Jame M. Hernane Jr.

July 9, 2016
MA Music
5:00pm

Sat 8:00

Being a music teacher is not a simple task which anyone can do. It is a role
that plays a major part on the growth and development of the students which may
greatly affect their mental and social progress. Or to simply put it to the context of
fairy tales, it is a role that wont easily fit to anyones shoes.
In the topics that were assigned to me, it tells about how a teacher should
show his/her commitment to excellence. A good representation of a music teacher
should be a person who brings full of energy to every lesson. He/she must adopt to
change especially to the taste of music among students. While it is advisable to
stick to classical music and appreciate the ageless and distinctive forms which it
brings, one must also cater the different tastes of the young listeners of this new
generation. A taste of everything wont hurt the students to explore the boundless
world of music. Also as a teacher, he/she should help the students grow in every
possible way. But the best way to learn is through experience and that is why it
would be nice if the students could join in and enter various competitions and let
them perform in recitals. By doing that, students will really grow as an individual.
But to become an effective teacher, one must not only teach but one must also
learn and continue to grow. The only constant thing in this world is change and one
must change by not stopping to learn new things. A teacher must seek higher
education not just for himself/herself but for the sake of their students. With this,
student will be able to learn and perform to the best of their abilities.
Being a teacher is a lifetime job. Many teachers teach at a decent age and
then eventually retire when the time comes. A teacher teaches various numbers of
students in a year and becomes countless number of them in a lifetime. With that
being said, one may already memorized every single topic in the book that is to be
discussed to students. It may become a repetitive manner and becomes less
interesting for the teacher to teach the same topics over and over again. That is
why innovation is important to every individual who is in the field of teaching.
Innovating your lessons from time to time wont hurt the teacher at all especially at
this current year where technology already plays an important part. Making your
lessons interactive using the help of gadgets and internet would bring enthusiasm
to each student. Using different teaching methods to cater the different learning
abilities of the students would also be a great idea. There are already a number of
tested teaching methods and techniques which may help the learners achieve the
desirable outcomes which both the parent and the teacher aim. Few of those are

the Kodaly, Orf and Dalcrose method which are very useful and effective to young
learners.
Each student must develop love of learning and independence and it is the
teachers job to help those students not just to learn and understand each lesson
but rather to appreciate every lesson that is to be taught. It is a teachers task to
create opportunities and experiences that will motivate students to love learning
and at the same time achieving their goals. One possible way for that to achieve is
to help the students to become active learners. To make them active learners, the
students should learn by doing things and creating rather than learning through
textbooks or in normal classroom discussions. According to Blooms Taxonomy of
Learning, the students learn more by creating and the lowest form of learning is
through remembering. At the same time, it is best to teach students to become
creative and critical thinkers. Creative thinking involves generating ideas, solutions
and different ways of doing it while critical thinking is more on evaluation and
analysis. To help them to become creative thinkers, teachers should allow them
enough time to think of the answers or let the students play songs with different
kinds of emotions. To become critical thinkers teachers can let their students
analyze their pieces deeper like exploring the composers background and even
analyzing the forms of the pieces.
Another important role of a teacher is to create an atmosphere of
achievement for the students. Students go to school to learn and it is expected that
the one who will supply their knowledge is the teacher. Teachers should set high
standards to their students so that the students will aim higher at the same time. It
is true that some of them will feel pressured but teachers should remind them that
even if their standards are high, they know that they can reach it by studying and
performing well. Always tell the truth to your students regarding their performances
in school or in recitals. Being honest will give them a better look on their progress. If
they play well let them know and if ever they play poorly, be frank but tell them
they can still improve.
To summarize everything, I strongly believe that a teacher is accountable for
every student outcome. As they say, there is no bad student but only a bad teacher.
A teacher should guide the student in every possible way he/she could think of.
Being a teacher requires more than what is being asked most of the time. But even
if the job is truly harder than it looks, still a lot of teachers enjoy their profession
because every single day for them is a new experience to be treasured and the
success of their students will also become their own success.