And just tips on how to make lessons engaging in general...
What do you do when you're starting up as a new music teacher at a school and you've been given limited resources, students don't even have the slightest interest in what you have to say, you are the only representative of your faculty and you don't have 40 hours in one day to make yourself sufficient resources for an interesting lesson?
This was exactly the situation I was in at my first high school practicum. Although six weeks weren't long enough for me to build and/or restructure an entire unit of work, but I tried to be engaging and as creative as I could with how I presented lesson content, and to my surprise, things actually worked! Relationships were built and there was a slight change in students' attitude towards the end of my time there. Anyway, that was just 6 weeks. Here's tips from Camilla Corbett, a current high school music teacher, graduate of the Con, who came in and gave us some handy tips! Here are some of my favourites and most memorable ones:
1. Band names!! Get students in groups, ask them to come up with a cool name to call themselves and get straight into jamming, recording and playing as a band! Even get them to sign a band contract! You can't appreciate and understand music if you don't start by being involved and playing right?
2. Self - directed Learning! They're high school students. Do they really need a teacher standing in front of the entire class telling them what to do for a solid hour every week? No! Place their tasks with instructions and guidance on a drive accessible online, and ask them to get straight into it! This isn't saying that direct instruction isn't essential, but music isn't the same as maths! And so lessons should be structured in a way that reflects the nature of the subject..
3. Use of Tech! Music nowadays isn't just opening up your instrument case and pressing a few buttons. Technology has advanced! It doesn't hurt to make use of programs and apps which provide a platform for educational use e.g. learning how to loop on Soundtrap (refer to the first blog!) Use google suite, make google sites! Hand in assignments through google classroom and get google to mark work for you!
4. Be "relatable"!! Use puns, funny memes, make use of Youtube clips (that's what they spend hours on everyday) with an educational purpose of course. Show them different covers of John Cage 4'33''. This point definitely helps with building positive relationships with students. "That's the cool new music teacher!" That's right. The cool new music teacher indeed.
Life of a music teacher is never easy, but it's not impossible to turn the tables around!
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