Today we writeabout extra teaching info, with a focus on The Music Educator. Successful teachers bring fun into the classroom: Don’t be too serious. Some days, “fun” should be the goal. When students feel and see your humanness, it builds a foundation of trust and respect. Fun and educational aren’t mutually exclusive either. Using humor can make even the most mundane topic more interesting. Successful teachers teach holistically: Learning does not happen in a vacuum. Depression, anxiety, and mental stress have a severe impact on the educational process. It’s crucial that educators (and the educational model) take the whole person into account. You can have the funniest and most innovative lesson on algebra, but if your student has just been told his parents are getting a divorce, you will not reach him. Successful teachers never stop learning: Good teachers find time in their schedule to learn themselves. Not only does it help bolster your knowledge in a certain subject matter, it also puts you in the position of student. This gives you a perspective about the learning process that you can easily forget when you’re always in teaching mode.
Catch students being good. Use reinforcing language. Try to pay attention to students and acknowledge them (individually or as a group) for following instructions. When you do praise student actions, provide specific feedback about what is being performed – instead of saying, “great job girls”, comment, “You two are working together so nicely”. Click here to access a list of positive statements/reinforcing language. See extra details at Teacher Toolkit and Resources.
Learning is not only for young people. Whether you want to learn how to use email, browse the Internet, do video calls with your grandkids, purchase gifts or other items online, or share and view photos with friends and family, it’s easier than you think. If you have a family member (grandkids are naturals!) or friend to show you some basics, that’s great. If not, then there are several choices out there. Where do you start? Good news, there are lots of places for seniors to go and get computer literate.
Be mindful of the word choice you’re using. The new words the Internet has created in our dictionary might not make sense to someone who barely uses a computer. Instead, ask them what they already know about technology so you can use analogies to what they’re already familiar with. A very good website for senior learning is Tech for Seniors tutorials.
Music teaching is hot this days, many people try to learn music, for various reasons. There are a few podcasts that focuses on teaching people about music and one of them is The Music Educator by Bill Stevens. Make a long-term lesson plan that incorporates games. Divide your students into teams and award a few points in each lesson. Depending on the class and their projects you could award a point to the best student in each lesson. You could give points for correct answers and even for a positive attitude. Decide on a monthly and yearly prize for the winning team. This works especially well with younger children. But even teenagers can enjoy a competition if the prize is attractive. Being able to compete in a healthy and cheerful manner is a valuable skill for students to learn. It combines well with collaborative activities. But, it is important to make sure that no student feels left out when using a competition as part of your teaching. Keep track of prize winners and try to award a range of prizes so that every student has a good chance of winning at least once.
Advice of the day for music teachers : Use a Seating Chart (At Least at First!): While some teachers may not be interested in the idea of having a seating chart, they are extremely helpful for learning students’ names. Seating charts are also great for gaining insight to classroom dynamics, as well as helping students interact with new people. Document! Young teachers will be trying a variety of different teaching styles and activities, so it’ll be essential for teachers to document their efforts so they can know what works and what doesn’t. Feel free to think of this documenting process as a personal teaching journal. When documenting, be sure to clearly note why something does or doesn’t work, as well as ideas on how you would do things different in the future.
You can listen to the The Music Educator podcast by using the app from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.themusiceducatorpodcast.android.music. You can learn more about Bill Steven by visiting his website at https://www.4themusiceducator.com/.