When you're a teacher...
...you're also a peacekeeper teaching a large group of kids who could be strangers to each other how to get along on a daily basis for 10 months.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a counselor learning why your student may suddenly be upset when they are usually upbeat.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a parent loving and caring and providing for a child who may be completely neglected at home...assuming they live with their parents.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a multitasker who can and must teach the exact same thing many different ways depending on each child's unique needs.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a time manager making copies, making phone calls, meeting parents, preparing lessons, attending required professional development sessions...sometimes all in an hour if you're lucky enough to get an hour.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a small business owner fundraising to take a group of kids on a trip somewhere to enhance their learning.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a student attending all kinds of trainings in an effort to give your students the best educational experience possible.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also your own financial adviser looking for the best, most practical and most economic ways to spend whatever budget you have on materials needed to teach what you're expected to teach (if you even get a budget).
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a social worker advocating for a student's success, especially when they have apathetic parents.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a confidante to kids who can't tell their parents something out of fear of what they might do.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a motivational speaker giving kids a reason to not give up and believe in themselves, especially when their own parents have little or no belief in their ability.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a presenter ready to show new minds why any new topic is the most fascinating thing they'll ever learn about.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a computer genius using all forms of state-of-the-art technology to enhance a lesson's effectiveness.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a lobbyist proving why your position shouldn't be eliminated due to budget cuts.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a team builder teaching different kids how their individual strengths can be used for a common good.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a moderator possibly hearing 1 story told 6 different ways, and each way insisting to be the truth when kids struggle with interpersonal conflict resolution.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a lifeguard creating, fostering, and maintaining an environment where kids feel safe, enabling them to learn.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also an editor looking at a student's best work and show them how to make it even better.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a skilled negotiator getting non-compliant or defiant students to do what you need them to do, especially when their own parents struggle with them.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also an innovator doing the best work you can using whatever resources you have available to you.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a mentor role modeling for kids how to make good decisions and follow through with them.
When you're a teacher...
...you're also a psychoanalyst learning what you need to do and how to do it in order to reach a student and pull out their greatest potential.
Because, when you're a teacher...
...you're also a trained professional who gets paid to work with other adults' kids, people coming from an extreme diversity of backgrounds, and get them all to accomplish many goal in their own unique way on a daily basis for the better part of a year.
"Teaching is the essential profession, that which makes all other professions possible." -David Haselkorn
I didn't get this from anywhere. These are my thoughts based on my experiences after just 4 years of teaching elementary music to kids in Pre-K to 5th grade.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Facing the music
My previous post was a very passionate one. I was seriously thinking of quitting music to sell Mary Kay products for a living. I felt like God had answered a prayer and told me which direction I needed to take my life in.
That was less than a month ago.
This month, from February 9-12, I attended the annual Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) convention in San Antonio. My Kodály professors were there giving several clinics, and I attended nearly all of them. One fo the clinics ended up being my absolute favorite, called "Keep the Music Going with Easy Musical Transitions". The title says it all. Part of the Kodály approach in elementary music education is to teach music musically. If you're teaching music, then already your activities will be musical. But when you change from one activity to another, you can make your transitions a musical experience as well.
Attending that one particular clinic was like a much-more-needed answered prayer. I'm so glad I went to TMEA. It was incredible and so worth it! The clinicians of this particular clinic demonstrated different ways they execute transitions within a 45-50-minute lesson. They performed in front of 3rd-5th graders who had excellent in-tune singing, were very attentive, it was just awesome. What was really impacting, though, is that after they explained the transitions they were to apply in the clinic, they actually went through an entire Kodály lesson plan. This was my first time witnessing a full lesson being performed. Best part? I could tell what was what in the lesson. See, when you execute a lesson using the Kodály approach, every activity morphs into a different one, and with musical transitions, it gives the lesson a special flow. This flow is critical to this approach to teaching. Unlike the typical classroom teacher doing a lot of talking, giving instructions, etc., the Kodály teacher teaches an entire lesson using music, singing, non-verbal communication, anything to keep the music going. What ensues is a musical dialogue between student and teacher.
All that being said, having seen what I needed to see, my passion for MK has returned to the back burner, and I am now 100% remotivated to complete my Kodály certification, which my career depends on. All that's left is 2 teaching videos, at a minimum of 30 minutes each. I have to do a lower grade (1st or 2nd), and an upper grade (3rd, 4th, or 5th). I've written out and tweaked my lessons, and a friend/colleague has looked them over for feedback. I've recorded 3 classes so far. Said friend/colleague has viewed the videos I've made to this point, and I've received lots of praise and some constructive feedback. These teaching videos are given a grade of "pass" or "fail".
It is so motivating to know that I know what to do, how to do it, and I can submit 2 videos that show a very improved approach to my teaching.
Both figuratively and literally, I'm facing the music. I am developing my skills. One thing I really like about this is that I can show my parents what Kodály training has taught me and my students to do. For a while I've bitched and bitched, and bitched, complained and whined about how much I hated this program because of how much trouble it's given me. In retrospect, I've loaded some highly unnecessary personal drama on some very wonderful people. There are several people who've been amazing supports to my completion to this (which is now imminent):
God, Frank, Mom, Dad, Sarah, Monika, Sandra, Martha Jean, Skye, Nathan, Heather, Lisa, Tiffany, Andrew, Gaby, Lynnel, Katherine, Lauren, Lori, Alyssa, Rebecca, and of course the profs and director of the program themselves. I ask for forgiveness from those who've heard me be a big-ass whiney baby for the past nearly 8 months. I'm doing it. I'm almost finished, and I THANK YOU ALL for helping me get to where I am.
According to Zoltán Kodály himself, "Music belongs to everyone." This approach to teaching helps foster this philosophy, and I'm learning how to execute it.
That was less than a month ago.
This month, from February 9-12, I attended the annual Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) convention in San Antonio. My Kodály professors were there giving several clinics, and I attended nearly all of them. One fo the clinics ended up being my absolute favorite, called "Keep the Music Going with Easy Musical Transitions". The title says it all. Part of the Kodály approach in elementary music education is to teach music musically. If you're teaching music, then already your activities will be musical. But when you change from one activity to another, you can make your transitions a musical experience as well.
Attending that one particular clinic was like a much-more-needed answered prayer. I'm so glad I went to TMEA. It was incredible and so worth it! The clinicians of this particular clinic demonstrated different ways they execute transitions within a 45-50-minute lesson. They performed in front of 3rd-5th graders who had excellent in-tune singing, were very attentive, it was just awesome. What was really impacting, though, is that after they explained the transitions they were to apply in the clinic, they actually went through an entire Kodály lesson plan. This was my first time witnessing a full lesson being performed. Best part? I could tell what was what in the lesson. See, when you execute a lesson using the Kodály approach, every activity morphs into a different one, and with musical transitions, it gives the lesson a special flow. This flow is critical to this approach to teaching. Unlike the typical classroom teacher doing a lot of talking, giving instructions, etc., the Kodály teacher teaches an entire lesson using music, singing, non-verbal communication, anything to keep the music going. What ensues is a musical dialogue between student and teacher.
All that being said, having seen what I needed to see, my passion for MK has returned to the back burner, and I am now 100% remotivated to complete my Kodály certification, which my career depends on. All that's left is 2 teaching videos, at a minimum of 30 minutes each. I have to do a lower grade (1st or 2nd), and an upper grade (3rd, 4th, or 5th). I've written out and tweaked my lessons, and a friend/colleague has looked them over for feedback. I've recorded 3 classes so far. Said friend/colleague has viewed the videos I've made to this point, and I've received lots of praise and some constructive feedback. These teaching videos are given a grade of "pass" or "fail".
It is so motivating to know that I know what to do, how to do it, and I can submit 2 videos that show a very improved approach to my teaching.
Both figuratively and literally, I'm facing the music. I am developing my skills. One thing I really like about this is that I can show my parents what Kodály training has taught me and my students to do. For a while I've bitched and bitched, and bitched, complained and whined about how much I hated this program because of how much trouble it's given me. In retrospect, I've loaded some highly unnecessary personal drama on some very wonderful people. There are several people who've been amazing supports to my completion to this (which is now imminent):
God, Frank, Mom, Dad, Sarah, Monika, Sandra, Martha Jean, Skye, Nathan, Heather, Lisa, Tiffany, Andrew, Gaby, Lynnel, Katherine, Lauren, Lori, Alyssa, Rebecca, and of course the profs and director of the program themselves. I ask for forgiveness from those who've heard me be a big-ass whiney baby for the past nearly 8 months. I'm doing it. I'm almost finished, and I THANK YOU ALL for helping me get to where I am.
According to Zoltán Kodály himself, "Music belongs to everyone." This approach to teaching helps foster this philosophy, and I'm learning how to execute it.
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