Dispositions

I think dispositions can only be taught through experience. In writing each disposition we were to reflect on a significant experience that has shaped our idea on the subject. I think it is important to reflect on these dispositions. I liked the blog because it was a relaxed way of gathering and writing down our thoughts on each disposition. I think it would be good to reflection on each of these dispositions yearly in order to see what experiences we may add or see how an experience has changed our interpretation.

Interested in reading blogs of teachers?

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Resilience

I think the best way to prepare teachers for the stresses related to teaching is through exposure and practice. I have taken three instrumental courses so far and the most effective of these has been the Double Reeds course. Of the three, this course offered me the most practical experience. Each student is required to teach one lesson during class time. While the student teaches, all the other students pretend they're fifth graders and make common mistakes for the practicing teacher to correct. Each student is also required to give a ten minute lesson of the instrument upon completion of the unit to an outside student. This means we taught both a beginning oboe and bassoon lesson.

I feel like many teachers quit within the first three years because they did not fully know what they were getting into. They did not get exposed to the future problems while they were in college and were therefore not prepared for them. I feel the J-term observation course is a very good step to give real-life experience. It is good to start this kind of process early in college to decide if teaching is really the career you want to pursue. I know people who took a J-term observation course and decided it was not what they wanted to do. Although I do not have to take this course until my junior year I am choosing to also observe this year to try and get as much exposure and experience as I can. I have not decided what age group I would like to teach yet, so I am hoping several J-term experiences in different setting will help my narrow my path. If I realize I can't stand elementary kids after three weeks, then I know general elementary music is not the place for me. But maybe I'll fall in love with elementary music in J-term. Both realizations are valuable. I am also thinking about applying as a counselor for Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. I have experience as a camp counselor, but working at a fine arts camp would be even more beneficial to a music education career.

While in teaching it is important to save things to remind you of your accomplishments. These pick-me-ups will help you when you're feeling stuck-in-a-rut. I know my choir teacher had a "happy box" where she saved things to remind herself why she was in education. It might be helpful to display inspiring quotes or accomplishments of your students in your office. It is also good to seek out a mentor from who you can seek advice.

Humility

Admitting you're wrong about something is not always easy to do. This is especially true in an argument or debate. I feel it is easier to admit I'm wrong over something that is factual rather than in a debate. For example, when working on an assignment with someone it is easy for me to admit I did the problem wrong and work to fix it. However, if I am debating with someone about something a little more controversial I have a hard time admitting I'm wrong. I was just talking with someone about the issue of separation of church and state and I was getting so fired up that I would not admit that I had the slightest chance of being wrong about my stance. He made the point that I wasn't even really listening to his argument and then gave another example. I really tried to listen with open mind and it made sense to me. I did not admit I was wrong, but at least I actually listened to his side and allowed myself to see the validity of his point.

This is probably the most important thing about humility: an open mind. If you are able to listen with an open mind to other people's thoughts, opinions, or ideas you will gain so much more from them. For example, as a teacher I will need to collaborate with other teachers and will perhaps be on some sort of a planning committee. I need to gather everyone's input with an open mind and be humble enough to realize my ideas might not be the best for the project at hand.

In regards to student-teacher relationships, I feel it is very important to be honest with your students when you make a mistake or are wrong about something. It is better for you to admit your mistake than to try to hide it and have the students find out later. If they find out on their own you are going to lose credibility. They will always question whether you actually know what you are talking about or not.

Collaborativeness

Collaboration is a very important aspect of teaching. Although you may be in charge of your own specific classroom, to maximize effectiveness you need to collaborate with other teachers. This starts with communication. An example that comes to mind once again brings me to my high school music programs. For both band and choir each student had a brief, weekly lesson which was only possible through the collaboration of the teachers. (The student would have to miss about 15 minutes of class for their lesson.) My directors would make a schedule of all lessons and hand it out to to the teachers, so everyone was in the know.

Teachers also need to collaborate with extra-curricular leaders, such as coaches and theatre directors. Quite often students will need to miss school or leave early because of an extra-curricular activity. My high school activity leaders did a great job of collaborating with each other so students could be in multiple activities. For example, during Christmas break One-Act practice and sports practices were always organized in the least conflicting way. Our director would organize play practice around when certain people had sporting events. I remember one year I had an away softball double header on the same night as opening night of our musical. Arrangements were made and I was able to do both activities.

Through my experiences I have come to view the secret ingredients to successful collaboration and teamwork are communication and compromise.

Efficacy

I feel the best way to become an effective teacher is through practice. Just like anything else, you can't expect to be great at something without any practice. I also feel a certain amount of natural ability is necessary in order to be great at something. In sports, this comes in the form of natural athleticism, in music it could be a natural sense of a beat or a great ear. I feel in teaching it comes from things such as your personality, naturally being able to explain things to people, and naturally possessing leadership qualities. These natural abilities must then be trained, practiced, and improved. In my instrumental methods courses we often have to bring in outside students to practice giving lessons. I think this is very effective. The first time I gave a flute lesson to an outside student I was given comments on things that might be improved. I realized what things wouldn't work and tried to organize them in a more logical order for the next student I taught. In my double reeds method course we practiced teaching certain things in front of the class with classmates purposely making mistakes. This was a very good way of learning how to diagnose the problem and help the student fix it.

Throw in confidence and persistence to natural ability and practice and you will become unstoppable as a teacher.

Inventiveness

I really enjoyed watching the video clip of Ken Robinson. I really liked his message and the humor he added to it. Something that really stuck out to me was when he said, "Kids will take a chance. . . They're not afraid of being wrong. If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." He also quoted Picasso by saying, "All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up." He explained that kids end up being educated out of their creativity.

I believe this is a very important insight to education. As a student, I loved being creative (and still do). I would have much rather wrote a creative paper than a formal essay any day. One of my favorite classes for creative activity were my computer classes. We did lots of creative projects through photoshop, creating website, making medleys, and making movies. I've also always enjoyed trying to write songs. Now I have the chance to take music classes that have helped me understand the structure of music and therefore helped me learn how to better compose something. Some of our big projects are compositions. The best part of these kinds of projects is when you can look at the end result and say, "I did that. I created that." I think that's a feeling that every student should feel in school.

As a teacher, I need to encourage creativity in my classes. I need to encourage my students that it is ok to be wrong when trying something new. I can remind them that famous inventors did not get their inventions right the first time. It took many attempts, but after each attempt they learned something, and when they finally got it right, the results were amazing. I believe creativity is very important in our future. If no one was creative, there would be nothing new, nothing original. The problems that we face today would come no closer to being solved, because there would be no new creative solutions.

Role Playing

I personally enjoyed the role playing activity we engaged in about the No Child Left Behind Act. I think role playing is an excellent way to get students involved. It forces the student to look at all sides of an issue. For example, if students are forced to argue an opinion or stance that they personally don't agree with, it forces them to think differently. It can either open their mind, or it can re-solidify their own viewpoints. If a student gets to argue their personal viewpoint, it forces them to be prepared against all other arguments with a counter-argument.

Although I prefer this type of hands-on activity rather than direct lecture, I do believe I would have benefited from some background information on the No Child Left Behind Act itself. I do not know the logistics of the Act, but I have a better understanding of the controversy created by it. In regards to emotions, I believe emotional engagement is important in learning. I feel if you are personally, emotionally invested in something, it will be more interesting and you will remember it much more.

Passion

I feel passion is one of the most important elements in teaching. No one is going to want to learn what you're teaching if you're not even interested in it. But if you think what you're teaching is the coolest thing since sliced bread, other people will want to know more about it. As a camp counselor this summer, this basic idea was repeated to me many times. As a counselor, our main job was to be excited and to get the campers excited. Of course, we had to make sure they behaved, get them to the right places at the right time, etc. but all of that was made easier when we exuded passion. Even if it was an activity that we personally weren't crazy about, we were still supposed to be enthusiastic about it in order to give the kids a positive attitude about it. If there was a certain game that counselors didn't like and would sit out of, the campers would notice. But if the counselors were involved in the games, the campers got a lot more into the games. This can relate to teaching, for even if a teacher is passionate about their general subject, there will still be some things that they are less enthusiastic about or dislike. If a teacher openly shows that they don't like something, they are giving their students a negative pre-conceived idea of it.

The first teacher that comes to my mind when I think of passion is my high school band director (who I've mentioned before). He was passionate about everything he did. He believed if you're going to do something, you needed to do it 100% or not at all. His passion for music and students has affected the whole school and even the community. I don't have time to explain all the things he has accomplished, but to sum it up he has taken a mediocre band program and turned it into the best thing our school has to offer. As an '09 graduate from my high school said in her commencement speech (in regards to change), "Band has not always been cool." Band is now actually cool at our school and gives the students something to be proud of.

Authenticity

For me, this topic seems a bit harder to write about. It is important to be authentic, or genuine, with your students, but sometimes it is hard to know where to draw the line. One can never show too much respect, but one can share too much about their personal life. I think the most important thing about being authentic is letting your personality show. You can't let the material you are teaching completely cover up your personality. You can use your personality to show the students you genuinely care about what you are teaching. Therefore I feel if you're showing the students the uniqueness about you they will see you as being authentic. Also, I feel if you have a story that relates to the topic at hand it is good to share it with the class, as long as it is appropriate. Obviously, if it deals with some illegal activity or something the students should not be doing themselves, you should not tell it. The stories you tell must set a good example for the students.

Compassion

When I first looked at the topic for the week I immediately thought of Jonah: A Veggietales Movie. For those unfamiliar to it, it is a really cute (in my opinion) animated movie about the Biblical story of Jonah. Towards the end of the movie the characters talk about how God was compassionate towards Jonah by giving him a second chance even though he didn't deserve one. Dictionary.com added to my idea of compassion by saying it is "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering."

My third grade teacher was far from compassionate. At least, that's the image of her I still carry with me. The incident I remember most vividly from my third grade year was when I broke my arm. During recess I had let someone use my sled and somehow by the time the bell rang to go inside it was still at the bottom of the hill. In a hurry, I decided to run down the icy hill after my sled. Don't ask me why I didn't just slide down on my butt; I guess I wasn't smart enough to realize that would have been much safer. I'm sure you can see what's coming. I slipped and fell, but lucky for me my puny wrist caught my fall. I remember immediately crying and trying to find help. A classmate found an aid who took me to the office to get some ice for it. When I went back to my classroom we were handing out Friday Folder things and I was still in pain. I was still crying a little bit from it, but then my teacher basically told me to shut up and get over it. Fortunately, soothing my bitterness, I came back on Monday with a bright pink cast to rub in her face.

Although a specific time when a teacher showed great compassion doesn't come to mind, I definitely remember my teachers who showed compassion in higher regards than those who I feel did not. This goes to show that a negative experience can stick with one more vividly than perhaps several positive ones. This makes me realize I must be very careful when dealing with kids and always try to show compassion towards them. However, this does not mean that as a teacher one should always feel sorry for kids or let them get away with things, but it does mean as a teacher one should always be willing to listen and take time to form a rational response.

Respect

What comes to mind when I first think of the word respect (besides Arethra Franklin) is "common courtesy." I feel respect is a term for the appropriate way one should treat or act towards others. This involves demonstrating good manners, which unfortunately are really not all that common. According to one of several definitions from Dictionary.com respect means, "esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability."

This definition provides a good outlook of what respect should look like in a classroom. The students should hold their teachers in high esteem and respect their authority, while the teachers should have a sense of all students' worth and potential excellence.

This reflection brings two former teachers to my mind. The first was a history teacher that I feel did not respect his students. I cannot deny he was a very intelligent man and made class interesting. However, I personally did not like him as a teacher because he gave the impression that he got his jollies from making his students feel dumb. History has never been my strong suit, so I myself was a victim of his overdramatic outcries. I remember being very frustrated because of him and also felt sorry for my classmates who got the brunt of the bashing.

The second person that comes to my mind is the kind of teacher I aspire to be. My high school band director found the perfect balance of maintaining a great sense of humor and energy while also maintaining a very respectful environment. People loved him, but everyone also knew he was not one to mess with. This was because he respected the students and held everyone accountable to the same high standards. He did not make exceptions because he knew everyone was filled with potential. His criticisms could probably be seen as blunt, but they were honest and never said with the intention of belittling someone. He was also very encouraging and made one feel proud to be in band.

The most important step in establishing respect in a classroom is to make the expectations clear from the beginning. If a teacher lets the students slack off or be disrespectful on his/her first couple days, the teacher will have a very hard time, if even possible, re-establishing a respectful environment.