Student Teaching Journal

A year ago, I was twenty pounds lighter than I am now. I lived with my grandma over the summer if that explains anything. I finally mustered up the motivation to start counting calories and working out every day. I haven’t been doing too great, but at least I’m making myself aware of what I need to work on! For my first Jing image, I decided to make my “Calories Eaten” chart for the past week visible to everyone! Hold me accountable, guys! I had a rough weekend, as you can see, but I’m pretty good now. My goal is to not exceed 1535 calories per day. That’ll be great fun when I’m on vacation in San Francisco next week!

Filed by emstrazz at 9:35 pm under Uncategorized
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1. I’ve gotten some of the strangest faces I’ve ever seen people make by telling them I want to teach middle school. I think middle schoolers are completely unique from students of any other age level, and I really feel that teachers have a huge impact with that age level.
2. After subbing in an elementary room for one day last year, I vowed I’d never teach elementary school. After observing in a few elementary music classrooms, though, I realized it wouldn’t be so bad since you only have the same kids for an hour at a time, at most!
3. I will be the sixth person on my dad’s side of the family to go into teaching.
4. It was incredibly difficult for me to decide on a teachable minor. The only subject I don’t love is social studies. I picked math, but I’m sure when I’m in the schools, I’ll wish I could teach everything else, too!
5. I’m afraid of a performance-based choral classroom. All choirs tend to work toward the goal of producing a good concert or doing well at festivals, and I’m afraid of how I will be able to still achieve that goal while teaching my students essential skills about music (sight singing, theory, etc.)
6. I am hoping and praying that in the next 4 (or hopefully 8 years,) Baraq Obama will be able to untangle this mess called public schools.
7. I will have active morning classes because if I’m sitting down within four hours of waking up, I fall asleep. As long as I’m moving around, though, I’m a morning person!
8. Unfortunately, it’s been brought to my attention through observations and field work that there will be some students I will not be able to reach. I think it will be hard for me to accept that.
9. I am prepared to be working 24 hours a day as a teacher. I’ve had a job working with children before where I worked eight hours during the day, wrote lesson plans for 4 hours each evening, and dreamed about work all night.
10. The teachers I remember most from any level of my schooling are not remembered for what they taught me in the classroom; They are remembered for the time they invested outside of the classroom in clubs and activities.
11. I think that a hundred years ago, people were probably just as upset as the education system as we are today. The world is constantly changing, and it is a struggle to keep such a huge network up to speed.
12. I think one method of teaching that is overlooked in methods classes and by many teachers is the method of using other human resources. No one can be a perfect teacher, and a teacher who is liked by most students will most likely not be liked by all students. I think bringing in other people from the community to reach students who the classroom teacher may not be able to reach is crucial to helping everyone learn. I plan to bring in male singers to my choir often to model the male voice, since I cannot do that myself.
13. We’re always warned to avoid being our students’ friends. I think that as long as the students still respect their teachers, it’s important to have a friendly relationship.
14. I think co-curricular projects should happen once per marking period in a school. They help students be able to transfer what they’re learning instead of having to switch off different parts of their brain as they go from class to class.
15. With the rise of child obesity, I think we need a reform in many schools’ rules and policies: Rules like “No water in the classroom,” “Stay seated at all times,” and the awful food choices at lunch are probably not helping this issue.
16. A required P.E. class is a touchy subject for me. I hated gym class so much, because I was so bad at it, that when I got a compression fracture in my back in 9th grade, I was happy that my back would be thrown out of whack for four years because that meant I wouldn’t have to take gym. I would have a different opinion on the subject if there were options. Students have choices between instrumental and vocal music, between auto shop and woodworking– Why not offer choices in the P.E. realm, too? I wouldn’t have been afraid of swimming, yoga, or cycling. It was the “You have to be perfectly physically fit and good at each and every sport in this class,” that scared me to death.
17. I don’t understand why more future teachers don’t substitute teach. I have learned a ton about my teaching style and comfort level in front of a class just from about 8 days of subbing.
18. I think learning names is in the Top 3 most important things for a teacher to do. I’m not sure what the other 2 are, but… learning names is right up there!
19. If I end up teaching math instead of music, I hope to always have music playing in the background– probably never music with words, though.
20. I hope to participate in everything I want my class to do. I don’t want to be a teacher who assigns students a project without having done it myself first.
21. I think the climate of a school is based around the principal’s attitude.
22. Sending students to the office scares me. When you’re having a problem with a student in the classroom, do you really want that student walking down the hall by him/herself? How do you know they really end up at the office?
23. I feel that grammar and penmanship should be reinforced all the way through school instead of dropped out of the curriculum somewhere between 5th and 9th grade.
24. I think keeping contact with parents on a regular basis is key, and now with email and other forms of Internet technology, that’s easier than ever!
25. I hope that all educators feel as strongly about their thoughts toward education as I feel about the above 24 thoughts of mine.

Filed by emstrazz at 4:21 pm under Uncategorized
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Filed by emstrazz at 6:48 pm under Uncategorized
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I have yet to work with students in my current methods classes (ED361, MA354, and ED483). I have a lot of experience working with students through my methods classes, but even more experience outside of the education program.

I’ve already taken ED319/349 and MU… whatever the Music Methods class is. ED319/349 gave me a lot of experience in front of students, but in a different content area. I’m a music major and I was teaching students about English, with very little instruction on WHAT to teach them and… well, I won’t say much. Let me just say that it was a mess, and I’m glad to hear that that whole process was reformed. Looking back at the experience of being in front of the freshmen English students, the moment that sticks out in my mind was when a student told me I was intimidating. The class was acting up for my partner and I did not appreciate the lack of respect they were giving him. I whipped out my authoritive skills and let them know that I knew they could behave more respectfully. They shut up real quick and one girl said, “You’re really intimidating!” I was SO proud! I’ve always been afraid that with my small stature, students would look at me as one of them. Not that time. But… that’s all I really got out of the experience. That small little boost of self-esteem.

Most of my experience with students comes out of my own out of methods experience. Substitute teaching is a lot like the experience I received in ED319/349. When I’m thrown in front of a classroom I know nothing about, it’s more about my behavior management techniques than anything. I learn a lot about myself from subbing, but not really about my “teaching style,” per se.

I worked at a day camp this summer as a lead counselor and learned a ton about organizing lesson plans, modifying plans at the last minute, how to handle behavior issues, and you can only imagine what else I encountered in 10 weeks with children ranging from 5 to 12 years old. (Here’s a picture of me at day camp!)

Another great experience I’ve had with students was directing a play at Gwinn High School last fall. I played the female lead in the play “Tell-Tale” my sophomore year here at NMU and I was invited to direct a production of that play out at my old high school. I planned out rehearsals, worked with the kids, developed friendly yet professional relationships, and really got to feel how rewarding teaching can be. In my directing of “Tell-Tale,” we used a discussion forum online called Moodle. With Moodle, the cast could shoot questions and ideas off of each other about character development and the history of the play, and (this is the coolest part) we kept in direct contact with the playwright of “Tell-Tale,” Rebecca Gorman. Not all of the cast members used Moodle, but those who did encouraged their peers to use it and expressed how much they learned from each other through the forum.

Speaking of technology, I just learned a great way to use technology in the classroom a week ago. I am the leader of a vocal jazz group here at NMU, and we recently had a piece of music written specifically for us by our former leader, Zach. The parts are very difficult for me to play on the piano, so I had Zach send me the Finale file of the piece. Instead of playing parts on the piano, I can mute certain parts on the Finale file and choose which parts I want the computer to play. It’s just like learning parts from the piano. The only difference is whether the teacher is operating a keyboard or a mouse!

I think NMU’s education program is great. That’s one of the many reasons I chose to attend Northern. But as almost every teacher I’ve talked to has told me, no matter how many methods classes you take, you’ll never know what it’s like to teach until you do it. I think those of us who are really motivated to teach are the ones who get experience with students outside of the methods classes. If I had to rely solely on my experience in ED319/349, I think I’d be scared out of the profession. Because of my own motivation to learn how to teach, I’m very excited about my future!

Filed by emstrazz at 7:13 am under Uncategorized
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The beginning of this article reminds me of a Demetri Martin joke:

The picture of Obama being sworn in is incredible. I’ve never seen that many digital cameras at once.
In reference to the paragraph about viewing children’s concerts through viewfinders: I have my senior vocal recital tomorrow evening and I was very picky about who was going to tape my recital. I wanted to get somebody who would do a good job, but I really didn’t want my family to have to tape it. This is going to be one of the biggest achievements of my life and I don’t want anyone who’s there for me to miss anything from messing around with a camera setting. Sure, someone has to tape it, but I don’t think whoever is taping it will really get to experience the music.

Filed by emstrazz at 11:35 pm under Uncategorized
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