Practicum Reflection 6

This week I observed a concert band rehearsal. In addition I got teach part of the lesson. The instructor started off with a warm up. The band played a D major scale and altered the rhythms to make it more challenging as they go further into the lesson. After they finished their warm-up, they pulled out a long tone exercise from a method book for band. The teacher had them work on tuning and playing as an ensemble. I think this was a good idea because we are often so focused on learning notes and rhythms in pieces that we don't focus on things as small as playing as an ensemble. After this they worked on one of their pieces Don Ricardo. The instructor wrote out one of the main melodies for everyone in the class. They counted the different rhythms out loud, and isolated specific measures for those who were having trouble. The entire class seemed to know all the rhythms and notes. They put all this work into context. One of my peers led this portion of the class, and had the ensemble play the section with the melody they just worked on. However, once they put it into context they forgot some of the rhythms and notes and weren't playing confidently. As my peer was teaching the instructor went around and was counting for students so they could keep up. I think this is something students will begin to rely on, and therefore not bother learning the rhythms themselves because the teacher will give it to them. After they put all their work into context, they moved on to working on the march. The instructor started off by working on the style and differences between certain articulations. This is when I got up to teach the class. We worked on the trio section of the march. This experience allowed me to see what it was like to teach a class that wasn't comprised of my peers. I got my first taste of classroom management, and had to figure out how to be patient and wait for all the students to stop talking. In addition they would continue to play after I stopped conducting which was different than I was used to. Overall, I think my teaching went well and I was able to apply a lot of the concepts I had learned in other classes. After I stepped down the instructor finished the class by working on dynamics and blend for the third piece on their spring concert. The class continued to talk through most of the period and it didn't get better no matter what the instructor said. Observing this class today, in addition to teaching, gave me a good idea of what being a high school band teacher is like, as well as some ideas about classroom management.