My final Engagement Portfolio Project was to create a poster about my practicum experience in the community this semester demonstrating what I had learned about a) the practical responsibilities of being a music educator; b) the tools, skills, and knowledges I need to engage with, and c) how to document music learning. This will help me show future employers my growth and skills as a pre-service music teacher. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching at the Creative Kids Co-op this semester. I loved getting to collaborate with my fellow sophomore Music Education Majors at JMU on developing experience designs and appreciated that Jesse, our professor, gave us full responsibility of the practicum placement. It was nice to get a glimpse of what student teaching would be like in a way that was slightly uncomfortable, but not too hard because I had my peers helping me out too.
As a leader, I had to help coordinate weekly group meetings to outline our lesson, and had to be responsible in contacting the main teacher, Maria, at the Creative Kids Co-op. Being JMU students made it even more important to create a "college-positive" experience for the middle school students so that they would see JMU students being a part of the Harrisonburg community and giving back to it, rather than simply invading. As a scholar, I had to delve deeper into the Virginia Standards of Learning and understanding what it means to create "I can" statements, goals that are "SMART" (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely), and how to demonstrate evidence of learning. As a musician, I learned how to play a variety of songs such as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Pass the Shoe". I learned how to figure out the chords aurally to "Pass the Shoe" because there are no tabs for it online. I also learned my C pentatonic scale and how to teach it, as well as how teach beginning students how to songwrite. Lastly, I loved engaging with the community and getting outside of the "JMU Bubble". It reminds me that Harrisonburg is full of different and exciting people who I can learn a lot from; I just need to be willing to get out of my comfort zone to meet them. Comments are closed.
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Davina MiawHere I will share experiences of my engagement in community. Archives
December 2019
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