If I Were a Music Teacher....

Imagine… you’re a new teacher and you walk into your classroom with rambunctious, rude children that are all on their cell phone and you try to keep talking to the class but they are too busy talking with each other to even notice you. Well that is how the new history teacher felt in the mockumeatary “Chalk”. In the end he went with the traditional ways of teaching that Friere talked about with the banking concept. Friere says in his essay, the Banking Concept of Education “On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: (a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught (b) the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about (d) the teacher and the students listen- meekly.”  A lot of times in school you find that teachers try to control every piece of what students learn and how they learn by teaching by the book. I find this way of teaching boring and keep the students from being interested in what they are learning. If I were a teacher, I would break tradition and let students have control of what they learn in class by choosing what they learn in my classroom.

          

             If I were a teacher and could choose any subject to teach, I would be a music teacher because I feel music can add fun into anyone day. On the first day of class I would have non- classical music playing in the classroom when they walked in. it would be a song that the kids would know from the past year.  The student would sit down in the rows of chairs and begin to talk. I would stand in front of the class and smile then ask them to stand up against the wall. I would separate the people who were talking and set them back down in the rows. That takes care of the issue of talking right off the bat and lets students know that you are stern before you are fun. To introduce myself I would say my name and my favorite song and why. Then I would have the students do the same. I would write it in my notes.  I would then ask them songs that they want to perform in front of their peers and tell them that I am giving them full control of what we sing as long as it is appropriate. I would tell them that I am not like most music teachers and I want to teach them what they want to learn and mix technique into the song we love and still have little personality into the song. I would tell them “I don’t want the choir to sing stiffly on stage with no personality like you see the most the time. I want you all to have fun in this class and remember it because you had the control of choosing what you learned.”  I would also tell them that these privileges would be taken away if I was disrespected in class or there was too much chatter. Mr. Escalante did this in “Stand and Deliver” when he told the boy to leave the class because he wasn’t taking the subject seriously. Later the boy looked at what he had done wrong and cleaned up his act to be part of the class. Then I would have them write a list if the songs that they want to learn and write the song on the board and have the class vote one their favorite five and tell them I would have sheet music for them in the next week. I would also tell them that the concert is optional and is not part of their grade. I think that all grades should be counted only if they are during school hours and requiring student to do something after school is ridiculous because students may have something going on or do not have the resources to come, like uniforms. Also I would only want them to come if they want to be there because if they don’t want to be there. For the following days of the first week I would continue to connect to my students by listening to music, introducing them to my favorites, them introducing me to their favorite, playing games like musical charades and musical chairs, and trying to get to know them better while trying to break down the teacher student barrier slightly. My students would enjoy my class because for once they would fell in control of their learning in school. Acosta says in Arizona Bans “it was about whom we were, who our students were. Young people being empowered is scary to many people…” what Acosta says is true but I feel that students should have some power over their education so they know how to control their power when they are older and have to control bigger things in their lives like their job. It also gives them some freedom in school that they are not going to get with other subjects.

            To create a fun open environment that welcomes students in and makes they want to listen to what has to be said because students always seem to become interested in class when they are put in a welcoming teaching environment. I would also want a give and take relationship with the students where they feel I learn as much from them as they learn from me. I’ll listen to them and always give helpful feedback. I will always have a smile on my face when students walk in and not ignore them when they walk up to my desk. If I need a minute to finish something I will tell them. I will tell students that they are welcome to come in at any time and that I can always talk if they are having a problem, school related or personal. Students need to feel like their teacher cares about them and what they teach to their students. It is the main reason why students act out in class is because they are bored. My walls will not be white. They will be warm inviting colors that create the feel of an exciting environment. When I teach I will not just stand there I will move about the classroom and bring students up to the front and get them involved in what I’m teaching. If student do a good job of if they get in front of the class they should be rewarded. This can be with candy or stickers or just being told good job in a warm and sincere way. If a student does something wrong, they will not be looked down upon. They will be told what they did wrong and their mistakes will not be announced for the whole class to know.  Jerry large from the Seattle times says in his essay Gift of Grit, Curiosity Helps Kids Succeed that a big part of building character is overcoming failure and that if we don’t have failure then we will not have enough grit. While think that this is partly true I feel that just because we fail doesn’t mean that it has to be announced to our peers. I feel that is a mistake today’s teachers make because it makes students feel worse about them.

         

    I would know I was successful in my teaching if the students enjoyed coming to my class and looked forward to performing in front of their peers and actually go to the concert for their parents, unlike most student who are taught the traditional way and see the concerts as a joke and only come because it affects their grade. I would also know I’m successful if I hear from parents that the students talk about how much they like me or my teaching style and I see them again, whether it a visit or in my class the following year.

Works Cited

Aronson, Deb. "Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program." Ed. Natinal Council of Teachers of English. Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program (2012): 21-23. Web.

Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Troy Schremmer, Janelle Schremmer, and Sharron Haragan. Mockumentary, 2006. DVD.

Freire, Paolo. ""The Banking Concept of Education"" Pedagogy of the Oppressed. N.p.: n.p., 1970. Chapter 2. Print.

Large, Jerry. "Gift of Grit, Curiosity Helps Kids Succeed." The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times, 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramon Menendez and Tom Musca. By Ramon             Menendez. Perf. Edward James Olmos,Estelle Harris, and Mark Phelan.             Warner Bros., 1988. DVD.