Ben Maynard

11-30-17

MUSE 375

Field Work Reflection

My experience at Delta High School was extremely rich with learning opportunities and

establishing connections with students. My teaching experience during my fieldwork was the

next step that allowed me to apply some of the teaching strategies and rehearsal techniques

that our class has discussed throughout the semester. In addition, having an extra voice that is

giving feedback is always extremely helpful and often motivating. After reviewing the video of

my teaching, I recognize that some elements went well along with room for improvement.

The first element of my teaching episode that went well was the breathing exercises that

I was leading the ensemble through. My reasoning behind this is that after completing these

exercises, the ensemble sound quality was more full and resonant than the previous week.

Moreover, the students were responding well and improving when I made a new analogy to

make them think about how they were breathing. For example, when I referenced the breathing

exercises to the low brass, their sound quality and depth improved. Another element of my

lessons that I noticed was the pacing of the rehearsal. I didnt think there were many moments

where a section was left unattended for a big portion of time. Overall, I believe that the students

were taking my analogies seriously, which in return helped their overall tone quality.

On the other hand, I noticed a considerable amount of room for improvement after

reviewing my lesson video. I first picked out the choice of some of the words that I used when

rehearsing the ensemble. I used the phrase can I have an abundance of times during this

lesson. Instead of giving directions by asking a question, I couldve used lets have in my

instructions to the ensemble. Furthermore, I noticed that I said various filler words after the

students completed instructions that I gave them. For example, I overused cool and

awesome in response to the kids playing passages that I asked them to. I will work on using

phrases such as thank you, great job, or wonderful effort. The final element of my lesson

that drew my attention to need improvement is incorporating more singing in the lesson. There
 Ben Maynard

11-30-17

MUSE 375

are plenty of opportunities that I presented to incorporate singing. For example, working on the

C major scale in warm up and working with the French horns on internalizing the pitches of the

split part in the piece. In conclusion, I thought that the students responded well to the

information that I gave them and I reacted to their performance in a way that kept the pacing of

the lesson moving forward.