Differentiated Instruction, Multimodal, Emotional Intelligence, Multiple Intelligence are all theories that I learned in that early fall class called Foundations of Practice. These were the same theories that circled my head as I headed into my first practicum. I tried to the best of my ability to incorporate them into my lesson, but they were still very foreign to me. This was the case for my teaching philosophy as well. I wanted to be student-directed with a bit of authoritative. What does that exactly mean when put into practice? That is what I was trying to figure out.
The bell just concluded as my grade ¾ drama class rushed into the music room. This was my third class with these students. I was excited about the progress they had made so far with their theatre vocabulary and improv skills. The class started out well we started with our review of our class “class to order” cues and warm-up circle. It was then that when one of my most excited students started to the class that he no longer wished to participate. Faced with this dilemma I had two choices force him to participate or let him make his decision. I informed him that if he chose to step out of this activity he was welcomed to however he would not be able to join later on because he would not have the tools to participate. He chose to step out. He quietly observed the rest of the class from this sidelines.
In the final activity as students when students were working on their animal story ending the room became beyond chaotic. Since the normal call to order voice and movements were not working and there were 27 of them and only one of me I decided to sit on the floor quietly in the middle of the room. Slowly a couple of students noticed and sat down mimicking my body language. This continued until everyone was sitting on the ground, quietly staring at me. This is when I realized that my students were tired. Tired of being labelled the bad class, tired of being yelled at and tired of being punished because of one. My quiet sitting protest called them to a place of calm faster than me calling over the class had ever done.
This class to me was clarifying, I was no longer dazed and confused over what path I needed to take. Instead, I decided I would listen to what my students were telling me verbally and non-verbally. That is how I plan to take those philosophies into my practice.
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