Influential Teacher Interview
For my influential teacher interview, I chose to interview one of the people who influenced me the most to be here at Western today, one of my high school music teachers Ms. Van Voorst. She has been my music teacher for all four years of my high school career. Ms. V’s approachability and passion for music in combination with her prioritization for student engagement and success were only some of the traits which had influenced me to excel beyond what I thought I was capable of in and outside the music room. While trying to map out what I wanted to take in university and what to do with my future, I couldn’t help but use Ms. V as a success model; her passion and content were always evident, whether she was conducting our band during a national competition or answering a quick question after class.
Throughout the interview with Ms. V, I noticed some recurring motives. First of all, she upholds the importance of interesting and engaging her students throughout many responses in the interview. She does this because she believes if the teacher can’t make the topic they are teaching relevant to the individual student, that is risking potentially stifling that topic as an area of interest for that student for the rest of their life! Above all else during the interview, what I received most was her teaching philosophy of not accepting the status quo- to look further and deeper than what is given and to think critically, regardless of the topic. As a teacher, she idealizes being able to interest and engage her students so that they go on to continue the learning process and inquire beyond the classroom- not to just simply teach them a finite piece of information. She highlights the importance of doing this through connecting with and respecting her students; which to her comes easy because in her eyes, every student is a valuable member of the classroom or “community” as she put it, as everyone has something to contribute. To Ms. V, students are a part of her classroom not only to learn, but to contribute and teach others. Ms. V believes that having a good report with a student = that student having good academic success, which ties in to one of her goals she set as a teacher, which is being able to “find a balance between the structure to succeed or stifle” one’s learning. Over all, what I received from my interview with her was the importance she puts on “sparking the fire” in each of her students so that they can graduate from her classroom and still continue to learn, regardless of what the topic may be.
Interview Questions and General Responses:
What do you think about teaching?
- Love it because
- I am able to inspire the next generation and share my passion for what I teach
- Blessed with the opportunity and position where you are respected enough to teach and influence others
-To shape young minds
Why is the next generation important to you?
- If the teacher can’t make the topic relevant, that can stifle that topic for a student for the rest of their life
- Important to interest and engage students
- Able to teach more than just the subject; i.e. Cross-curricular
- Inspire students to continue learning more; critical thinking
Do you have any personal philosophies/ reasons for teaching? If so, what are they/ it?
- Always wanted to teach and share love for what I teach (music, history and civics)
- To not accept the status quo
- Finding patterns and looking beyond what’s given
- Community; sharing knowledge
- Working together; everybody has something to contribute
- Challenge of finding everyone’s strength
- Lighting the spark of interest
What are your goals?
- To “spark the fire” and to not distinguish a “flame” they may already have
- Finding a balance between the structure to succeed or to stifle one’s success
In your opinion, what are the best parts of being a teacher?
- To see the difference you can make
- To see the “lightbulb moments” *most rewarding part
- To see engagement, interest and curiosity
- To get interests happening and to continue having students take interest
- *Teaching is about the textbook/ curriculum yet it isn’t; encouraged to learn off/ around topics
In your opinion, what are the most challenging parts of being a teacher?
- Motivating students to find/ want success
- Students that academically don’t care
- Can’t seem to engage
- Finding a way to connect and get them interested
- To not let them give up
- Feeling you care more about a student’s education than they do
* Students who don’t do well in music class generally can do well, but don’t want to
How do you try and get students more engaged?
- Change delivery method
- Get students to teach it to you
- Talk to partner/ other students
- Handout versus presentation
- Talk one on one with the student and show you care about their education
You often mention connecting with your students. Do you find this important? If so, why?
- Having a good report with a student = that student having good academic success
- Comes with respect- that they are valuable members of the classroom/ community
- Everyone has something to contribute
- You get what you give; teaching is a reciprocal process
Have your ideas of creativity changed since you’ve started teaching? If so, how?
- Yes
- Post-secondary education tended to give a narrow perspective/ definition (Westernized)
- Students have caused me to expand my ideas of what “good music” is/ might be
- When being asked to create something, what we think is “good” is generally from what we’ve simply already been exposed to regularly
- If something isn’t deemed good, why is it seemingly not correct?
- Why can’t it be a good interpretation?
- What is “good music”?
Should “good” music be what is already considered “good”?
- From a music psychologist perspective: yes; familiar = good
- From new age music perspective: not necessarily; the challenge is to expand how we create
- New = unfamiliar, however unfamiliar doesn’t always equal bad
- I think the goal is to find the happy medium between familiar and unfamiliar
Throughout the interview with Ms. V, I noticed some recurring motives. First of all, she upholds the importance of interesting and engaging her students throughout many responses in the interview. She does this because she believes if the teacher can’t make the topic they are teaching relevant to the individual student, that is risking potentially stifling that topic as an area of interest for that student for the rest of their life! Above all else during the interview, what I received most was her teaching philosophy of not accepting the status quo- to look further and deeper than what is given and to think critically, regardless of the topic. As a teacher, she idealizes being able to interest and engage her students so that they go on to continue the learning process and inquire beyond the classroom- not to just simply teach them a finite piece of information. She highlights the importance of doing this through connecting with and respecting her students; which to her comes easy because in her eyes, every student is a valuable member of the classroom or “community” as she put it, as everyone has something to contribute. To Ms. V, students are a part of her classroom not only to learn, but to contribute and teach others. Ms. V believes that having a good report with a student = that student having good academic success, which ties in to one of her goals she set as a teacher, which is being able to “find a balance between the structure to succeed or stifle” one’s learning. Over all, what I received from my interview with her was the importance she puts on “sparking the fire” in each of her students so that they can graduate from her classroom and still continue to learn, regardless of what the topic may be.
Interview Questions and General Responses:
What do you think about teaching?
- Love it because
- I am able to inspire the next generation and share my passion for what I teach
- Blessed with the opportunity and position where you are respected enough to teach and influence others
-To shape young minds
Why is the next generation important to you?
- If the teacher can’t make the topic relevant, that can stifle that topic for a student for the rest of their life
- Important to interest and engage students
- Able to teach more than just the subject; i.e. Cross-curricular
- Inspire students to continue learning more; critical thinking
Do you have any personal philosophies/ reasons for teaching? If so, what are they/ it?
- Always wanted to teach and share love for what I teach (music, history and civics)
- To not accept the status quo
- Finding patterns and looking beyond what’s given
- Community; sharing knowledge
- Working together; everybody has something to contribute
- Challenge of finding everyone’s strength
- Lighting the spark of interest
What are your goals?
- To “spark the fire” and to not distinguish a “flame” they may already have
- Finding a balance between the structure to succeed or to stifle one’s success
In your opinion, what are the best parts of being a teacher?
- To see the difference you can make
- To see the “lightbulb moments” *most rewarding part
- To see engagement, interest and curiosity
- To get interests happening and to continue having students take interest
- *Teaching is about the textbook/ curriculum yet it isn’t; encouraged to learn off/ around topics
In your opinion, what are the most challenging parts of being a teacher?
- Motivating students to find/ want success
- Students that academically don’t care
- Can’t seem to engage
- Finding a way to connect and get them interested
- To not let them give up
- Feeling you care more about a student’s education than they do
* Students who don’t do well in music class generally can do well, but don’t want to
How do you try and get students more engaged?
- Change delivery method
- Get students to teach it to you
- Talk to partner/ other students
- Handout versus presentation
- Talk one on one with the student and show you care about their education
You often mention connecting with your students. Do you find this important? If so, why?
- Having a good report with a student = that student having good academic success
- Comes with respect- that they are valuable members of the classroom/ community
- Everyone has something to contribute
- You get what you give; teaching is a reciprocal process
Have your ideas of creativity changed since you’ve started teaching? If so, how?
- Yes
- Post-secondary education tended to give a narrow perspective/ definition (Westernized)
- Students have caused me to expand my ideas of what “good music” is/ might be
- When being asked to create something, what we think is “good” is generally from what we’ve simply already been exposed to regularly
- If something isn’t deemed good, why is it seemingly not correct?
- Why can’t it be a good interpretation?
- What is “good music”?
Should “good” music be what is already considered “good”?
- From a music psychologist perspective: yes; familiar = good
- From new age music perspective: not necessarily; the challenge is to expand how we create
- New = unfamiliar, however unfamiliar doesn’t always equal bad
- I think the goal is to find the happy medium between familiar and unfamiliar
teacher_interview_powerpoint.pptx |
Student Interview(s)
Student Interview(s)
Throughout the past few weeks I have conducted a series of interviews in regards to music education- two of which were with students named Hailey and Vanessa, and the third interview was with an influential teacher in my life, one of my high school music teachers Ms. V. As I reviewed the interviews, I noticed many similar as well as some contrasting views in regards to their music education experiences.
First I conducted my influential teacher interview, which I found suiting in that it laid out some themes of music education pedagogy to look for when conducting my student interviews. Below are some of the views which I found both the students and the teacher shared. Ms. V frequently highlighted the importance of interest and engagement in her students and its role in making the subject that is being taught relevant to the individual student. Ms. V finds this an important teaching trait because she says that if a student is not interested, that is risking stifling that subject as an area of interest for the rest of that student’s life! Going on to interview Hailey, when I asked her why she chose not to participate in her elementary school’s band program, she mentioned that she wasn’t interested in learning a musical instrument. When I inquired further and asked if there was anything that did or didn’t happen during her music class that influenced her not to take band, she said that the students were not very well supervised, the class was overall quite unproductive and practically had to teach themselves the notes for their instrument, and she didn’t enjoy learning in that way. In addition, when I asked what made her high school music experience more enjoyable than elementary, she said that when I had introduced her to the tenor saxophone the first day of music class in her grade 9 year, that positively influenced her interest in learning instruments and she currently enjoys learning the saxophone to this day! Furthermore, when interviewing Vanessa, one of the things she said was that one’s opinion toward any subject will develop and change based on what you learn, who teaches you, and how you’re taught. Another view which I found Ms. V and Vanessa both shared was that having a good student-teacher rapport = academic success in the student. While Ms. V upheld the importance of this, Vanessa exemplified its validity as she explained her reasoning behind her “amazing elementary band experience” being her great band teachers. When I asked why she thought they were great, one of the reasons she replied with was that they were very engaging and easy to connect with!
Finally, one contrasting view I noticed between Ms. V and Hailey was ironically one I also noticed them agree upon. The idea that if a student is not initially engaged and is unable to find the relevance in a subject area will result in the student no longer being interested in that subject for the rest of their life, did not apply to Hailey. Regardless of the fact that she was quite obviously unengaged and unable to find the relevance of using a musical instrument in elementary school, once she was reintroduced to these subjects and reintegrated into a new music education program, she has been able to see aspects of music that didn’t seem to be there for her before and is thriving more than ever in the music education stream.
First I conducted my influential teacher interview, which I found suiting in that it laid out some themes of music education pedagogy to look for when conducting my student interviews. Below are some of the views which I found both the students and the teacher shared. Ms. V frequently highlighted the importance of interest and engagement in her students and its role in making the subject that is being taught relevant to the individual student. Ms. V finds this an important teaching trait because she says that if a student is not interested, that is risking stifling that subject as an area of interest for the rest of that student’s life! Going on to interview Hailey, when I asked her why she chose not to participate in her elementary school’s band program, she mentioned that she wasn’t interested in learning a musical instrument. When I inquired further and asked if there was anything that did or didn’t happen during her music class that influenced her not to take band, she said that the students were not very well supervised, the class was overall quite unproductive and practically had to teach themselves the notes for their instrument, and she didn’t enjoy learning in that way. In addition, when I asked what made her high school music experience more enjoyable than elementary, she said that when I had introduced her to the tenor saxophone the first day of music class in her grade 9 year, that positively influenced her interest in learning instruments and she currently enjoys learning the saxophone to this day! Furthermore, when interviewing Vanessa, one of the things she said was that one’s opinion toward any subject will develop and change based on what you learn, who teaches you, and how you’re taught. Another view which I found Ms. V and Vanessa both shared was that having a good student-teacher rapport = academic success in the student. While Ms. V upheld the importance of this, Vanessa exemplified its validity as she explained her reasoning behind her “amazing elementary band experience” being her great band teachers. When I asked why she thought they were great, one of the reasons she replied with was that they were very engaging and easy to connect with!
Finally, one contrasting view I noticed between Ms. V and Hailey was ironically one I also noticed them agree upon. The idea that if a student is not initially engaged and is unable to find the relevance in a subject area will result in the student no longer being interested in that subject for the rest of their life, did not apply to Hailey. Regardless of the fact that she was quite obviously unengaged and unable to find the relevance of using a musical instrument in elementary school, once she was reintroduced to these subjects and reintegrated into a new music education program, she has been able to see aspects of music that didn’t seem to be there for her before and is thriving more than ever in the music education stream.