2/25/11 - Reflections

I found this week's readings to be fascinating on many levels. In the eCoursepack, there were articles discussing the importance of functioning as a band director not only for the duration of the school year, but also during the summer months. I know that this is true. Just being here at Case Western Reserve University, I have learned that there is plenty to do in any band program, regardless what time of the year it is. Just this week, I took one of my days off and visited a local high school band with Dr. Ciepluch. I observed him working with four different bands, all at various skill levels. What I loved most about this trip was the opportunity to discuss one-on-one educational matters with the teachers. They were nice enough to talk about the realities of their band program during their planning periods. After reading the articles for this week, I was interested how the band directors keep the "flow" going since the actual time they get to meet with their students is limited. Because of time restraints and special school scheduling, these directors only really are able to meet with there students for about a half hour every day. This is surprising to me! Sometimes it takes 20 minutes just to get the band warmed-up and sounding good. What I learned most from the experience is that because of the limited time, you are forced to "pick your battles" and try to focus on one thing at a time. If you don't do this, you realize very quickly that there is no time left and little has been accomplished.

Regarding summer work, I know that a teacher's job is never finished. An instrumental music teacher's job goes on for the entire year. There is always repertoire to be planned. Once the music is planned, you have to get it out of the library, make copies, and store the music for the year. Conversely, this may be a good time to reorganize oneself, and put away all the music from the previous year. Band directors need to do all this while preparing for the upcoming season, especially if they are preparing for marching band. There are drills to be written. There is music to be arranged. There are planning meetings with the school board. This is a time to plan for years in advance. When might the band be taking a trip? How will the band director allocate funds for next year? Are all the instruments in adequate condition? Of course not, so is the band director in contact with the local music stores? Recruitment is always an issue 12 months out of the year. Is the band director planning any special activities? Have they talked with their school administration about special ideas? There is so much to do at every point in the year, sometimes I wonder how it all gets done!

In reading Chapter 6 of Instrumental Music Education, I like the learning philosophies presented by the authors. The philosophy that seemed to resound the most with me was "Constructivism and Discovery Learning." In this philosophy, humans use their prior knowledge and experience to teach themselves, regardless of how they are taught, formulating questions and answering them via experimentation. This philosophy makes the most sense to me, probably because it best describes the way in which my brain works. For example, I have taken many classes on rhythm, music theory, saxophone, and ear-training. All of these classes have been taught differently by an extremely diverse group of educators. All of them had their own teaching philosophies, and they all introduced materials in their own way. My brain was like a sponge that soaked in the information. However, I learned at my own pace, and things tended to "click" for me at different times for no other apparent reason than maybe my brain was "ready" to understand the particular concept. This is why as a future music educator I know that I will be able to bring my strengths into the classroom and be able to help people. But I know I won't be able to reach everyone everyday at every time. So I will use the techniques I have learned in Instrumental Methods to guide my teaching, but I will be pretty moderate in how I present or teach certain ideas. For example, I'm not going to base my entire program on one element, like audiation. I will introduce this as a concept, but will let the students figure out if it works for them or not. Nor will I advocate one kind of counting over the other (unless of course I'm mandated to do so). I will be the wellspring of ideas, but the students will learn by themselves, as I learned and continue to learn by myself.