November Reflection

1. Reflect on your individual creative process. What are the sources/influences on the music that you produce? What is the goal/purpose of your music performances? Why do you produce it? What are the unique cognitive skills that you employ and how do they help you to achieve your creative goal? Cite Specific examples and provide clear evidence.
2. Reflect on performance aesthetics. What are the sources/influences on your own aesthetic thought? What are the cognitive and affective strategies that you personally use to understand a work of music at the deepest possible level? How do you make meaning by aesthetically engaging a work of music performance? Cite sp. ex and clear evidence.

I am an itinerant elementary band teacher. I travel to five different elementary schools during the work week. I get to as many as 2-3 a day, depending on the weekly schedule. I teach 3rd grade recorder classes and 4th & 5th grade band classes. I have been teaching for a number of years and come from a background at teaching at every level. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach a multitude of things and genres so that I am comfortable in teaching music to pretty much anyone. I started band class myself when I was in the 6th grade and my love of music grew from there. Music was always that safe place to make friends and to do an after school activity that didn't require me to do sports.
I had very good band teachers. I started with an elementary band teacher who really was easy to get along with. She understood what it was like to be new to an instrument and knew the best way to encourage us without rattling us. She knew that if we were going to stay in band or music that we should feel comfortable at taking risks and should generally find it fun. From there I went on to junior high where I had an okay band teacher. She wasn't the best, but it was all I had. However, when I reached highschool I had the best band teacher. He was absolutely phenomenol. I still see him at conferences every year. He encouraged us, but was very hard on his band at the same time. We were performing and sightreading at level six, performing at conferences, and achieveing straight superiors for marching and symphonic band every year, every time. When I think about how I have institutionalized my own creative process, I think I take a lot of what has been taught to me over the years and use that to build on. I also try to relate what I am doing in my classes to what I know they are learning in their general music classes. My goals are to get kids to perform for an audience. I want them to set a goal to perform something well and then give them the opportunity to do it. A very important goal for a young group like this to have as well is to give the parents an opportunity to see how their children have progressed in my class. As a musician, I use specific skills every day that most people would never think about. As a band director, I have to use my ability to listen for wrong notes, wrong rhythms, style, phrasing, and above all be able to see and hear these things, correct it and then move on. I have to have the ability as a band director to get the group to stay focused and perform the music to the best of their ability. My goals are evident every time I have a performance at one of my schools. Since my class is a performing class, it becomes very easy to tell if there is any teaching/learning going on in my classroom. I have seen some elemenetary band teachers perform with their groups and I wonder what has been going on in their classrooms because the kids perform wrong rhythms and notes all over th place. My kids are as prepared as I can make them and for the most part give good performances that they are proud of.
As I mentioned earlier, a lot of how I conduct classes relates to how I have been taught. I have been taught by some of the best in the business. When I got out of highschool, I went to a university that had hired an Eastman conductor. Here again, a strong influence of what is supposed to happen in a band class/performance. When I graduated college, again I found myself in a comunity band that has quickly gained recognition for being one of the premiere community bands in the nation, Tara Winds. This group is conducted by a conductor who is at the top of the field. When I think of aesthetic reponse and the whole process, all of these things and people come into play but I could not have learned to do what I do without their strong influence. My personal aesthetics reflect in my classes. I want my kids to be prepared so if something goes wrong, they can figure out what to do. I want my groups to understand that temp is an important part of how a piece is performed. I also want my groups to understand acoustics and performance style. All of these I consider aesthetic influences because it directly affects a group and how they perform for their audience. Aesthetics is important on many different levels and certainly even for an elementary band teacher like myself. I still listen to plenty of good music, although not as much as I used to. When I listen, really listen, I remember everything I learned about the composer and the history of the piece and it helps me to make that connection. Teaching elementary band, aesthetics is at is most fundamental level, but over the years I have found that even elementary kids want to make good music and that is why I'm here!