Vlog #1:
Vlog #2: First Week At Placement
Katie,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about your first experience at your placement.
I'm fascinated by what you said about the video on tribes. You mentioned how you were struggling to see meaningful connection between the video and the discussion. Can you dig a little deeper into this issue of disconnection between content and application in a learning environment? You mentioned how this didn't go as you would have predicted (and the 'whats' that caused you to think this was strange). How (if at all) has your thinking changed after this experience? (sorry, that's a two-parter!)
I love what you said at the end, "I need to allow myself to be a follower a bit more to be a better leader", that really spoke to me, and says a lot about what you see a leadership role is. Can you tell me more about how re-framing the role of "leader" as you did may cause you to negotiate your role differently within this placement?
I'm excited to hear back from you, thanks for the insightful blog posts!
Best,
Kyle
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about your first experience at your placement.
I'm fascinated by what you said about the video on tribes. You mentioned how you were struggling to see meaningful connection between the video and the discussion. Can you dig a little deeper into this issue of disconnection between content and application in a learning environment? You mentioned how this didn't go as you would have predicted (and the 'whats' that caused you to think this was strange). How (if at all) has your thinking changed after this experience? (sorry, that's a two-parter!)
I love what you said at the end, "I need to allow myself to be a follower a bit more to be a better leader", that really spoke to me, and says a lot about what you see a leadership role is. Can you tell me more about how re-framing the role of "leader" as you did may cause you to negotiate your role differently within this placement?
I'm excited to hear back from you, thanks for the insightful blog posts!
Best,
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
I’m glad that I was insightful in my blog post. The issue between content and application is something that is quite apparent I would say in schools. For instance, I got to class and depending on the environment of the class I’m gonna get different ways of presenting content. By this I mean, a lecture is just a PowerPoint presentation where the teacher gives you all the information and you are expected to go an memorize it. Some of my other courses such as conducting requires me to do readings on the topic and apply that knowledge to actually conducting our small ensemble. I am fortunate enough to get both types of presentations of content but if we only had lectures it would be like how I perform first aid in a sense. I can tell you the textbook way of treating for shock or a stroke. However, in a real life situation there is the human factor of secretly freaking out and not being able to follow each text book step. Essentially what I am trying to say is that real life can’t be defined by text book steps and the application portion prepares you to figure out yourself what is the best method of doing something.
I’m not sure if my thinking has changed quite yet after this placement (an hour isn’t long enough to change my thoughts). I still have an opposing idea of what leadership means and how it should be fostered. I really enjoyed the discussions we had as a group and thought the video was interesting the problem was the discussion we had after we didn’t really discuss how that video related to leadership or how we play a role in leadership. I think it would be more beneficial if they did activities that really put them in that leadership role. Yes we can watch videos or have discussions to make connections on what the participants think a leader is. However, now that they’ve made these connections and are starting to get an idea of what a leader means to them, let them experiment with their own definition of a leader by actually allowing them to lead a group.
We had an amazing guest, Dr. Barber, who said over and over that it’s not about the teacher. Therefore what I am trying to get at is that the student and the students needs are more important than the teacher (leader). I need to be able to take a step back and learn to follow the participants lead without interjecting so that they can find their own definition of leadership. Dr. Barber also repeated over and over that guessing is good. I don’t want to be the buffer that stops the participants from guessing their way to what they think a leader is. Then they can try it and see if they like that version of a leader. If they don’t like it then they guess again to a new version. My role in this situation is to ask questions to further their thinking and allow them to fail and try again. However, now that I am thinking about it I don’t know how much “power” I have to this role. By this I mean there are clear opposing views of leadership and I’m not sure where I sit in terms of being able to share my views/ways of learning about leadership without confusing the participants with that they are already learning.
Sorry, I know I just went off. Hope this makes sense.
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
I’m glad that I was insightful in my blog post. The issue between content and application is something that is quite apparent I would say in schools. For instance, I got to class and depending on the environment of the class I’m gonna get different ways of presenting content. By this I mean, a lecture is just a PowerPoint presentation where the teacher gives you all the information and you are expected to go an memorize it. Some of my other courses such as conducting requires me to do readings on the topic and apply that knowledge to actually conducting our small ensemble. I am fortunate enough to get both types of presentations of content but if we only had lectures it would be like how I perform first aid in a sense. I can tell you the textbook way of treating for shock or a stroke. However, in a real life situation there is the human factor of secretly freaking out and not being able to follow each text book step. Essentially what I am trying to say is that real life can’t be defined by text book steps and the application portion prepares you to figure out yourself what is the best method of doing something.
I’m not sure if my thinking has changed quite yet after this placement (an hour isn’t long enough to change my thoughts). I still have an opposing idea of what leadership means and how it should be fostered. I really enjoyed the discussions we had as a group and thought the video was interesting the problem was the discussion we had after we didn’t really discuss how that video related to leadership or how we play a role in leadership. I think it would be more beneficial if they did activities that really put them in that leadership role. Yes we can watch videos or have discussions to make connections on what the participants think a leader is. However, now that they’ve made these connections and are starting to get an idea of what a leader means to them, let them experiment with their own definition of a leader by actually allowing them to lead a group.
We had an amazing guest, Dr. Barber, who said over and over that it’s not about the teacher. Therefore what I am trying to get at is that the student and the students needs are more important than the teacher (leader). I need to be able to take a step back and learn to follow the participants lead without interjecting so that they can find their own definition of leadership. Dr. Barber also repeated over and over that guessing is good. I don’t want to be the buffer that stops the participants from guessing their way to what they think a leader is. Then they can try it and see if they like that version of a leader. If they don’t like it then they guess again to a new version. My role in this situation is to ask questions to further their thinking and allow them to fail and try again. However, now that I am thinking about it I don’t know how much “power” I have to this role. By this I mean there are clear opposing views of leadership and I’m not sure where I sit in terms of being able to share my views/ways of learning about leadership without confusing the participants with that they are already learning.
Sorry, I know I just went off. Hope this makes sense.
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
Vlog #3: Second Week At Placement
Katie,
Thanks for posting, I'm going to keep this response connected to your choir rehearsal!
It sounds like you will have your hands full at the choir rehearsals! You mentioned your nervousness going in and your worry about not being able to contribute at the beginning. After this first week, how do you think the students perceive your role within rehearsal? Is it similar to how you perceive your role?
You noted that the rehearsal resembled something like your camp rehearsals versus what you termed "choir discipline". Can you tell me more about how this structure might allow students to act with agency within the rehearsal?
Looking forward to hearing back!
Kyle
Thanks for posting, I'm going to keep this response connected to your choir rehearsal!
It sounds like you will have your hands full at the choir rehearsals! You mentioned your nervousness going in and your worry about not being able to contribute at the beginning. After this first week, how do you think the students perceive your role within rehearsal? Is it similar to how you perceive your role?
You noted that the rehearsal resembled something like your camp rehearsals versus what you termed "choir discipline". Can you tell me more about how this structure might allow students to act with agency within the rehearsal?
Looking forward to hearing back!
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
So to answer your first question, I was introduced as being there to help make music. So I think the students might perceive my role as almost similar to theirs. In the sense that I am there to sing with them and not really lead any of the activities. They probably see me as an authoritative figure in some sense since I was kind of acting as crowd control by getting the attention of those around me back onto the leader. I was also putting out fires (conflicts between the students) here and there so they could view me as the equivalent to a volunteer parent in a school who is there to kind of observe and help here or there. For the first week at that placement I would say that’s the role that I wanted to take on just because I wanted to observe how the program runs and get a better feel for it. That isn’t necessarily the role I would like to maintain through out this placement. I would like to maybe lead or co-lead some of the activities. Since I have very limited knowledge on choirs, and it is a very possible that I could be teaching a choir in the future, I would like to use this placement to gain more confidence in this area of music and hopefully be able to make use of the knowledge I hope to gain from this experience.
When I said the structure of the program resembled my camp programming, I meant in the sense that it’s all more game structured than intense learning. I work at a day camp that’s focused on nature and yes there is a learning aspect to it but it’s not as intense learning as you would see in schools or music classes. I’m kind of stumped about your second question because I’m not entirely sure if the students have more independence or a say in their environment with this structure. This is a question I might have to ask further down the road because I’ve only spent an hour with this particular program and I don’t know if the structure will change or adapt down the line. At the moment I would say the senior members of the choir might have more independence or a say in the sense that they take a more leadership role and help guide the younger members. At least that’s my observation from being with them for only an hour. If I were to continue to relate it to my camp experience I would say that my campers have very little say in their environment because I program the whole summer and the only way that program changes is if the weather is too extreme to be outside. I would constantly take the campers suggestions to what they like to play and program it more through out the week but normally I would not let them do whatever they want because normally that leads to disaster. Some of the younger members of the choir would say they want to do a certain singing hand game and the leader would do it but in terms of say with musicality choices or what piece they are going to sing there so very little of that (or there could be but it’s an early stage of learning the piece and they might be more focused on learning the words and notes first). I think the question I need/want to ask my self is how does a students say in an environment effect the progress of the group? Because a students say is super important to me but if it’s not controlled/guided by the teacher then they all have different ideas about what they want to do and can argue about which is the best way of doing the task. So for example, if I told my campers, “hey we have an hour what do you want to do?” They are all going to say different things and obviously you can’t play basketball and play a game of tag at the same time so then you have to choose and then some campers are unhappy while the others are. Choice/say is a powerful idea that can really cause some issues sometimes unless it’s guided. When I say guided I mean that you have to take in all possibilities/ideas and and try them each individually. For example, when rehearsing a piece you might ask the students, “what type of articulation should we use here?” They will give you different answers and you will say, “let’s try each one and see which one we like the best.” Then you can vote on it and it’s productive progress, the students get a say but it’s a controlled conversation. Therefore if anything, I think the students might have more say if it was structured as a choir rehearsal that you would see in schools but yet again I wouldn’t exactly know until further in my time at the placement.
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
So to answer your first question, I was introduced as being there to help make music. So I think the students might perceive my role as almost similar to theirs. In the sense that I am there to sing with them and not really lead any of the activities. They probably see me as an authoritative figure in some sense since I was kind of acting as crowd control by getting the attention of those around me back onto the leader. I was also putting out fires (conflicts between the students) here and there so they could view me as the equivalent to a volunteer parent in a school who is there to kind of observe and help here or there. For the first week at that placement I would say that’s the role that I wanted to take on just because I wanted to observe how the program runs and get a better feel for it. That isn’t necessarily the role I would like to maintain through out this placement. I would like to maybe lead or co-lead some of the activities. Since I have very limited knowledge on choirs, and it is a very possible that I could be teaching a choir in the future, I would like to use this placement to gain more confidence in this area of music and hopefully be able to make use of the knowledge I hope to gain from this experience.
When I said the structure of the program resembled my camp programming, I meant in the sense that it’s all more game structured than intense learning. I work at a day camp that’s focused on nature and yes there is a learning aspect to it but it’s not as intense learning as you would see in schools or music classes. I’m kind of stumped about your second question because I’m not entirely sure if the students have more independence or a say in their environment with this structure. This is a question I might have to ask further down the road because I’ve only spent an hour with this particular program and I don’t know if the structure will change or adapt down the line. At the moment I would say the senior members of the choir might have more independence or a say in the sense that they take a more leadership role and help guide the younger members. At least that’s my observation from being with them for only an hour. If I were to continue to relate it to my camp experience I would say that my campers have very little say in their environment because I program the whole summer and the only way that program changes is if the weather is too extreme to be outside. I would constantly take the campers suggestions to what they like to play and program it more through out the week but normally I would not let them do whatever they want because normally that leads to disaster. Some of the younger members of the choir would say they want to do a certain singing hand game and the leader would do it but in terms of say with musicality choices or what piece they are going to sing there so very little of that (or there could be but it’s an early stage of learning the piece and they might be more focused on learning the words and notes first). I think the question I need/want to ask my self is how does a students say in an environment effect the progress of the group? Because a students say is super important to me but if it’s not controlled/guided by the teacher then they all have different ideas about what they want to do and can argue about which is the best way of doing the task. So for example, if I told my campers, “hey we have an hour what do you want to do?” They are all going to say different things and obviously you can’t play basketball and play a game of tag at the same time so then you have to choose and then some campers are unhappy while the others are. Choice/say is a powerful idea that can really cause some issues sometimes unless it’s guided. When I say guided I mean that you have to take in all possibilities/ideas and and try them each individually. For example, when rehearsing a piece you might ask the students, “what type of articulation should we use here?” They will give you different answers and you will say, “let’s try each one and see which one we like the best.” Then you can vote on it and it’s productive progress, the students get a say but it’s a controlled conversation. Therefore if anything, I think the students might have more say if it was structured as a choir rehearsal that you would see in schools but yet again I wouldn’t exactly know until further in my time at the placement.
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
Vlog #4: Third Week at Placement
Vlog #5: Fourth Week at Placement
Hi Katie,
I'm doing a two-for-one response today, I'm sorry for not getting back to you from last week!
It sounds like you are getting more and more involved every week, which is so cool to see given what your goals were after your first reflection!
I got excited hearing about the three groups coming together and all having something special to teach the rest of the group! Even though you said you don't think it was planned, that sounds like a great opportunity! How could you think about designing a lesson plan structure in the future for that? Would that be something you would consider bringing forward to the leaders to implement?
I also am interested in what you said from last week about your routine getting thrown off. It made me think of "flexibility" and "adaptability", two concepts that I've been trying to implement in my own teaching practice. How might you work to implement them in your own?
Thanks for thinking through this stuff, Katie!
Best,
Kyle
I'm doing a two-for-one response today, I'm sorry for not getting back to you from last week!
It sounds like you are getting more and more involved every week, which is so cool to see given what your goals were after your first reflection!
I got excited hearing about the three groups coming together and all having something special to teach the rest of the group! Even though you said you don't think it was planned, that sounds like a great opportunity! How could you think about designing a lesson plan structure in the future for that? Would that be something you would consider bringing forward to the leaders to implement?
I also am interested in what you said from last week about your routine getting thrown off. It made me think of "flexibility" and "adaptability", two concepts that I've been trying to implement in my own teaching practice. How might you work to implement them in your own?
Thanks for thinking through this stuff, Katie!
Best,
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
I think I would structure a time where the group gets split in to three and work on the different aspects as I said before and then come back as a group and put all of it into context such as what we did. Afterwards I would probably have a discussion with the class about what each groups strong points were (what they individually worked on in groups) and then have them either teach each other what they did in their individual groups or have them be more conscious of the other factors. I’m not sure if the leaders knew this accidentally happened or observed it the way I did so it would be cool if they could try to replicate it and see if it makes a difference.
Being flexible and adaptable is something I’m not new to. I am used to being flexible and adapting activities constantly with my summer job as a camp supervisor. Whether it be because I need to accommodate the campers needs or the weather permits certain activities. I just need to know that plans change based on the participants needs or the leaders are sick that week and it’s a new group of leaders. Therefore I need to come up with quick solutions that will accommodate those needs or not be thrown off with someone new. I also have experience in certain areas so some of those factors that I adapt to are stuff I’ve already tried and know that work so it helps me be more flexible.
Hope your reading week is going well!
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
I think I would structure a time where the group gets split in to three and work on the different aspects as I said before and then come back as a group and put all of it into context such as what we did. Afterwards I would probably have a discussion with the class about what each groups strong points were (what they individually worked on in groups) and then have them either teach each other what they did in their individual groups or have them be more conscious of the other factors. I’m not sure if the leaders knew this accidentally happened or observed it the way I did so it would be cool if they could try to replicate it and see if it makes a difference.
Being flexible and adaptable is something I’m not new to. I am used to being flexible and adapting activities constantly with my summer job as a camp supervisor. Whether it be because I need to accommodate the campers needs or the weather permits certain activities. I just need to know that plans change based on the participants needs or the leaders are sick that week and it’s a new group of leaders. Therefore I need to come up with quick solutions that will accommodate those needs or not be thrown off with someone new. I also have experience in certain areas so some of those factors that I adapt to are stuff I’ve already tried and know that work so it helps me be more flexible.
Hope your reading week is going well!
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
Vlog #6/7: Fifth/Sixth Week at Placement
I’m gonna speak about the past two weeks at my placement because I accidentally forgot to post last week but also I have thought and made connections with a certain theme I’ve seen. First I will talk about the choir and then I’ll go into the leadership class.
Last week I switched from constantly being with the junior choir and decided to switch things up and see how the senior choir operated. Initially I wasn’t too shocked about the difference in maturity. And by that I mean the senior choir was more productive and listened to the conductor more than the junior choir did. I always felt like with the junior choir I would be crowd control and make sure that they were listening and paying attention and then on top of that trying to get them to be more musical. I was a little stuck with what I should do with the senior choir because they already weren’t being that disruptive and were quite musical. So I opted with being a model. I do this in young winds when I am playing. So I essentially I would silently show good posture and good technique for the students to observe and do the same. I would also “play dumb” and say stuff like “oh what bar are we at?” Or “what’s the fingering again?” That way I can assess how much the students know and give them the chance to be the “expert.” So in the senior choir I kind of did that to make sure they were paying attention. This past week I went back to the junior choir and did my normal routine of crowd control. They were basically just setting up for their concert next week and were just placing the students on their spots for the concert. Afterwards the junior choir worked on the two songs they have been singing the whole time I’ve been there. There was some discussion on how to sing the song with a beautiful voice and what that means. Today (Thursday) I went to the senior choir rehearsal to make up an hour that I missed during reading week. They did sectionals in which the baritones went in a separate room to work on their piece and the sopranos/altos worked on their separate piece. Then they came back as a group and each performed for each other and gave feedback to each other. They discussed what it meant to give constructive feedback and the conductor explained the importance of not using the words but and just. The funny thing is the conductor used both those words without thinking about it and the students picked up on it and called her out for it. The biggest question/assumption/theme I was thinking about switching back and forth between the two choirs is the idea of choir management. Why did I assume that the senior choir was gonna be more productive/mature? Could it be because of the type of leadership is being given? How is classroom management different between ages? Does it have to be different? A lot of these questions made me think about how I could apply this when I go teach. Firstly, I don’t think classroom management has to be any different depending on the age. I think the techniques used to keep a productive environment are the same the only difference would be that the language used is age appropriate. I think I assumed a senior choir would be more mature and productive because their age is higher and they know by then when they need to listen and such. However, this isn’t always true I think. Not all senior choirs have to be that calm and can be chaotic and junior choirs could be less chaotic and more calm. I think that factor that causes the choirs to act accordingly is the leadership that runs it. If there is a good leadership there is possibly more order. If the leadership doesn’t provide a fun and safe environment then the students won’t trust them and cause chaos.
Last week with the leadership class, they discussed self-care. At first I lacked to see how it was relevant to leadership. I then started to make the connection how there is always the assumption that a leader is strong and independent and that they are not allowed to fall apart mentally. This really struck me because I have to say every time I am in a leadership position I feel like I can’t fall apart because then the followers will get lost kind of thing. I am a big advocate on self-care and knowing your limits and I’ve never considered self-care being a part of leadership. Which sounds awful for me to say but that is unfortunately the assumption that has been placed in my head. I think mainly because (side thought: maybe I’m thinking more in the moment, I’ll explain in a second) at work whenever there is an emergency situation I have to act like a swan (this is how my boss describes it). I have to look calm and graceful above the water but under the water the feet are frantically kicking (inner panic). Now that I am thinking about it that is more in the moment and then afterwards we debrief and make sure everyone is mentally ok. One of the participants brought up that you should know your limits and if you feel like you need a break, know you can rely on others to step up and take that role. Or at least feel confident learning from you how to be a leader to step up. This week we did a focus group to assess how the class is going and one of the questions was if there was anything they wanted to change what would they change? The vast majority in my group said they wanted more hands on activities because it gets boring. They said they enjoyed the individual discussions but the rest of the class could get boring. I agreed with that because I feel like if they want to learn about the characteristics of leadership they should also put it into practice. It’s like learning music theory and just talking about it and not applying the information to an actual piece of music. One of the students also brought up the reason that no one really talks in the group session is because they are so used to raising their hands that now that we are asking them to just speak they don’t want to speak over others by accident. The assumption that you have to raise your hand is still a problem that I gave in most of my classes because it’s what we’ve always been taught to do and now that you are putting me in this position to just talk and have a conversation is foreign. It makes me wonder how effective this would be in a high school music class? Does it give the students more confidence? How do you maintain an orderly manner of people not talking over each other? I’m not sure if I can answer these questions quite yet but I would assume that yes it’s possible. I would like to possibly try this with my young winds students and see what happens. They are a quiet bunch.
Last week I switched from constantly being with the junior choir and decided to switch things up and see how the senior choir operated. Initially I wasn’t too shocked about the difference in maturity. And by that I mean the senior choir was more productive and listened to the conductor more than the junior choir did. I always felt like with the junior choir I would be crowd control and make sure that they were listening and paying attention and then on top of that trying to get them to be more musical. I was a little stuck with what I should do with the senior choir because they already weren’t being that disruptive and were quite musical. So I opted with being a model. I do this in young winds when I am playing. So I essentially I would silently show good posture and good technique for the students to observe and do the same. I would also “play dumb” and say stuff like “oh what bar are we at?” Or “what’s the fingering again?” That way I can assess how much the students know and give them the chance to be the “expert.” So in the senior choir I kind of did that to make sure they were paying attention. This past week I went back to the junior choir and did my normal routine of crowd control. They were basically just setting up for their concert next week and were just placing the students on their spots for the concert. Afterwards the junior choir worked on the two songs they have been singing the whole time I’ve been there. There was some discussion on how to sing the song with a beautiful voice and what that means. Today (Thursday) I went to the senior choir rehearsal to make up an hour that I missed during reading week. They did sectionals in which the baritones went in a separate room to work on their piece and the sopranos/altos worked on their separate piece. Then they came back as a group and each performed for each other and gave feedback to each other. They discussed what it meant to give constructive feedback and the conductor explained the importance of not using the words but and just. The funny thing is the conductor used both those words without thinking about it and the students picked up on it and called her out for it. The biggest question/assumption/theme I was thinking about switching back and forth between the two choirs is the idea of choir management. Why did I assume that the senior choir was gonna be more productive/mature? Could it be because of the type of leadership is being given? How is classroom management different between ages? Does it have to be different? A lot of these questions made me think about how I could apply this when I go teach. Firstly, I don’t think classroom management has to be any different depending on the age. I think the techniques used to keep a productive environment are the same the only difference would be that the language used is age appropriate. I think I assumed a senior choir would be more mature and productive because their age is higher and they know by then when they need to listen and such. However, this isn’t always true I think. Not all senior choirs have to be that calm and can be chaotic and junior choirs could be less chaotic and more calm. I think that factor that causes the choirs to act accordingly is the leadership that runs it. If there is a good leadership there is possibly more order. If the leadership doesn’t provide a fun and safe environment then the students won’t trust them and cause chaos.
Last week with the leadership class, they discussed self-care. At first I lacked to see how it was relevant to leadership. I then started to make the connection how there is always the assumption that a leader is strong and independent and that they are not allowed to fall apart mentally. This really struck me because I have to say every time I am in a leadership position I feel like I can’t fall apart because then the followers will get lost kind of thing. I am a big advocate on self-care and knowing your limits and I’ve never considered self-care being a part of leadership. Which sounds awful for me to say but that is unfortunately the assumption that has been placed in my head. I think mainly because (side thought: maybe I’m thinking more in the moment, I’ll explain in a second) at work whenever there is an emergency situation I have to act like a swan (this is how my boss describes it). I have to look calm and graceful above the water but under the water the feet are frantically kicking (inner panic). Now that I am thinking about it that is more in the moment and then afterwards we debrief and make sure everyone is mentally ok. One of the participants brought up that you should know your limits and if you feel like you need a break, know you can rely on others to step up and take that role. Or at least feel confident learning from you how to be a leader to step up. This week we did a focus group to assess how the class is going and one of the questions was if there was anything they wanted to change what would they change? The vast majority in my group said they wanted more hands on activities because it gets boring. They said they enjoyed the individual discussions but the rest of the class could get boring. I agreed with that because I feel like if they want to learn about the characteristics of leadership they should also put it into practice. It’s like learning music theory and just talking about it and not applying the information to an actual piece of music. One of the students also brought up the reason that no one really talks in the group session is because they are so used to raising their hands that now that we are asking them to just speak they don’t want to speak over others by accident. The assumption that you have to raise your hand is still a problem that I gave in most of my classes because it’s what we’ve always been taught to do and now that you are putting me in this position to just talk and have a conversation is foreign. It makes me wonder how effective this would be in a high school music class? Does it give the students more confidence? How do you maintain an orderly manner of people not talking over each other? I’m not sure if I can answer these questions quite yet but I would assume that yes it’s possible. I would like to possibly try this with my young winds students and see what happens. They are a quiet bunch.
Katie,
Thanks for your note, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts.
To your point about students talking over each other, I think a lot of teachers would be scared to implement the "talk with your partner" method that Dr. Benedict uses, because it might "incite chaos" or lead to a less "productive environment". What do you think the implications of that are for students?
As for speaking out in class, this method of bouncing your ideas off of one person first a) gives students confidence that their ideas aren't outlandish, b) lets them say them out loud and refine it before bringing it to a group, and c) gets them talking and thinking together (which I see as more hands on). How and when might you implement this practice within a music classroom setting? Do you think it could be effective?
Sorry, there's a lot there, but I love the ideas you brought up and would like to hear more about this from you!
Thanks so much,
Kyle
Thanks for your note, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts.
To your point about students talking over each other, I think a lot of teachers would be scared to implement the "talk with your partner" method that Dr. Benedict uses, because it might "incite chaos" or lead to a less "productive environment". What do you think the implications of that are for students?
As for speaking out in class, this method of bouncing your ideas off of one person first a) gives students confidence that their ideas aren't outlandish, b) lets them say them out loud and refine it before bringing it to a group, and c) gets them talking and thinking together (which I see as more hands on). How and when might you implement this practice within a music classroom setting? Do you think it could be effective?
Sorry, there's a lot there, but I love the ideas you brought up and would like to hear more about this from you!
Thanks so much,
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
I think one of the biggest implications would be that it is kind of says that the teacher doesn't trust the students to be productive on their own. So they want to control all conversations so that it can be a "productive environment." I kind of thought before that it wouldn't be possible for me to do that but now thinking about it I don't want to hinder the students thought process so it is definitely worth a try.
For your second point, I think I have to disagree with the confidence part in which it gives the students confidence that their ideas aren't outlandish. I know that most anxiety of talking outlaid comes from the teacher bashing your idea down or saying something along the lines of your thinking is wrong. However, I think that students can lose that confidence from their peers alone because there have been multiple times in our discussions in class where one person said one thing and another person said "well actually I disagree with that" and then multiple people backed up that person. In that scenario, not saying this has happened to me in class, but I think someone can easily lose confidence in wanting to speak up then. I can only see this method working if you have a conversation with your class first about how to have these discussions. So for example, in masterclass when we are giving feedback we are not allowed to say 'but' or 'just' because it has a negative connotation. So talking to the class about these types of things so that you can foster the safe environment where everyone is comfortable with contributing to the conversation.
To answer your last two questions though, I would definitely not use this in a rehearsal setting because there simply isn't time to have lengthy discussions. I would maybe use it when discussing the meaning of lyrics to a piece if I were teaching a vocal class or maybe I would use it when teaching music history or theory. It is kind of hard to put those types of discussions into teaching a music class because those types of discussions are reflective. The best time to use those types of conversations I believe would be after a concert and having them reflect together on how it went and what they can do to improve. Given the right guidance on how to have those types of conversations I think it would be very effective because the students would feel like they have a voice and feel confident enough to engage in the class activities.
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
I think one of the biggest implications would be that it is kind of says that the teacher doesn't trust the students to be productive on their own. So they want to control all conversations so that it can be a "productive environment." I kind of thought before that it wouldn't be possible for me to do that but now thinking about it I don't want to hinder the students thought process so it is definitely worth a try.
For your second point, I think I have to disagree with the confidence part in which it gives the students confidence that their ideas aren't outlandish. I know that most anxiety of talking outlaid comes from the teacher bashing your idea down or saying something along the lines of your thinking is wrong. However, I think that students can lose that confidence from their peers alone because there have been multiple times in our discussions in class where one person said one thing and another person said "well actually I disagree with that" and then multiple people backed up that person. In that scenario, not saying this has happened to me in class, but I think someone can easily lose confidence in wanting to speak up then. I can only see this method working if you have a conversation with your class first about how to have these discussions. So for example, in masterclass when we are giving feedback we are not allowed to say 'but' or 'just' because it has a negative connotation. So talking to the class about these types of things so that you can foster the safe environment where everyone is comfortable with contributing to the conversation.
To answer your last two questions though, I would definitely not use this in a rehearsal setting because there simply isn't time to have lengthy discussions. I would maybe use it when discussing the meaning of lyrics to a piece if I were teaching a vocal class or maybe I would use it when teaching music history or theory. It is kind of hard to put those types of discussions into teaching a music class because those types of discussions are reflective. The best time to use those types of conversations I believe would be after a concert and having them reflect together on how it went and what they can do to improve. Given the right guidance on how to have those types of conversations I think it would be very effective because the students would feel like they have a voice and feel confident enough to engage in the class activities.
Thanks!
Katie McClelland
Vlog #8: Seventh and Last Week at Placement
Katie,
thanks for your vlog post! It is great to hear this has been such an enjoyable experience for you.
Could you talk a little bit about your placement as a whole—memorable moments that you will take with you, challenges you experienced? How, upon reflecting on these, will this go forward into your future practice?
I know you'll be doing a final "sum up" with the presentations but I'm interested in your thoughts!
Thanks for a great semester reflecting. Also, thanks for such an insightful response to my last response, your perspective on confidence of ideas was a fresh one for me!!
Best, Kyle
thanks for your vlog post! It is great to hear this has been such an enjoyable experience for you.
Could you talk a little bit about your placement as a whole—memorable moments that you will take with you, challenges you experienced? How, upon reflecting on these, will this go forward into your future practice?
I know you'll be doing a final "sum up" with the presentations but I'm interested in your thoughts!
Thanks for a great semester reflecting. Also, thanks for such an insightful response to my last response, your perspective on confidence of ideas was a fresh one for me!!
Best, Kyle
Hi Kyle,
Just to touch on the challenges first because they are at the top of my head. I kind of struggled for a few weeks trying to figure out my role and once I settled into a routine it ended up working out. Another challenge I had was simply not knowing anything about vocal music and how to teach it. I feel like I have come out of this program with a lot more knowledge in that area and I could at least start someone off in a choir and then would have to get more help in terms of details of vocal music. I really enjoyed the leadership class and its students. There were many moments where they made me really think through what I thought leadership was and have not necessarily changed my mind/perspective on leadership but more added to what I think leadership entails. I think the most memorable thing that I will take with me is the progress I saw between the choir and the leadership class. It is truly astounding where they ended up musically and reflectively.
I have always reflected on my work and playing but I have never really gone into the depths of reflecting like I have in this class. I am surly going to use this is my future practices because it has really made me question things I would normally not question. Meaning that I would never consider doing something but then when really reflecting on it I would change my mind.
This experience and reflecting on it is seriously going to change my life, mainly in terms of the leadership class because it has given me a whole new perspective on leadership. I use leadership on the daily, at school, at work, etc. Therefore this experience has literally changed my perspective on how I would normally do things.
Thanks for the great semester!
Katie McClelland
Just to touch on the challenges first because they are at the top of my head. I kind of struggled for a few weeks trying to figure out my role and once I settled into a routine it ended up working out. Another challenge I had was simply not knowing anything about vocal music and how to teach it. I feel like I have come out of this program with a lot more knowledge in that area and I could at least start someone off in a choir and then would have to get more help in terms of details of vocal music. I really enjoyed the leadership class and its students. There were many moments where they made me really think through what I thought leadership was and have not necessarily changed my mind/perspective on leadership but more added to what I think leadership entails. I think the most memorable thing that I will take with me is the progress I saw between the choir and the leadership class. It is truly astounding where they ended up musically and reflectively.
I have always reflected on my work and playing but I have never really gone into the depths of reflecting like I have in this class. I am surly going to use this is my future practices because it has really made me question things I would normally not question. Meaning that I would never consider doing something but then when really reflecting on it I would change my mind.
This experience and reflecting on it is seriously going to change my life, mainly in terms of the leadership class because it has given me a whole new perspective on leadership. I use leadership on the daily, at school, at work, etc. Therefore this experience has literally changed my perspective on how I would normally do things.
Thanks for the great semester!
Katie McClelland