Group Differences Forum

      The group differences forum was very interesting, and also brought up a lot of topics that I worry about for my future classroom.

First, I learned that schools in richer communities can afford nice things because of taxes. I know this is something that I should have known, but I did not. I do not think this is fair because people in not so nice areas deserve just as much of a good education as the rich people. They might need even more resources in order to succeed. I also learned a lot about minorities, and how they can feel oppressed just because they are not a majority. They are not automatically considered privileged because of something they might not even be able to help. In addition, I would have liked to learn more about the multicultural aspect. I want to teach overseas so this is very applicable to my future job! I also find this very interesting.

This information can help be aware of natural bias as a teacher. I want every student, no matter race, beliefs, background, socioeconomic status, family, anything, to have the same right/access to education. Even though I believe myself to be completely unbiased, there is natural and social bias to be aware of. I am a white, Christian female of upper middle class status, and I have not exactly been in a minority situation before. This is important for me to make sure that NONE of my students experience any bias in my classroom. I find this topic very interesting and will do more research to learn more.

Chapter 3 Questions

Question 1 (Applying): Can you apply goodness of fit to finding the right instrument for an individual?

Question 2 (Evaluating): How could you evaluate and accommodate a new exchange student is who experiencing culture shock?

Ch 5 Questions for Annece

Q1: Understanding: Can you explain the RTI (response to intervention) process?

Q2: Synthesizing: Create a modification for a student in a music class who has a learning disability.

(I know Chapter 5 was due last week, but I accidentally did Chapter 2 last week instead, so I just switched them).

Field Trip Reflection

The event that I attended was Cultivating Singing in the Choral Ensemble and General Music Classroom with Robyn Reeves Lana, who is the conductor of the Cincinnati Children's Choir. 

The first thing that stood out to me was the first activity. She passed around racquetball balls to each person in the room. The accompanist played the piece that the ensemble was working on, and we had to bounce the balls. First, we bounced the balls at the beginning of each measure (every 4 beats because we were in 4/4). Then we tried bouncing it every half note, then every quarter note. It is supposed to help students hear where the beats were in the music, as well as made them aware of the importance of starting together was. Even for the music major participants, it was sometimes difficult for all of us to hit the ball at exactly the same time on the ground. It was a good simulation for the difficulty in tonguing the beginning of a note completely together.

Another aspect that stood out to me was that Mrs. Lana demonstrated many different activities to use during class, but they were all different in learning styles. She used visual representations such as colored tights, kinesthetic learning with the racquetballs, and used demonstration for the aural learners. There were also exercises such as having the choir kids talk to words to focus on pronunciation instead of singing. There was so much variety in the activities and teaching styles that she used. I think that may be a key to having the ability to cater to all different learning styles of the children that are in her choir. 

Another thing that stood out to me was audience's participation in the choir. Even though we were all not choir, we all participated in the singing the songs during the vocal portion. They passed around music and we all sang. It sounded good, granted all or at least most of us were music teachers or music majors. However, she demonstrated some of the activities before teaching us about them, and we followed what she was trying to get us to do, even though we didn't know what to do. She did not previously explain what she was going to do or what she was attempting to get us to do with the music. We just knew. My theory would relate back to conditioning. Although we did not have any explanation, that over the years we have learned what certain movements and expressions mean and we know how to manipulate the music compared to what we see. It has become natural for us. 

I want to elaborate on the different activities that we participated in because I think it is directly applicable to my future as a music educator. A teacher can never have enough ideas about activities or ways to get students to understand and react to the music. The racquetball activity that I mentioned earlier was fun for me, and I am sure any age K-12 would enjoy it as well as understand that starting together is important and difficult. Even college ensembles have some trouble starting together. Another activity was the tights. She used colored tights to show the lines of the music and help shape the phrases. Each student would receive a stretchy band (colored tights) to sing with so they could physically feel the stretching of the musical line. This also demonstrated showing dynamics and style of the music. Another thing the lecturer used was an expanding/contracting ball to show dynamics. It also was a good visual example for breathing. When teaching breathing, it is important to teach students to breath using all 5 parts of their lung, breathing deep from the diaphragm, and not from their chest. She expands the ball to show the expansion of the lung as well as the opening of the throat. Another activity she used was assigning pitches to different hand signs, Then she would use a variety of different signs and have the kids sing the pitches associated with those signs. This was a good technique for kids learning to remember pitches. The guest speaker also used many other strategies that I thought were very applicable. Overall, I think that these strategies will be very useful in my future music classroom. 

Chapter 2 Questions for Annece

Q1: What can you do as a band director to accommodate a student with a specific language impairment? (application)

Q2: Self talk serves as an important function in cognitive development, according to Vygotsky (40). If it is important in cognitive development, why do some adults still need to talk out loud? Inner speech may not always work for adults sometimes. For example, I still have to talk out loud when I do math homework sometimes. Does this mean my internalization did not fully develop? Can you create an activity or worksheet that can work on internalization or talking through things in my head?

Chapter 8: Questions for Annece

Question 1: What are some metacognitive activities we can incorporate into a band class?

Question 2: How can a band director require students to use higher-level thinking skills during a band class?
What can you do as a band director to help those students that struggle with higher-level thinking?

Post 6

I think service learning is a surprising application of constructivism in a band class. According to Ormrod, service learning is an activity that promotes both learning and development while working for the betterment of others and the community (Ormrod 232). I can show my students this by having my students give a vocal concert at a local nursing home. Even if my students are instrumentalists in a band, it is important for them to know how to sing. Band directors always say that if you can sing it, you can play it. I never thought that was true until I came to college and experienced it. Singing music, even if it may not sound absolutely beautiful, allows for much more expression and requires that the musician know the intervals and pitches, instead of relying on their instrument to hit the notes and intervals for them. The new knowledge of pitches, intervals, and natural expression through voice can then be transfered to the instrument. Not only does the student learn how to be more musical and musically accurate, the students are bringing joy to the elderly. At first, I think my students might react a bit negatively and wonder why the band director (me) is making them sing. My initial reaction would make a smart comment that if I wanted to sing that I would have joined choir. However, I think after a few rehearsals, the students might come to enjoy the singing practice and would have a lot of fun at the nursing home. Therefore, the students would be learning a new 'instrument' and new found musicality while contributing to the community.

Post 5

Behaviorism is basically learning and behavior explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships (Ormrod 285). Successful mastery through the eyes of behaviorism revolve around the behavior. First there are experiences with environmental stimuli. Learning involves a behavior change (Ormrod 286). I think that a personal behavior change shows successful mastery of a concept. When a concept is taught, a person can say they understand. It is not until they truly understand a concept that their behavior changes. If they do not understand, then they would have no motivation to change any part of their behavior. For example, say a student is taught about a difficult math problem. They may not understand and just sit in class and do not raise their hand to ask questions or answer the teacher's questions. If they do understand, the student might not have a blank face, be more likely to answer the teacher's question, and have the ability to teach other people the concept.

This concept that behavior changes is very important in the music world. In teaching instrumental music, asking the student if they understand is not always an accurate depiction of their real understanding. They need to explain it back to me or show me on their instrument before I believe they truly understand. Unless the student can show me with their behavior that they understand, then we as teachers may not correctly understand if they have mastery of a concept.

Social cognitive theory is basically that people learn from observing others and assume control of their own behavior (Ormrod 323). A social cognitivist would say that successful mastery of lesson objectives comes once the student has controlled their own behavior and has self regulated their own learning. Self regulation is part of social cognitive theory and is the process of setting goals for oneself and engaging in behaviors and cognitive processes that lead to achieving goals (Ormrod 325). Successful mastery is put into the hands of the students. They have to set goals for themselves and work at attaining those goals and that will show their mastery of a concept. The teacher can teach but unless the student has their own goals, there won't be successful mastery of a concept.

In band, this example can be shown through learning to play with good tone. The teacher can teach how to play with good tone and coach the student, but the student must self regulate his/herself to actually reach good tone. Good tone is all about the player, their observations, and their environment from a social cognitivist viewpoint.

Post #4

Based on my readings and class discussion from Tuesday, I think there are many different factors in creating an environment conducive to learning. First of all, from my personal experience from one of the group activities on Tuesday, I learned about classroom arrangement and setup. First, I think that it is important to have a more home-y feel to the classroom, or at least a visually engaging and interesting classroom. If the classroom is white and boring, it could make the students feel like they are in a prison, and that is speaking from personal experience. Another aspect of a classroom conducive to learning is safety. Students should feel safe to participate in class. They shouldn't feel nervous or scared of what their classmates might say about them or what they believe. Another aspect of safety involves physical safety. Bullying and aggression are very prominent in today's public education system. Cyber bullying is also becoming popular due to the increased use of technology. Fights, bullying, and aggression should not be tolerated in the classroom as they provide distractions from learning. Other aspects that are conducive to learning transitions and making every minute count.

I can use these topics that were covered to create my own classroom that is conducive to learning. First, I would make sure to have posters, flyers and hopefully trophies on my band walls. In my last high school, we had a couch in my band room and it helped create community when we would all hang out in the band room for lunch or after school. I think this could go well depending on the kids in my school. As far as bullying goes, I want to squash negative comments directed at others or themselves. I also think that using section leaders in my band to watch out for the freshman or other students in the section could help. It gives section leaders pride and helps establish that community where everyone is comfortable with each other.

For my case study, which is the middle school case study about Cherie, there are a lot of things that I could do. First of all, since my class would be a band class, things would be a little different but she would still be a disruption. I think the most important thing I could do was to enforce my rules consistently and equitably to help discipline her. The Social Psychology of the Classroom, (Babad et al., 2003) talks about not ignoring the failures of human nature although it may be natural. I think that although Cherie may be needing attention and is acting out in class, it would be good classroom management to discipline her and show her the appropriate times to be funny. It is also important to enforce the rules consistently so the students will not have motivation to continue their misbehavior. Enforcing rules to other students also helps establish your credibility as a teacher. This is an important rule in creating a classroom conducive to learning.

Post #3

I think motivation is a very interesting topic because it applies to everyone and is different for every person. Personally, I think a mixture of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation are most helpful for me. I tend to pay attention to topics that I think are interesting but I am also way more likely to learn something with some extrinsic motivators, such as rewards. If I have a personal interest in a topic, I don't necessarily need extrinsic motivators. On the other hand, if I do not like a topic and do not have any personal interest, extrinsic motivators are absolutely necessary to get my attention.

Because rewards continuous rewards or other extrinsic motivators cannot always be offered, it is important to know how to keep the students interested so they continue to learn. This can be accomplished through enhancing students' sense of self determination. That way they have intrinsic motivation instead of constantly needing extrinsic motivators. There are multiple ways to enhance the students' self determination in a band classroom:

-Providing opportunities for independent work and decision making: This can be accomplished through solo pieces for individual students.

-Presenting rules and instructions in an informational rather than controlling manner: This is conveyed through tone of voice and word choice.

-Giving students opportunities to make choices: I could ask them what pieces they like to play better? Or they can make musical choices in their solo pieces.

-Evaluating students in a non-controlling way: These evaluations can affect students' intrinsic motivation and this would be present in playing tests.

-Being selective about when and how you use extrinsic motivators: In elementary band, a student might get a small piece of candy for being able to play 1 or 2 major scales.

In my future classroom, it will be important for me to know how to enhance my students' self determination. I want them to succeed but some of that success is based upon how much they practice. I need to know what motivates them so they want to practice on their own, instead of needing a reward for every single aspect of the class. I will have to make band fun for them but also something they will learn from, work at, and want to succeed at.

Lastly, this is unrelated to the topic above, but this struck me in class today and I didn't have time to write it on my ticket out the door. Sara Beth and Karen brought up self-handicaping. I never realized how prevalent this is in our own society. I am even guilty. I think that so many people care what others think about them, even if they claim not to. I think fear of failure and the need for relatedness intermix. For example, if I have a conducting practicum that I worked really hard for, I still might be scared of failing. Then I say things that undermine my hard work just in case I fail. If I fail, I wouldn't want to be considered a failure by others, especially if I worked hard. I would much rather say "I am going to fail" to begin with so I don't have others judge me as harshly.
I'm not sure if that made complete sense, but I think this is a very common problem in today's culture.

POST 2

Informal Assessment: Verbal questions in class to see if the students understand the material at that moment, such as the length of a certain note.
Formal Assessment: An exam that is planned in advance and used to determine if the students understand the material from a unit, such as music theory.

Traditional assessment: Having a student play a section music that is only in that music and is not related to any real world tasks or other music
Authentic: Testing the student to see if they can hear/identify a major scale. This can be authentic because major scales are used in all kinds of music around the world, such as pop music.

Criterion-referenced assessment: In band world, this could be a playing test over a scale or part of music because this is basic testing style in music because playing is the most important part of band-if you can't play your instrument, you can't succeed.
Norm-referenced assessment: Standardized tests because it shows percentiles and compares scores to other students who took the test

Standardized Test: WASL the Washington State standardized test, because it is required for graduation. (There is not to my knowledge a widespread band/music standardized test).
Teacher-developed assessment: I could write a small excerpt of music including certain difficulties and assess each student based upon their own knowledge and practice with no outside help or recordings. This way I can monitor each student personally because their is no other interpretation of the music out in the world for them to copy.

Paper-pencil assessment: An exam over the historical and theoretical aspects of the music we are playing for a certain concert.
Performance assessment: A playing test can assess how they perform their instrument and how prepared and practiced they are. 

I tried to relate everything to music since I want to be a band director! I had some difficulty relating some of these assessments to music, but I did my best.

Post 1

Reflecting back on our first class session, I was surprised at the content and structure of the class. I did not know what I was signing up for, but just that I needed to take the class. I was somewhat expecting another psychology class that just focused on learning about the generalities of human nature. I honestly did not expect to learn anything about being a teacher; however, I am excited that this class is not at all like my expectations.

I am introverted so I am not the most comfortable when sharing my ideas in a setting of people I do not know. I was worried that I would struggle in a classroom that revolved around student participation, but it was easy going and I had no problem speaking up. I also think that having new peers in my class made it easier to open up. These new people have no preconceptions or opinions of me yet, but in my music classes, everyone knows me. It was harder for me to open up to my music classes because I was scared of being wrong or looking dumb in front of those people. It doesn’t seem to matter as much when no one has opinions or standards about my level of intelligence.

 There are so many aspects of this class that I am excited about. Even though I have been teaching in some way since my sophomore year of high school, I do not really understand the specifics of teaching. I am excited to learn methods of teaching, why certain methods are successful, how to deal with parents, and how to succeed as a teacher. My greatest fear for my career is that I would be a complacent teacher who is not effective and does not help the students in the their studies and in real life. I want to know what to do in every situation and I want to know how to help my students in every way possible. I feel that I have learned a lot about music, but I have not studied any aspects of teaching itself. I have a lot to learn but I am excited to apply what I learn to music.