My Teaching Philosophy

The premise of my teaching philosophy is that all children can learn, and that through appropriate and differentiated kinds of instruction while accommodating learning styles; students can achieve. I believe that teaching and learning are connected as learning is the product of good instructions from teachers who apply best practices to student-centered kinds of learning experiences. The role of the instructor is for teaching students how to learn and to think critically about information. The instructor/teacher/facilitator, directs learning to higher levels of learning including levels of knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, and assimilation. Teachers provide a model for the learner of how skills are performed while fostering highly skilled learning that requires highly skilled instructors. Through technology, the world and infinite kinds of knowledge become available to students while stimulating inquisition and curiosity. Through other available resources, students will learn to think socratically as they are free and encouraged to ask the questions for gaining new knowledge in hopes of finding truth.

My teaching is founded on the belief that all student can learn. No matter the IEP or the perceived intellectual ability or limitations, when learning music, many students have a tendency to surpass the confinements of an IEP.  Students will learn at their own pace and will comprehend on levels that one may not recognize but one should not restrict, constrain, nor assume that a student is unable to learn based on one’s expectation because one’s expectations will likely be challenged. Too often, I have witness where classroom assistants held a child in a chair because of a predisposed view that proved to have little foundation. One must be willing to set the learner free to learn and experience all that others are learning and believe that achieving is possible.

I use approaches for teaching music that work for accomplishing a particular goal. For building musicianship and defining intonation, Kodaly has proven most effective. Students build listening and musicianship as they are intellectually listening to intervals, and can visualize the contour of a melody, as the hand signals naturally provide a picture for varying pitches. Orff helps specifically when creating accompaniments and desiring to incorporate various instruments for creating ostinatos and using syllables to identify rhythm patterns. The approach works well and fosters for building of imagination. Reading stories and creating sounds for the stories with rhythm and patterns derives from the Orff approach and is successful for eventually teaching literacy.

My teaching affects my students and strengthens their self-image. In my school choir, my students allow me to shape their voices and are seeing the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing. They are singing in tune, singing with head voices while producing beautiful overtones, and are able to sing in harmony. Building vocal parts helps them to understand interdependence and that each voice part plays an integral role of the group. Through singing, the students achieve high levels of internal satisfaction as they are learning to connect their singing to their spirits. When the students can sing a simple canon “Like a Bird” and find joy in singing, then I have achieved a great personal goal; for them to appreciate and enjoy all styles of music.