Cara Thornberry

Anderson East Side Middle School

November 20, 2005

2^nd Reflection

            Teaching at East Side has been much different from my past field experiences, but in a great way.  I know that I have only been at East Side for a couple of weeks, but I have watched many different teaching strategies that I have been able to incorporate into my own teaching strategies.

            First off, one of the teaching strategies that I have never used until this field experience is the use of proximity.  With every other band that I have worked with while at Ball State, we have never stepped off of the podium while teaching.  Maybe this is not as necessary at the high school level, but I think it helps make classroom management easier, because of moving about the room and having the chance, if needed, to move near a student who is causing a disruption.  I feel like I am getting more comfortable with the different proximity of teaching, although I still feel it is harder to do it with a full ensemble, but I understand why it is important to use.

            Another strategy that I am working on, is the use of asking students questions rather than giving them the answer.  I have noticed how important this is to use, because it is a way of assessing the students by making sure they are understanding the different things that they are taught.  I have a tendency to ask a question, and then answering it myself because I am not one who likes to wait on the students to think.  Usually, I try to give hints to the answers, but instead of hints it usually ends up being the answer.

            The last thing that I have noticed that is very different at East Side compared to the other schools that I have worked with is the pacing of teaching.  The pacing is very fast, which keeps the students more motivated to do things.  They are always wondering what is going to happen next.  It seems like there is never any down time for the students to goof off or to get in as much trouble as they could.

            In my planning and teaching, I try to work on these three things the most, because I feel they are very important in teaching middle school aged children.  I try to keep my pacing fast as much as possible.  I try to be excited about teaching the students to get them excited about learning something new.  I have worked a lot on my proximity, which I think has improved tremendously compared to my first teaching experience at East Side.

            In my last few weeks, I think I need to work to improve on classroom management, especially in the full ensemble setting.  It seems like sometimes that I am afraid to give a check for bad behavior or something else, when really it might be necessary to do so.  To help with improving classroom management, I need to think about trying to include more of the students for a majority of the time when working with the full ensemble instead of working on smaller sections during my time of teaching.