The second field experience opportunity I received was getting to observe Mr. Kley Todd’s middle school class. This was an interesting class, as it was a very exploratory one, without much structure or set curriculum. He prefaced our experience with the fact that the students in this class do just about everything: Listening quizzes, choir singing, sight-singing, solfege syllables, music technology, and more. This class was not a voluntary one. Due to certain scheduling conflicts in the school, this class was involuntarily selected. From looking at the class, however, I personally couldn’t tell that these students didn’t willingly join this class. Mr. Todd is teaching them very difficult concepts to them, without stressing to them that they are hard. The students in the class were very engaged and willing to learn more. During their listening quiz at the beginning of the class, they were very focused and not talking amongst each other while the video was playing (even though you could expect that they might get distracted during an activity like this). As they were responding on their computers, they were silent and very focused on their work. Once they submitted their assignments and the floor was opened up to discussion guided by critical thinking questions, they were very excited to speak about the song. They brought up very intriguing points about harmony, the story, and even related the song to others that they have heard before, and even asked to listen some more. Through personal experience, I know that an activity like this could have been challenging for some. However, because Mr. Todd has gotten the students accustomed to these types of activities, they are able to be engaged with no problem. About halfway through the class, Mr. Todd told us that there would be a student coming into class that was very much a struggle when it came to classroom management. When the child entered, and started to misbehave, Mr. Todd handled it very well. He was very stern with the student, saying phrases like “you know better”, etc. But also asking him politely to cease the distractions or follow directions. This combination of stern but kind is also essential. Too stern, or mean sounding can make situations with a problem student worse. However, Mr. Todd handled the entire situation, and classroom management in general, very well. Near the end of class, Mr. Todd had to do a brief explanation of how to turn in a project that the students had been working on. He warned them that there were many steps, and that they needed to pay close attention. This foreword helped for some, but for other students, this long, complicated explanation was more of a time to goof off and be a distraction to others. Mr. Todd did know that this explanation was going to have this effect on his students, but it was the most efficient way he could think of to address these steps to his class. I feel that there is a more efficient way to do this, and limit distractions by other students, but Mr. Todd handled this situation well too because it was the only option he had at that point in time! Mr. Todd’s experimental classroom taught me that students can and will be engaged in different aspects of music, and sometimes, they will be interested in all of them at once. Their level of engagement and enjoyment stems from the educator, and I feel that Mr. Todd is the perfect educator for a class like this.
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EricaThis page will be for videos of myself teaching, lesson plans, and reflections. Archives
February 2020
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