| ELEMENTARY GENERAL MUSIC | MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL BAND | HIGH SCHOOL BAND CAPSTONE | PSU EXPERIENCES |
Teaching Experiences at Penn State
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Music 345 (Instructional Practices in Music) & Music 395B (Cohort Practicum II)
Elementary Band
As part of my rotation for Music 345/395B, I first worked with Dr. Thornton in Instrumental Methods and Materials in Elementary Band. Most of our time was devoted to learning who to organize and plan rehearsals outside of the stereotypical elementary band rehearsal, observing actual elementary band directors at work, practicing concepts through peer teachings and working with actual elementary band students, and learning about repertoire and various manners and methods of assessment in the classroom.
One part of this class involved going in small groups to local elementary schools to observe and work with elementary band students. For my in-the-field work, I worked with Mrs. Steinbacher, elementary band teacher at Benner and Marion-Walker Elementary Schools in Bellefonte, PA. Through her observation and guidance, I felt much more comfortable working with students on a secondary instruments and being able to work more successfully with elementary age students.
Besides working in the schools with real elementary band students, Dr. Thornton also had us work with our peers to help build our confidence in front of a beginning or intermediate ensemble, provide a nurturing environment where we could hone our skills, and supplement our experiences out in the schools.
One of these peer episodes involved developing a creative activity to be used in an elementary band class and teaching it to our peers, who were playing secondary instruments. Below is footage of me leading my creative activity, which I entitled Superheroes! In these videos (divided into two parts to meet YouTube time restraints), you will see the students engaged in listening to and analyzing several famous superhero theme songs that I played for them. After a brief class discussion on aspects of these themes that make them memorable, I broke them into small groups to develop a theme song for one of three unique superheroes I that created. I chose to highlight this video because I felt this was one of my strongest teachings this semester through Music 345 & 395B. In addition, I really enjoyed developing this lesson and had an absolute blast teaching it to my peers. This enthusiasm really came out as I was teaching and helped encourage and inspire the group.
As part of my rotation for Music 345/395B, I first worked with Dr. Thornton in Instrumental Methods and Materials in Elementary Band. Most of our time was devoted to learning who to organize and plan rehearsals outside of the stereotypical elementary band rehearsal, observing actual elementary band directors at work, practicing concepts through peer teachings and working with actual elementary band students, and learning about repertoire and various manners and methods of assessment in the classroom.
One part of this class involved going in small groups to local elementary schools to observe and work with elementary band students. For my in-the-field work, I worked with Mrs. Steinbacher, elementary band teacher at Benner and Marion-Walker Elementary Schools in Bellefonte, PA. Through her observation and guidance, I felt much more comfortable working with students on a secondary instruments and being able to work more successfully with elementary age students.
Besides working in the schools with real elementary band students, Dr. Thornton also had us work with our peers to help build our confidence in front of a beginning or intermediate ensemble, provide a nurturing environment where we could hone our skills, and supplement our experiences out in the schools.
One of these peer episodes involved developing a creative activity to be used in an elementary band class and teaching it to our peers, who were playing secondary instruments. Below is footage of me leading my creative activity, which I entitled Superheroes! In these videos (divided into two parts to meet YouTube time restraints), you will see the students engaged in listening to and analyzing several famous superhero theme songs that I played for them. After a brief class discussion on aspects of these themes that make them memorable, I broke them into small groups to develop a theme song for one of three unique superheroes I that created. I chose to highlight this video because I felt this was one of my strongest teachings this semester through Music 345 & 395B. In addition, I really enjoyed developing this lesson and had an absolute blast teaching it to my peers. This enthusiasm really came out as I was teaching and helped encourage and inspire the group.
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The other major peer episode with Dr. Thornton was preparing and leading a rehearsal on a piece from the elementary band repertoire with our peers on secondary instruments. Each of us were given a score to an elementary band piece and tasked with analyzing our scores, developing a lesson plan for our rehearsal, and leading our peers in rehearsing our piece. For this peer conducting, we had to submit our analysis/score study as well as our lesson plan for the rehearsal. Here is my score study and rehearsal plan for Gypsydance.
Following our class discussions on creating and maintaining a comprehensive system of assessments in the classroom, Dr. Thornton had us develop our own musical achievement assessment portfolio for a particular grade level or instrument group in an elementary band setting. Here is my portfolio assessment designed for 2nd Year Woodwind Players.
Following our class discussions on creating and maintaining a comprehensive system of assessments in the classroom, Dr. Thornton had us develop our own musical achievement assessment portfolio for a particular grade level or instrument group in an elementary band setting. Here is my portfolio assessment designed for 2nd Year Woodwind Players.
Secondary General
The second part of my rotation was with Dr. Clements in Instrumental Methods and Materials in Secondary General. Here, we focused on developing and employing basic musical skills in any of the possible secondary general music classes, specifically the three main forms of listening. Dr. Clements had us explore these three forms of listening (attentive, engaged, enactive) through her lessons as well as through two teaching episodes at Mt. Nittany Middle School.
As part of our in-the-school experience, I observed and worked with Mrs. Gardner's 7th grade general music class with Stephanie Shoffner and Brian Durocher. Dr. Clements assigned our group to develop a lesson plan and teach an entire class session on the music of Louisiana and New Orleans using both attentive and engaged listening. For this lesson, I was tasked with developing an assessment based on attentive listening. For this assessment, I had the students listen to two different clips from Struttin' With Some Barbecue, performed by famed New Orleans jazz artist Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars, and answer several questions based upon the listening.
Our other major experience in Dr. Clement's rotation was another group lesson based on enactive listening using world drumming. In this lesson, our group used world drums and percussion instruments to work on simple rhythm improvisation, call & response, ensemble drumming, arranging, learning a song by rote, singing in different harmonies, and combining singing and drumming.
The second part of my rotation was with Dr. Clements in Instrumental Methods and Materials in Secondary General. Here, we focused on developing and employing basic musical skills in any of the possible secondary general music classes, specifically the three main forms of listening. Dr. Clements had us explore these three forms of listening (attentive, engaged, enactive) through her lessons as well as through two teaching episodes at Mt. Nittany Middle School.
As part of our in-the-school experience, I observed and worked with Mrs. Gardner's 7th grade general music class with Stephanie Shoffner and Brian Durocher. Dr. Clements assigned our group to develop a lesson plan and teach an entire class session on the music of Louisiana and New Orleans using both attentive and engaged listening. For this lesson, I was tasked with developing an assessment based on attentive listening. For this assessment, I had the students listen to two different clips from Struttin' With Some Barbecue, performed by famed New Orleans jazz artist Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars, and answer several questions based upon the listening.
Our other major experience in Dr. Clement's rotation was another group lesson based on enactive listening using world drumming. In this lesson, our group used world drums and percussion instruments to work on simple rhythm improvisation, call & response, ensemble drumming, arranging, learning a song by rote, singing in different harmonies, and combining singing and drumming.
Choral
The last part of my rotation for Music 345/395B was with Dr. Leach in "Choral Land." With Dr. Leach, we learned how to establish and use an effective warm-up routine to engage students as well as address fundamentals in singing, how to assess voices for part and choir placement, how to effectively work with the changing adolescent voice, the importance of repertoire selection, what it is like to work with choirs in various settings through field observation, and explored how to lead and rehearse a choir through two peer teaching episodes. While we did not have the opportunity to work with students in a choral setting while out in the schools, Dr. Leach did arrange for us to have two peer teaching opportunities on Simple Gifts and Ave Verum. With Simple Gifts, we were allotted 7-8 minutes to teach the class a diction exercise and rehearse either the 1st half or 2nd half of Simple Gifts. In addition, Dr. Leach asked us to submit our rehearsal plans prior to class so he could evaluate our plans as we taught. Across is my rehearsal plan for Simple Gifts as well as the video from my session. While I used to be very uncomfortable in any choral setting, I felt through the help of Dr. Leach through this class and Dr. Glocke with Campus Choir that I have risen above this fear. This teaching episode was a great glimpse of what might be a reality in the future as well as serve as safe outlet for me to practice rehearsing in a choral setting. Overall, I felt very confident and poised in front of the group and did a great job of navigating through my rehearsal plan. The only detraction from this episode was that our class had to end early due to another class needing our room, cutting my lesson short. |
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Reflection on Experiences in Music 345 & 395B
Through Music 345 this semester, I feel that I have greatly improved in all aspects of my teaching, especially in several areas of music education that I do not feel as comfortable in. My first rotation with Dr. Thornton in Elementary Band was very eye-opening experience. Through her guidance and expertise, I really felt comfortable working on developing my rehearsal technique as well as exploring my creativity in a classroom setting. Her emphasis on broadening the minds of students and really interacting with them on multiple levels really came through with her creative activity lesson. In this lesson, she gave us some guidance as far as what her expectations were for the assignment, but gave us full control over creative aspects and design of our creative assignments. In other words, we had full control over making this creative assignment our own lesson, not just another mundane teaching assignment. This was one of the more enjoyable assignments all semester in 345 because I not only learned a great deal about planning and preparing for elementary band lessons, but also had a blast developing this fun and creative lesson for my students. As far as work on assessment, Dr. Thornton did an outstanding job of working with us on developing and incorporating assessment into an elementary band setting. I learned a great deal from her discussions on assessment and grew even more as an educator with her assignment to develop our own portfolio assessment system.
In addition, Dr. Thornton did an outstanding job of placing us with outstanding elementary teachers for our work in the schools. Mrs. Johanna Steinbacher was an outstanding teacher and role model to learn from with her quick wit and sharp intellect. Through working with her at Benner and Marion-Walker Elementary Schools, I feel much more in control in front of the classroom, especially working with students on a secondary instrument. In addition, as a former Penn State graduate, she was able to empathize with us and work with us better to really meet our needs in elementary band.
While Dr. Thornton taught us with a purpose and allowed us the freedom to be creative and expressive in our assignments and lessons, I felt that Dr. Clements was more restrictive in her lessons and assignments. Dr. Clements was very hands on with her lessons, but it seemed that everything we learned was focused primarily on the three forms of listening. While this was very valuable to learn about, there were so many more aspects that could also have been covered to address the multiplicity of classes considered part of secondary general music education. She did a good job of pairing us with our cooperating teaching at Mt. Nittany Middle School, but most of the lessons she assigned us were prescribed with very little room for individuality and deviation. Additionally, while Dr. Clements was a great instructor, it seemed that I learned more from working within my group on our lesson plans for our teachings as well as receiving feedback from Mrs. Gardner at Mt. Nittany Middle School than I did from Dr. Clements instruction. So, I felt that while I still continued to learn and grow as an prospective educator with developing thorough and educational lesson plans and assessments, I felt that I didn't grow in my creativity with lessons and development as an instructor in front of the classroom.
My last rotation with Dr. Leach in Choral Land was one of my hardest and most rewarding rotations as far as expanding my knowledge in an unknown area. For years, I have feared being involved in choirs because of unresolved issues over my voice and confidence with singing. However, through the help of Dr. Glocke in Campus Choir and Dr. Leach in this rotation, I have really built up my confidence in working with vocalists and being able to effective model correct vocal and singing techniques. Dr. Leach did an outstanding job of weaving our peer teachings with his progression of materials so that we started by teaching a familiar song to our peers and then moving on to harder, unknown works. In addition, he really emphasized establishing and using an effective warm-up routine to prepare singers for rehearsing and addressing fundamental aspects of singing. His planning activities related directly with our peer teaching episodes and he provided a basic model of what he wanted in a lesson plan to prepare us for teaching. However, he still allowed us plenty of room to choose what we focused on it our lessons and gave us effective feedback following our teaching sessions. While we didn't have to complete a formal out-of-class assessment assignment, I felt I learned the most from Dr. Leach's vocal assessment activity in helping assign students to appropriate voice ranges and choirs. Dr. Leach first led us through a couple mock auditions before sending us off into small groups to conduct our own mock auditions for each other. Finally, it was harder with Dr. Leach to learn through in-the-school experiences due to the lack of time working with actual choral students. However, I did learn a great deal from observing local choral directors at work with their ensembles as well as the question and answer sessions held afterward (Bob Drafall at State College High School and Meredith Byron at Bellefonte Middle School)
Overall, I had a great experience with all of the professors I worked with in Music 345 this semester. Through their instruction and guidance, I feel that I have matured as an educator in many levels and feel much more confident and competent in areas of music education that I had not considered as a part of my future. However, these instructors showed that even though these areas might not be my first choice, they are still great areas to teach in and still have a major impact on the lives of students.
Through Music 345 this semester, I feel that I have greatly improved in all aspects of my teaching, especially in several areas of music education that I do not feel as comfortable in. My first rotation with Dr. Thornton in Elementary Band was very eye-opening experience. Through her guidance and expertise, I really felt comfortable working on developing my rehearsal technique as well as exploring my creativity in a classroom setting. Her emphasis on broadening the minds of students and really interacting with them on multiple levels really came through with her creative activity lesson. In this lesson, she gave us some guidance as far as what her expectations were for the assignment, but gave us full control over creative aspects and design of our creative assignments. In other words, we had full control over making this creative assignment our own lesson, not just another mundane teaching assignment. This was one of the more enjoyable assignments all semester in 345 because I not only learned a great deal about planning and preparing for elementary band lessons, but also had a blast developing this fun and creative lesson for my students. As far as work on assessment, Dr. Thornton did an outstanding job of working with us on developing and incorporating assessment into an elementary band setting. I learned a great deal from her discussions on assessment and grew even more as an educator with her assignment to develop our own portfolio assessment system.
In addition, Dr. Thornton did an outstanding job of placing us with outstanding elementary teachers for our work in the schools. Mrs. Johanna Steinbacher was an outstanding teacher and role model to learn from with her quick wit and sharp intellect. Through working with her at Benner and Marion-Walker Elementary Schools, I feel much more in control in front of the classroom, especially working with students on a secondary instrument. In addition, as a former Penn State graduate, she was able to empathize with us and work with us better to really meet our needs in elementary band.
While Dr. Thornton taught us with a purpose and allowed us the freedom to be creative and expressive in our assignments and lessons, I felt that Dr. Clements was more restrictive in her lessons and assignments. Dr. Clements was very hands on with her lessons, but it seemed that everything we learned was focused primarily on the three forms of listening. While this was very valuable to learn about, there were so many more aspects that could also have been covered to address the multiplicity of classes considered part of secondary general music education. She did a good job of pairing us with our cooperating teaching at Mt. Nittany Middle School, but most of the lessons she assigned us were prescribed with very little room for individuality and deviation. Additionally, while Dr. Clements was a great instructor, it seemed that I learned more from working within my group on our lesson plans for our teachings as well as receiving feedback from Mrs. Gardner at Mt. Nittany Middle School than I did from Dr. Clements instruction. So, I felt that while I still continued to learn and grow as an prospective educator with developing thorough and educational lesson plans and assessments, I felt that I didn't grow in my creativity with lessons and development as an instructor in front of the classroom.
My last rotation with Dr. Leach in Choral Land was one of my hardest and most rewarding rotations as far as expanding my knowledge in an unknown area. For years, I have feared being involved in choirs because of unresolved issues over my voice and confidence with singing. However, through the help of Dr. Glocke in Campus Choir and Dr. Leach in this rotation, I have really built up my confidence in working with vocalists and being able to effective model correct vocal and singing techniques. Dr. Leach did an outstanding job of weaving our peer teachings with his progression of materials so that we started by teaching a familiar song to our peers and then moving on to harder, unknown works. In addition, he really emphasized establishing and using an effective warm-up routine to prepare singers for rehearsing and addressing fundamental aspects of singing. His planning activities related directly with our peer teaching episodes and he provided a basic model of what he wanted in a lesson plan to prepare us for teaching. However, he still allowed us plenty of room to choose what we focused on it our lessons and gave us effective feedback following our teaching sessions. While we didn't have to complete a formal out-of-class assessment assignment, I felt I learned the most from Dr. Leach's vocal assessment activity in helping assign students to appropriate voice ranges and choirs. Dr. Leach first led us through a couple mock auditions before sending us off into small groups to conduct our own mock auditions for each other. Finally, it was harder with Dr. Leach to learn through in-the-school experiences due to the lack of time working with actual choral students. However, I did learn a great deal from observing local choral directors at work with their ensembles as well as the question and answer sessions held afterward (Bob Drafall at State College High School and Meredith Byron at Bellefonte Middle School)
Overall, I had a great experience with all of the professors I worked with in Music 345 this semester. Through their instruction and guidance, I feel that I have matured as an educator in many levels and feel much more confident and competent in areas of music education that I had not considered as a part of my future. However, these instructors showed that even though these areas might not be my first choice, they are still great areas to teach in and still have a major impact on the lives of students.
Music 366 (Intermediate Conducting)
This semester I worked with Dr. Bundy and Avi Mehta on developing as a conductor in an instrumental setting. Through numerous conducting episodes with complete works for larger ensembles, I have greatly improved in my conducting set-up (posture, grip, wrists and arm control), conducted gesture, expressivity, score analysis, and rehearsal abilities. One of the episodes that I have chosen to highlight is my second time conducting the first movement from Gustav Holst's First Suite in E-Flat for Military Band. In this session, we conducted the entire first movement from beginning to end with no feedback or interruptions by Dr. Bundy or Avi. During this session, I felt very free and expressive with my gesture while doing a great job of communicating with the ensemble. Overall, I felt that this was one of my best conducting sessions all semester. |
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Music 341 (Instructional Materials in Music) & Music 395A (Cohort Practicum I)
Peer Teaching Episodes for Music 395A
For my first peer teaching episode in Music 395A, I had to review an unaccompanied song with the class. My assigned song was "Shake the Papaya Down," which I taught last year as part of Music 295A. This is was our first time reviewing an unaccompanied song in class. Here is my self reflection for this first teaching experience.
For my first peer teaching episode in Music 395A, I had to review an unaccompanied song with the class. My assigned song was "Shake the Papaya Down," which I taught last year as part of Music 295A. This is was our first time reviewing an unaccompanied song in class. Here is my self reflection for this first teaching experience.
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For my second peer teaching episode in Music 395A, I had to review a song with piano accompaniment in a small group. My assigned song was "The Middle of the Night," which I taught last year as part of Music 295A. This was our first time reviewing a song with piano accompaniment in class. Here is a clip of my 2nd peer teaching experience as well as the self reflection for that experience.
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Projects for Music 341 and 395A
As part of our secondary and elementary presentations for Music 341 and 395A, we had to complete cumulative projects on topics discussed in these presentations and present portions of these projects to the class.
For our Secondary Music Education Project, we were assigned to explore an array of internet resources to find out how other teachers selected repertoire, collate a listing of resources and listening examples for areas presented, and program a concert for several secondary ensembles.
For our Elementary Music Education Project, we were assigned to program a concert for several elementary ensembles and develop budgets for any materials needed by these ensembles for their performances.
Music 266 (Basic Conducting)
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As part of my Music 266 class, I learned about the fundamentals of conducting through numerous experiences conducting in front of the class with frequent feedback from my instructor, Dr. Christopher Kiver. For my 3rd conducting episode, I was assigned to conduct an excerpt from L'Arlesienne Suite No. 1, Prelude by George Bizet. For each conducting session, we had to review the video of our conducting session and complete a self reflection on our performance. Here is the video of my conducting session as well as my self reflection for the conducting experience.
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Music 295A
(Early Field Experience in Music Education)
(Early Field Experience in Music Education)
Leading a Rhythm or Tonal Activity Teaching Episode
As part of MUS 295A, I was required to do three teaching episodes over the course of the semester. I have decided to highlight my second teaching episode, which was Leading A Rhythm or Tonal Activity. My rhythmic activity was Rhythm Rounds on "This Old Man," which involved chanting rhythmic patterns from the classic children's song "This Old Man" in various size groups to create a round. Below I have attached my task analysis, a video clip of my teaching episode, and my self-reflection relating to this teaching episode. |
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Bennett Center Case Study
Another class requirement for MUS 295A was to observe preschool to kindergarten students during their weekly music class at the Bennett Center as well as lead activities in their class as the semester progressed. For my case study, I observed "Joey," a preschooler at the Bennett Center.
Here is my case study on "Joey."
Another class requirement for MUS 295A was to observe preschool to kindergarten students during their weekly music class at the Bennett Center as well as lead activities in their class as the semester progressed. For my case study, I observed "Joey," a preschooler at the Bennett Center.
Here is my case study on "Joey."