Techniques From a French Horn Masterclass

Earlier in the semester I had the opportunity to attend a French horn masterclass taught by David Wakefield, a member of the American Brass Quintet. The class was open to all French horn players and three students were able to play for him. He gave the students advice on improvements they could make in the songs that they were playing. He also had the rest of us bring our French horns so he could work with all of us. It was a very interesting and educational experience. He gave advice that all of us could apply to our playing. Throughout my college career, the only instruction that I had received was from my French horn Professor, which has been great advice. It was very helpful to receive some suggestions from another professional horn player. He had some very interesting ideas for us, to help us increase our range and to get a better sound. There are so many teaching methods that people use and everyone comes up with different ideas about how to play better, especially when they have had a lot of experience trying different things out. After the masterclass, I went to practice the music I was working on and I tried out some of the techniques that he had taught us to see what would work for me and what would be the most beneficial. It was interesting for me to get ideas from someone other than my professor. I think this idea can be applied to all kinds of teachers. When you are able to get advice and ideas from multiple people, you can put it all together to figure out what works best for you.

 http://www.americanbrassquintet.org/

Putting An End To Bullying

School should be seen as a safe environment for students to further their education and spend time with their friends. No one should ever be afraid of going to school. For students who are bullied, this is not the case. In schools at every grade level, bullying can have terrible effects on students who do not fit in with the popular group. Teenagers try so hard to be liked and accepted by other students, but in many cases, this will not happen. They are bullied each and every day and as this continues, their self esteem drops. Students who are bullied do not want to be in school so they do not see school as a safe place. Jodee Blanco experienced a similar situation when she was in middle school and high school. During her visit to Decorah High School, she shared her personal story of how she was bullied each day at school and how she dreaded going to school for all of those years. She gave parents and teachers ideas of how to deal with the students who are bullying others and ideas about how to help those who have been bullied. Even though some of her advice would not necessarily work with all children, we need to do all that we can to help children who bully others realize the effects that their bullying can have on other children. We also need to help the children who dread coming to school by encouraging them to become involved in activities to meet new friends and help them realize that they are important and should not be tormented by their classmates. Bullying is a serious issue in schools. As teachers, we need to watch out for signs of bullying in the hallways, cafeteria, and at recess, because students will not likely bully others in the classroom; it would be too easy for them to get caught in the classroom. We need to be aware of what goes on outside of our classrooms to see the amount of bullying that really goes on and confront those responsible for making their classmates miserable in school.

http://www.jodeeblanco.com/media_room_video.htm

Effective Teaching

There are so many ways to be an effective teacher in the school systems today. All teachers have skills in different areas and enjoy teaching certain subjects. Even though all teachers are different in what and how they teach, they all need to have some similarities that help them become effective teachers in their own way. They need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses as a teacher and be willing to make the necessary changes that will benefit their students as well as themselves. It is important to be aware of what makes you a unique teacher and what makes your teaching methods, as well as personality, special and effective in the classroom.

When teachers are persistent in the classroom, the students will always know what is expected from them; in their behavior, school work, etc. When a teacher is consistent with their grading and homework expectations, students know what to expect and they will not be frustrated about unclear explanations and guidelines. It is vital for all teachers to have a strong work ethic. People do not go into the profession of teaching for the money. They know the amount of work that goes into teaching at any level and they want that challenge. They want to make a difference in childrens' lives. Teachers have to have a great work ethic to get everything accomplished during the school day and after hours. There is so much to do outside of the school day to prepare for the following days, so if teachers did not have the strong work ethic that is needed to be a great teacher, they would be failing their students.

Lastly, believing in your ability in teaching and having confidence in yourself could possibly have the largest effects in a classroom. If teachers believe that they are an effective teacher, they will believe in their students' abilities as well. If teachers do not believe in themselves and think that they are not making a difference, they will not be able to believe that their students are doing any significant learning in the classroom. Like many of these other concepts, when teachers have a positive attitude about their abilities and strengths, students will see that confidence and they will too feel that they are making significant progress. It is extremely important for teachers to have confidence in themselves as well as in their students. When a teacher is confident it what they are doing, students admire that confidence and respect the teacher. They know that their teacher knows what they are talking about and it reassures the students that what they are learning is important. Also, when teachers show that they are confident in themselves, that confidence rubs off on the students. When teachers are confident that their students will succeed and encourage them to do well, the students will also be confident in themselves and the work that they do. All of these concepts have to do with the mental states of teachers and if they are positive, up-beat, hardworking, and believe in themselves, their students will have a much better chance of succeeding and hopefully the teacher's positive energy will rub off on the students.

Creativity At All Ages

Creativity is a very important part of the lives of children. It is an opportunity to truly express themselves and show their individuality. When they are able to be creative, they are able to show what is unique about them. Children are given the opportunities at home to be creative when they have unstructured play time but schools do not seem to fit time into the daily schedule for that unstructured free time where students can use their imagination in playing games, doing art projects, making up stories, and role playing. Most of the time, in schools students sit in their desks while the teacher lectures about the lesson. Even if they do have some free time, it isn't a significant amount of time. Children need time to be creative, which is outside the structured learning that takes place in most situations. The creativity that they express in art and music classes isn't enough because children may only have those classes once a week. Children need more time in schools to use their wild imaginations or else they will lose that sense of creativity. Teachers can encourage creativity and imagination by not always giving students set instructions, but giving them general instructions and allowing their imagination to do the rest. Teachers teach creativity by giving children the opportunities to be creative and also by being a creative teacher. When teachers demonstrate creativity through their teaching methods and displaying their creativity and imagination around their room, they are showing their students that anyone can be creative. It is not something that we should grow out of. If people slowly stop using their imagination, they will lose that creativity. If teachers do not encourage and demonstrate creativity and explain how important it is, children will not use their imagination. So many jobs that have been created in recent years are no longer the assembly line, same task each day kind of jobs. They require people to think outside the box and come up with new and interesting ideas. If teachers are not allowing their students to be creative in the classroom, they will not know how to use their imaginations in the work place. Facts are not the only things that teachers can teach in schools. In some cases, a wild imagination can get a person farther in life than only having learned the facts in school.

Reflection in Teaching

I believe that reflection is an important part of teaching and learning. We learn a lot about ourselves if we are able to reflect on both our accomplishments and failures. By reflecting, we are able to learn from the mistakes we have made. I think that teachers and students find it hard to reflect because we do not want to look back at our failures; we want to move on. But we cannot avoid future failures without learning from our past mistakes. Students want to learn the information in order to pass the test at the end of the unit and then they move on to the next topic. They know that it is important to pass the test, but they do not look back at the information that they have learned after the test. For many, it is a short term goal; learn the information, take the test, move on. They are only memorizing the information, but are not actually "learning" it. I think that it is beneficial for the students if teachers test the knowledge from previous units and encourage them to continue looking back on what they have learned throughout the year. When students look back on their previous work, they can see what they need to work on and what they have mastered. That way they can see what they need to improve on. Teachers are the same way; by reflecting on what they have done in the past, they can see what has worked and what hasn't. Many people do not want to admit that something they did was unsuccessful, but it is important to recognize mistakes in order to avoid them in the future. If teachers know what methods do not work from reflecting on their previous work, they can make the necessary changes to improve their teaching. They can also see what teaching methods have worked and use those methods more frequently. Reflection helps teachers make the decisions that are most beneficial for themselves and their students.

Passion In and Out of the Classroom

In the classroom, students succeed when they see that their teacher loves what they are doing and are teaching the class in an interesting way. When teachers have a negative attitude and are not excited about what they are doing, that attitude rubs off on the students. When a teacher is excited about what they are teaching, the students become excited well.

I know that my sixth grade teacher has a true passion for teaching. She always made class interesting and fun. At that age, students need help staying on task and they don't want to work if what they are doing is boring. That was never the case in my sixth grade class. My teacher was always excited for the school day and about what she was teaching. Looking back, whenever classmates were asked who their favorite teacher was, her name was always mentioned. When asked why, many said it was because there was always an activity that we did that was related to the lesson. She made the classes that she was teaching so much fun. We did a significant amount of our learning through creative work. There are two activities that stand out in my mind from sixth grade which were meant to help us with our writing and math skills. For one of the activities, we were put into groups to write stories which we presented to our class, after we each made puppets to go along with our characters. Around Christmas time, we also made gingerbread houses and the lesson in this project was to learn how to measure perimeter, area, etc. of the house that we built. She was always going above and beyond what was expected to find interesting ways for us to learn the information.

I was also able to see her passion for teaching from a different perspective than the other students because she is my mom. Most students don't realize the amount of work that teachers put in outside of the classroom, but with my mom, I saw everything that she did at home to get ready for her class. She taught herself how to use the new Smart Boards and began teaching other teachers how to use them. Some teachers did not put the effort into learning how to do it, but I think that when teachers put the effort into learning new teaching methods, they are truly benefiting the students because the lives of the students in this generation revolve around technology. When teachers are willing to put in the work to enhance their way of teaching, I believe that shows true passion for teaching and for their students.

Every year, at the end of the school year, my mom has a picnic with all of her students. They have a big field trip that they go on within the last week of school and after the field trip, the whole class comes to our house for a picnic. Not only do they have picnic, but she always has games set up and has activities organized for the kids. Many teachers would not want to do something like this with 25 sixth grade students, but she enjoys it every year. I think that a passionate teacher is involved in their students' lives and are willing to go out of their way to learn various ways of teaching to benefit their students. Students see the passion that their teachers put in during the school day, but most don't see the passion that occurs outside the classroom.

Genuine Teachers

At a young age, we all learn that everyone is different. We each have our own personality, interests, goals, talents, etc. As adults, we learn that those differences make us unique. As teachers, it is important for us to be ourselves and to show our personality through our teaching. If all teachers were the same, had the same personality, and had the same teaching style, I honestly would not want to become a teacher. If I had experienced that as a student, I would have been bored in school and I would have no interest in becoming a teacher. The interesting part of school was having teachers who were all different in their personalities and teaching methods.

I don't really think that there are limits on how teachers express their authenticity. As a student, I enjoyed the class more and I got more out of the class if I had a good relationship with the teacher. Students are able to learn better when they are able to relate to their teacher and if they have a good idea about who their teacher is. I believe that the teacher and student relationship is very important because it shows students that their teachers are people just like them. When students are able to trust their teachers, they are more comfortable in the classroom which helps them become more engaged in the classroom. I think that students can also tell if a teacher is not authentic or being themselves. Their teaching methods would probably be very simple and the creativity and variation that the students thrive on would not be present. Students can tell when a teacher isn't really into what they are doing and when they aren't showing their personality in the classroom. It hurts the students if their teacher is not being authentic because they will not learn to trust their teacher. They will also not form that relationship with their teacher. Students will not learn if they think that their teacher is not truly interested in their learning.

I think that it is very important for teachers to be able to express themselves through their teaching. It would not be interesting for students if all of their teachers were similar. As teachers, we are role models for our students. They will learn to put their personality and creativity into what they do as long as we demonstrate how to do that in the classroom.