Note: The name of the teacher and school have been changed to maintain confidentiality. Below are my thoughts and reflections after observing a Piano I Class taught at Hawthorne High School by Kapil Luce: I was intrigued when I first came in to observe for practicum and was directed to a classroom upstairs that was not in the music hallway. When I walked into the room, I almost thought I was in the wrong place because it was completely silent; the only thing that helped me was the fact that the classroom was full of electronic keyboards. As Mr. Luce explained his teaching style of using a sound board and headphones and the reasoning behind it (giving private, individual feedback to all students), I could understand why he ran the piano class the way he did. I respect and am interested in having the ability for students to learn at their own pace and have simple checkpoints that allow them to learn the concepts necessary, but I do miss the face-to-face interaction that the technology was impacting. For a music classroom to be completely silent seems wrong to me—music should be heard and reverberate through a room. Music can be a fun group experience, and the headphones created an environment where these interactions were lessened. I did appreciate that he had a sticker chart and gave out candy and fruit snacks as little incentives for students when they reached a certain point. I also liked that he had times where the students could show off what they had been working on in recitals, both individually and as a group. The concept behind his group recital piece was rather cool because it allowed them to use a real piano, instead of a keyboard, and had them all play different parts of it (ex. Keys, plucking strings, tapping with different instruments on piano, etc.). The collaboration and interaction involved in that made me excited for all the possibilities music creates. The classroom itself in the high school was rather sad and seemed like being enclosed in an asylum, bad fluorescent lighting included. I wish that schools were designed and decorated so that they can be creative and exciting hubs of learning, rather than solitary cells were words and ideas are dictated to students. It seemed like Mr. Luce used most of the class period doing his own separate planning for other classes, unless a student asked his to listen to them complete a checkpoint. I think it’s so sad that he’s missing out on an opportunity for them to learn music through personable interactions with him. He did allow the students a 10 minute break halfway through the class, but I think the only reason the students felt so comfortable to talk about life around him was because they had taken or were currently taking a different class with him. It makes me wonder if there is a way for him to outreach to students who are not already taking another music course already. Overall, I was extremely impressed with how smoothly the class was run and how independent the students were, but I was disheartened by the fact that the room was completely silent and how the joy that music brings seemed to be sucked out of that class. Comments are closed.
|
Davina MiawOn this page, I will present examples of my leadership through videos, lesson plans, and reflections. Archives
December 2019
Categories |