Teaching Out of One's Element

As I discussed before, there are some times when you have to/volunteer to teach something out of your element such as an instrument that is not your major one, a type of music that you haven't studied or even a class completely unrelated to music.

The key in teaching something of this nature is to always stay ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE STUDENT. In many cases, the students look to you as an expert, just because you are older and have more life experience. If they see you teach one lesson proficiently on the history of ancient civilization, they consider you an expert.

As long as you know one lesson a step ahead of the student, you will be okay in terms of maintaining the student/teacher experience. While teaching something out of your element is something that happens occasionally, it is not something to base your career off of. Just because you are good at teaching one subject, doesn't mean that you belong teaching everything.

After all, the title for someone who teaches every subject blindly is a substitute teacher, and lord knows no one aspires to hold this position.

Tough Love vs. Getting Rescued

One aspect of the student teaching experience that has been invaluable to me is the application of tough love. With the two cooperating teachers that I have worked with, one has rescued me when the class wasn't moving in the right direction, while the other let me struggle.

Let me just add that when the one cooperating teacher "rescued" me, it was not because he didn't gave faith in me as a teacher. That can sometimes be the case, and it feels terrible. In rescuing me, he was acting similarly to the way a parent protects their young.

When one becomes a full-fledged teacher, there will not be anyone to "rescue" you from the awkward and unplanned moments. As a teacher, you have to learn to live with the discomforts of wait times and lack interest in a lesson.

While I know my one cooperating teacher was only trying to "protect me", and perhaps wasn't even aware of what he was doing, I made a point of asking him not to rescue me. This situation, of me asking and him doing, was hard but necessary. I encourage all student teachers to ask this of your cooperating teachers. If your cooperating teacher reacts adversely to this request, than he/she has an obvious need for control in their classroom and it has little or nothing to do with you.

Choosing Repertoire

Ah, one of my favorite parts of creating a lesson.

There are many aspects to consider when choosing repertoire. But where to begin?

First and foremost, each piece chosen should be unique to the other pieces that a class, or even all the classes repertoire in which you teach.

In choosing music for my choral classes, I usually try to use this format in creating a successful semester and concert.

Each class should have:

1 piece in a foreign language

1 piece of current, popular literature (rock, pop, musical theater, etc.)

1 piece that is more that was written more than 100 years ago

1 piece that is a little bit more challenging than the others that pushes the students

In a choral concert, the ideal number of pieces to present from a large choir is four. Three can be too little, thus not accounting for the differing tastes of the students as well as parents and other staff members who may only see your work at a concert. Five may be too many, especially if a concert has multiple ensembles. Too many pieces can make a concert tedious.

Choosing music for a revue is an all-together different beast. In my experience, the focus of programming a revue can be less about the actual songs performed, and mostly about planning around the schedules of the students. In most cases, a revue is composed of many solos or small group numbers. In order to put on a revue, it is key to find out when your students have free periods and after school time available. This can greatly impact who performs with who (duets for students who can never meet at the same time, not going to happen.) and how many numbers are programmed. DO NOT give a student a solo/piece that needs to be learned outside of class if they have little to no time available to meet with you. Only if a student has proven themselves previously in this type of situation, is it okay to do the prior.

For revues, class periods should be used to practice group numbers (singing, blocking and choreography). This will take more time than you think it will. Allow for two extra days in the schedule to clean up loose ends/review choreography that has been forgotten. These days should not be substituted for run-throughs of the program.

I do not consider everything I have written in the post to be the be-all-end-all of concert programming and repertoire-choosing. It is just knowledge that I have learned along the way. Hopefully, some of it will help you as it has helped me.

The Up's and Down's of Student Teaching.

Student teaching (and teaching for that matter) is very exhausting and emotionally trying at most times if you are doing it correctly.

Here are two charts that sum up common experiences of student teaching and teaching in general.

The process of student teaching is quite similar to that of a hormonal teenager. I say this because you are not quite an adult (full- fledged teacher) with complete authority and you are constantly adjusting to a completely new environment, your first few weeks of student teaching. Thus this can be very complicated for one's psyche, which constantly shifts between elation and depression, very much like the psyche belonging to a teenager. The good news is that after you have been at your school for a few weeks, you should become more acquainted with what is expected of you and how to teach effectively at the school that you are at. If you are lucky enough to spend more than 8 weeks at one school, use this to your advantage. Try out lessons that you anticipating teaching at your own school to see how effective they are with the students and what still needs to be honed.
This graph is showing the mindsets that one typically goes through in a year of teaching. Anticipation usually starts in summer when all your plans are coming together and you are just waiting to start the school year again/embark upon what is being planned with your students.

Survival is the feat of keeping the process of teaching fresh, whether it be getting up each morning, keeping the students engaged/interested in learning and finding new ways to do teach lessons that you can recite in your sleep.

Disillusionment can be a series of factors. Usually, it is increased if the survival process is not constantly honed. Disillusionment can occur towards your administration, fellow teachers, and even the material you are teaching. Getting a good night sleep is probably the key factor in keeping these feelings to a minimum and not having them turn into full-out depression.

Rejuvenation and Reflection happen in the springtime when the weather gets nicer, which gives the sense of rebirth on a grand scale that is hard to ignore. Rejuvenation can be spring cleaning, trying a new hobby or taking on a new curriculum. Reflection is taking the time to look back on what has worked thus far in this year and what needs to be changed in order for greater success as a teacher and member of the school community.

As the school year comes to a close in June, the process begins again, coming around full cycle with Anticipation, once again awaiting anxiously the new school year.

Lesson Planning!

Lesson Planning...everyone's favorite activity...whether during a prep period or outside of school with the abundance of time that all teachers have. (yeah right...)

Lesson planning can be very daunting. For one, which structure of writing one is correct. Many schools and their teachers swear by the Hunter model, which may be the safest place to start as it is known somewhat as the standard.

Here is a sample lesson plan by yours truly:

Objective: Student will be able to sing measures 80 through 95 in “If I Were A Rich Man”

Aim: What are sharps, flats and accidentals?

Listening Piece- Rite of Spring, 2^nd movement

Do Now: What is a #? b? accidental (symbol)? - what do they mean?

Warm-ups: Chops, Massages, Knots

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha- breath/diaphragm movement

Zinga Zoo- Major and Minor- “How do we get to the minor? Is it higher or lower than the major? What type of accidental do we use to go lower?”

Many-Mumbling Mice- Round

“If I Were a Rich Man”

“Open to page 7, measure 80. Girls, sing with the guys” mm 80-87- “What does the accidental on “I’d” do to the rest of the song?”

Add SA- make sure to go over last note it is different

Add SA to Men.

Go on to Measure 88- have them sight-read it the first time. Then go over with rhythms.

Measure 91- work out parts.

Measures 88-92 “What does the flat sign on the word “lives” do to the rest of the song? What comes after this song? Is it in major or minor?”

Guys’ part at measure 92

Measures 71 to the end of the piece

Sing through 95 one more time. Practice transition to “Sunrise, Sunset.”

If time permits: Learn the rest of the song (mm 71 to 79 with repeat)

Assessment: Students will comfortably sing measures 80 through 95 in “If I Were A Rich Man.”

Objective- what are you trying to accomplish with your lesson? What do you ideally want to accomplish at the end of your lesson? This should be your Assessment. Thus, your objective and assessment should can be very similar in wording; just the tenses can be different. It is up to you how you get from the Objective to the Assessment, keeping in mind that they are the outer limits of your lesson plan.

An Aim is a question that that encompasses the idea of the lesson. By the end of the period, the students should be able to answer the Aim, based on all the activities (Warm-ups, Do Nows etc.) employed within the lesson. If the students cannot answer the Aim by the end of the class (either by the teacher directly asking the Aim or by exhibiting proficiency in the day's Assessment, then there need to be more clarity in the way your lesson plan is formatted or the way your relay the information to the students.

A "Do Now" is very much employed by the NYCDOE (New York City Department of Education).

It is a way to get the students involved right when they walk in the classroom. A Do Now can be a question to answer, an activity to do or a video clip to watch. Your Do Now should tie into the lesson for the day, otherwise, it will not make sense.

The same type of ideas used for your Do Now should be used in your Warm-ups. Do not use Warm-ups that have little or nothing to do with the pieces you are working on/lessons that your are teaching. For example, in the lesson above the warm-up focuses on accidentals, which the students will be learning more about in their song (If I Were a Rich Man), which employs many half-steps. Make sure that everything in your lesson connects, almost in an over-obvious way, so that the students can confidently state what they have learned.

Hopefully this blog has helped in formulating a lesson plan, even if you do not employ the same method as I do. A special shout out to my cooperating high school teacher who taught me how to formulate a lesson plan in this way.

Getting up in front of the class- yowza!

The Mad Student Teacher here again...

There is no situation quite similar as getting up in front of the class alone for the first time. The only thing I can comparably relate it to is putting on a performance- memorizing your lines, accounting for other contributions to play (actors, audience, etc.)- but even this is a far fetched metaphor....

For me, when I got up in front of the classroom, everything kind of went out the window. Remembering the students names; I couldn't remember my own! Talk about a deer in the headlights.

As time went on, I noticed a correlation between how scattered my thoughts were and how prepared I was for the lesson: the less prepared I was, the more nervous I was ( and still am). While this may seem obvious, sometimes as a teacher, you can end up teaching a lesson last minute, thinking that you will be fine as you "sort-of" remember learning this in high school school.

So my point, be prepared! Even if this means talking through your thoughts in the mirror or recording yourself on Imovie and watching it right after to see what you look like. Or, you could read my next blog on lesson plans....

Learn their names!!!

First and foremost, my advice to you is to learn your students' names, all of them. This is the first thing you should do when approaching the students in the classroom. While this may seem like a daunting task, there is no way around it. Students have a keen sense about them, and can sniff out any type of insecurity that you have, even before you start speaking in front of them. It is just a fact, there is no way to create a long lastly and meaningful relationship with someone without knowing their name. If you do not put in the time and effort to learn a student's name, they feel unimportant and unvalued, and thus will not value you in return. Do not feel stupid asking them to repeat their names by going up to them individually, this may be the only time that you will have to get to know students who aren't big talkers in the classrooms.

So what are some of the best ways of doing this? My suggestion is to make a seating chart with photos.

The following sites allow you to do so:

Scholastic Seating Chart Maker

Microsoft Word Seating Chart

-TMST