Reflection Post Week 8 - Improving a Social Problem

The author provides several instances where schools and music teachers can help.  First, it might not be in the job description, but male teachers like me are often the only male role model for male (and even female) students.  It is up to us to model for students appropriate behavior towards women, responsibility, hard work, dedication, etc.  When our students that do not have a father in the home, we need to show them (especially the boys) what a hard working male role model is.  Secondly, schools can offer programs that help unwed mothers gain the skills and education they need to provide a more stable and secure environment for their children.  Many times, these mothers drop out of school to care for their children.  GED programs are not always the answer.  Schools could offer classes for the mothers to take to not only earn a diploma, but to learn important job skills so that they can get a good job and provide stability for their children.

All of this, of course, takes money.  Money is not always a topic that government likes to discuss.  It might take private, community-based groups raising funds or writing grants to be able to pay for such activities at a school, or perhaps community groups could offer the activities themselves.  It will take an "it takes a village" mentality for communities to assist unwed mothers in raising their children in a safe, healthy and constructive manner.  Another way for the community to help is for the mothers who ARE being successful in raising their children to form an organization that other mothers who are struggling can join to receive help and support from people who are in similar situations.  Of course, money is always an issue, but if enough people got together and were passionate about the problem, this could be a viable way to assist in solving the problem.

As an aside, I have had many students that come from fatherless homes and do amazing things.  A single mother home (or single father, for that matter) is not guaranteed to be a troubled home.  There are often many other factors (socioeconomic, cultural, situational, etc) that can cause students to struggle.  I have often seen students from a two parent, high socioeconomic household get themselves into a lot of trouble.  I think the key is that every child needs to feel valued in and out of the home.

Reflection Post Week 8 - Course Applications to Your Teaching

(46 points) This course has covered a lot of material.  You have had to learn much about the history of music education in America, philosophical positions, ideas on aesthetics, purposes of education, sociological and social psychological concepts, and several aspects of psychology in a short amount of time.  Now, let’s put that knowledge to use! 

Be sure to address all three items below with examples and support in a reflection post that connects what you've learned with how you will use it as a teacher in the future.

• How will what you learned in this course about philosophy and aesthetics affect your teaching in the future?
• How will what was covered in the parts on sociology, social psychology, or psychology affect your teaching in the future?
• Choose any one of the previous seven units in the course, and explain how what you have learned will affect your teaching in the future.

Teaching at Florida Virtual School provides a bit of a challenge as it relates to making changes.  Since I do not have control over the content, I am not always able to teach the way I would like to.  However, during our improvisation live lessons, I have an opportunity to provide my students with a positive aesthetic experience.  The students are required to perform a brief improvisation with a pre-recorded melody.  While the activity is created so the students can show that they understand the concept of improvisation, I believe the opportunity for an aesthetic experience exists.  The more my students enjoy their project, the more successful I feel I will be.  We listen to this performance by Ella Fitzgerald.  Even through this recording, students have the opportunity to experience feelings of joy, awe, and humor as she plays with the audience.  During the recording, I can talk to the students in the chat box about some of the ideas involved with improvisation.  This allows them to listen on a higher, more intellectual level.  The students are focused on the recording and are experiencing it together!  These aspects, put together, form a strong aesthetic experience.  I have my next live lesson on Monday and will work to give my students a more aesthetically pleasing experience as they listen!

I teach nearly 200 students from all over the State of Florida, and they all come from different socioeconomic, cultural, and religious backgrounds.  Many of them have never taken a music course like this before.  Some may not have had any music education since elementary school.  This will affect how they work in my class.  It is important for me to understand how they feel about music in their lives and use that to help them understand what they are learning.  Many times my students will answer a question about what they likes about a particular piece of music with "I didn't like it.  It's not my type of music."  I generally mark it wrong (or partial credit) and move on.  I think what needs to happen is for me to ask the student WHY they didn't like it.  I can ask them to think critically about the music they enjoy and compare it to the Renaissance motet they just listened to and talk about the reasons they didn't enjoy it.  Perhaps by validating their feelings, it could make them more open to discussing the music.  They might even shift their attitude since I am not directly telling them "you will like this."

I remember watching the "Landfill Orchestra" video in Module 4 and being very moved by how important music was to these young students.  I think that it is so important that our communities and administrations understand that music is vital to the complete education of a student.  I deal with a lot of students who have not had a formal music education for years.  One thing I am going to do it try to encourage my own virtual students to seek out the music teachers in their own schools (many of whom have top notch programs!) and get involved in music beyond their short time with me.  Many of my students tell me at the end of the course how much they enjoyed learning about the history of Western Music.  I can do more for them.  There is so much out there for them to experience!  If I can tap into their own love for music, perhaps I can encourage them to get involved.  Of course, many of my students come from schools that do not have music programs.  It is unfortunate that these students do not have an opportunity to experience music the way other students do.  It's really a shame when administrations do not value music as an important part of education.  I have seen this first hand.  A good friend of mine who is a band director helped to mobilize parents to speak to the school board about cuts to a middle school band program.  He received a letter of reprimand from his principal.  Of course, he is a hero in the eyes of many music educators, but it is such a shame that he is being reprimanded for trying to ensure that students in his district are able to receive a solid music education.

Reflection Post Week 7 - Developing Musical Concepts

The Music of the World curriculum at Florida Virtual School is really more of a Western Music History survey, rather than a study of world music.  My students study the basic elements of music, pop music, ancient music (which does touch on India, Egypt, and Greece), and the major eras of Western Music.  The final module in my class covers Jazz.  There are many musical concepts my students must acquire.  I will choose four of them and offer some thoughts on what I think works in our program, and how it might be improved. 

The first concept which I would like my students to understand more fully is the concept of form.  While we do spend some time in Module 1 (Elements of Music) and Module 6 (Classical Era) discussing form, I believe that it is a concept that should be studied more thoroughly throughout the course.  Considering many (if not most) of my students are not musicians, they do not have a lot of prior knowledge of musical form.  Our second module (pop music) provides an excellent opportunity to introduce students to the concept of form through their familiarity with pop music.  Many pop songs contain a verse-chorus or AABA form and by using examples of music they know, it would allow them to more fully grasp the concept.  It could be explained, demonstrated, and assessed all within the framework of music with which they are familiar and comfortable.  There are opportunities for learning activities in which students follow a form chart (or perhaps fill it out) as they listen to a familiar tune.  By tapping into that prior knowledge, it would make it easier for the students to understand the concept.  As it stands now, they learn a bit about form in Module 1 and then don't touch it again until Module 6 where they study symphonic and sonata forms.

The second concept for my students is the concept of monophonic and polyphonic music.  Module 3 of our course (Ancient and Medieval Music) spends about 3 sentences describing the difference between monophonic and polyphonic music.  Because polyphonic music becomes more and more important through the Renaissance and beyond, I think the students should have a clearer understanding of it.  Right now, it seems to enter their short term memory and is lost.  Even though the concept seems simple enough (one melody vs. two or more), my students struggle with associating the terms with the music itself rather than the performers.  When I ask my students about Gregorian Chant, many of them say it is polyphonic.  They understand (through learning here or prior knowledge) that "poly" means "many," but think the chants are polyphonic because many monks are singing them.  A quick sequence of audio examples of monophonic and polyphonic music would go a long way in helping the students to more fully understand the concept.  Additionally, more visual representations of the concepts would be helpful to the student. 

Improvisation is a large part of our last module on Jazz.  Students are expected to submit a recording (video or audio) of their own short improvised performance (they actually improvise an accompaniment figure, usually rhythmic, to a pre-recorded melody).  Many of the students get very creative, but others struggle to do anything but clap along with the melody.  For this concept and assignment, we do offer a live online lesson each week which helps our students more fully understand the concept and have more success with their performance.  In our live lesson, we discuss the characteristics of jazz music, including improvisation.  We talk about how musicians react to the audience and the other performers during improvisation, and then we play a recorded example of Ella Fitzgerald's One Note Samba.  I think that this demonstration is the single most helpful element of our improvisation lesson.  Our students get to hear and discuss Ella's improvisation and use it as a guide for what they will be doing.

Finally, the concept of timbre differences in ancient instruments vs modern is only touched upon briefly.  I would like to see an activity that first lets the students understand timbre.  It is mentioned in module one, but only briefly.  In module 3, the students study lots of ancient instruments (gemshorn, lizard, lute, shofar, etc). Many of these have modern day equivalents.  By using the students' prior knowledge of modern instrument timbres, they would be able to make connections between the ancient and the modern.  After introducing the ancient instruments and their modern counterparts, students could participate in an activity in which they describe some similarities and differences between the two.  Another possible way to introduce the ancient instruments is by having the students make predictions as to what they will sound like.  They can make inferences based on their knowledge of modern instruments and check their knowledge using available online recordings.  In the classroom, it would be great if the students were given the opportunity to try playing (or even creating) replicas of the ancient instruments, or perhaps creating their own new ones.  This would add an incredible amount of creative options to a lesson on instrument timbre.

Reflection Post Week 7- Behavioral Objectives and Assessments

In music, a lot of the basic skills to singing/playing/reading must be mastered before students can really dive into the "meat and potatoes" of their literature.  Most of these skills are taught and assessed as behavioral objectives.

1.  Keyboard 1 class - A behavioral objective in a keyboarding class would be the ability to play a melody with the right or left hand (depending on the exercise) using correct notes, rhythm, and fingering.  As the teacher, I can watch and listen to the students play, assessing if they are using the right fingers and are playing the notes and rhythm correctly.  If they are incorrect, I can offer suggestions on what they need to fix, even providing a demonstration for them at the keyboard so they know what needs to be played.

2.  Music Theory - A behavioral objective in a music theory class would be an aural exercise in which students must identify intervals by listening.  For the activity, I play an ascending interval (Major, Minor, Perfect, or Tritone) first melodically then harmonically.  I would play each interval twice.  The students would write the number (2nd, 3rd, etc) and quality (Major, minor, etc) for each interval.  Assessment for these would be based on whether the individual students get the number and quality of the interval correct.

3.  Chorus class - A behavioral objective in a chorus class would be sight reading exercises.  Students would first practice and drill specific skills as a class, with 1-2 measure examples.  The class is assessed as a whole by the teacher as they sing the short exercises, and repeat skills as needed.  The exercises are then extended to 2-4 then 4-8 measures.  For individual assessment, the students are given a 4 or 8 measure sight reading exercise (melodic, rhythmic, or both) and are asked to sing it for the teacher individually. The exercise would cover the specific skills that the students have been practicing in class (stepwise motion, dotted rhythm, etc).  The students are given a starting pitch, 30 seconds to look at the exercise, and the starting pitch again.  They are allowed to restart their exercise once and are assessed on their accuracy.

4.  Marching band/show choir - I tend to equate marching band drill with show choir choreography.  A behavioral objective in both groups would be the execution of correct formations and choreography.  Each individual move needs to be perfected one at a time and then strung together in a larger pattern.  Assessment of this objective would generally be for the entire group as a whole, rather than individually.  The teacher would watch the group and indicate where mistakes are made.  While pointing out individual mistakes can be helpful, it is important that each student is aware of their place in the group and works to make sure every move is correct.  If necessary, the teacher can demonstrate what is expected at certain times during the performance.  Repetition of particular formations until the moves become "automatic" are generally used, especially in marching band.

Reflection Post Week 7 - Teaching Beethoven Two Ways

Although I am not much of a pianist, I see several aspects of the Beethoven "Pathetique" sonata that would be addressed by a behaviorist approach.  The technical skills needed to play this piece would need to be addressed using drills and practice.  Students would need to work on contrary motion, multi-rhythmic playing, correct fingering, pedal technique, dynamics, and phrasing (esp legato vs staccato and phrasing).  A behaviorist approach to this piece would ask students to practice these skills, and then practice the piece bit by bit, perhaps not even moving on until mistakes have been corrected.  The teacher would offer positive reinforcement for successful playing.  The process would be repeated until the student's muscles were conditioned to play the music correctly.

A cognitivist approach would see the teacher as a guide, helping the student develop strategies that would allow for a successful performance.  The teacher would help the student tap into prior knowledge about how to play pieces like this (slow, legato, with a pseudo ostinato in the middle voices).  Students could look through the music to find familiar terms and markings (dynamics, articulations, etc).  The cognitivist teacher would have the students study and think about the music as a whole, rather than individual skills. Any unfamiliar terms or skills could be taught in the context of the piece, and using that prior knowledge as a basis of the new learning.

Relection Post Week 6 - Creative Activities in Music

1.  Rhythmic composition exercise - Suitable for MS or HS ensembles - During sight-reading instruction, I provide students with certain rhythmic elements (quarter notes, quarter rests, half notes, etc) with which to compose their own 4-8 measure exercise.  The rhythmic elements are in line with whatever they are learning to read at the time.  I generally start these activities at the beginning of the year, using only quarter notes and quarter rests.  The students have the opportunity to be creative within the context of the skills they have acquired. 

2.  Improvisation - Suitable for MS or HS ensembles, or general music - Students are given a melody and ask to improvise a rhythmic accompaniment.  They are allowed to clap, tap, snap, etc to make up their rhythm.  I generally start with just having them make up a short rhythmic pattern and clap it.  As they progress and gain confidence in their improvisation skills, we move on to accompanying melodies. They are allowed to use their improvisation skills and creativity to come up with multiple rhythmic accompaniments.  This could eventually lead to melodic improvisation.

3.  Aleatoric music - Suitable for MS or HS ensembles - Pieces of music such as Eric Whitacre's "Cloudburst" contain aleatoric sections in which students are required to sing specified pitches in whatever order they choose.  Similar to improvisation, the students are given freedom to sing the pitches in any order, and at any speed.  The resulting sound is a wave of tone that contains all of the pitches.  One of the best ways to prepare students for this type of creative experience is to have them sing an ascending and descending line (Do-Sol or 1-5) and allow the students to alter the tempo, and later allowing skips from one note to another.  

4.  Guided expressive choices - Suitable for MS or HS ensembles - Students are given the opportunity to make expressive choices under the guidance of the director.  I will generally offer students 2-3 choices on how to sing a particular phrase of music (legato vs marcato, pianissimo vs forte, where to breathe, etc).  We will experiment together and come to a consensus as to which decision is the most musical (and appropriate).  Students give their opinions using musical language and reasoning, and then a vote is taken.  If done properly, the students will arrive at an acceptable expressive decision together, though the teacher always has veto power!

5.  Choreography - Suitable for HS ensembles - Student choreographers in show choirs are a great way to encourage creativity among students.  When I use student choreographers, I give them a general idea of the style and formation of a particular piece.  The students then are allowed to brainstorm ideas and present them to me for approval.  If approved, they teach them to the show choir.  If not approved, I offer suggestions on how they might make changes to their ideas to make it work.  Additionally, every student in the show choir has the opportunity to suggest choreography if he/she has an idea. 

Reflection Post Week 6 - Using Conformity

While I am a strong advocate for students being individuals and not being afraid of expressing who they are, in a performance setting, conformity is very important.  As an ensemble, it is important for my students to all look the same, as one performing unit.  My choir students know that they are required to hem their dress to a certain length, wear shoes that are closed-toed and not heels, wear their hair up and off the shoulder, and to apply subtle red lipstick.  This often goes against their own fashion styles (so does a long black choir dress and pearls).  However, they understand (through my teaching) that a choir's appearance has a large impact on the impression it leaves with an audience or adjudicator.  Our boys wear tuxedos with black shoes, black ties, and black vests.  By all dressing the same, the students feel a sense of unity and pride in their group.  I don't have research to back this up, but it seems as though students who are well put together, and are uniformly dressed seem to have better audience behavior than groups which are not.  Beyond their uniforms, my students have a distinct process for entering the stage, taking their place on the risers, and exiting.  All of these activities serve to show a sense of professionalism and seriousness in my students. 

Seating charts are very important in a choral classroom, for various reasons.  Some directors choose to seat students according to section, or quartets, or octets.  Vocally, there are lots of opinions as to which seating arrangement is best.  Regardless of the reasoning, seating charts are another example of conformity in the music classroom.  Additionally, I use seating charts as a disciplinary tool in my classroom. If I know that two students cannot stop talking (or cannot get along), I am sure to move them to seats where they are not able to distract the rest of the group.  Students are required to conform to the seating chart, and I change their seating often.  I change their seating to either work on their sound, or their behavior.

On trips, I find that the best way to have students dress is in their chorus t-shirt and jeans or shorts (depending on the time of year).  This type of conformity for students achieves several goals.  It assures that students remain in dress code (an issue sometimes on theme park trips).  More importantly, it allows the chaperones to quickly identify students who are part of our group.  I also believe it encourages my students to behave more appropriately because they are wearing the name of their school on their backs.


Much like in the text, I like to choose one or two songs that I know most of the students will really enjoy, this will allow the others to "come along" with the group and have a good time singing it. 

In all of these aspects of my classroom, I find that by getting a significant number of students to "buy in" to the ideas of uniform, seating, etc, the others will follow the guidelines simply to do what the others are doing.  I rely heavily on my seniors and chorus officers to set the tone for what is expected in my classroom, and (in general) the other students come along mostly because it's "what everyone else does" (that famous teenage excuse for some of the questionable decisions they make).  We can use that mindset to our advantage as teachers!

Reflection Post Week 5 - School Socioeconomic Status Review

With my current position at Florida Virtual School, my community is the entire State of Florida.  I have students from the rural panhandle to the urban centers of Miami.  Florida is a very diverse state, and I encounter all types of students with all types of socioeconomic statuses.  Additionally, I don't know a lot of my students personally, and know even less of their parents.  Because of this, I will look back at the school where I taught before beginning at FLVS.

My former school was located in the small town of Crystal River, in Citrus County, Florida.  Crystal River is on the Florida Gulf Coast, about 80 miles north of Tampa.  One of the biggest employers in the area is Duke Energy.  There is a power plant in Crystal River that opened in 1977.  The nuclear plant went offline in 2009, but the coal fired plant is still in operation.  According to the Florida State Department of Education, 59% of students in 2013-2014 qualified for the National School Lunch Program (free and reduced lunch).  According to US News, minorities account for 12% of the school population.  I could not find specific numbers, but from my own experience, a majority of my students and families are quite religious, with Baptist and Presbyterian being the most common denominations.

I personally tended to not let SES factors play too much into my musical decision-making.  I chose music and lessons that were in line with the Florida Sunshine State Standards.  Knowing that a majority of my school, students, and parents were Christian, I generally had no reservations with having Christmas music at our winter concert.  I would, however, do everything I could to expose my students to a broad array of music from different time periods and around the world.  Our book makes mention of the fact that in many cultures, the school music classroom might be the only place that students are exposed to "art" music.  I took it upon myself to introduce the "classics" to my students, without making them feel as though the music they listened to at home was somehow "below" the music I taught.  Every year, I tried (and succeeded, I hope) to always instill in my students a love and respect for all forms of music.