Week 7 Student Teaching

This week we put into motion the idea of stations in the classroom. This turned out to be a great success. Because we are in block scheduling the classes get long, and the students get bored and tired. So have this active way to engage students in different activities was, to me, a fantastic idea. One, it gets students out of their seats and moving around. Two, they don't get as bored since each station time is 15 minutes long. It also gives more time for individual help on the piano. The songs we are playing are getting harder and they need extra teacher help. It is a great feeling to have students tell me that they bought a piano or that they are getting one for Christmas/birthday. The fact that students are becoming inspired to play music on my account has and always will be a great feeling. I remember when I was about the same age when I really started to become passionate about music. One goal that I accomplished this week was just refining my teaching and also not trying to force anything. Sometimes when I plan a lesson and I think it's going to go one way and the students aren't buying it, I need to learn to do things more on the fly. For example, one student who wasn't paying attention and disrupts the class often came up while I was teaching a lesson on rhythm and asked to play the rhythm on the board with the djembe drum I brought in. Instead of saying "No, go back to your seat and be quiet." I said "Sure, why don't you lead the class in clapping the rhythm today also." That gave the student to get the attention they wanted so badly in a productive way. It was totally improvised and the class went as smooth as ever. So I have to remember that things arent always going to go as planned and to go with the flow. Another thing that I have gotten better at is just being more clear and efficient with my teaching. Have A & B days helps me refine lessons because I'm repeating lessons pretty every other day. So, it's great practice to modify and refine my lessons.

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