User:Mblount84

Hello All!!

My name is Martin, you TA's know me as Charles, and I am currently teaching band and music theory at Woodside High School in Newport News. Woodside is especially dear to me because I was fortunate enough to go there as a student! Everyone asks me, "Isn't it weird to teach where you once sat in class?". I tell them it's actually preferable - I have never gotten lost in the building :-)

I am working under a provisional license because my major in college was music performance, rather than education. My first love will always be performing (trombone), but I felt it was more important to come back to this area and teach young people how to be good performers.

This leads me to my philosophy on education, which at the moment seems more like a philosophy on living in general. Having already taught for almost 2 years now, I can see the divide that exists between students of different cultures. The main effect of this divide, in my opinion, is that most students are not coming to high school prepared mentally for the amount of study required to be successful. Many highly talented students do just enough to barely "get by" in everything they do! It is my philosophy that the classroom atmosphere must be as organized and calming as possible because that atmosphere can likely be absent at the students' homes.

In this organized environment that is suitable for learning, some creativity must come into play for students to remain engaged. It is through varied instructional practices that this is accomplished. Some musical subjects lend themselves to the lecture format of instruction (music history/appreciation), while units on keyboard and aural skills require a hands on/ears on approach. Many students develop these particular skills only through self-discovery, which can be an instructional model itself if guided by a competent teacher.

Technology implementation in the music classroom is a necessity for 21st century learners. Because of the adolescent addiction to websites like Myspace and YouTube, many students learn more naturally through the use of computers. Music education software is an expensive but important part of the music classroom. In a band class, technology must be utilized to record and playback student performances. Through self-critique and listening to professional recording, mastery of an instrument can increase exponentially. In the theory classroom, ear training software and the keyboard-computer midi links can be used to put the theoretical side of music into sound.

Assessment in the music classroom is quite simple. A student must be able to play the music or write the music required of him or her. I have sometimes found recitation to be another form of assessment useful.

This is first philosophy I have ever been asked to write, and I am extremely curious to know what I would have written had this been a requirement two years before I began teaching!