Chapter 2--Questions 1, 5

Chapter 2—The School Music Teacher

1. Often music teachers are ego driven. What influence can this have on the actions they take as teachers?

Teachers who are ego driven are quite often not in their profession for the sake of the students. They want to see their name in the programs and be on the stage just as badly as the students do. The book states that teacher satisfaction is gained through student success. Teachers should teach for the sake of the students, not for their chance to be in the spotlight. When they do not realize their ego is getting in the way of student learning, students will not have a chance to meet their full potential, as they may feel they are just playing the backup to a teacher’s performance.

Ego may be an especially big problem for beginning teachers (how very reassuring). In “Becoming a Teacher: Stories of the First Few Years,” four young teachers were asked to share their thoughts. Going into their first classroom, they thought they’d have it all under control and everything would be a breeze, based on good student teaching experiences and what they had learned in their undergraduate studies. Not so. Each was faced with many challenges and had to remember that the students came first. Whether they thought they knew what they were doing or not, they had to reconsider everything and prioritize, making sure they were first educators who emphasized music, not musicians who happened to be educators. (Conway, 2004)

Conway, C. H.-R. (2004). Becoming a Teacher: Stories of the First Few Years. Music Educators Journal.

5. What actions can music teachers take to continue to grow as teachers?

Teachers can continue to grow and learn by taking classes and attending workshops to further their education. They can also join professional organizations such as MENC, ACDA, NATS, NBA, etc. to advocate for their field and collaborate with other teachers to gain new ideas and share effective strategies. Still other ways to continue to learn include reading journals and research reports, and doing research themselves. Teachers can also learn about themselves by doing self-evaluations of their teaching methods and strategies, and the effectiveness of those techniques. Journaling could be a very effective way of tracking what they have done and how well it worked, and serve as a documentation of frustrations so they know what not to do as they look back on what they’ve written.

In an article by Linda K. Thompson titled “Considering Beliefs’ in Learning to Teach Music,” Thompson goes over some of the downfalls and positive attributes of undergraduate music education. She also goes into detail about the student teaching experience and the importance of good collaborative teachers. We are obviously several years away from even thinking about being collaborative teachers, but that experience would also serve as a great tool for us as educators. The collaborative teachers may end up learning just as much from the student teachers as the young teachers learn from them. It is a good way to stay up on some of the technology being used, the teaching methods being taught, and the new ideas being brought to the table by younger generations of teachers. This article also describes the beliefs of beginning teachers, some of them being quite “off” from reality, which makes me think we need to pay close attention to what is really going on in today’s secondary music classrooms, not just what we are used to seeing and being a part of. (Thompson, 2007)

Thompson, L. K. (2007). Considering Beliefs' in Learning to Teach Music. Music Educators Journal.