So cool experience the other day- I taught ten minutes of the Messiah. I tried to cram in, I kid you not, six concepts. It felt panicked and rushed, even if they did learn a lot. Afterward, he gave me amazing feedback. He said, "Just relax, breathe. Don't try to push too much on them at once. Another suggestions. A few times you said things like " Do this for me" or "I want…" Don't do that. It builds a wall between you and them, and you have such a great demeanor, that would be such a shame! Seriously, your great up there in front of them. They will love you. They do already. Do you feel it?" I was reawakened to my excitement and passion for teaching and teaching music. In this Daniel Gawthrope song, their is a line that I have always loved that says "Oh blessed am I that I may sing my devotion- Oh blessed am I that I may sing, Oh blessed am I." Just…so grateful that I found this. Somedays it is so hard, and I don't even know what is going on around me, and I don't feel talented enough, or capable enough or like I work hard enough… but days like that one make up for all the rest. Anyway! In my classroom management class, we had an assignment to write a paper on how we would build a classroom environment that 1, encouraged positive social interaction, 2. made students actively engage in learning, and 3. encourage students to self motivate. Read at your leisure! Y'all are awesome.
Sarah
Knudson
Building
Classroom Community
I am so grateful
that before I began my education classes, I found the work of
psychologist Brenee Brown, a vulnerability researcher. In her book
“The Gifts of Imperfection”, Brenee makes two statements that I
would turn into classroom mantras: everything from quoting them out
loud and often, to including them in disclosure documents, to writing
them in permanent marker on the board. The first is, “Vulnerability
is showing up and letting ourselves be seen” and the second is “
We need to let our kids know they are worthy of love and belonging.”
Love is a dangerous word in educational atmospheres, so I would
respectfully change that to “My students are worthy of belonging
and my unconditional positive regard- just by showing up. Without
doing anything.” My quest is therefore to create an environment
where risk is encouraged, and failure is seen as the birthplace of
change and improvement- a classroom where vulnerability is ok,
because no matter what they are positively regarded and worthy. This
would mainly be achieved by honest connection, teacher to student,
and student to student. This could be achieved by beginning the
semester with a retreat(an extended musical bonding experience) using
'folder partners', or 'big sibling, little sibling' programs and
having a democratically elected choir council. Along with these, I
would write respecting each other into the course contract.
Everything from respecting each others talent, to their opinions, to
being patient with flaws and misunderstanding would be expected in my
class, and failing to meet these would result in
consequences(usually, a student-teacher conference to reinforce why
respect is so important). Finally, I would work to make sure every
student felt respected, and heard, and valued by me. I would remind
them that choir is about their education, not my desire to make
music. In my pre-student teaching, my cooperating teacher told me, “I
want you to get the words “I want” and “Do this for me” out
of your vocabulary. It puts a wall between you and the kids. You are
all in this together. From now on, learn to say 'we'.” By doing
this, I would encourage an environment that allowed vulnerability,
which Dr. Brown calls “the birthplace of creativity, innovation and
change.” A great start for a classroom.
Dr. Brown also did
research about shame. She defined shame by comparing it with guilt.
Guilt is “I made a mistake”, shame is “I am a mistake.” Guilt
is often a good motivator, but shame always ruins not only motivation
but also self confidence and relationships. I would work relentlessly
to keep this out of my classroom. I would make sure my students knew
what it was, and that I woudln't tolerate it in my classroom, and if
they ever felt I was trying to shame them, to please tell me. This
means I don't believe in methods like writing names up on the board
of over talkative students- keeping a visible list of grades- making
students sing solos as punishment. No matter the benefit in the short
term, this ruins the ideal environment of vulnerability and
connection.
I believe that in
an accepting community like this one, everyone can be actively
engaged in learning. I think this can be done by giving students a
sense of control over the repertoire and the curriculum- “This is a
song we want to learn- this is the way we want you to teach us this
song.” This gives them not only a sense that their input is
important, but they are also likely to pick a song that means
something to them and that they will be engaged in. One year in
junior college, we had several girls from Mexico in the choir. They
helped our teacher pick a Mexican folk song, and taught us
pronunciations and meanings. This gave them a sense of relativity and
control, but at first the rest of us couldn't connect to this song.
The last line of the song, about traveling away from one's home
village was “Ay que caray” which translates roughly into, “What
a mess”. Our teacher compared it to leaving home for college, or
leaving loved ones to travel or serve a mission- something we could
all relate to. We had this song memorized the next day. It was
quickly one of our favorites, because he made it so relevant to our
lives. This sense of relevance and control needs to be extended to
every one, like my teacher extended it to the Hispanic girls in
choir. I met a teacher in Logan who took two extra hours a week to
sit down with a student who was blind who wanted to sing in choir.
Because he couldn't sight read like others, she would go over his
part with him several times, than record it on the piano so he could
study and learn at his own pace. Because he felt capable, he was as
excited to get new music as all the other students! So now in this
environment without fear to hold them back, and with repertoire that
interests them, they can be invested in the music. But how do we get
them to push themselves?
Self motivation is
an interesting battle in choir, because of the variety of motivations
to take the course. Is it just to fill an art credit? An aspiration
to be a pop star? A love of classical music? How to inspire all of
these? Better yet, how to get them to inspire themselves? My little
brother got a 35 on his ACT- but rather than go to college, he wound
up hiking the Appalachian trail, from Maine to Maryland- 1,000 miles
in 3 months. Financially, academically, socially, seemingly a
directionless decision. What motivated him? When asked, his answer
was “I don't know...the mountains were there.” I think
adolescents with their new found independence and sense of capability
and choice often long for challenges- to see how far they can stretch
their competence. If we make a comfortable environment, choose music
relatable to their every day lives, we can then hold them accountable
for their own learning and progress; we can challenge them. Making
exceptional music will become a motivation in and of itself. In an
elite choir I once observed, the teacher would accept no less than
perfection. While they sang, if they made a mistake while singing,
they would raise their hands as if to say “It was me- I recognize
it, and won't do it again.” The sheer time it saved was amazing,
and I would love to use this in my most advanced choirs, but worry
about the shaming effect it would have on younger choirs; as Vygotsky
would say it would be “out of their zone of proximal development.”
In junior college, I took a dance class full of beginners. Our
teacher refused to slow down her pace, but was constantly present and
supportive. She instigated the practice of applauding when a student
fell. At first it was mortifying- but as time moved on, we felt that
falling was motivation, because we knew it was followed by an
increased sense of connectedness and applause from the teacher, and
often progress the next time you tried. We learned to take pride in
our progress, a huge self motivator that can easily be applied to
choir. BF Skinner, a behavioral psychologist and the father of
operant conditioning claimed that we as human beings are without free
will and sense of self, but are only a collection of reward-seeking
and punishment avoidance. When we turn things like, progress, pride
in your sound, and sense of connectedness and community into
rewards, I really believe students will motivate themselves.
Works
Cited Page
-
Brown, C. B. (2010). The Gifts of
Imperfection
Center City, Minn. Hazelden.
-
Hoy, A. W. (2014). Module 21 Possibilities And Cautions In Applying
Behavioral Theories. Educational psychology (12th ed., pp.
284-305). Boston: Pearson.
-
Hoy, A. W. (2014). Module 5: Vygotsky's Sociocultural Perspective .
Educational
psychology (12th ed., pp. 63-80). Boston: Pearson.
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