Standard 7: The teacher of PK-12 music demonstrates professional responsibility and reflective practice. As a music teacher, I will be teaching every age, level, and type of music to every student. It is critical that I am able to teach in a way that every single student, despite their level of education, learning style, cultural background, or socioeconomic situation.
I have had so many experiences working with diverse people throughout my education at Kansas State University, but also just throughout my life and the experiences I have had growing up. I am a firm believer in celebrating people’s diverse backgrounds and being able to teach in a way that benefits them regardless of how they grew up. I am in an undergraduate research group and our goal is to research teachers who teach using a culturally relevant pedagogical perspective. Studying these teachers in a field that I want to pursue has brought me a new perspective to teaching and how important it is that I can use music education as an aide to my students every day lives. I was also the head drum major of the Kansas State University Marching Band, and leading a group of 400+ people has also effected me in a way that I didn’t expect. Being able to witness music reaching the lives of individuals in that leadership position has shown me that everything I do as a teacher has a great effect on my students lives, and it is about so much more than just the performances.
To me, it is quite a simple process regarding how I want to implement the factors I mentioned above, and that is to know every single one of my students. Taking the time to talk to them, get to know them, and get to know their families and backgrounds impacts how I teach them. I intend to do this by getting involved in the community. Doing this means going to the high school football games, going to the other music concerts, supporting the sports teams or the student council. But another way I intend to do this is to involve my students in community events, for example having my students sing Holiday carols at nursing homes during the fall, or asking a casual restaurant if my choir could perform there for an evening. I intend to teach music that represents important historical knowledge while also spanning into world music and it’s importance in our world. Describing how music plays a part in our lives, but also the lives of those in other countries, whether it be ceremonial or just an every day thing. I am someone who wants to be constantly improving in my craft, not only for myself but to benefit my students’ education as well.
Below I have listed two artifacts. The first is a reflection from a lesson plan that I did. With each lesson, a reflection of some sort has to take place so that the teacher is prepared to improve. The second one listed is Entry 2 from my portfolio. This has the demographics of the two classes I observed for this course, as well as possible scenarios and how I would reflect and manage them as a teacher.