This blog combines best practices and reflections I have learned in my college education classes, as well as incorporating my research on the largest stakeholder in education, the students, and why they deserve to have a voice in their education.
For the 2016 Spring Semester, I have had the genuine privilege of not only working with an ELL student, but I have had the opportunity to grow with him as well. The student I tutored (for purposes of privacy, he will be referred to as, Walter), has only been in America for 8 months, but amount of sincere effort and passion he places into his academics is unprecedented, and truly admirable. As I have discussed in my attached case study, Walter has experienced serious trauma this semester, and my fellow tutor and I have worked closely with him to ensure that his well being is intact, as well providing him with the opportunities to cope and take time to take a step back from academics to find hobbies that bring him happiness (such as music). I have maintained regular contact with his ELL Instructor throughout the semester to report on Walter’s progress, and how he seems to be doing (in terms of well being). The ELL instructor has also provided me with valuable information in order for me to better engage him academically (his favorite subjects, or favorite movies for example). Growing with Walter is an experience I will never forget, and this experiences has validated my passion to be an educator.
In addition to the Case Study, I have also provided resources that pertain to Walter. I have attached a Developmental Matrix, which showcases some of various forms of adolescent development and how they have applied to my personal experiences, as well as to general experiences. For my Adolescent Development Course, I also constructed a lesson plan that I had the opportunity to teach to my fellow peers. My lesson plan also includes elements of scaffolding to ensure that all the various needs of the students are being properly met.
This experience of taking Adolescent Development has made me grow exponentially as a person, and as a future educator, I feel significantly closer to the information I need to know and implement throughout my future career. Being a tutor for an ELL student has been a rewarding and humbling experience in which I worked to impart Walter with the desire to learn more, and discover personal interests and aspirations, and I would gladly do this all again in a heartbeat.
Outside of education, my biggest passion in life is making music. For me, music is the greatest equalizer there is, because it does not matter what your gender, race, is, or what language you speak, because when musicians are in the same room, the universal language of music is being spoken and performed. Music has been something I hold so dearly, because it allows me to vent, it allows me to find inner peace, it makes me smile, and it makes me think. As with many forms of art, music can be passed off merely as a form of expression and not a “valid or lucrative field of study.”
One of the greatest conflicts I have in my life is trying to balance my passion for education and my passion for music. Up until recently, I have thought of these passions as mutually exclusive with no possibility of aligning with each other (outside of instruction of an instrument, or having concert band). Lately I have been thinking about my experience in Marching Band, and some of the best lessons I have learned in life have come from our band’s drum instructor, Mr. Jamison.
Our Performance of "Open Seas" in 2012
Lifelong Lessons
Mr. Jamison is a man that was constantly able to pull the best performance out of every single student consistently. He raised the bar so high, not because he wanted to break us or demoralize us, but he truly believed that we had something in us, a talent, that we couldn’t see in ourselves. One of the best lessons that he taught me is that no matter what I end up doing, I can always carry music with me, whether I were to choose a path in music, or that I become an educator, there is always the option of keeping music close to my heart. That is something I have been contemplating a lot recently, and I can’t get that lesson out of my head. During this semester I have worked on making my first official album as a musician and the positives and detriments that come with putting my time into a passion project during a rigorous academic semester. While I had been working on this album, two thoughts came to mind: the first being that Mr. Jamison not only gave me reassuring advice, but he gave me the truth. I was nervous that I would lose one of the things that make me most happy in college, playing and making music. Thankfully, I have had the privilege of performing in three bands on campus as a drummer, and I have also had the time to make an album in which I could create music beyond my comfort zone of drumming. The second thought I had is that college, and education in general, is about exploration and stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and that is something I constantly tried to accomplish while making my album (Existential Happiness).
Time Management & the Process of Song-Making
The biggest lesson I learned when balancing music and academics is time management. It is so incredibly easy to have four hours go by in an instant when you are working on something you are putting your full, undivided attention into. When I start from scratch, I see an empty template in which there is a solution, either like a puzzle or an equation. I break down the components I need in a certain song, whether that is the instruments, the mood I want, or the samples I may choose. I now have multiple concepts, but they are not necessarily in the places they need to be in order for this song to be “solved.” The idea of a song being solved is when I am able (from my perspective) to place the elements of the song I want into the places where I think they need to be, and this process involves serious tweaking and attention to detail. This component also is impossible to do incrementally for me, because I constantly feel like I am on the brink of solving the problem, or the song. If I stop, I fear that I might lose the process of spontaneity and creativity. The hardest part of making a song is thinking where one wants to start, because it is the least creative part of song making, because you aren’t necessarily allowing yourself to be spontaneous, this is a very premeditated part of music making, and doesn’t allow for the stream of consciousness to flow as much. The issue here is that on any given night, I typically have five-seven hours of homework to complete, as well as trying to sleep, go to the gym, and see my friends. Being able to balance all of these aspects was near impossible for me, but I learned to let go of the song by a certain time. If I wasn’t done with a song by a certain time in the night, I would breathe, and stop. When I came back to the song the next night, I would remind myself what key it is in, and I would allow myself to improvise from there (I refuse to keep in my head what ideas I should put into my song next, because there is a disparity between a sound in my head, and how it actually sounds on a particular instrument). Time management is the greatest virtue of all.
This semester, I worked on a song entitled, “Cape Cod Heroine.” This song pertained to the heroin epidemic that has plagued my hometown. I wanted to do something in order to advocate for better treatment facilities on Cape (since we do not have long term rehabilitation clinics) and also the dangers of heroin. I acknowledge the fact that I can’t sing, but I solved this problem by finding pieces of a documentary and constructing a narrative with a melody behind it in order to intentionally set a mood, and create an environment in which the listener is able to engage their self with the material, or the song in this case. As a future educator, the quintessential aspect of teaching is engaging students with the material, as a musician, the goal is quite similar. I want to immerse the listener and make them think, while also enjoying the melodies. A lot of conventional songwriting will be delivered in a processed format (intro, verse, chorus, refrain etc…) and that might be a wholesale approach towards sending a message or an idea out to people, but this is not necessarily the most engaging way of doing so. I wanted to avoid the standard format, because I believe that trying something different catches the listener’s attention much more. I have provided below a link to my artist page (Uncle Ephrum) and the song I made (Cape Cod Heroine).
