Who+Am+I+As+a+teacher?

Who am I as a teacher?  Kevin Lee, January 27, 2009

As a Teacher, I have to look at several perspectives, from the view point of my students, as a colleague and myself as a teacher. Of course, I will be assuming some of these views but I believe my students enjoying having me as a teacher. I am currently teaching elementary students but have taught high school music for 13 years. As a high school teacher in my subject area, I will frequently have the same students for a period of 5 years. Over a 5 year time period, we are able to create a relationship that teachers in other subject areas may not be able to achieve. Students often tell me how much they enjoy taking band class and that they enjoying having me as a teacher. Former students frequently visit me to chat and get me caught up in their lives. I have managed to create a fairly “open” relationship with my students where we show respect and share with each other. An interesting comment came up at one time during a band trip. A student asked me why I was so different from other teachers. I asked him what he meant by his comment and he simply stated because I “talk and listen” with all of the students. I have always tried to establish a relationship of trust with my students. I want my students to trust that I will help each student, as well as the entire class, achieve our goals of education and demonstrate learning with successful performance. I want my students to be receptive of my teaching approaches and have them be willing participants as we make a journey down a path in making music together. I need to have their trust and respect in order to accomplish what I want to do.

I am not always aware of some of the “extra” things I do for my students but several former students have discussed this with me. Several have thanked me for what I meant to them and for going out of my way to always help and support their life goals. They saw me as making sure they were successful at anything they aspired to do in life. One former student sent me the following statement that was submitted with his application to a faculty of education program in Ontario. // "Mr. Lee was my band conductor. Learning from him was a great treat. Experiencing Mr. Lee as a teacher allowed me to observe the qualities of a great educator. Throughout the years, he demonstrated a lot of personal effort to inspire students in every possible way. Mr. Lee set high expectations on all of us pushed us to improve with a clear goal. He took time to observe and understand our individual strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, with proper communication, he helped each individual to understand where they could improve. After every performance, the success of the students really brought pride and joy to Mr. Lee. I realized that knowing the material thoroughly is not enough to be qualified as a good teacher, being enthusiastic and passionate about ones teaching plays an extremely important role as well." //   I have been reminded of the little things I did for students and I have found that those little things became very important memories for some former students. When I hear comments such as these, I feel my rewards are very rich and I have made a small difference in somebody’s life journey. As a colleague, I believe that I am respected amongst other music educators and seen as somebody that has the student’s best interest at heart. I am willing to share ideas that work for me in my classes. Most schools will only have one music teacher and music teachers rarely have an opportunity to share with each other. Music teachers usually work in isolation and use different teaching approaches from other teachers because of the nature of our subject area. I have kept a large amount of teaching resources and am always seeking new resources from others. I feel sharing my resources with my colleagues is a way I can not only help my colleagues but also help their students. The sharing becomes a reciprocal relationship that becomes a win-win situation for students and the music educator. As a teacher, I think I am knowledgeable about my subject area and have a passion about what music can bring to a person’s life. Music has had a very positive effect on my life and help my personal growth as a student. I have lived as a musician most of my life and as a teacher, I am simply sharing knowledge about what I have learned and experienced as a musician with my students. I believe that music is capable of bringing out positive features in a person’s life which will help to enrich a person’s life. As a teacher, I use music as my tool to teach life skills and help students become successful and reach any goal they chose to set for their lives. I am a teacher that wants to understand who it is that I am teaching and how I can help them develop as a contributing member of society.