UB methods post 1

Book: Teaching Music with Purpose, Boonshaft

Music has always been an exciting part of my life. The trombone was my first instrument. I started playing in 4^th grade and it was my first choice when it came time to select instruments. The fact that the trombone looked funny and sounded funny attracted me to it. Music and music making has always seemed to be a fun thing to me. As I got older I started to realize that music was all about having fun and the more fun I had the more I practiced and the better I got. This is one of my strongest values of music. Ensuring that students have a good time with music so they continue to stick with it and are able to learn to play on their own out side school and with friends.

Besides teaching music, music is still a huge part of my life today. This is important to me because I feel that the more I involve my life with music the more I will continue to learn and continue to grow as a musician. I am a DJ at WPKN 89.5FM, I play gigs at bars once or twice a month, I help my friend with his recording studio and I am constantly playing and practicing an hour or two a day. Its also a goal of mine and my friends to one day travel and just play music. I share all my musical experiences and practice habits with students to give them encouragement and incentive to continue practicing.

Music to me is a very special art form. A “non tangible” art form . This means that music is a art form that is complex and very difficult to explain in words. This is an important concept to me and my teaching. I explain to students that making music is like painting your own picture or writing your own book where the notes you play and the expression you use to play are the words and explanations. This makes music sound more personal and interesting to students. Music is a special subject that makes connections with daily life and other school subjects.

Something I still need a little help with while at my internship is class room management. This is a very important skill to have and there is right and wrong ways to go about it. Teaching in a Bridgeport public school presents many challenges daily with classroom management. So it is important to learn quickly or managing a class will be come more difficult. I really like the way Boonshaft addresses negative behavior and classroom management. According to Boonshaft treating negative behavior with negative behavior is not an efficient way of dealing with the behavior, and if a punishment is given it means proper steps were not taken to prevent the behavior in the first place. I agree with Boonshaft that a good personality is essential to making students want to learn from you. If they enjoy learning from you then they are less likely to act out or not want to perform well in class. It is more important to acknowledged positive behavior and reinforce it so that other students will follow. One more step to take to ensure positive behavior is to embrace opportunities to teach and use that enthusiasm to create motivation in students. If the teacher is excited about a piece of music of a subject then the student will be more inclined to want to learn.