Written by Natalie Tews, Class of 2021
Every time I type “I am student teaching” in a Gmail draft, it recommends I change it to “I am a student teaching”. Even Google is confused about what it means to be a student teacher!
Spring 2021 is my last semester of music school which means full time student teaching as a music education major. Though part-time student teaching in the fall just felt like part of the music school busy schedule, full-time student teaching feels like a full-time job. However, as everyone can imagine, schools look very strange right now, and band programs look even stranger.
I am student teaching (or, I am a student teaching) at a 4th-8th school. The school has students either fully in-person or fully virtual- and most are in-person, decked out in masks and face shields. There are numerous health and safety guidelines in place, we have to disinfect desks and other objects constantly, and the school is floating delicately between being open and being virtual. There is certainly a risk when teaching in-person in a pandemic, but actually going to school is great as a student teacher and is certainly helping the students’ learning.
There are around 40 students in grades 5th-8th playing in band lessons, which is smaller than typical even for this small school. The 5th and 6th graders are in grade level, like-instrument groups while the 7th and 8th graders are in mixed instrument groups that are almost functioning as jazz combos. What I am missing in ensemble classes, conducting, and rehearsals, I am making up in the other non-band experiences in this placement.
In addition to band lessons, I get to teach 6th and 7th grade music elective classes and 4th grade general music. (There is a second music teacher in the school who covers the other grades of general music and teaches strings.) The 6th grade class explores musical theater and folk/pop music and the 7th grade class is the history of rock and roll. Both grades get to play ukulele and the 7th graders are introduced to bass guitar and drum set. These classes are much different than band lessons but seem so engaging for the students!
One of the biggest things I have to accept about the whole music-school-in-a-pandemic experience is that no matter what I do and don’t do during my student teaching, I will have a lot to learn in my first few years teaching. I might not conduct a full ensemble of students until I am getting paid to do so. As the time increases since I last played in a large ensemble, I am becoming more grateful for the opportunities I do have. Teaching ukulele, middle school general music, and very small lesson groups may not totally prepare me for the large ensemble band director job, but I am definitely becoming a better teacher through it all.
For those of you wondering what student teaching is like right now: it’s weird! It’s different for each of us. Most importantly, it’s preparing us to be the most flexible teachers ever trained.
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