Lindsey Lorefice

Dr. Thornton
Music 395B
February 17, 2014

Reflection on Unit 1

In reflecting upon my experience teaching in the secondary general music
setting, I learned a lot about myself. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching at Mount Nittany
Middle School under the tutelage of Ms. Peggy Shutes. I taught the students how to
sing Spring, Spring before my colleagues, Malcolm Katzen and Kristen Rhodes,
taught the students how to play the chords and melody to the song on dulcimers.
According to Ms. Shutes, I did a great job at teaching the students how to sing the
song; however, she felt that the song did not suit the age group. In reflecting upon
her feedback, I realized that I agree with her. Spring, Spring is better suited for
elementary age students. My colleagues and I chose the song since it was easy for
the students to play on the dulcimer; yet, the easy song compromised the quality of
the text. In the future, I will use the same song but change the words to better fit the
age group.
Concerning my strengths in my teaching, I believe that my format for
teaching the song was effective. Each step was necessary for the students to learn
the song efficiently. I believe that my warm-ups helped the students sing better
throughout the class. Having the students echo me during warm-ups helped them
stay engaged. Furthermore, stopping to explain each step would have been boring
for the students. The students understood my directions since no one asked me to
re-explain an instruction.
I hope to improve my ability to give clearer cues to the students when I want
them to sing. I was using my hands to keep a steady tempo by tapping my chest and
I felt awkward when I stopped to give the students a cue. I plan on having the
students immediately echo me in the future so that everyone can continue tapping
the steady beat together. This way, the students will be able to feel the music in their
bodies by tapping themselves with me and they will know when to enter.
One goal I set for myself was to feel more comfortable with thinking on my
feet during a lesson. I was able to do this while conducting warm-ups with the
students. I added more phrases to speak in head voice to the warm-ups since most
of the kids were still speaking with vocal fry. A lot of the students were tired and
their lack of energy was affecting their vocal quality. Also, I incorporated more
melodic warm-ups into my teaching so that the children were sufficiently warmed
up.
My experience with this setting taught me that the students will be
demonstrating various vocal techniques since their bodies are rapidly changing. I
was surprised to hear so many speaking range singers at the 6
th
grade level. In the
future, I hope to be able to teach in a manner that would be stimulating for actual
singers while helping speaking range singers progress in their development. I also
learned that 6
th
graders are very chatty. I hope to think of creative ways to
reprimand the students when they begin to talk. Reflecting upon my experience at
Mount Nittany Middle School opened my eyes to my strengths and weaknesses as a
teacher.