Kai Smith

MUED 273

Semester Reflection

While this semester may have been the hardest semester in terms of workload that Ive had at JMU, I think

I have gotten the most out of it and growth tremendously as a result. Although I initially did not like all of the work

this MUED class required, I am starting to see how necessary it was for me to become more open to new ideas and

allow myself to trust my professors and to listen to what they are saying. At first, I was really skeptical of my

professor because he was making us do all these community projects that my classmates and I felt completely

unprepared for. We felt unprepared because we were just sophomore music majors who hadnt completed half of the

required tech courses, or taken any philosophy classes.

Looking back, I now realize that going out and getting experience was exactly what we needed. We could

have waited until after we completed all our formal education before we started teaching, but then none of what we

had learned would have been authentic. For example, we could have memorized everything about all the

developmental theories but none of it would have had any concrete meaning to us until we saw it being applied in a

classroom. By going out of our comfort zones and doing these projects, we were able to use our experiences from

the practicums and community events to inform us about the theories and methods we are taught in class.

I think the biggest reason why we were so reluctant to be taught with experience first is because that not

how the majority of us were taught throughout our lives. Looking back to public school and even private lessons, the

teachers typically drilled the content, dates, scales, and formulas into us before mentioning any of its implications.

And even after they showed us how to apply it, the content, dates, scales, and formulas were taught so out of context

that it was harder to transfer those skillsets.

As a future educator, I think the biggest hurdle I am going to face is how I will find the right balance

between teaching content and experience because the two schools of thought both have their fair share of pros and

cons. While teaching the content first does give the students more in-depth knowledge of the subject, it lacks any

intrinsic motivation to continue to learn more long after the school ends. On the other hand, teaching with

experiences give the students meaningful and applicable memories that could be used and organized later on, but I

think the teacher will still need to teach some content so that the memories can be stored and organized in a

meaningful way.

Knowing what I know now and after allowing myself to open my mind to new ideas, my conception of

what it means to be a music educator has almost taken a 180 turn since the beginning of the year. At the beginning
of the year, I had a concrete mental image of what it meant to be a good music educator. I thought a great music

educator conducted an excellent ensemble while making it enjoyable and personable for the members in that

ensemble. While this is a reasonable mental image of a good music educator to have, I have realized that this

definition of a good educator only fits one of hundreds of ways a music educator can be great. My original image

didnt include the fantastic elementary general education teachers, the inspiring private lesson teachers, the

imaginative Youtube tutorial educators, and the many other educators that helped shaped me and all the other

musicians around the world into what we are today.

As a Music Education major, my career options became so much larger because I was able to open myself

to other perspectives. Not only can I be band/choral/orchestra director in a public school setting, but I can teach

general music classes at schools, create Youtube tutorials, teach private lessons, teach at community events, and in

any other setting that music education can occur.

I think one of the best ways for me to prepare for all of the possibilities is to continue to be as open minded

as possible. If I limited myself to only taking on projects and jobs that I liked or was passionate about, I would never

know what I may have ended up learning from those missed moments.

This is similar to my experiences with learning Ukulele this semester. Initially, I was completely against the

idea of learning Ukulele. I thought Im never going to teach this. Whats the point in all this? I wasnt the happiest

person ever for a couple days but I told myself that bickering over a mandatory project wasnt going to help. So I

just decided to go with the flow. Although it took me a number of weeks, I started to extract what my professor was

saying in class and I was beginning to see how it was helping me become a better educator. Through the Ukulele, I

was learning how to curriculum design, experience design, and I was learning how to write a lesson plan and then

end up not going by it at all (JMUke). And now, I enjoy playing and learning songs on the Ukulele! Looking back, if

I had simply gone with whatever I liked and ignored what I disliked, I would not have been able to learn as much or

expose myself to as many experiences as I did this semester.

Pedagogical Principles

1. Inclusive I believe that it is my job to create an environment in my classroom that is as accepting of

differences as much as possible. I need to be willing to make both personal and environmental modifications so

that my students have the best chance to succeed.

2. Organized An effective teacher must also be organized. Being organized allows the teacher to focus on

instruction being given instead of worrying about where things went. Being organized also gives off an

perception to students and colleagues that gives off confidence and that confidence can rub off onto others.

3. Flexible An effective teacher must be willing to make changes on the fly for whatever scenario pops up. To

be able to do this, the teacher must over plan and learn to expect the unexpected.

4. Stable There is no doubt in my mind that there will be one day where a student will absolutely anger me.

Knowing that, it rests on me to decide how I will react. I can either blow up and lose my students trust or I can

sternly tell that what they are doing is wrong from a place of stability.

5. Approachable Along with earning the students trust, a teacher needs to show that they care about their

students and that the students can come ask for help at any time.

6. Student Potential As an educator, it is not our (nor the students) job to decide who gets to have the

potential. I strongly believe that every student has the potential to succeed but the teacher and student must work

together for it to happen.

7. Adaptable Not only does the teacher need to flexible, but a teacher will need to have the foresight to see that

one teaching style may not work for every class.

8. Knowledgeable Not only do teachers need the content knowledge but they also need to understand the

content at a high enough level so that when they have to teach a student who interprets the content differently,

the teacher can still help.

9. Driven A teacher needs to be driven because I would imagine teaching to be a taxing job. A driven teacher is

able to see past the temporary inconveniences and continue to strive for personal and professional goals.

10. Risk-Taker Without some healthy risk taking, an educator begins to become complacent. That complacency

could then potentially trickle down into the students and affect how open they would be to learning new

material.