Jamiah Harrison

Video reflections

Block 2

Teaching Video Reflection 1

This past week I had my first teaching experience with high school. I led warm-ups for

all the ensembles. I was able to do it three times and talk about it with my cooperating teacher.

He gave me some feedback about things I also noticed after I watched myself. During the whole

lesson, I still had the elementary school mentality. This was the same problem I had when I

started elementary school at the beginning of the semester. At the beginning of the semester,

however, I would talk to the elementary school students like they were high schoolers. Having

the opportunity to teach both in elementary and high school is significant. However, finding a

way to navigate back and forth from one another is challenging. With that being said, I noticed

that my language was on the younger side when I could have used more advanced vocabulary.

For example, when I was talking about taking proper breaths, I said, “Fill your stomach with

air,” I could have said fill the air through your diaphragm, lungs, or ribs. Perhaps, something that

would be more advanced for them. With the breathing part of the warm-ups, I also could have

stretched it out more for the beginning choir. I remember when I was learning to sing, breathing

was an issue. I had to strategize ways to better assist myself. Being clear on my direction is also

very important. For example, we did a warm-up that had a mix of sounds that I did not correctly

demonstrate how I wanted them to sound. Upon reflection, I realized that I could have expressed

more on how I wanted them to sing the exercise. Establishing skills will be consequential as

progress. Since I probably will not be using the piano that much, I need to expand my vocabulary

for them. Overall, I did improve as the day went on. I am content with my progress thus far. I am

hoping for continued growth.

 Jamiah Harrison

Video reflections

Block 2

Teaching Video Reflection 2

This past week, I had the chance to teach a full class alone. I had a good plan for

what I wanted to do and was able to execute it to the best of my ability. As I am reflecting on my

teaching, I found some areas that I could improve on. For the treble/select choir, I am executing

my “Impact on Student Learning” lesson plan. My “Impact on Student Learning” project is the

topic of key signatures. Because this class is relatively new to singing and reading music, I

figured that it would be helpful to them. For my reflection, I will be referring to the first time I

taught the lesson. As I was writing my plan, I knew the lecture was going to take time to execute.

However, I did not realize how much time it took. By the end of the class, I did not have any

time to introduce the piece. I now know that I need to work on pacing and watching the clock.

The idea of pacing has not entered my mind. It is something that I have been working for a while

since I have discovered my problem with it. My ability to teach the material to the students went

well but, it took away from the time that I wanted them to use to apply the knowledge. For the

next step of my project, I am introducing sharps. For this, I will need to move the lesson along

faster. Perhaps practicing the plan multiple times will be helpful to the students and me.

Although pacing was a problem for me, focusing on the subject also seemed hard for me.

Allowing the students to soak the information in and apply it to something else is significant. For

example, I went through the introduction of flats quickly with no time for them to identify key

signatures on their own. Besides them Identifying keys for solfege singing, that was the only

chance that they had to identify keys. A suggestion that my university supervisor had made was

to allow them to go through their music folder and look at different pieces to identify the keys.

To finish my project, I will incorporate this into an informal assesment activity. This way, I will
 Jamiah Harrison

Video reflections

Block 2

know if they truly understood the concept. Overall, my teaching is improving the more I watch

videos and reflect upon them. I now realize the benefits of reflecting on your instruction. It

serves as a way to prevent yourself from making the same mistakes.