3rd Year Reflection

School has been out for a week for our students and a couple days for teachers and I have learned a lot in a very short amount of time. After an interesting first two years of teaching PreK-12 Vocal Music in a very rural district, I made the change to South Tama County Middle School to teach 5th grade general music, 6th - 8th grade bands, 5th - 8th grade lessons, and 7th & 8th grade choir. During this year there have been challenges but nothing more than someone should be able to handle. Here are a few things that I've accomplished and why they are necessary to a MS music education:

• Solo festivals - this year I brought back the solo festivals our school used to have. I have found that during this time students practiced more than usual, and gained some great insight from judges that were from a distance. As my first year in a more instrumental position, I learned that students will take the opportunity to grow with an accompanist and showcase their talent. Having judges that are specialists with a specific instrument group allows the teacher and the student to have a nice perspective on what helps create an ideal sound on any given instrument. I split and had 2 solo nights - 1 for 5th and 6th grade and 1 for 7th and 8th grade instrumentalists. Take aways - more communication, sooner. Work with solo repertoire more often and thank goodness I can play piano. It made helping students with their music that much easier.

• Variety Show - this year was the first year in a long time since a variety show has been put on at STC MS. At this event, I wanted to showcase students and their talents, and boy did we ever. I came up with the theme "Rock with You". This theme was based on a medley by the same name of Michael Jackson music. I originally gave the medley to the students... all 52 pages... and guess what?! They learned it all! Many other students that I had never heard sing a solo participated and were very successful. I think that this event featured anyone who needed a feature. I also thought - how can I get the other specialized courses involved in this event. I took the logical choice of Family and Consumer Science (FCS) and Art with us! It was a success! The Art Club created a great art show, featuring top notch work of 6th - 8th grade students and the FCS students created a great dessert reception.

Being in my last two terms as a graduate student I learned that my practices in grading haven't been the best. In the fine arts classroom, how do we assess students? We assess based on the ability to perform. That is why I'm making a change to Standards-Based Grading/Assessment (SBG). This summer I am creating assessments and rubrics that will help guide student assessment. Students will be able to demonstrate if they are achieving specific standards and learning targets. 

The struggle is real when talking about vocal music and SBG since I don't necessarily have a lesson book like I do for general and instrumental music. I will be doing a lot of sight-singing, composing, teaching music theory, and creating more competent singers. I appreciate that my students have given me the opportunity to teach so far and push them to learn different pieces and have success with those.

Changes for next year:

• Vocal Festivals - Real Men Sing at Wartburg College, and OPUS honor choir auditions
• Honor Bands - NEIBA, Marion, and Five Seasons
• 2 Solo nights again 
• Variety Show

More information to come, off to relax, research, and improve. Have a great weekend everyone!