Student Work Examples
My proudest moments as a teacher come when I reflect upon where my students' abilities began at the beginning of the class, and where they have progressed to at the end. Below are a few examples of projects and performances that students completed during my tenure as a student teacher at Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) and Brattleboro Area Middle School (BAMS).
Digital Music
Digital Music was designed by BAMS instrumental music teacher Tom Nasiatka as an alternative to the stereotypical general music class. Students followed specific guidelines posted onto a class Wiki page to create different types of digital audio projects on their assigned classroom laptops.
For this particular project, the Poetry Podcast project, students used the audio composition software, Mixcraft, to create podcasts consisting of audio loops and recordings of their own voices.
Each student used Mixcraft to record themselves reciting the poem "Where the Sidewalk Ends", by Shel Silverstein, then followed my directions on the Wiki page to compose the backing music.
Upon completion, each student created a page for his or her project and posted it to the Wiki. This allowed for me to listen to their projects online, and assess their projects using the rubric posted on the bottom of the project's Wiki page.
Click here to view the Wiki page for my Poetry Podcast project.
Click here to view a student's project page and listen to his completed project.
Click here to view another student's page and listen to her completed project.
For this particular project, the Poetry Podcast project, students used the audio composition software, Mixcraft, to create podcasts consisting of audio loops and recordings of their own voices.
Each student used Mixcraft to record themselves reciting the poem "Where the Sidewalk Ends", by Shel Silverstein, then followed my directions on the Wiki page to compose the backing music.
Upon completion, each student created a page for his or her project and posted it to the Wiki. This allowed for me to listen to their projects online, and assess their projects using the rubric posted on the bottom of the project's Wiki page.
Click here to view the Wiki page for my Poetry Podcast project.
Click here to view a student's project page and listen to his completed project.
Click here to view another student's page and listen to her completed project.
Concert Band
Perhaps the most traditional of musical education scenarios, the concert band featured students of all grade levels performing varied repertoire on a variety of instruments. Proper posture, breathing, and playing technique is encouraged and expected by the director. Enhanced performance & listening skills and cooperative participation within the ensemble are cultivated from the day of the first rehearsal, right up until the night of the concert. Fundamental elements are introduced and built upon as the rehearsal process progresses. The focus of each rehearsal systematically shifts through rhythm, pitches, dynamics, articulation, balance, and tempo, until the ensemble can unify and apply all aspects of good musical performance.
Below is a clip of an early rehearsal of the BAMS White Day concert band. The focus of the rehearsal was rhythmic accuracy As this was from one of the first rehearsals of the piece, Rob Grice's Above the World, the music was still very new to the students.
Below is a clip of an early rehearsal of the BAMS White Day concert band. The focus of the rehearsal was rhythmic accuracy As this was from one of the first rehearsals of the piece, Rob Grice's Above the World, the music was still very new to the students.
Now enjoy a clip of the final product: Rob Grice's Above the World from the BAMS Fall Concert on November 29th, 2012, after two and a half months of rehearsals.
At Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS), rehearsals followed a similar format. Below are two examples of the high school students' work from the BUHS Fall Concert on November 14th, 2012: the BUHS Concert Band playing John Klohr's The Billboard, and the BUHS Jazz Band playing Bobby Timmons's Dat Dere.