Kyla Smith
kylaband@ksu.edu
Musical Background
Music has always been in my life for as long as I can remember. My mom plays the piano, and she used to play every Sunday for church. We have an upright piano in our living room and she would practice all the time for church. When I got into the first grade my mom got me started with piano lessons from the school’s music teacher. I continued taking lessons until the eighth grade until my teacher got a full time job at a bank. This caused her to have to dropped all of her students. But, before I had to stop with my piano lessons, I had started band in the fifth grade. I started on clarinet. In the fifth through sixth grade I started out with one band teacher that the students loved. He would tell us jokes all the time, but that was just about the only thing he really taught us. I was only able to play very few notes. By my seventh grade year we got a new band teacher that happened to be a clarinet player. She knew how to keep a class on task and she would challenge us with harder pieces and concepts constantly. After having her for a few years and being able to observe the way she interacted with students and how much fun she had, I decided I really wanted to become a band teacher like her. I had seen a good amount of ineffective music teachers that didn’t teach very much in their classroom or challenge the students, but Mrs. Harrison was definitely an exception. She not only taught in her room, but out of class when students needed help with anything. Students could come to her if they just needed someone to talk to about school work, even if she couldn’t really help them with it. I really liked the way that she could connect with her students all while teaching them, and it makes me want to be a music teacher like her someday. The influence that she had on me has influenced me to teach and influence other students lives.
National Association for Music Education
Kansas Bandmasters Association
Music 670 Blog
Job Migration: A Collaborative Effort
By: Cynthia L. Wagoner
This article lays out three main steps to making a clean and successful transition to a new job. Wagoner lays out the three steps as a) preparing for the successor, b) migrating into a new job, and c) bridging the gap. The rest of the article goes on to explain the finer details of these steps. Preparing for the Successor explains that when you are leaving a position that you have to come to terms that you are replaceable and you need to keep the students’ learning as the top priority. There is no room for an ego and putting down the new teacher. You should also make things easy on your administration by giving them some resources to find a suitable replacement. Leaving information to help your successor is also important. This can include a guidebook that has information about the program, inventory lists and financial information. This will help your successor have a smooth transition. The next step in transitioning is migrating to your new job. You need to acknowledge that you can not “change the world” right when you get there. The students are transitioning too and change can be hard for them. If you try to change the entire program in your first year students will be defensive. Try not to show you predecessor’s ideas and techniques in a bad light. Finally, bridging the gap with your predecessors and successors will make the transition easier for both of you.
This article had a great take on changing schools. My biggest concern with changing jobs is the students’ attachment. Students get into a routine with another teacher and they do not want to change that routine. If this change is not carefully taken care of by the teacher that is leaving and the incoming teacher the change can be harmful to the program. Teachers who are moving on need to be open with their students and prepare them for the change. Teachers that are coming into a new school have to be mindful that they can not change the program in their first year. Students will want to do things just as the previous teacher because they liked that teacher and take offense when you want to do thins differently. I thought that Wagoner had some great insight on how to help the incoming teacher. I really liked the idea of providing inventory list and financial information. This will help the new teacher adjust and be successful in their new program.
Wagoner, C. L. (2012). Job migration: A collaborative effort. Teaching Music, 19(6), 28-30.
The Key to Success for Students with Special Needs
By: Patience Moore
In this article Moore talks describes how Mollie Nusz, a
music teacher from Pleasant Ridge Middle School in Overland Park, Kansas, uses paraprofessionals
as the key to engage students with special needs. Nusz explains what a
teacher can do with a para to help make the learning experience better.
First, she meets with the para before class. This way she can find
out what mood the student is in and any anxieties they have that day.
Next, she meets with the para and student and goes through the plan for the
day so the student will know what to expect and what the teacher expects of
them. Nusz also uses the para in the class activities by having them
"track" for the student when singing lyrics. The para can also
use a hand over hand technique when playing drums with yarn mallets.
Finally, headphones help students who are auditorily sensitive.
I thought this article was eye opening. It gave me some great ideas on how to involve special needs students and their paras in my music classroom. A music class can be very therapeutic for these students, so we should try to involve them as much as we can. After reading this article I hope to apply this in my classroom by setting aside time to meet with the student and their para before class to discuss class activities so the student is not surprised or anxious in class. I also think that when singing lyrics I could do "tracking" for all my students to help not only my special needs students but other students who might have problems following lyrics.
Moore, Patience. "The Key to Success for Students with Special Needs." Teaching Music 20.5 (2013): 57. Print.