My first practicum experience was with Mrs. Kari Carpenter at Mountain View Elementary School. I did not quite know what to expect, but I came into the school with an open mind. The elementary general music class had just come from an assembly where a magician performed some tricks about books. Mrs. Carpenter knew about this, and actually opened the floor for the students to discuss their experience before class. This was a great activity for many reasons. The students were able to share their favorite parts, and laugh with each other about the memories they had just created. Not only that, but the discussion at the beginning of class definitely lessened the amount of extra discussion between the students for the remainder of the class, because they had already told their stories to each other! She then had the students get their assigned ukuleles off of the wall in the back. They were numbered, and every student knew his or her assigned number very easily. This must be something that they do a lot in the class! At this point, as the students sat back down, we, the MUED students, were invited to grab a ukulele, and join their circle on the ground. We were able to help her as she tuned instruments, reviewed chords, and even taught new chords to them as we sang through a popular song. At this point, Mrs. Carpenter would get occupied with certain situations (in this case, an extremely out of tune ukulele), and would allow the students to get louder in volume and more rambunctious. However, as soon as she was not preoccupied, they knew to settle down and work to focus on the activity at hand. After this, they listened to The Addams Family Theme Song, responded to it, and then proceeded to learn the bass line and snap(s) part to the song on the xylophones. This took an immense amount of classroom management as well, as there were two students at each xylophone. This observation at Mountain View taught me so much about the importance of classroom management. The ability to set standards of behavior for your students while they are in your classroom is important, but being able to enforce those standards so diligently is essential for the overall success of a classroom. Because of Mrs. Carpenter’s ability to keep students occupied, and using different pedagogical strategies for classroom management, she played a huge role in ensuring their success in learning during her lesson. During the observation, however, she also informed us that she planned too much into one day. It is always great to plan ahead, but sometimes it may hinder learning in the slightest. Trying to fit too many educational activities into a small amount of time may be efficient, but may also not gurantee that a student is fully understanding the material at hand because of the fast pace of the lesson. Students need reflection time, and some guiding questions to help them process the meaning of activities like these. Overall, my experience with Mrs. Carpenter at Mountain View Elementary was fantastic. I enjoyed learning so many beneficial things from her class!
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EricaThis page will be for videos of myself teaching, lesson plans, and reflections. Archives
February 2020
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