Inquiry Project

Inquiry Project Part One: Preparing for Your TAB Experience 

I chose TAB for the experience of a lifetime. I knew that traveling to another country unlike my own would offer the most abundant experience I could find in learning how to be a better teacher. I believe that gaining experience by entering a new environment and meeting new people is the best way to learn new methods and experience new ways of doing anything.

I knew that I wanted to travel to Maui because I have been there before. My parents own a condominium in Kihei, so I have traveled and stayed here once a year with my family since 2007. I met a substitute teacher here in 2008, and when the opportunity for TAB came along, I asked him for schools that might take me. He kindly gave me a few principal names, and I emailed one of them who worked at a nearby middle school, Lokelani Intermediate. Graciously, they accepted me into their school and asked me to visit that summer when I would be there on vacation. I happily accepted and so in August 2011 I visited Lokelani and met the principal, Donna Whitford, and the music teacher who would be my future partner teacher, Allen Arakawa. 

 Here I am beside the Lokelani Intermediate School sign in the front parking lot.

Culture

I have been to Maui before, and while I love the weather and the relaxation, the people have truly inspired me to participate in the schools. I wanted to see what it was like to grow up in Hawaii, the vacation destination. So far, what I see makes sense. While one would predict that the culture might be viewed as “lazy” due to the “laidback-ness” of the island, I have come to realize that the locals here actually move slower, but in a positive way. These people are not rushed and stressed from day to day. They tell me that they know people from the mainland because the mainland people will be rushing, walking at a fast pace, or honking their horn in traffic. My teacher pointed this out to me while we were walking in the supermarket. I noticed that I naturally sped ahead of him when we were walking, and he explained to me how he could tell the locals from the tourists, just from the pace that they move. I thought this was very interesting and I admired the way he didn’t rush things. It’s important to take one step at a time and enjoy our time, almost in a meditative way. Otherwise, we won’t recall the journey of our lives, only our mind’s ever-searching destination.

The “vacation” destination



When I first told others that I was going to Maui to student teach, the reaction I received was one of disbelief. I received the reaction that it wasn't possible to learn new things in a culture where people go to vacation. The image that came to mind was the beach, the relaxing vacationers, the easy life, and that it was too similar to Canada to be considered culturally different where one could learn something new.

What they do not see is how the locals live here. I've seen that the economy is low now. My teacher, Mr. Arakawa tells me that this has brought the students back down to earth; therefore, they behave differently in the classroom. The students are similar to Canadian students in ways but different in other ways. Some of them speak “Pidgin English” (broken English) and some speak their parent's language at home, and English at school. The island has a slow pace to it. Time is not of the essence. Instead, I am witnessing locals taking the time to enjoy the process, and taking time to recognize each other on the street. The music and non-music students like to carry around their ukulele with them around the school as a status symbol. Ukulele has become a big fad here among the children. Also, the Hawaiian language is seen and heard around the island. Aloha is practiced in the schools, and companies use the notion of Aloha to promote their products, for example, "the spirit of Aloha".

Low budget for the school makes for broken instruments – my first visit at Lokelani

Food

Taro root was the staple food for Native Hawaiians. It’s a root that grows in the ground like a potato. This purple starch can be made into “poi”. Poi is mashed up cooked taro root, served at luaus today.

 

 Taro Root Fields – the Staple crop for Hawaiians 

Also, “Kalua Pig” is a big food in Hawaii. “Kalua” means “to cook in an underground oven”, and this is how the Pig is cooked at luau feasts. A pit is dug; a fire is burnt in this pit. Once the rocks under the pit are hot, a pig wrapped in banana leaves and “ti” leaves to retain its natural moisture, is placed into the pit and covered by more banana leaves, burlap sacks, and rocks. The pig is cooked all day to create tender, juicy meat that is then shredded and featured at Luaus.

The Kalua Pig just cooked at a Luau

Language - Hawaiian and Pidgin

The Hawaiians have an authentic Hawaiian language that is not commonly used by most of the people on the island. Before Captain Cook arrived, the Native Hawaiians had this unwritten language. All the road signs have Hawaiian names. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, and W. The words use a lot of the vowel sounds, and always end in a vowel. Ex.) Aloha, Mahalo, Mana, and Ohana. I find the language has a wholesome spirit to it, the vowel sounds add a softness that somehow emphasizes the warmth of the language.

Aloha means love, but it also means hello and goodbye. It has a large significance in Hawaiian culture. Aloha is spoken of as a certain character, a mutual respect for others, and as a way of life. In the Lokelani school band room I read an anti-bullying sign: "Aloha Practiced Here". I see Aloha in the people who live on the island and also in the way they treat each other. It's culturally known as acceptance, openness, and love.

History of Diversity

Hawaii has been called “the melting pot” of the Pacific Ocean. The majority of the people living here now are mixed, so this helps the various cultures to accept other cultures. In the 1800’s, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Polynesians, and Caucasians immigrated to the islands. This was the port where the ships could sail to stay to rest because it is right in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. The sugarcane plant came from the Polynesian settlers, and technology for making sugar came from China. In the 1900’s when sugar became the main source of income, the Native Hawaiians didn’t want to work because they were able to just grow and sell their taro root to support themselves. People around the world came to realize that Hawaii was the place to go to make money and live instead of living in their home country on the mainland, working long and hard hours. Though this was the case, people were surprised when they finally came. They found that the only way to make a living was to work long hours in the sugar fields. Only men would come to work in the sugar cane fields for up to 14 hours a day. Language was a problem because when the Chinese came they couldn’t speak to the Japanese. Likewise, the Japanese couldn’t speak Chinese. Foremen from Portugal called “Lunas” were in charge of the labourers. They realized that they could not communicate with the workers. There was a lot of translating that had to be done to speak to the workers. A broken English called “Pigeon English” was formed. Words like “Howzit” (how are you doing) and “Da kine” meaning, “the kind”. The “shaka” sign made with the hand extending the thumb and pinky and literally means “Hello” or “Aloha”.

Immigrant workers who spoke different languages formed the language of “Pidgin”

The men had all these plantation camps and yet they were unhappy because they were lonely. To solve this, women from China, Japan and the Philippines would take pictures of themselves and the men would be sent these pictures, and then pick and choose which woman they would marry. These were called “picture brides.” More immigrants came, married, and settled in Hawaii to raise families.

In the 1950’s even more immigrants of Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, and Mexican came to settle. Today, the main source of income for the islands is the tourism. A lot of tourists who come are Canadian and Australia, as these countries are doing well now, and most people have the luxury to travel.

In the classroom, there are a wide variety of cultures. Most of the students have mixed backgrounds of culture, like myself. This makes for a safer classroom environment, as my partner teacher put it, there is no racism. The students all understand that everyone comes from somewhere different and so everyone is more accepting towards others.

A classroom full of mixed backgrounds makes for a “melting pot” of a classroom. Grade Eight Band Class.

Art, Dance and Music

The art of hula was a sacred tradition of the Native Hawaiians used for rituals and ceremonies. Unfortunately, the dance has been transformed over time into a form of entertainment. Authentic Hawaiians believe that gods and goddesses danced the ancient hula, and therefore the dance is sacred and religious. Every movement in the hula represents something – the ocean, the sun, the moon, love, and the hands usually form moving shapes of the images. Therefore, the movements tell a story. The hula dancer must become one with all the movements. Lokelani School offers a hula class. I was lucky enough to see a group of girls dance a hula during a music period while the rest of the class played the ukulele. The students danced together and moved their bodies as one to tell the story. It is a very calming and graceful experience.

Hula dancers 

The Portuguese labourers brought the ukulele to Hawaii in 1879. This distinct sounding four-string miniature guitar has gained popularity recently among the young students due to a famous player, Jake Shimabukuro. A few of the grade eight boys can play his songs. At Lokelani, Mr. Arakawa teaches one Ukulele class. I have noticed that some of the students carry the ukulele around with them at lunch as a status symbol, playing casually for their friends. Mr. Arakawa features his ukulele players at the band concerts.

A box of Ukuleles in the band room

I am continuing to learn about this vastly diverse environment I am fortunate enough to teach in. I am learning new things about my surroundings and the people who live here everyday. The culture is certainly more laid-back and casual. Being at Lokelani School, I have come to realize that there is more than one way of doing anything when teaching. And one way is not better or worse than another. It is only different. These differences are what make us able to share and explore the possibilities of education, and ourselves. I look forward to explaining what I have learned in the classroom so far at my placement in Maui. 

Inquiry Project Part Two: The cultural and educational context of your TAB placement

It’s amazing what we learn with new experiences. Traveling is more than we think it is. You have a major impact on people around you, just as the people around you have a major impact on you. Whoever you interact with, you exchange energy with, and these energies feed off of each other to either build up greater positive energy, or tear us down by feeding off of one another's negativity.

Culture

This is what I’ve learned throughout my experience at Lokelani Intermediate. The culture present here is vastly different from Calgary’s culture, even though many people I’ve spoken with disagree. The whole energy shifts when you arrive in Maui. People believe Hawaii to be the “vacation” hot spot of the world because it’s where all the tourists go, but there is so much more. The local people of Maui are living this island’s spirit everyday. 

Experiencing the spirit in the untamed beautiful land of Maui from Rice Park on the big mountain, Haleakala.

The energy shifts in Maui. The energy I’m talking about is not just due to the heat, the activities, and the beaches, although these beautiful attractions do help. It’s in the locals who have a deep connection to the island. This is especially in Maui. Honolulu is different. In fact Honolulu is Calgary’s City Sister. Honolulu is a large, busy city on a tropical island and people who have been there tell me it’s nothing like Maui. It’s stressful, with a “go, go, go” mentality just like Calgary. In Maui, it’s slower and therefore, people are more in tune with their surroundings, and themselves.

The man who blows the conch after every sunset across from the condo where I stay.

I’ve noticed that since thinking about energy while I have been here, I’ve started to become aware of my classroom more than ever before. I step into a room and I feel a sense of it. By this I mean I believe I can feel people’s energy just by being present with them. Sometimes, the classroom at Lokelani was loud and rambunctious. Students were chatting and laughing noisily. Some may think that this rowdiness of a class might mean that the students are unfocused and not learning. However, I learned with my partner teacher, that this could mean the students could have a “good” energy. They may be loud, but they are still there to learn. Is a loud classroom so wrong? Shouldn’t we be supporting students to be communicative, instead of afraid to express themselves? Students might be having a good time, but this is what we want, as long as learning is present. I have observed that a band class can be a lot of fun, but students are often learning while having this fun. The students may be aware of it or not, but they are gaining knowledge. Mr. Arakawa showed me this with his beginning grade sixes learning to create a buzz on mouthpieces.

Focused fun in the classroom, grade six students learning how to create sound on the mouthpiece alone.

One of the most impacting things that I will take with me from this whole experience is meeting my partner teacher, Allen Arakawa. We formed a bond while teaching together, and I learned more than I thought possible from him. When I asked him a question, he wouldn’t really answer it. Instead, he’d have me answer the question myself. Instead of telling me directly what to do, he would hum and ha over it himself, before giving a very general answer such as, “just teach”, or “feel the energy”. At first I was frustrated with his answers. I wanted to know exactly what he wanted me to do! But by letting me feel out the students, and the situation, he helped me grow by forcing me to make my own decisions while teaching. He wasn’t going to feed me the lesson plan of the day. I had to “feel” out the classroom by communicating with the kids’ energy. This truly helped me to learn how to make my own decisions, think on the spot, and I know I’ve grown throughout the experience. 

My partner teacher Mr. Arakawa with the grade eight students.

The locals I have met here have been very accommodating and open to me. They invited me out to local Maui festivities and to participate in the Community Concert Band on clarinet. I joined eagerly, and knew that I would gain experience by exchanging knowledge with them. The Maui Community Band rehearses every Thursday evening at Baldwin High School from 7:00-9:00. It is made up of mainly band teachers, and by talking to them I learned that a lot of the same issues present in Calgary are going on here. They want to recruit the students who will work for their band, they want to engage their students without having to punish them, and they want students to appreciate their heritage, and the music of the island.

New local friends at “First Friday” festival in Wailuku, watching a band play outside. Top left: Claire – student teacher at Kihei Elementary, myself, Julius: band teacher at Maui Waena Middle School, bottom: Julius’s friend Heidi and her attention grabbing Labra-doodle dog, Nikki. 

Teaching

When it came to the teaching side of changes in Maui, I noticed a few things that were different from anything I’d seen before in Calgary. One of the main things was that my partner teacher Mr. Arakawa used a microphone to teach to his students, and he also used an electronic keyboard where he himself would record the music the students were playing. This was to play the music multiple times for the students before they would attempt to play it themselves. I recognized this method as the Suzuki method, where a lot of emphasis is placed on students listening to a piece of music for recall and then playing it back just as they heard before. A lot of people that I have studied with in Alberta have expressed that this method works, but it is not the best because it “gives away the answer”. If we show children exactly how to make something, how will they learn how to interpret it themselves as well as develop their own original tools to create? Instead, a lot of music teachers who I have learned and studied with have placed an emphasis on teaching students how to read the music first, and then to listen. This way, musicians will develop the tools for interpreting musical notes from paper, not needing a recording to read. It’s exactly like speaking, reading and writing. First children learn to listen, then to speak, and finally to read and write. In music, it’s the same thing; we must listen to music first, and then create.

Mr. Arakawa on his microphone at the front, which he used regularly.

For myself, I’ve taken my teacher’s method into consideration, talked to him about why he uses it, and decided that there are a lot of positive reasons for using his “listening first” method. I believe there must be a balance between listening and reading. Mr. Arakawa tells me that students will hear the music and gradually connect the rhythms of notes they see on a page with what they hear, developing a sense of how a rhythm or melody sounds. Throughout their growth as a musician, they will begin to interpret notes on a page from what they have heard in the past. This is the way I believe I learned music, starting young with piano lessons through the Suzuki method. I know I learned a lot about listening, and I can pick up on music very quickly now if I hear it once before I play. However, when it comes to reading, it is difficult for me if I cannot hear what I am suppose to create on my instrument if there are no recordings and I haven’t heard it before. From this, I have learned at Lokelani that you can use listening to develop reading skills, but you can also use reading skills to develop listening skills. There is a fine balance. I will take the Suzuki method Mr. Arakawa used in his class into my teaching as I continue to grow and develop as a teacher, and I will also teach basic rhythms and counting from the page.

Another method Mr. Arakawa used was a visual when teaching a rhythm for students who struggled. He would sing the rhythm while pointing to his fingers, which were aligned to match the rhythm. In most cases, one finger represented one beat of note, and a space between his fingers was where there was silence. When I began teaching rhythm to his class, I would create a visual by drawing notes on the board. As soon as I tried using the visual method with my fingers, the students grasped the rhythm right away. I was blown away by this interesting discovery. Mr. Arakawa told me it was because they can see you singing the sound and moving along the visual as it is being sung. This makes connecting the sound to their minds and finally to their instruments so much easier. I had never seen this done before, but know that I will take it into my teaching practices, especially teaching junior high band. I think it might work for high school as well. These discoveries in the teachings I observed opened me up to possibilities in teaching music. There is no right or wrong way; there is only certain ways that will work for certain individual groups. Knowing the various methods and experimenting with the methods will bring me closer to teaching whatever group I have at the present time. I have been so lucky to learn new and exciting methods of teaching with me on my journey as a music teacher. 

Mr. Arakawa using his fingers to teach rhythm to the grade six students.

Finally, in the school, Mr. Arakawa taught me that putting leadership on your students is vital to forming a cohesive class or band. In most band classes I’ve experienced, there are section leaders who are responsible for taking care of their section. They might hold sectionals where their section of instruments rehearses together. They might take attendance for their section, or be sure that everyone is learning and focused in the band. In Mr. Arakawa’s band, he had a Band President, Vice President and Treasurer, who would help him tremendously by organizing music, taking attendance, discuss fundraising ideas, and taking a general leadership role. Students feel accomplished, confident, and relied upon when you assign them leadership roles such as Section Leader or Band President. When students feel that it is up to them to create the best group or band, then they rise to the occasion and put in the effort expected of them. I am learning this now and talking to the leaders of a band I am currently working with about responsibility and leadership of their section and their band. This idea of putting responsibility on the students gives teachers opportunities to lessen the workload, and have the students take the leadership role to create momentum. I’ve seen it work in classrooms before, and I know that I will see it working in future classrooms of mine one day. 

Our Band President, Amber taking leadership by announcing our music for Massed Band Concert in Maui High School Gym, February 25^th 2012.

Lastly, I noticed that Mr. Arakawa had the students play a lot of popular music such as Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas. When I told music teachers back home about this, I received the reply, “What?! Give them Holst!” The difference is that while studying music in Calgary, I learned that there is such a thing as “real repertoire” in music, and “popular” music is low quality, easy, repetitive and not educational like a classical piece such as a Holst Suite. Mr. Arakawa tells me that he uses the popular music as a “hook” to recruit students into the music program, and this makes sense to me. Students need to play music that will give them excitement to teach them the technical aspects of music. Students must first start with a love for the music, and I noticed at Lokelani that students were learning rhythms, articulations, style and musicianship while playing the popular “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga. Again, there is a balance in music and the choices we make as band teachers.

Lady Gaga Dance Mix, music played by grade seven and eight students.

To conclude, while walking home one day from school in Kihei I found a bumper sticker reading, “Relax- this isn’t the mainland.” Does this mean nothing is getting done? Not in the least. It’s just a new way to view work. Why stress and worry and get caught up in a negative energy when you can accomplish the same task with less stress, less worry, and although it might take a little bit longer, the results are still there. Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves in Calgary? The busy city really affects us more than we think. I know this after returning to Calgary only to be swept away with the “do, do, do” attitude, slowly losing the important lessons I learned in Maui.

We are all connected. The fact is that sometimes we do not see that we feed off of this connection. We think of ourselves more as individuals rather than connected beings. If we can decipher that we are all creating our surroundings together with energy, we can create beautiful positive magical products in the classroom and in life. I have learned more than I ever thought I could in Maui, and I will never forget the way I felt the connectedness to the island’s spirit in my surroundings and in the school.

Inquiry Project Part Three : Teaching in an international setting

 

From my experience from TAB, I can say that I have gained a profound knowledge by observing and experiencing the vast amount of ways to teach and learn. I had no idea how much of a difference teaching in another location would be for my growth as a teacher. From my partner teacher, I have begun to view education as more of an open door of possibilities that I would not have been aware of in Calgary. From meeting certain people in Maui, I can now say that there is more to traveling than gaining experience for yourself, you also give experience to others. This is what happened in my placement in Kihei, Maui. Not only did I learn from the school, staff, teachers, and students, but I believe that they took something away from me as well, and to me, this is true education. Teachers can learn and students can teach.
Educational System

For the most part, Lokelani Intermediate ran the same basic set schedule as most middle schools in Canada. The bell rang an hour earlier than most schools I’ve known - 7:45 am, and school ended earlier as well, at 1:37 pm. There were four periods that rotated consecutively through a Day A and Day B schedule. One thing that struck me as having a positive impact on the school was that each teacher belonged to a staff team. The staff held meetings every other Wednesday in the band room focusing on a variety of topics including school staffing, differentiation, help for special-ed students, and helping students who were acting out. Students who were part of Student Council would sometimes come and speak about school colors, school dances, and hold voting sessions for the staff. At Lokelani, I noticed that almost everyday one student would have acted out by yelling at a teacher or having a fight with another student. Sometimes these instances involved the police, and the principal would be tied up with counseling students in her office. I would vaguely hear the chats from the principal’s office in through the thin walls of the office portable. The principal was calling out for help – voting on hiring another member of staff, such as a Dean of Discipline to help with students asking for attention.

One day, our principal, Donna Whitford brought up the acronym R.T.I. This stands for Response to Intervention. She described this as a new state-wide system for developing IEPs for students. The Response to Intervention is a teacher created record of responses describing how students receiving intervention (support aids, IPPs, personal direction/goals) are responding. This will assess whether or not the supportive intervention is working. She also described the “Common Core Standards”, a six-step problem solving process taken for every student in order to consider them for receiving special help. She described President Obama’s “No child left behind” stance and that every student will soon have an Individual Education Plan where teachers would be responsible for managing each student’s plan in their classroom. I thought this sounded very similar to what I have heard happening in our Albertan system, and the inclusion theme our educational system is based on now.

I found that these staff meetings helped bring staff together, for a more cohesive group of teachers. They all know each other and they work together to support their students. They know the students in the school who act certain ways, and I would overhear them brainstorming methods for coping with difficult situations.



Classroom - Physical space

Specifically in the classroom, my partner teacher, Mr. Arakawa had what seemed to be a basic concert band set up – four to five rows of chairs and stands. What I noticed was that he had a row going down the middle of the classroom where he could walk nearby students, adjusting their posture, their instrument or their chattiness. This is a good strategy especially for beginning band classes. While teaching, I was able to walk down the row to maintain student participation and catch their attention during warm ups.

Classroom set-up in band room at Lokelani

In the music classroom, student work was displayed by performing and playing. This occurred at Lokelani everyday as students were engaged to play their instruments in front of each other, and for each other. In the Ukulele class, students were assigned to form groups that learned songs and then performed for the whole class. In the band class, students were asked to play a certain passage or pattern for the whole class. This displayed their effort and accomplishments for each other while Mr. Arakawa assessed their playing for grading. It turned out to be an excellent form of formative assessment.



Collaborative Learning in Ukulele Class



Colin playing his Baritone for the class, displaying learning in front of others
Teaching strategies and Instructional Strategies

Mr. Arakawa used the Suzuki method for teaching music in band. He highlighted on the method of “listen first”. The Suzuki method focuses on auditory methods of teaching music to eventually have a student play what they hear. What I found surprising and new to me was watching Mr. Arakawa play the entire recording of a selection of music the students were to play even before their first attempt to play the selection. In Calgary, I was always told that students must learn how to read before they attempt to play because otherwise they will never learn how to interpret a piece of music on paper. In the English language, children listen first, then speak, then read, and finally write. This doesn’t seem to be the natural order of how music is learned in most music classrooms. The Suzuki method bases itself off the primal idea of listening, then reading and producing. By having students listen to a piece of music before they play it, they are interpreting music in an auditory way, instead of a literal way to learn how to create music. From watching the students at Lokelani listen to Mr. Arakawa’s recordings as they followed in their music and then attempt to play it I realized that this is not a wrong way of teaching music. It is a different way, and many teachers might argue that it does not enhance reading skills. However, this way worked for Mr. Awakawa, and he didn’t tell any of the other music teachers on Maui the way he taught his students the music so quickly. Personally, I feel that I will carry both ways of teaching music with me as I teach my classes. I learned that it is important to be open to different ways of teaching, and that certain students will be more responsive to learning how to interpret music from different methods.

Pedagogical relationships

Mr. Arakawa based his classroom management on respect. He taught the students how to treat him and his classroom the first day they arrived. Since Mr. Arakawa taught band, he was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to recruit who he wanted to keep in band for the following years, and who he knew could not put in the proper effort. Lokelani Intermediate is a middle school, ranging from grade six to eight. Students in grade six who showed an aptable attitude and an interest in continuing to try and learn would be encouraged to stay in band and keep with it. Students who showed signs of distraction to participating and unresponsiveness to music would not even be asked to continue. This way, by the time the new class of grade eights rolled around, they would be trained, knowledgeable on Mr. Arakawa’s methods and hopefully carry an attitude of continuing to push to try and learn. The grade eight students would want to work for him and really helped him manage and run the music classroom by cleaning, taking attendance and organizing music. Mr. Arakawa always admired his grade eight students, and always seemed to be observing and assessing the grade six students. I could tell he was reading each student day by day to assess how they would be as a candidate for band, and when he saw potential he would do his best to bring that potential out of the student by praising, rewarding, and challenging his students. When we discussed students who acted out in interesting ways or stole a lot of attention from the teaching task, I noticed that Mr. Arakawa used a better term for these students. What some teachers call “problem students” he called “big-hitters”. I liked this because it put a non-negative label on the student. Labeling a student with the word “problem” often pins that student with low expectations, continuous negativity and energy-draining students. By calling these students in our classroom “big-hitters”, Mr. Arakawa made it more like a challenge to try to engage them in the band classroom.



Grade eight students, helping Mr. Arakawa load up the truck for the Mass Band Concert
Teacher explanations and questions

Mr. Arakawa scaffolds the learning similarly by grade. Since he is fortunate enough to pick and choose for the most part, the students he wants in band, he can also work upon this to teach music. In music, learning is already built on a scaffold system, and themes, ideas, and terms keep coming up throughout music. The grade six students would not pick up an instrument until about a month into the course, learning theory, notes, scales, and fingerings first.


Scaffolding music learning, starting with rhythm


When students asked questions in the class, my partner teacher would only answer questions he saw as reasonable. This meant that he would ignore questions that did not need to be answered right away, such as, “What are we doing today?” usually asked at the beginning of class. When I started to go up and teach, the students would ask me this, and I could only think, “can you not be patient, sit down and wait to find out?” I noticed that sometimes Mr. Arakawa would just ignore questions and that students eventually got the hint that he would only answer certain questions. This made me question whether he took the students into consideration, even if they were asking “unnecessary” questions.

I know that when I started teaching and a student asked me something that I couldn’t answer, I would try to at least give a response without giving them an answer, such as “well, if you sit down and take your planner out I will tell you when the whole class is seated.” At least this way, the student knows that their curiosity was acknowledged and that I care about what they are thinking. I wonder if Mr. Arakawa’s students are being conditioned to be afraid of asking him questions if he often ignores the questions? Is this a positive classroom management strategy for the students and him? Does it stop them from growing or stop them from questioning classroom procedures seriously?

When students continuously acted out of seeking attention, distracting the entire class, Mr. Arakawa asked that student to go and sit at the back of the classroom away from the rest of the class. This way, no matter what the student did, the other students would not be distracted because they could not see what that student was doing, whether it was making faces, hand gestures, or moving around. I thought this was an interesting strategy, and it worked pretty well. Looking back, I often wonder why a student acts out, and what possible ways I can include and interest them in my classroom. I know now that putting a student to work can provide them with positive attention and hopefully set them on a path towards continuously seeking positive attention.




Big-hitter Tyler, put at back of the classroom, while other students participate in class.



Mr. Arakawa was a very interesting, surprising and mysterious teacher. In sixth grade, students saw him as silent and intimidating, as he built up the image of being serious, and any student causing distraction that diverted the class would be answered silently with a page of sentences to write. By the time the students understood his methods and acted interested and respectful, around mid semester, his true personality came out, where he would begin to make jokes, repeat certain catch phrases, and interact with students with whom he had formed trusting relationships. For example, to grab their attention he would say into his microphone, “Are…you…ready?, You da bomb, Awight!, and Uh Huh” and to one certain boy, “Who da man?!”. To keep the energetic grade six classes on track, he would say things such as, “Think it, don’t say it”, and “There is too much ‘he-he, ha-ha’ in here.” At the end of the time I was there, he threw a Panda Express lunch for his students, rewarding them for their continuous hard work and effort.




Panda Express lunch-in for students

Discipline

When these “big-hitters” would act out, Mr. Arakawa maintained a very simple system for discipline and holding his expectation of his students set and equal for all. He had a sentence system for discipline. When a student said something meaningless that distracted the class or went against classroom rules, such as no shoes in the bandroom, he would just whip out a piece of blank paper and write “Please no shoes in the bandroom. X 25” This meant that student had to write out the sentence 25 times. If the student then followed his punishment with a snide remark, he would cross out the 25 and write 50, or 100, or 125. The student just had to begin writing. Oftentimes if he could tell that the student was honestly sorry for what they had done and learned the lesson, he would take the paper away before they were finished, but if a student continued to carry a negative attitude about it, they would have to stay in a recess or lunch and finish writing sentences. I found this method to be effective and simple, and it worked very well. Perhaps there could be more of an explanation as to why students have to follow the rules in a certain way, even for young students, but sometimes you just do what works to maintain a fair, consistent set of rules in your classroom.

Are students expected to take responsibility for their learning?

I noticed that students would practice their instruments on their own outside class, during recess, lunch and after school, especially coming up to the final concert. To me, this proved there was work ethic, interest, and motivated learning occurring as students enjoyed coming in to learn and succeed. Mr. Arakawa gave his students a sense of accomplishment when they worked hard and helped them to believe they could achieve something they couldn’t didn’t see themselves accomplishing before. He did this by congratulating success, helping students with fingerings, and giving off a sense of pride and honor to his students. They knew he cared, and therefore they came back to work harder and believed in themselves. 

Students practicing outside the classroom on their own

How does the teacher respond to student errors?

When a student made an error, whether it was a fingering, pitch or answer, Mr. Arakawa would go to fix it right away by talking, playing or singing. Another great strategy I saw him use was when he asked other students to help the mistaken or unaware student. For example, if he saw a student struggling, he would often ask a different student who knew how to fix their mistake fix it for them or show them how to do something right. This is a great strategy for getting students to learn even quicker, as they are actually teaching each other. This occurred when Mr. Arakawa introduced “study buddy” groups – mixed grade groups that came in during lunch or after school to help teach each other learn the music. When students are given power and responsibility to teach each other, definite learning on both ends happen for the teacher and for the student.

To synthesize at the end of a class, usually Mr. Arakawa had the class play a song that the students enjoyed where they had reached success to end the class on a positive note, such as a Lady Gaga tune, giving students a feeling of joy, capability and greatness.


Students have opportunity to show what they have learned when playing concerts, playing for each other, in front of the class, for Mr. Arakawa, and for each other. Students realized that they are a team, and therefore work well playing in a band together. Mr. Arakawa used his microphone to speak to the kids, and he engaged them by having them play a lot instead of talking too much during class. He gave them their time to do their work. When his homeroom asked to do other subjects in their spare period called “Hoku” with them, he would let them read or go to the cafeteria to do homework. In the grade eight band there were a lot more girls than boys, as you see from the picture. Both of these photos made up the entire grade eight class – a class of about 65 students. Mr. Arakawa could handle this amount of students because he built a trusting lasting relationship with his students, and I know he will be sad to see them leave the school when they graduate from middle school in May.



On my last day with the grade eight girls



On my last day with the grade eight boys



Conclusion

The TAB experience has truly changed how I look and think about teaching and learning. I was very lucky to have this experience and I believe it opened my eyes to become closer to what teaching can be. I was baffled at my partner teacher’s methods at first, and a little bit taken aback by his ways of teaching music. I had done my degree learning that playing the recording for the students all the time was not the best method. At times when I was unaware of what I should be teaching and presenting to the class, I would ask Mr. Arakawa, and he would simply respond with a generic answer such as “Um…just teach”. This made me really contemplate his way and mine because I noticed myself using what I found effective by him and adding in my own personal style of what I thought would be effective.

Looking back, I feel so lucky and blessed to have had this experience. I wasn’t aware of what was going to happen, but this was half the adventure of it. I just went in with a positive attitude. When trying anything new, it is scary at first but usually with routine comes familiarity and room to take risks and grow. If I were to start TAB all over again, I would probably bring my main instrument, my saxophone so I could have played more with the students and demonstrated how a saxophone can sound, as the instruments at the school were not in best condition. For this, I could have probably brought along a little repair kit for fixing certain broken parts on the instruments. I think it might have been possible to set up a Skype communicative session with another middle school in Calgary, with the right equipment. Perhaps school bands could play for each other, and then watch to correct and comment on what was happening. In a non-music classroom, perhaps students could interact by watching students present in another part of the world. It is a very interesting and possible arrangement that teachers might want to look into.

One very important impact this experience has brought me has been the power of acknowledging energy in every room. I notice myself entering a classroom now and assessing the energy that each student brings to make up a class energy. A teacher must listen and feel the students out to get their attention and to get them on board. A teacher will know what will focus the students, and what the students care about as time goes on. Instead of reacting to a “rowdy, noisy” classroom, I now try to become silent for a few moments to work off of what the students are bringing to me. I felt that being a citizen in Maui really opened myself to feeling who I am as a person instead of thinking about who I am. I learned that I love being around people, but that I also love trying new things and going new places. I love watching students ‘get it’ when I’m teaching and respond by awakening to new concepts and ideas. I know that in every future classroom I am in, I will become more aware of the space and the students’ energy. This has opened a vital window in my development as a teacher.



Final performance – Mass Band Concert at Maui High School, with all middle school bands performing. I was fortunate to conduct “Just Dance” in front of friends and family, blessed with flower leis.