Reflection #1

Chat with the choir teacher

  • Use of sectionals are very beneficial in a choir setting. When students are in a sectional, they are to place themselves in a circle facing each other. This allows them to hear each other better. Assign a student to be the leader of each sectional. Assigning someone who can pluck out the notes on a piano is ideal. Sectionals place responsibilities on the students which leads to students taking the material more seriously which lead to a better result. After sectionals practice, all students meet together and sing.

Chat with Band Teacher

  • Students have 15 minutes to set up and prepare themselves to play. Once the 15 minutes are up, the band teacher conducts everyone to start. A strategy used is having the students listen to the piece of work they are going to perform through a sound system so that they know what they are striving for. This is the concept of having the ‘end goal in mind’. A strategy used for having students sight read is giving them tips before the sight reading process (ei. What took look for – tricky passages with a lot of notes, time signature etc).
  • The Concert Band is during lunch time which is only 45 minutes long. If the concert band wasn’t during lunch, then there would be no concert band at all until November 16th which is when the timetable switches. The band teacher’s goal is simply to ‘capture’ the students or else they may consider other electives and concert band would not exist

Afternoon 780 Seminar

 

  • Project Based Learning

 

      • Teacher rubric
      • Teacher creates a number of choices and the student chooses one option

 

  • Inquiry

 

    • Students choice
    • Varied product
    • Student accountability
    • Teacher + student rubric

Reflection #2

  • As I observed the band teacher for a second time, I noted a few strategic moves when teaching. 
  • As soon as he gets up to the podium, he gets the students to play a concert Bb note. If students are busy setting themselves up, they miss out on playing. This forces the students to set up quickly and go according to his pace. 
  • Throughout the rehearsal the band teacher will frequently ask questions relating to musical literacy ex. “Does lengthening or shortening your instrument create a higher pitch?”. Opening up the question to the entire class and receiving called out answers is effective and saves time.
  • Another things to note is how long he spends with each activity
    • Warm up (10 mins)
    • Chorale piece of music (5 mins)
    • Larger piece of music while incorporating sight reading and listening to a recording. (24 minutes)
  • Some common teaching cues are
    • “1, 2, breathe together” said when conducting the intro of the piece
    • “Keep your feet flat on the floor”
    • “Don’t breathe” said while conducting rests
    • “Measure _____” checking in with measure numbers as ensemble sight reads a large piece of music
    • “Bb, best sounds, hold it!”
    • “What did you hear?”
  • Having student listening to a piece of music through and audio device (ei:speakers) allows them to follow along in the score while practicing fingerings
  • Tuning: “wa, wa, wa, wa” means we are out of tune
  • Chat with Band teacher
    • If you were to describe how your teaching style has changed or morphed over the duration of your career, what are three things that have contributed or have been the driving force behind these changes?
      • Answer key Points: 
        • Flexibility. Plan to fail and have a toolbox of strategies
        • Had to teach a variety of different subjects
        • Gained experience reading students and understanding that some students need to be pushed while others don’t
    • Have the pedagogies you prescribed to be important in your early career stayed important? If so, which ones are front and centre?
      • Answer key points:
        • Teaching for 30 years
        • More of a holistic approach
        • More about the process than the product

Reflection #3

On October 14th, the band teacher allowed me to lead the instrumental ensemble warm up. Reflecting on my experience, there were a lot of negative things that happened. 

Negatives:

  • I felt sluggish conducted
    • While conducted, the ensemble felt very slow and didn’t feel comfortable speeding up my conducting pattern
  • Unsure of what to do
    • This is because I didn’t prepare enough. I mentally went over what I was going to do with the students in my head but, creating a visual lesson plan and rehearsing the warm up would have helped a lot
  • My conducting ‘cutoffs’ were sometimes at the wrong time.
    • I need to simply practice my cutoffs more

Positives:

  • I did not talk a lot during the warm up which allowed for more student engagement. This is something I have struggled with before so it is nice to see that I am improving in this aspect 

Other observations:

  • Half way through the warm up, I realized the electric bass player was not playing. I addressed her about this in front of the class. I am worried that I may have embarrassed her. 
    • The solution is to make sure students are ready before the warm up starts. This can be done simply by asking the students before starting to conduct.
  • Not all students were playing when I would start conducting. Something I realized is that students need time to get their instruments ready. I would put my arms out and start conducting while some students were still putting their instrument to their face. 
    • I realized that I need to put my arms out, then wait, and then conduct. This gives students time to form their embouchures and prepare themselves to play the first note.

Feedback from the band teacher

  • Be clear on what is expected. There were times where I wanted students to perform something but the students didn’t know what I was expecting.
    • I need to have detailed instructions. (Ex.“play and ascending Bb scale, one note per triplet.” then vocally demonstrate it.
  • I can change the exercise when descending or ascending which allows for fluidity in the warm up > more time playing.
  • Don’t be nervous, conducting is not rocket science
  • When using warm ups, try to do something that is incorporating in the repertoire you are playing.
  • Be confident.

Reflection #4

On October 23, I conducted the concert band warm-up once again. This time, I incorporated the feedback that I received last time from the band teacher. I was able to apply all feedback and I felt a lot more successful than last time. My conducting still needs a lot of work, and I realized that conducting is very similar to playing an instrument. 

What sparked this realization was when I tried getting students to play an eighth – two sixteenth rhythm pattern for their scale exercise and I ended up conducting too fast. This leads them to play messy. I was not connecting my internal ear with what my arms were doing. This is similar to an instrument in that, when you don’t line up your inner ear with what you are physically doing, then you would be successful at playing your instrument.

 

Reflection #5 

In chapters 9 and 10 of the Wasiak, one of the main points that was brought up in these chapters is how students are not getting taught enough musical concepts in school instrumental ensembles. This is because school band classes are modelled after professional performance ensembles. To combat this, music teachers need to understand their roles as teachers and not just as conductors. The chapter mentions strategies to combat this such as asking students questions instead of immediately giving them answers.

After reading this, I realized that many teachers that I have observed are not incorporating these strategies. This also sparked the idea that I am observing a lot of ineffective teaching. This is really important to me because I have been trying to soak up alot of the strategies and habits of the teachers that I have been observing, this includes their ineffective habits. I am glad that I made this realization which has made me more cautious about what I observe and adopt from my observations.