Self Assessment

I have been trying to figure out what I want to do for my project for this class. It has been a process by trying to eliminate and redo ideas. I have come to the conclusion that self assessment is a good topic. I spend a lot of time in my classess having to reteach concepts that I have just previously covered. The students simply do not feel that it is necessary or worth their time to take their instruments home and practice. There are a lot of reasons for this. Parents of these kids do not feel it is necessary, in comparison with math homework and the like in which their grades "mean more". These parents are conditioned that the subjects that are tested on the big tests are the most important. It would simply take too much time to try to explain to each parent the usefulness of a subject such as band. If you start trying to discuss right brain vs left brain, most often their eyes glaze over and you've simply lost them. TYeachers also give me a hard time because they feel that I should take students out of their class only when it is convenient for them and their class schedules. The kids themselves are trying to accomodate the teachers and do what they want them to do. Many times, this means that they have a whole backpack worth of work that they have for homework and say they don't have the time to practice for band. Therefore, I am left holding the bag so to speak. I teach a concept or a new note and I find myself reteaching that same thing the very next class because everyone has forgotten. So, I have decided that the students need to be more self aware of how they are doing, rather than hearing it from me all the time. It's interesting but the kids have a varying degree to which they can assess their own performance and the performances of others. They are always more critical of others in the class, and forgive themselves for their mistakes more often. So, I think for me I will be doing a project on how to get kids to become more self-aware of their own performance, either with a small group or individually. Now, comes the hard part..the actual project!!