I began learning music in 4th grade as a choir student in 2004. As a beginning music student, I was blessed with a good teacher who made class fun. The next year, I began playing clarinet and have played clarinet since then. I continued to participate in choir until my freshman year of high school. In middle school, I played Gyil, or African xylophones, for three years. While in high school, I also learned to play saxophone and steel drums. Also, I participated in Marching Band and Concert Band throughout high school. In my junior year of high school, I was in charge of music distribution and also voted Vice President by my peers. Senior year, I was still in charge of music distribution, became President of the band, and also clarinet section leader.
I have had many life experiences which have strengthened my desire to teach. In the beginning, as a fourth grader, that is what made music appealing and something more as time went on. In middle school, I continued with choir and clarinet. My school corporation struggled with keeping both band and choir directors. So when a band and choir director joined the corporation my eighth grade year and stuck around, their leadership had an impact on the program and students. Being accustomed to a hackneyed music department had demonstrated many struggles the first year the new teachers came in. Both teachers had expected the classes to possess a degree of fundamental knowledge but, due to the previous years of poor instruction, most students were performing at a low level with little to no understanding. The difference they made within a year was noticeable to me, even as an 8th grader.
However, as I got older, my high school band director had an even bigger impact on my decision. He was a great mentor and teacher; he knew how to lead the large class just as well as small groups. Any situation that the group struggled with, he had an anecdote relevant to the problem being faced. As the four years under his direction progressed, I saw the impact his teaching had on others, and I admired that connection and inspiration he passed on to all of his students. Later, in my junior year of high school, I was given the opportunity to student teach and my chosen assignment was with an elementary general music class of second graders. At first, my experience was mainly busy work but, my time came. Although I wasn’t directly responsible for their success, I saw their progress and finally had my opportunity to teach. My first task was to create a video which described both woodwind and brass families of instruments and to demonstrate as many as I could. Despite theirs limited number of instruments I played at the time, I convinced a friend or two to help me with the brass family. The finished product was a huge success and the teacher still successfully utilizes it in the lesson plan of each year.
Personally, the desire to be a music teacher put two of my favorite things in life together. I am comfortable with leading others when given the opportunity. I never pass up the opportunity to make someone smile and since day one music has been capable of always making me smile. I want to pass this love and adoration for music onto
others. I have always wanted a job that makes other people happy and aids them in life; since my freshman year of high school, I had narrowed it down to teaching. I then realized that if I ever let music out of my life, it would not be the same. One day, at my part time job in high school, really made the decision sink in. At this point of the year I had already received my acceptance to Ball State University and The School of Music. I had just got to work late due to an after school rehearsal and I kept thinking to myself how much fun it was working with the music group. I then had this thought, “Too bad they don’t pay me to just play music.” Then it hit me. That was my intended life plan. To spend the rest of my life involved in music and sharing it with others.
I have had many life experiences which have strengthened my desire to teach. In the beginning, as a fourth grader, that is what made music appealing and something more as time went on. In middle school, I continued with choir and clarinet. My school corporation struggled with keeping both band and choir directors. So when a band and choir director joined the corporation my eighth grade year and stuck around, their leadership had an impact on the program and students. Being accustomed to a hackneyed music department had demonstrated many struggles the first year the new teachers came in. Both teachers had expected the classes to possess a degree of fundamental knowledge but, due to the previous years of poor instruction, most students were performing at a low level with little to no understanding. The difference they made within a year was noticeable to me, even as an 8th grader.
However, as I got older, my high school band director had an even bigger impact on my decision. He was a great mentor and teacher; he knew how to lead the large class just as well as small groups. Any situation that the group struggled with, he had an anecdote relevant to the problem being faced. As the four years under his direction progressed, I saw the impact his teaching had on others, and I admired that connection and inspiration he passed on to all of his students. Later, in my junior year of high school, I was given the opportunity to student teach and my chosen assignment was with an elementary general music class of second graders. At first, my experience was mainly busy work but, my time came. Although I wasn’t directly responsible for their success, I saw their progress and finally had my opportunity to teach. My first task was to create a video which described both woodwind and brass families of instruments and to demonstrate as many as I could. Despite theirs limited number of instruments I played at the time, I convinced a friend or two to help me with the brass family. The finished product was a huge success and the teacher still successfully utilizes it in the lesson plan of each year.
Personally, the desire to be a music teacher put two of my favorite things in life together. I am comfortable with leading others when given the opportunity. I never pass up the opportunity to make someone smile and since day one music has been capable of always making me smile. I want to pass this love and adoration for music onto
others. I have always wanted a job that makes other people happy and aids them in life; since my freshman year of high school, I had narrowed it down to teaching. I then realized that if I ever let music out of my life, it would not be the same. One day, at my part time job in high school, really made the decision sink in. At this point of the year I had already received my acceptance to Ball State University and The School of Music. I had just got to work late due to an after school rehearsal and I kept thinking to myself how much fun it was working with the music group. I then had this thought, “Too bad they don’t pay me to just play music.” Then it hit me. That was my intended life plan. To spend the rest of my life involved in music and sharing it with others.