Module 8 Reflection Post: Course Applications to Your Teaching

• How will what you have learned in this course about philosophy and aesthetics affect your teaching in the future?

I think that this course had really opened my eyes into child development. I never really considered aspects such as conformity being such a big deal for children, but after reading about it in the text I've started to become more aware. For the future, I'm planning on making some of my listening activities more centered on individual opinions, where I ask students to write or draw rather than verbally share aloud. I've noticed that once I ask students to share if one student says something and I comment on it then I suddenly have 15 more students with a similar reaction.

• How will what was covered in the parts on sociology, social psychology, or psychology affect your teaching in the future?

It's so interesting to find out how cultures can really affect a student. I'm glad this course came up this year for me because my district has been providing my school with training on ESL students. What we often forget is that when we ask students to do something, it might actually be disrespectful or not customary in certain cultures. For example, I always offer solo opportunities (through singing and playing) to all of my students. But I've noticed that my students from latino cultures often refuse. After going through the training and doing some of the readings in the book, I've concluded that this might be something that is culturally frowned upon. Instead, I plan to work harder to making all students feel comfortable and not singled out. 

• Choose any one of the previous seven units in the course, and explain how what you have learned will affect your teaching in the future.

As if you couldn't tell from my previous answers, my biggest take away comes from module 6 "The Social Psychological Foundations." I find the impact of society and culture on our students fascinating. I'm slowly becoming more aware of students' cultures and how exposed they are to different things based on their taste in music. A common trend in students who come from lower SES families is that they have rarely heard art music before. I'm working on expanding students musical knowledge and using the variety of cultures in my district to expose students to different types of world music.