For the teacher interview I choose to interview my high school music teacher; Mr. Stevenson. I chose him because he has had a lot of experience teaching music and I admire and look up to him.
In this interview I asked him questions concerning many topics including; current topics affecting music classrooms today, his own experiences within the classroom, what led him to teaching and how to deal with students of all types.
Some of the answers I was not surprised by because I have discussed with him in previous years about that topic, I just asked him the same questions again to confirm. Also, some of these topics we talked about have previously come up in my high school class and he has vaguely expressed his opinions on it in class and he just expanded on them in the interview.
Nonetheless, there were many answers that I was surprised by. For example: I asked him if he felt supported by the other staff at Lucas (my high school). I was not sure how he was going to answer, but I felt strongly that the school did not support music, thus it surprised me when he said “yes and no.” He elaborated that the other teachers tended to put their classes before certain music related activities/performances. Also he mentioned how students often will not participate in music related activities during school hours out of fear of missing out on other certain academic projects or test coming up. I have seen and experienced this in my own time at high school but never thought of it as the teachers not supporting the music classroom. Also, I never really thought that there were many teachers who were supporters of the musical arts in the school because even the 3 main arts (visual, music, drama) in the school seemed to keep to themselves during my time there. Thus, I found it interesting that he felt that there was a fair amount of staff that did support the arts.
I also asked him about why he wanted to go into teaching. I found this very interesting because my teacher is an amazing player and did a performance degree. I just thought he was a teacher because it was a more stable job, he was good at it, and liked it. But it was surprising to me that he wanted to “give back to the system” he went to. I found this surprising because it is similar to the reason I want to teach. I want to teach because I want to do for my students what music did for me in high school. Thus in a similar way I want to “give back to the system” as well.
Another answer I was surprised by was his answer to my question: “many people believe that the first 5 years of teaching are the hardest, would you agree?” He “absolutely” agreed, and then went on to talk about how most new teachers come in thinking that they know how teaching should be done, but quickly find out that those things take a long time to develop. Also, they learn that they have to keep learning and have to figure out different ways to teach the same concept so that everyone can understand. I found this interesting because I already see how some students I know going into teachers college and those who are currently in it talk a little bit like this.
I also asked about what success he has had while teaching? And his answer was not what I expected him to talk about. I thought he would talk about more like things he had accomplished personally. But he measured his success by the students successes overtime. He talked about how success is measured in different ways, but the way he counts his success is when he has a student who he has watched struggle on their instrument for two or three years and have finally overcome those struggles can play well. I think this speaks to how I believe music teachers should measure their success, because it shows that they care more about the students success than any medal or measurable award.
I asked my teacher what the most important thing he learned while teaching was? One thing he said that stuck with me was “don’t be afraid to tackle the things you aren't good at.” Because we talked a lot about that teachers do not want to do more informal learning with guitars etc, because they do not know how to grade it or they are afraid to step out of tradition.
Have you ever taught a special needs student? If you have, what were some of the challenges? My teacher talked about how he had a disabled student who could barely hold the baton, but at the end of the year she was able to conduct the whole class on a piece. I think this just proves the difference music can have and a teacher can have in a special students student and how they can learn and develop just as any other able bodied student.
At the end of this interview I learned a lot more about my teacher and the real life of teaching music, current topics affecting music classrooms today, what led my teacher to teaching and how to deal with students of all types.