For this influential teacher project I decided to interview my middle school music teacher Miss Jackson. I chose her as my most influential teacher because without her, I would not have percussion as my instrument of choice and I know I would not be where I am today. She encouraged me to keep learning, keep playing and she taught me a lot about drum set playing. Miss Jackson still teaches at my old middle school, WID in Milton Ontario, and continues to mold young minds through the love of music.
Her favorite thing about being a music teacher is getting to teach music. Teaching is great in general but it being music just makes it even better. She likes to see the growth in her students, the school is grades 6-8 and many are starting an instrument for the first time. She says that because of the amount of growth you see in the students, that's why she stayed where she is instead of teaching high school. She hopes to share the passion she has for music with her students.
The most significant part about her job that would be the level of impact she has on the age group that she teaches. They look up to her, whatever she says good or bad, they listen to and take in even with an answer to a question or one thing she says. Overall having an impact on youth is extremely significant to her, being there and helping them grow. Quite a daunting role to assume.
When I asked Miss Jackson why she teaches middle school, she said that she originally wanted to teach grade 6 and under. Before going to WID, middle school was her least desired age group but when she got to the job, she did not want to leave. She found out that it was actually the most fun, rewarding and impactful age group. There is so much growth for them in their personalities, they are hanging on to their childhood but trying to be an adult at the same time. It can be a difficult age group to teach music but its all worth it in the end. Music is something where you can actually see and hear the growth in these young people.
Continuing the interview I asked why she thinks music education should continue to be apart of our public education system. She starting with pointing out that music is a universal language, the arts is sometimes seen as less important but it's something that people can connect and communicate with no matter where you are from or who you are. Music is important because everyone is around music whether they are listening to it, hearing it in movies, dancing to it, or even it’s something that relieves stress or calms your mind.
Next I asked about what the guidelines are like in the school board for teaching music, I wanted to know is she found them to be restricting in regards to what she can teach or how she can teach it. Sometimes she wishes she had more time but overall the guidelines are general in the sense that she can teach in her own way. The school board says what needs to be covered but it is really the teachers choice of how they are supposed to cover it. Every school is different especially in music because some schools are more fortunate than others because of access to resources such as resources. This changes how the teacher teaches a class, you could learn scales through instruments but also just on paper and through listening if you don’t have access to real instruments. The curriculum is still there, how you learn it changes. Miss Jackson finds that her school is quite fortunate in their access to instruments.
After asking about curriculum I moved onto talking about extracurricular groups for music at the school. They have a concert band, choir and jazz band along with an after school additional group. There is also a musical, which is not every year. I asked about participation in ensembles because I was quite curious about the answer. When I attended school there the only reason I joined a group, choir, was because each year the band and choir gets to go on a field trip to wonderland. I ended up loving it, but I asked if she finds a lot of students are only in these ensembles because of this yearly trip. Miss Jackson does know that this is a perk that definitely gets some students to join the group but what she cares about is if they make friends and enjoy the music making. As long as they can find a place in music is what matters because everyone should find somewhere to be included and the music groups at WID are a great place for that. She thinks that they are important because it allows the students that want to go farther with music in a way that she cannot expand on learning in classes. Everyone in classes is at completely different stage in their learning but ensembles allow harder repertoire because it is voluntary and unmarked.
A question that I did not prepare but became curious about was I wanted to know if the students in classes who had to be there for requirement distracted the people who wanted to be there and learn more music. She said that it depends on how many student there are that enjoy being there and how many student do not. Most of the time she is able to focus the class and maintain an environment where the students who want to learn more about music can do so.
Moving on to a slightly different topic area I asked Miss Jackson about her own schooling before becoming a teacher. She originally attended McMaster for phycology as her major always knowing she wanted to work with kids but changed her mind a few months in. She auditioned on trumpet and lined up her classes and switched her major to music going into second year. When she went to teachers college she took a variety and she also mentioned that the method classes on brass, strings and etc helps her as a teacher now.
When Miss Jackson became a music teacher she wanted to create a big focus on being involved through the extracurricular activities that she could orchestrate. From being a music teacher she hopes to instill passion on her students. When she started at WID she just wanted to do all she could do to get people involved. I happened to be her student in the first year she began teaching and she orchestrated many events such as the wonderland trip where we played, playing at a hockey game and also playing at a retirement community. Everything and anywhere where they could be musically involved, showing her students how music can play a role in your life and your community.
I was curious to find out how her own playing as a musician was affected when she became a full time music teacher at a public school. She said that if anything, she might actually being playing more frequently. Sometimes random instruments for different classes but just playing less of say trumpet for example which used to be her principle instrument. She is playing and building on all her other instrumental abilities but maybe she would consider herself not just a trumpet player anymore but more a general musician.
I then asked if anything felt redundant from what she learned through her degree at McMaster. She said that she has used a lot of the degree itself, a lot of the knowledge and information. There is a lot more to music then just learning an instrument and playing, but everything is not for everybody and music is no different. The answer to this question would probably depend on the individual asked and there personal experience. To expand further I asked if she felt anything was missing from her music education degree that she wished she learned before becoming a teacher. She said wish she learned more about conducting, it was never a course that she took in university. She wishes that it was a course that she took, maybe it should be more of a requirement for those who are moving onto teaching because she finds it would have been extremely useful. Even as a performer, an understanding of conducting she finds would be beneficial to music students.
Overall, this interview was a very interesting experience and I found that all of the questions I had prepared brought interesting answers which will be useful for further analysis in the future.
Interview and synopsis by Jessalyn Shein
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