Cody used Reflect!

From my experience in Teacher Cadet, I have learned a lot that I will take with me into the future. I have learned some valuable leadership skills, as for being a teacher means taking charge of an entire classroom. Teacher Cadet has also taught me some time management skills as well. During my first semester, I would have to prepare a lesson or create a review game during my spare time at home. Since I had never done anything like this before, I would find myself staying up late at night just to get everything done. If I wanted to avoid this, I had to come up with a schedule. Now, I try and get all my work done as soon as I get home, so I will have the evenings to unwind and do as I want. Also, I have learned to think before I speak. I never had a problem with saying anything wrong in front of my kids, but because of working with such a young age, I know I had to choose my words carefully. I will not be going into a teaching profession, but the things I've learned from preparing for one are invaluable life skills.

The Ways of Discipline

First off, what philosophies? What techniques? This should have been taught in the classroom.

Now, I personally do not see any special ways of discipline teachers use in their classrooms. Most of them are fairly straight forward. From memory, I will try and describe a few methods my past teachers have used.

a) This teacher would ask the student to step out of the class to talk to them in private. From what I have seen, the student usually stops whatever disruptions they were causing and class goes on as normal. However, the student often talks to their peers about what their teacher said.

b) Think the opposite of a. This teacher acknowledges a students disruption to the whole class. Class is usually a little rowdy afterwards and the student is in a bad attitude afterwards.

c) REFERRAL SLIP REFERRAL SLIP REFERRAL SLIP. These teachers will simply write up a student for the slightest tap of a pencil on a desk. Most of the time, the teachers do not want to deal a student and leave their fate in the hands of a principle.

These are about all I can think of. You may have read these short descriptions and thought of a teacher you had, and maybe you have a style of discipline that your prefer over the other. But, in actuality, each one has their flaw, as I somewhat pointed out above. To me, a "perfect" model of discipline should be a combination of the 3. It sounds crazy, but hear me out on this.

1. First encounter. You want to address the problem privately, as to avoid embarrassment to the student and further class disruption. Get your point across and ensure this does not happen again. Go back to class and teach.
2. You thought you already handled it. Guess not. You're in the middle of a lesson, and frankly, you don't have time for another private meeting. This student does not seem to pay any mind to what you said to them outside. What do you do? Address it again, in public. One more screw up, and they're not going to like their next fate.
3. Office. You can't get to this student, you've tried just about anything you can think. A student like this needs to be out of the class until they can behave themselves, and the office will take care of that. Hand them a lovely slip of yellow and send them on your way. Get back to your lesson.

That is my ideal model of discipline. Usually, teachers just find a way that works for them and put their own twist on a technique. Just like a pro skateboarder or something.

Here's Your Sign

A sign of a good day in class for me is usually when one of my students ask me a question. This shows me that they have come into class with a mind to learn and are ready to focus. Other than questions, if they are not hitting on stuff constantly then that means a good day. Mr.Walters does not like extra drum noise when we are not playing, and a happy band teacher is a good band teacher.

Bad signs are just like they would be in any other classroom. If a student comes in with a bad attitude, bad sign. If a student forgets the proper materials, bad sign. Band is really no different than a regular classroom.

Monday Blues Cure

As I try to put the best smile I can on, my mind can't help but dread going back to teach after a long fun weekend. Walking in the classroom, I'm anticipating a bad day. The drum line had came in last in the competition over the weekend; not to mention having returned home late that day. As my percussionists come in, they seem to be in a lot better mood than I am. They greet me like they would with one of their close friends. It is shocking to me, as to almost change my entire outlook on the day. But, it is still Monday, so it will take more than some friendly greetings. Who knows? They may have put my Corvette on the school roof by now. When the bell rings, each student pulls up a chair near the area where we watch videos. Before I could even speak, they immediately ask to hear the judges tapes from the competition and watch the video from the competition. This shocks me, as when I normally do this with them, they groan and complain when I ask them to do this. I put in the video and the judges tapes; each student turns a listening ear and a pair of watchful eyes. They carefully note when a judge has called them out for a mistake. Not only for themselves, but their fellow percussionists as well. When it is done, we discuss as a section of what we can do differently and then apply it to practice. We go through specified warm ups, followed by necessary rudiments to improve playing, and finally perform the show music. Everyone is listening and helping each other out when needed. Seeing this, I realize just how much seeing students willing to work brightens my day. To strive to do better, and improve themselves; no matter what the costs.

This, would be the ideal classroom for me. 

Nothing Left To Pursue

I'm just going to be honest, there is nothing that is inspiring me to have a career in education. When I first took Teacher Cadet last semester, I did it for two reasons:

1. To gain more leadership experience outside of a band setting.
2. To see if education was an area of study I was interested in.

Quickly after a few weeks, I began getting tired of the same setting every day. This may have something to do with the class I was in, but I could not stand going there every day. Maybe it was the students age I didn't like? I don't know, but I know my interest is gone. Teachers simply do not get a salary I think is sufficient to live off of. Yes, the teachers we have now can make the best off of what they have, but that's it. You don't see many teachers living in super nice houses, going off on vacations, or driving around in Corvettes. My reasoning may sound ridiculous to you, but there are things in my life I want to do that I just could not do off of a teacher salary alone.
Second, I get tired of having to think of things for my students to do. I don't even teach the full class, but it is a pain to sit down and figure out what your students need to focus on. I barely even plan out my own week, so why should I be planning the week for 80 something kids?
Okay, so I may have been fairly blunt in my last two reasons, but it's nothing more than the honest truth for me. To end on a calmer note, I'll state my final reason: My heart is just not with this profession. Where is mine at then? Simple: the fields of online security. With this career. I will be protecting ALL of America from all online threats. Whether this be top secret information theft, identity theft, or stopping a serious attack against America's networks, I'll be there to attempt to make it stop. Teachers think they have the best job because they can impact their students life, but with my career; I'll be protecting an entire nation.

Experience & Interaction

                 Because of my past experiences in band (and being in their shoes at one point), I have further helped them in understanding what is expected of them. Starting on a new instrument and working my way to become a Percussion master is no easy feeling, so I can sympathize with my students on that. They say to always listen to your elders, for they have been there before and are wise. Maybe I should start being called Sensei now.

                My students have no problem responding to me or Creed as a teacher. Not only as their instructor, but for the most part; we can talk to one another just like a friend would. If I were to ever go into a teaching profession, I would work on my relations with my students. I strongly believe that that is the key to a successful teacher. What I tried to do with my students is find out their interests, and once we’re on break talk to them about stuff they like. For example, one student in my first period loves Minecraft (easy topic since I’m a gamer myself) and another enjoys food (speaking, not eating. But I’m pretty sure they enjoy eating too because that is a absolute necessity if one wants to ensure life on this planet we call Earth). All the students in my second period are fascinated with drum stick tricks, so I try and show them anything that I can. I have not had a problem with any of my students, and I think it may be because I took the time to get to know them early on.

What Separates My Students From Yours

In my 6th grade band class, Creed and I have recently started our personal 1-on-1 with our students. Due to this, we are not so sure of all of our student's learning styles, but conversations we have shared has given us an outlook on what they may be.

Comparing the learning styles of all my students at once, there is two that they all share (as with most percussionists) is auditory-musical, and kinesthetic. Percussionists heavily depend on listening to other members of the band to signal when to start playing, so repetition of performing with a full ensemble really heightens this learning style. As for kinesthetic, percussionists develop something we call "muscle memory", where after playing a section of a song for a period of time we memorize the hand movements for that section. If my students do not know how to play an excerpt from a composition, I demonstrate  their parts, which trigger those two learning styles. They notice what they should be playing, while observing how their hands should be moving.

Splitting the classes in two, I work with three students a period. Each group brings about their own different learning styles. For my first period, I am not all sure about one of my students learning styles. Hopefully after spending more time with that students, I will be able to conclude which styles they mostly resemble. For the other two (not including the two in my previous paragraph) one is interpersonal and one is intrapersonal. As with the interpersonal student, he likes to tell me specifically what parts he is struggling with in his music, while the intrapersonal student prefers to practice her music on her own. While she participates with no trouble in sectionals, I mostly have to ask what she is having trouble with in her music before she will tell me. In my other period, this group of three has strong ties with each other and I consider them all interpersonal. They can be quite chatty at times, but work exceptionally well together; often offering suggestions to one another and even demonstrating their parts to one another. I love their cooperation with one another, but I have to find some way to ease their talking just a little.

Overall, no matter how similar students may be, they each have their own style of learning that makes them unique. I am still attempting to learn how my students learn best, but as the year goes on I will eventually make this discovery.