Learning Experience at high school Part 2

By the end of the week the teachers were letting me take small ensemble groups to other rooms to teach them their music. I thought this was AMAZING! There is no better learning than hands on learning. I realized how horrible I am at standing and playing the piano. Teachers at Luther had never even talked about this as a technique. I found myself stuck behind the piano seated and I could not see what the students were doing. I also realized that is super important to be able to play more than one part on the piano. Especially for the freshman groups. I learned that it takes a lot of practice to know how quickly to move and I need to improve in this area. It was so difficult to tell if they were getting the material and I also struggled when a couple were able to read it easily and I didnt want to leave the others in the dust. I think this will be a challenge for me that will just take some practice and getting used to.
I really enjoyed that the part time teacher was spending time teaching his freshman boys sightreading. They were expected to bring their sightreading packets to each class and singing through some melodies had become part of the everyday warmup procedure. I really hope that I can make time to incorporate this in my classroom, I think it is a step that is so often overlooked and skipped in order to save time to prepare for concerts. Teachers sometimes forget that students learn music faster if they have practiced sightreading. I really enjoyed the second half of the week, especially because I became more comfortable with the students and vice versa.