Entry 2

Learning Differences
Knowing your area and community is a great way to know how to go about teaching your
students. It allows you to see what they see every day and connect with them through that,
encouraging them to participate more in your classroom. Then as an educator you can understand
how each individual student views things and can adjust your lessons to match what your
students need to succeed.
Coming from a wide range of areas around Kansas myself I can start to relate to students
of many backgrounds. I started band in a very small town where we had a barely surviving music
program, to attending a 6A high school with a massively successful band program that help
inspire me to be where I am now. Along with my student teaching, I got to be around and taught
students from a large community and see how getting to know the parents of my students greatly
affected how they participate in class. While at the middle schools I got to create the flyer for the
band concert in February and have it passed out to parents and students, giving them an idea of
my involvement in that program and making myself more of a teacher in the students’ eyes
rather than just another student. I want to use this journey and experience of these band programs
to develop my own program so that no matter the financial or environmental status of my school,
I can inspire my students the way I was when I left high school.