Phil Kleven Week 10

Has it really been 10 weeks? Time is moving very quickly. This would have the first week in my second placement, but I'm fortunate to be continuing in my first placement through the end of the semester. I'm glad things worked out this way, because I'm seeing the entire course of a semester with one group. The continuity and flow of classes are two things I hoped to gain insight into during student teaching.

This was another successful week for both the middle and high school students. The high school groups are working on new music in preparation for our next two concerts. We had a successful concert at the middle school on Tuesday night, and the students are now preparing for their contest performance tomorrow. We will be traveling to a school up north to present our program for a panel of judges, who will give us score and feedback on our abilities and preparation.

This week I really saw how to prepare a group for the contest. My cooperating teacher shifted into high gear, and the students focused intently. It was really nice to see how hard they could work. I wish they would work this hard all the time, but am still happy that they recognize the seriousness of this contest. Through my cooperating teacher's example, I saw how to run extremely efficient rehearsals, making the most of each second. These experiences provided insight into my own teaching methods, and made me reflect on my instructional pacing. When the pacing speeds up, students can become stressed, but it also helps them remain focused in achieving classroom goals.

In the week ahead, I hope to gain more insight into speaking with groups after performances. I had a chance to do this with both high school and middle school groups after the concerts, but it will be different after the contest. There is a delicate balance of criticism and positivity that needs to emerge in these conversations. Too much criticism will diminish student spirits, but a little is necessary to drive practice and improvement. Similarly, too much positivity will falsely inform students of success when it hasn't been earned.

Like last week, I chose to focus on standard 7 - assessment. "The competent teacher understands and uses appropriate formative and summative assessments for determining student needs, monitoring student progress, measuring student growth, and evaluating student outcomes. The teacher makes decisions driven by data about curricular and instructional effectiveness and adjusts practices to meet the needs of each student."Assessment is ongoing in the orchestra classroom, but students are not always aware of it. When we have major assessments like concerts or competitions, students become well aware of the circumstances, and often make major improvements right before the event. I'm learning how to strategically use assessments to drive student growth and progress. 

Goals for the week ahead:
- Have a great competition on Saturday
- Finish edTPA on Monday
- Practice excellent teaching through new differentiation strategies (sectionals, individual lessons)