I feel very comfortable with Quality Standard 1 as a whole but specifically Element A: Teachers provide instruction that is aligned with the Colorado Academic Standards, their District's organized plan of instruction, and the individual needs of their students.  I have worked in so many different types of schools that it was relatively simple to apply my expertise to a new school and make sure I was aligned with the Colorado Academic Standards, Adams 12 curriculum, and the gifted students I got to work with.  After I read a book on gifted students (which also covered twice exceptional students), I found ways to engage the students in a variety of appropriate activities that taught the standards clearly and gave the students every opportunity for success.  

Another standard I feel very comfortable with is Quality Standard 4, Element F: Teachers model and promote effective communication.  I have no difficulty with classroom management but the majority of good classroom management and consistently high student engagement relies heavily on getting to know your students and demonstrating the positivity, kindness, honesty, and clarity in communication that you want them to demonstrate back to you.  When students are experiencing challenging emotions or have had a negative interaction with others, this is the hardest time for them to communicate effectively, so this is when it is extremely important for the teacher to help facilitate successful communication, which I was able to do several times over the course of my student teaching. 

Quality Standard 3, Element E: Teachers provide students with opportunities to work in teams and develop leadership is the disposition I'd like to focus on in the future.  I find it challenging in music to consistently put students in groups because even students who get along normally may have wildly different skill levels and opinions on music.   I also find I have to know students pretty well before I am comfortable allowing them to take on leadership roles, and I do struggle with giving individual jobs as it can be unfair if everyone is not given a similar opportunity.  Music can already be a difficult class in which to balance fairness when one student has been playing piano since they were five with constant music exposure and the next one doesn't even listen to music at home and didn't know how to play anything on piano until last week.  I want to be sure to give skill appropriate experiences to both students, but the less musically exposed one shouldn't be passed over for a leadership opportunity as this may cause them to dislike music class (and then music in general), and likewise the more musically exposed one shouldn't be given every leadership opportunity as this may cause resentment from classmates. As I was at a gifted school, it was often pointed out to me that gifted students are noted to have more social difficulties than other students and while the school has a class to help students remedy that, I did find the students were very sensitive to what was fair and often needed to be right, so it would cause further issues if I wasn't fair in the way I chose groups and student leaders.  I was able to do so several times in all grade levels during my student teaching but I would have liked to feel more comfortable doing so. 

My professional goals are always student forward.  I want the students to find success in music and a love of music, formed from their experiences in a positive classroom environment with a well-developed curriculum that comes from a deep understanding of how the brain learns music and allows them to build the neural pathways that give them such useful skills as creative thinking, executive functioning, logic, mathematical thinking, reading, imagination, and more so they can do everything they dream of in their lives.  All of these dispositions give me an excellent basis for reflecting on and assessing my own teaching and ensuring a well-rounded musical education for my students.  I will revisit these dispositions consistently to ensure that I am always meeting or exceeding them by verifiable measures.