Music Madness

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When I was in middle school one of my favourite classes was music. It was something I looked forward to everyday and I continued to play the tenor saxophone well into high school. For this reason I was extremely excited to shadow the school music teacher in week 2 for my observation day. The vice principal said following a music teacher for a day shows you how to execute good classroom management as you have 20-30 students all trying to learn an instrument!

The best way I could describe the music teacher would be: Jack Black in School of Rock. I say that as a compliment as this teacher was passionate about music, excited to work with his students and had a quick witted self demeaning sense of humour. He immediately told me I was in for quite a day with 4 grade 8 music classes on the schedule. He sat in his office and attempted to hit the top two notes on the clarinet in the b flat concert scale. He said that many of his students struggled with those two notes and if he couldn't do it himself how could he expect it of his students? He told me that at least this way they could struggle through it together. I thought that approach was pretty neat because he was putting himself in the shoes of his students and was able to empathize with their struggles.

It was clear that the music teacher understood his students and this connected directly back to my textbook Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment and the section on knowing your students. He understood that there were some students who were new to the school and some new to the country who would be at various levels of music. He did a diagnostic assessment at the beginning of each semester to find out what prior knowledge students had about music and what level everyone was starting at. This was critical for his lesson planning and deciding how to proceed forward in the year. His ability to know his students allowed him to empathize with his students, plan accordingly and make the music room a positive learning environment.

During the day I simply observed. I watched as students entered the room, knew immediately that they were to setup their chair, get their instruments, rinse their mouth pieces and start practicing their scales until the class was ready to begin. It was evident the teacher had practiced these routines several times and that now they were easily executed.  I watched as he stood quietly at the front of the room waiting patiently for their attention. He told me that attempting to yell over a bunch of instruments was a losing battle and that waiting quietly was much more effective. 

The class didn't aways go smoothly and at time it was noisy and chaotic. It is easy for students to get distracted when they have instruments in their hands but patience was certainly the key and being prepared to adapt as the lesson progressed was important! Another great week under my belt and I'm excited to see what next week holds!