Influential Teachers

Today we had a speaker for our professional development (every Thursday the students leave early and the teachers stay later for some kind of professional development). I thought that the speaker did a great job. One thing that often gets asked when a speaker does professional development is who/what influenced you to become a teacher or who was an important teacher to you while in school. We were asked to think of a favorite/influential teacher that we had in school and tie what they did to the effective practices we learned about today. If you don't already know me that well, then you should know I'm kinda shy and don't like to speak in front of groups of people (especially adults, not children though hence the teaching career). I would've liked to share my influential teacher story, but just couldn't make myself (only three people volunteered, so I don't feel so bad). I'm going to share a bit of it now on this blog because I can.

The teacher I thought of was one of my high school band directors- Mrs. Ohime.

A picture of us back when I was in high school.

My high school boyfriend was also in the band and said he talked to her a bit and she was nice to talk to. I decided I could use an adult to just talk to, so I did. I ended up becoming very close to her, and she is part of what influenced me to become a music teacher. She said I'd be a great elementary music teacher. I wanted only to teach band (until my junior year of college), but ended up loving working with elementary age children. Connecting with students as people on an individual basis was one of the effective practices.

Another effective practice was varying instruction and keeping students in the "learning zone." That is done a little differently in a band class as opposed to traditional instruction, but I do still remember some of the things we did other than learn songs for programs. She actually taught us some music theory and arranging. We took little snippets of songs from The Wizard of Oz and as a class wrote a medley with them to play at our program. It was a great experience for me, because it just came naturally and I was done so quickly with mine I was helping the other students in band arrange their songs. By the way, I think I still have a copy of the arrangement in my pile of music in the basement.

Having high expectations and standards was another effective practice. I actually got to take her place as a director for part of the school day when her dad died and she was gone from work. I look back at it now and think that most people probably wouldn't be asked to do this as a high schooler or most schools wouldn't allow you to miss regular classes to take the place of a teacher. We ended up with a surprise pep rally that I prepared the band for and directed. I also got to help lead rehearsals with the junior high and high school band to prepare for the spring program. That is a high expectation to set on a high school student and we as a band managed to get things done.

I'm guessing that if you took the time to read this, you probably are thinking about a great or influential teacher you had in school. If you would like to share any stories you can comment below.