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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
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
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
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
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
Pedagogical Principles
differences as much as possible. I need to be willing to make both personal and environmental modifications so
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
7. Adaptable Not only does the teacher need to flexible, but a teacher will need to have the foresight to see that
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,
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.