Grace Marshall

Secondary General Methods

Dr. Gerrity

December 2, 2019

Field Placement Reflection and Rationale

To me, and many others, middle schoolers are daunting. I was more worried to interact

and teach in the middle school general music class than I let on to my classmates, friends, family,

and professor. I am an active string teacher in the Muncie community, and I work with middle

school students weekly—the only difference is that they are students who choose to do music

and pay to be taught by me. I am not quite accustomed to working with students who need to be

convinced that music is great. I am sure this is the same situation many directors are in as well. I

am happy to say that I feel slightly more comfortable with middle school general music students.

I was worried far more than I needed to be. I managed to even have some fun while in the

classroom with them.

My first day of observations was a bit rough overall. The first class was wild in my

opinion. They talked loudly over the teacher and I heard quite a few profanities from them which

was both surprising and not surprising at the same time. I remember how middle schoolers were

when I was that age. I knew they cuss and say inappropriate things—I think I was just

disappointed to hear it. I know it happens, but I want so badly for them to be innocent still. I

talked with a few of the students on the first day and they mostly seemed to like me. I was highly

disrespected by one 7th grader who told me to shut up. That was an unpleasant surprise to me, but

I let it go because I could tell she had some behavioral issues that weren’t necessarily her fault

from how Mrs. Mizelle talked about her. A lot of the students rejected any help I offered in the
classroom during their lesson, which I tried not to let offend me. They are trying to be self-

sufficient.

At the end of the first class I observed I thought to myself “well, this has to be the worst

of all her classes”. It was not. We were informed that the next class was going to be doing

something different that day and that we would see what it was. The guidance counselor came in

and the chairs were arranged in a circle for everyone when they walked into class. The students

were immediately confused and asked many questions. Mrs. Mizelle’s class was doing a feelings

powwow with the intention of fixing some behavioral issues. She asked some pointed questions

along the lines of “how do you feel when your education is taken away from you by distracting

classmates?” This question kind of put me off because no one wanted to answer except for one

student who the other students snickered at and made fun of. None of the other students shared

how they felt. Perhaps they were afraid of what other students would think of them, or maybe

they just don’t care about the class that much. Both seem to be likely answers to me.

All in all, I feel that the feelings circle was counterproductive because the only thing that

came of it was that a few students got kicked out of class for the next couple of weeks. I do not

know how I would fix such behavior or respond to students that disrespected each other the way

they do. I don’t agree with the way Mrs. Mizelle talks to the students all the time. Sometimes she

is overly condescending to the students and I think that they resent that. I don’t think they

completely lack respect for her, but it might help if she was more understanding towards them at

times. I believe they just want to be talked to like they are emerging adults. The problem with

this is that some aren’t that mature yet and would rather make jokes and stay in their own world

than be productive.
 I know that I interacted with the students more than my peers did before I taught, which I

think gave me a leg up. I used their names whenever I could to show them that I was paying

attention. I even encountered a few students who were surprised that I knew their names because

they had forgotten that I had asked them in previous weeks or because I heard someone else say

it. I am pretty good with names and I take pride in that and use it to my advantage. I know that

people love being referred to by their names because it is personal and it shows that I have taken

interest in them as a person. There was some chatter and off topic comments that happened

during my lesson, but I wasn’t too mad about it because there were some good moments when

they were really engaged and when they answered questions right. I know it is mostly my fault

that students got off track because I spoke so much. I partially blame the topic I wanted to teach

them—it needed explanations. I didn’t mean for it to become a lecture. I even incorporated real

instruments in the classroom that I let them touch and I played lots of examples for them. It was

probably just too much listening and not enough hands on. I thought that my instrument family

category cards would be good for this, but it should have been more of the lesson than me

talking.

They got all of the questions right at the end of my lesson, which means my lesson was

fairly successful. I wish I had more time with them and with the lesson so that I didn’t have to

talk so much and so quickly. I would like to have done a day at least for each instrument family.

I felt very rushed trying to define, give examples, and do an activity with all four instrument

families. Ideally, I would have liked to play all of the instruments I demonstrated in person for

them and allowed them to learn little bits of different instruments. I like Peter and the Wolf for

introducing this topic, and I’m sure they would love a movie day or a time to sit and listen to a

recording of it because that means they can completely tune out and not do much work. I wanted
it to be more hands on and more engaging. I like talking to them and seeing the results. I like the

lightbulb moments that they have and guiding them through it. I just might miss being in that

class, but I know I will have plenty of future students of my own that I will get to see more

frequently and for longer periods of time.

 I like the concept of teaching students popular music over the centuries because it

familiarizes them with plenty of styles of music that they may not have been subjected to before.

They can, and usually do, find that they like some older genres. I think that this unit would start

off slower for the students and pick up over time. The lesson will have to really sell the older

music to the students. The teacher will have to make it relatable and find share a purpose for the

pieces with the class. The teacher has to have a solidified rationale and be convincing to the

students. The teacher has to wholeheartedly enjoy the music and what it stands for before sharing

it with students. They know when the teacher doesn’t care much, and they can easily take on the

attitude that the teacher has.

I think that the best way to enforce this unit is to stick to it and keep on track with the

timeline. If a few classes go by where there is something else introduced, or it is interrupted by

standardized testing. Students could forget what they have already learned up until then, and it

may be hard to get them back on track. I think that teaching it chronologically is a smart thing to

do because it helps students comprehend how the world has changed over the past couple

hundred years. It may be a valuable teaching moment to incorporate what they are learning, have

learned, or will learn in their history classes. This unit has the potential to create a concrete idea

of what certain time periods in the recent past were like.

There is plenty of content available. From what we came up with in class, I know that

there are lots and lots of musical topics that can go with each genre of music in the lesson. Some

of them even share musical topics, so things that were taught can come back again for review

and be built on. There is so much you can do as a teacher with a majority of the musical eras

presented. It will take some work to make it relatable for the students, but I think they might just

find that they like some older music that’s out there. If I am in a position to teach general music,
I think I might just use this unit at some point. It is a good way of organizing the quarter or

semester.