Professional Responsibilities
4a Reflecting on Teaching
As a first-year teacher, I am blessed with many observations from instructional coaches as well as my principal. With each observation, I am given a set of questions to reflect on regarding the lesson that was observed. Often times, these questions tackle areas of my teaching that need to be improved, and I love reflecting and answering them because of the need to find solutions or ways to improve what I'm doing. Though this isn't pictured, I keep a Word document of each class and grade, and do a quick journaling in between classes to mark down things I noticed myself: behavior that I need to address, transitions, whether an activity was successful or not, etc. My first year is full of nothing but experiments. I create lesson plans that look great on paper, and are sometimes not so great in action, so it is important that I constantly reflect on what I do every day, and note what was successful and what wasn't, and why.
4c Communicating With Families
As an orchestra teacher, parent communication is huge. So much of what orchestra requires is outside the classroom (acquiring the student's instrument and book, attending concerts, home practice, etc.). And teaching in a school with a high poverty rate, parent contact is even more crucial. I've had long phone conversations with parents, trying to negotiate a way for them to pay for rentals (due to the limit of scholarship money available). Having lived in poverty myself, I make sure that I communicate to the parent that no matter what, we are working together for their child, and that we won't turn them away because of money issues. At the same time, it's my job to make gauge how needy a family is, which can be tough. I try to work out a payment plan with the parent, but sometimes that is not enough, usually heard in the exasperation of their voice, and detailed accounts of their work situations. I invite their child to join orchestra, and then work with the school counselor to get them a scholarship, or work out a deal with the student (such as being an aide) so that way, even if the student's parents aren't paying, the student is getting something for free and learns to work for what they want. Parents in these situations are often grateful, and they can see the rewards in their child.
4e Growing and Developing Professionally
The above image is my registration for the Oct 1st and 2nd 2015 Orff Workshop. As you can see, these workshops are offered quite frequently throughout the year, giving me many opportunities develop my elementary music methods and pedagogy. This particular workshop was active and hands-on (as music typically is), and was presented by Dr. Brian Burnett, who opened my mind to music methods I had never realized before. He wonderfully shook up what I already knew, and presented in a brand new way that would encourage synapses to fire like crazy.
Workshops like these are events I plan on going to regularly to ensure I stay educated in my own subject. I am also a member of the National Association for Music Education, which offers wide resources for furthering content knowledge and pedagogy.