So I gave my revamped Woody Guthrie lesson in class last
Monday, and while it was definitely better than the first attempt, there still
is room for improvement. It was difficult for me to initially find a way to get
the class more involved with what I felt was more of a biographical
presentation, but Prof. Schneider helped me along and gave me some interesting
ideas that I ran with. Rather than having the class sit and listen to his
songs, I had them sing one together accompanied by me on the guitar. I made use
of more group activities and think-pair-share strategies that made the lesson
seem less “tired” and more hands-on.
I think in the future I need to focus less on what I have to say, and more on what the students need to be saying while the class is taking place. I have to be
able to guide their conversations in group discussions and inspire both the
critical thinking and the critical inquisition in regards to the lesson
topic. My goal in the general music setting is to have my students thinking
like musicians, regardless of whether or not they aspire to become musicians.
After all, math teachers aim for their students to think and act as a
mathematician would, even though they are fully aware that 100% of their
students don’t all plan on working in a think tank someday.
With this final presentation, the course has come to an
end, though I still plan on updating my blog from time to time as the year
progresses. That said, there is one thought I would like to share with my
fellow colleagues as the semester wraps up:
I observed a fifth grade classroom the other day, even
though I am interning in a middle school, because I wanted to gain a little
more insight on early lesson planning. Noted on the board was the objective for
the students: they will learn about the life of the early Western pioneer and
life on the frontier in general. I wondered about how I would teach this – it would
probably have started off with a PowerPoint presentation on the key points of frontier
living, and the situations pioneers likely would have faced. It probably would
have involved note taking and exit slips and the sort.
But the fifth grade teacher had a huge camping tent set
up in the middle of a dark room, with very dim lamps hovering around the tent
and the classroom. I watched as the students sat attentively and excited within
the tent as the teacher remarked what a “frigid night” there was last night,
and how the Pony Express had delivered the letters they had written to their
folks back home (checking along the way what the Pony Express was, and where
they were located, and what obstacles they have faced so far along the way.)
Here was a lesson that these kids would definitely remember.
It
was great to see this kind of teaching – I remembered that to be truly good in
this profession is an art, and a skill. Above all, it takes effort. It made me think of lesson
planning from a new angle I haven’t thought of before: if I was a 10-12 year
old students learning this information, how would I want to learn it? And above
all, what would make me fondly remember this lesson material the most? What
will make students remember me as the teacher that went the extra mile for the
class? And it made me realize that with all the knowledge and experience I have
gained so far, there is still very much for me to learn. Sometimes I forget
that. Sometimes I think I know most of what there is to know about teaching, and
through all buzzwords and the jargon, I pretty much understand the basic points
– I don’t yet. I want to read this blog post again 5 months from now and think,
“Yeah, I didn’t have it then. But I’m much closer now.” And 5 months from that
point, I want to think the same thing: “I’m much closer now.”
It’s
probably what I’ll be thinking after teaching for 30 years, too.
