Blog Post 9

What I've Learned This Year

In this essay, Mr. McClung shares his experience as a first year teacher. McClung elaborates on key points that he considers important. He talks about “reading to the crowd”, focusing on how teachers place too much emphasis on teaching the material, and little if any emphasis on making sure the students comprehend and understand what is being taught. What McClung said that I liked the most was “in order to be effective you have to be able to let your audience drive your instruction.” This does not mean that you have to always let them drive your instruction, but you should give them the opportunity when presented. McClung also talks about “being flexible.” He explains that lesson plans are not always going to go according to plan. Being a music major, we as conductors have a lesson plan from rehearsal to rehearsal. That lesson plan changes, however, from piece to piece. Sometimes, the students will surprise you and do something well that you may not have expected, and other times they will do worse than you expected. Whatever the case, being flexible is always the best option. McClung is correct when he talks about “Communication”. It is one of the most difficult skills to develop. Most people now, with social networking and such, can easily say things online because there are no direct effects. Communicating in person, however, is much more, well, personal. Most people are afraid of confrontation, but confrontation does not always have to be negative. Constructive confrontation is better than no confrontation. I enjoyed the part about “being reasonable.” McClung says that “our job as teachers is to simply pick them(the students) up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again.” He explains that we can still have high expectations for the students, but that we should “not scold them for not coming through.” I have had quite a few teachers that were not reasonable. When students would fail, those teachers would simply look at them as if in disgust or disappointment, and offer no help. What sort of message does this send to the students? McClung also tells us “don't be afraid of technology.” He reassures us that “technology is our friend.” We should all embrace technology and use it to our advantage. McClung sent a strong message when he said that we should “listen to our students”, and that “we may be the only ones who do.” While there is no need to learn every detail in our students' lives, we should have some knowledge of what their life is like. Without this knowledge, we cannot communicate effectively with our students and we become nothing more than another teacher who doesn't seem care about anything but work. Finally, McClung makes a good point when he talks about learning; “why not soak up as much as you can?” The question is “why not?” What is stopping us from becoming efficient in our own field of study? How can we expect the students to learn new material if we are going to be hypocritical and refuse to learn more ourselves?