Thought I'd kick off another topic with another article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6547741.stm?ls
"Teaching music is about so much more than learning to play an instrument or spotting the protégés of tomorrow; it's about developing social skills, team work, confidence, co-ordination and creativity. "

Did everyone hear about the substitute teacher who is going to jail?
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/01/substitute_teacher_faces_jail.html
I find this so scary! First off this school had a horrible computer set up! Not only was this solely the schools faut because of the computers, the principal reported her to the police! The police made it look like she was trying to show them the porn. Rediculous. But this is a very clear reason why it is important even as the music teacher to have knowledge on computers. What do you all think about this?

"Try also to ignore that the computer in question was a Microsoft Windows 98 machine running an outdated version of Internet Explorer Web browser (IE 5.0), or that the school's license for its firewall program expired prior to the date of the alleged incident. Likewise, the machine's anti-virus software (Cheyenne Software) was expired and it lacked any anti-spyware tools. In short, the Windows 98 computer was completely exposed to the Internet without any kind of protection. "

It is the teachers job to present information to the students of the classroom. It is not their job to decide what music is good or bad for their students so they must present unbiased information at all times. The music that begins to influence the students will also begin to shape their identity. The teacher does not create or influence the identity of the students but they get a chance to view music based on their own musical experiences.

I believe there is a natural progression in every aspect of human life. First, we learn to emulate one another. As infants we emulate the sounds and the movements of those around us in order to learn how to talk, walk, and do the basic functions of life. Over time, we begin to refine this emulations into characteristics that are solely our own. Finally, we take these refined characteristics and find that others have begun to emulate what we have taken as our own. This can easily be applied to our teaching and our classroom. We, in our own learning, emulate those that teach us. As time passes and we find our own way, we begin to refine our teaching to best suit ourselves and not necessarily following what we were taught to the letter. We then find our students emulating aspects of what we do and in turn later being emulated by others. However, this emulation is both a positive and negative aspect of life due to the fact that if we have a poor role model then we have the potential to become a poor role model as well.

1. How can being a teacher lead to changes in one's identity?
When you become a teacher you become a role model, whether you choose to or not. You need to present a professional persona all of the time you are with your students. Often times your students will follow every move you make. You really can't present, do or say anything that you wouldn't want your students to repeat or do themselves. However, I really feel that censoring yourself doesn't have to mean changing your identity. In a position where what you do or say could change the course of a student's life, you have to be very careful, but I don't think you have to change the core of who you are. When you're honest with your students and open up to them, I feel like they'll open up to you. This doesn't mean telling them what you did on your weekend but it does mean letting your personality shine through, you can't expect your students to want to give of themselves unless you're putting yourself out there to them. There are so many ways to be yourself without being inappropriate that why would you have to sacrifice who you are in order to teach?

After class on Monday, the question that I kept thinking about was "How should we as teachers present ourselves to our students?" and "Where do we draw the line of appropriate and inappropriate personal relationships with students?". I know that there are obvious inappropriate relationships with students that we have all seen on the news, but I am talking about simple personal connections we make with our students. Where is the line that we become "too personally connected" with our students. We were talking about how many of us had teachers that confided things in us, and I got to thinking about whether or not this is inappropriate and I can't seem to come up with a good answer. On the one hand, it seems like a great concept to show our "humanness" to our students (that we have problems, successes, failures, etc. just like they do) but on the other hand, it seems like we still need to remain professional and role models for our students. There is a definite conflict here...about where the line is. I think the best answer I could get to on my own is that we should tell our students about our successes, failures, frustrations (to some extent) but not divulge all personal information. Like it or not, we are still professionals providing a service. You would not expect your doctor to confide in you about his/her relationship with his/her spouse or any other truly personal information.

Change. It is something that drives any profession. As a future educator we change small pieces of our teaching style depending on the class. We change the way in which we teach a lesson. These are two of the many things that we change within our field. Over time, these changes will change a teacher's identity I believe. It can be the smallest thing that brings a change or it can be a life-changing event in either the teacher's life or one of their students lives that can be a turning point for the teacher. I believe that every class will effect a teacher in one way or another. I take that back. Any teacher who is open to the change will find that their identity will change as they learn from their students.

When did the music that is listened to by students become so distanced from the music that is taught in school? During the classical period, where teachers still teaching music from the Baroque period? During the early 20th century, were teachers still teaching music from the classical period? As we have read, this disconnection has been documented and critiqued as far back as the early 1900's from John Dewey. How can we as teachers undo so many years of teaching that is disconnected from the students and community in which they live? How are the ideas that we are taught to embrace at Westminster going to create a positive reform in music education when people as far back as Dewey have been trying, and we've only come this far? What more can we do, as music education students, to make a difference instead of just "waiting 'till we can get out there?"