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Why I Am Wearing Red This Wednesday

I was on Facebook a little while ago and saw a post shared by one of my teacher friends talking about a peaceful protest against President Donald Trump’s pick for Education Secretary, Betsy Devos. The article outlined a very simple protest, for all teachers across the country to wear red this coming Wednesday against the confirmation of Devos in Trump’s cabinet.

While I typically attempt to stay…

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Incredible Growth Comes From Incredible Work

These last few months have been a complete whirlwind for me and my career. 2017 has already treated me so much better than 2016 and I am so excited for the rest of this year as it isn’t even half way over yet! A quick update, for those of you that may not know, I am the Assistant Band Director and Class Piano teacher at South Side High School in Jackson, TN. This has been the first year of my…

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2:30pm. That is when Spring Break starts for not only my students but for me as well and I am only a little excited. This quarter has been filled with so much new by way of my teaching style I can not wait to share it with you.

As many of you know, this is my first year of teaching. I teach Class Piano three blocks every day out of the four our students attend (one planning block). I have an Instrumental Music Education degree and believed I would be teaching high school band full-time in my first job, and my goodness I was wrong.

I vowed to myself and everyone around me I would NOT teach beginning band as my first job because I did not have the patience to work with middle schoolers, let alone start kids on instruments I am passionate about (i.e. trumpet and percussion). Someone somewhere must have heard me say this arranged for me land a job at the high school level teaching BEGINNER PIANO.

I have learned more about myself as an educator doing this than I think I would have if I would have landed a full-time assistant band director gig elsewhere. The difference in this course from last semester to this semester is staggering. My students from last semester ask me frequently “why didn’t we have all this cool stuff last semester?” When I respond, I am honest and tell them, “because it was my first semester and I had not thought of many of these ideas yet.”

Last semester I was scared to allow everyone to move at their own pace, encouraging everyone to stay with the class, pushing some students a little too hard. This semester I have implemented a Version concept. This concept keeps all students at the same level by way of music theory (modifying, of course, for my exceptional students with IEPs), but divides all the students up into four different version groups.

These version groups are divided by four different names that may sound familiar to some of us educators: Emerging, Proficient, Accomplished, and Advanced. The students are placed in these groups based on their rank in the Pass-Off system I have implemented this semester as well.

Book Excerpts/Warm-Ups

Scales (RH vs LH)

The pass-off system works as follows. Students have a list of all the pass-offs in the book, and when they have mastered an excerpt, fulfilling all parts of the rubric to the best of their ability, they receive a sticker on our pass-off chart (see below). Many of you might think, “Stickers? Really? They’re high school kids, they don’t care about stickers.” You could not be farther from the truth, at least for my students. Due to the fact I only teach 31 students throughout my day, all of them fit on the pass-off chart, which allows the individual students to not only track their progress against their peers within their class, but also with all of their peers learning the piano at SouthSide right now!

Students I had trouble getting to focus and practice/learn/ask questions before I implemented this have kicked it in to high gear because they do not want to look like they are lazy to the rest of their peers.

Now, I did wait several weeks into the semester before I started this for a few different reasons:

The primary reason, because my students needed to learn and begin developing a solid technique and learn HOW TO practice correctly. I wanted to make sure they were solid enough on the fundamentals before we started developing the individual.

I wanted to make sure my student rosters were settled so we did not have a slew of students that dropped my course at the last minute, on our chart taking up space.

I waited to start to ensure proper playing technique, to prevent any bad habits from forming.

Please do not panic, just because we have started Pass-Offs, that in no way means I have stopped paying attention to the students’ technique. The rubrics I use for these pass-offs has a very strict technique component, where if this is not utilized to the best of the student’s ability, they do not receive a “pass” and must continue working on the piece for at least another full day before they can attempt to pass off again.

The students are also required to not only play one of the excerpts from our book, but also a technical exercise, whether that be a scale, a warm-up from another book we use, or something else I specify that is designed to assist the students in further developing their technique.

Upon our return from Spring Break and after a review to get their hands back used to the keyboard after a week off, I intend to add sight-reading to the students lessons. As they have demonstrated mastery of the fundamental rhythms and note identification, they will begin expanding on this knowledge.

These are just a couple of things I have implemented this semester and have noticed a HUGE difference and BOOST in confidence within the students that find this course a little more difficult. My students that also find this to be very easy, they are not as bored as they are able to move at their own quick pace, asking individualized questions, or allowing me to go over more advanced concepts with them as opposed to losing the rest of class.

This has been an incredible semester so far. While I am excited about Spring Break and am ready for a little time to rest and recoup before our final push for the year, I know the 4th Quarter is going to continue these students’ incredible success with their capstone solos.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Thanks for reading!

A. Fussell

The Start of the 4th Quarter 2:30pm. That is when Spring Break starts for not only my students but for me as well and I am only a little excited.

Why I Am Wearing Red This Wednesday

While I typically stay attempt to…

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Reflections

Yesterday, I posted a photo to Instagram that reflected my thoughts as of recent. As you all know, 2016 was not kind to any of us. Myself most definitely included.

I have found myself reflecting a great deal these last few days on how far I have come in the last year. (Snow days where you leave your work at work thinking you’ll have work the next day and you don’t leaves you with some free time…

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Think back to when you were in high school. Now, for my band friends, think back to high school band camp when your director brought in someone a year older than you to teach you at band camp. Or worse yet, college band when someone younger than you has been told they must teach their peers that are more versed in music than the “section leader” and are expected to keep their mouths shut.

Do the more experienced ever keep their mouths shut? Does the high schooler ever want to listen to someone that is a little older than them?

I’ll give you a hint: the answer is no.

So how do you expect a first-year educator that looks the same age as her students to be able to maintain control of her classroom? Many would say to demand respect, and in some special cases this is required, however, I do not believe this is the best course of action in most cases. I believe that you MUST relate to your students more if you are so close in age than if you have many years of experience under your belt.

One thing I learned in my first semester of teaching at an exceptionally diverse school is that this is exceptionally true. Students of the young Millennial generation do not want to hear how us “older” Millennials have become successful. They don’t want to hear that some of us actually listen to Tchaikovsky and Borodin because we want to. They want us be like them, because if we share similar interests, they know they can be successful.

Now, I do not view myself as a role model for my students, however, I am very conscientious of the way I portray myself in every aspect of my life. While my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are all closely monitored to prevent students from adding me or seeing my content, I still make sure I do not post anything that could ever implicate me should they be able to see my accounts. I make sure nothing is captioned with anything that may be misconstrued in a manner that is not consistent with the character I believe makes me who I am.

With that being said, relating to my students is something I have found is completely worth taking the time out at the beginning to do. They must know you, as their teacher, is human and not some robot that goes home and only does teacher-ly things. I find it important that they know at least one of my weaknesses from when I was a student. This is a purely academic weakness as I find keeping my professional and personal lives completely separate is the only way to run my classroom and career.

The weakness that I tell my students about and is the one thing that single-handedly saved my undergraduate career once I figured it out was organization. I had no idea how to be organized. Therefore, I had no idea how to be truly successful in the every day chaos that is an undergraduate career at a major Division I university.

To provide my students with an opportunity that I did not have in high school that would have served me very well in college, I have developed a Binder Project for my Class Piano students. This project is not anything that will be adding any additional work to the students’ already hectic schedules. As long as they maintain the binder throughout the semester and are prepared for the various binder checks, they will earn a high grade at the end of the semester.

The Binder Project is simple enough. Purchase a 1″ binder (with the clear sleeve on the front) and a basic set of 5-tab dividers. These may all be purchased at WalMart for no more than $5. The students will set up their binders with the following five tabs:

Music

Technique (scales, rhythm sheets, etc.)

Music Theory (handouts, notes, worksheets)

Tests/Quizzes/Study Guides

Graded Assignments

In the front of their binders ahead of the first tab they will have a copy of the Binder Project rubric, the course calendar in addition to a copy of their syllabus for their reference throughout the semester. Here are a few pictures of what the students’ binders may look like throughout the semester:

By the end of the semester, the students will have a binder that contains a thorough guide for them to learn the piano should they decide to revisit the instrument later in life, OR! An organized system to continue learning the instrument once my class concludes in May!

I hope this has served you well and maybe given you a guide to something you might use in your classroom, or maybe some ideas for your own project with your students!

If you have any questions, shoot me a message in the “Contact Me” tab at the top of the page! I’ll message you back as soon as I can!

Thanks for reading and being Awesome!

~A. Fussell

How A Millennial Taught Younger Millennials How to be Organized Think back to when you were in high school. Now, for my band friends, think back to high school band camp when your director brought in someone a year older than you to teach you at band camp.

How I Plan to Start 2017 On the Right Foot

Let’s face it, 2016 wasn’t exactly the kindest. Sunday morning at 12:00am we all get the chance to hit the “reset” button. For me, I have decided to make my New Year’s Resolution central to the one thing that I know I am good at, my job. My New Year’s resolution is simply for me to continue to learn and grow as an educator and to not be afraid to take chances in my classroom (oh, and to take the…

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fitnesstipsonly

Healthy Chocolate Chip

Differentiated Instruction

Hey Everyone!

I’ve got a pretty specific question for these tags. I am about to be a student teacher this next semester and am required to organize and complete a project based on differentiated instruction. In order for me to begin the planning process, I have to understand what that means. The explainations I have recieved in my education courses has been unclear at best and I was wondering if someone on here might could shed some light on it for me!

Thank you!

#education differentiated instruction music band CommonCore teaching teacher studentteacher project work school

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