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.