My first teaching experience

Even before I applied to SNHU I wanted to be an elementary music teacher. I thought start from the bottom and work my way to high school and maybe one day go to grad school and become a college professor. I thought teaching elementary school would be easy and fun because I love working with little kids. I also have 2 nieces that are 2 and 4, and I adore them. But I was wrong, working with younger kids is a lot harder then people realize.
My first teaching experience was during my second semester of my freshman year here. We were co-teaching as a class at Northwest Elementary school, where I actually went to. There would be 2 of us co-teaching with the teacher of the classroom while the rest of our peers watched; there were only 8 of us in total. I was mostly stuck with kindergarten and first grade. We had to make lesson plans, practice and memorize the tunes we would sing for them. I would rehearse the lesson at home in my room before we actually had to teach. Sometimes in the classroom students would disrupt the class and I wouldn't get through my entire lesson plan. Once my lesson plan was too short and the teacher stepped in with a "filler" activity. For our final we had to teach a class all by ourselves and it was actually recorded for us to keep and put into our portfolios.
My biggest challenge was time management within the classroom. Also I had to tell the younger students exactly where and how to sit on the floor. There were a lot of tantrums when working with kindergarten and behavioral issues. After the class I realized I do not want to teach elementary, it is more difficult then I thought it would be. I think I want to teach middle school or possibly high school but I won't be too picky when it comes time for the job search.

Music

Music has always been there for me. Whether it was the music teacher or the music itself. In high school the band room was where I was most comfortable and not afraid to be myself. I could talk to my band director about anything and she would always push me and test my boundaries because she believed in me. All the friends I made were from band and all other connections I have made with people were those involved with music. I know it sounds "corny" but I honestly don't know where I would be today if I didn't have music.
Being in the band has made me into a stronger leader and role model from being a section and squad leader. I was also the secretary of my schools Tri-M music honor society, where I had to hold a leadership position. My teacher also persuaded me to audition for all state every year, even though I didn't make it, it has helped me become a better and more confident player.
Even though I've always had music I decided I wanted to go to college for crime and justice but I changed my major at the last minute and decided on music education. I want to impact the lives of other students like my music teachers have done for me. I want to help shape minds of students and give them what they need for the future. I realized I couldn't give up something that has always been them for me and will continue to be.

My Ed-Tech Experience. K-12

When I was in elementary school we had a cart of about 30 Mac laptops that the whole school had to share. We were only taught how to use the basics of the laptop and become familiar with them. My experience in middle school was a little different. In the library there was about 20 Mac desktops and like my elementary school we also had a cart of laptops. In our 7th grade class we spent about a week in the library learning how to budget our money on a website, I can not remember the site or projects name. Anyways, we had to pick a career and look up the yearly wage we would make. Based on that we had to pick an area to live in and a place we could afford along with a car. Starting in 8th grade my social studies teacher had us do a stock project for a month. We were able the use the laptops in our classroom. We had to invest fake money into stocks of our choice. We had to budget our money, watch the stock and decided if or when to sell or buy more.

In high school we basically used the computers for research and they were all in the library. We had about 5 Macs and the rest were PCs. Every teacher had one computer in their classroom for their own use. There were about 5 other rooms with multiple computers for certain technology based classes. My sophomore year I took a class called engineering drawing where we had to make 2D and 3D drawings on the computer. We also had to write part of a program, that our teacher created, to spell out our initials to be engraved onto a piece of metal or fiberglass. My other computer experience was used in my music theory class. We used a program called Finale to compose simple pieces of music, like chorales, jingles, and a percussion composition. We all had piano keyboards in-front of the computers but they were not connected to each other. We were also able to use garage band for jingles or just for fun.

"What Brings You to SNHU?"

 Before I attended SNHU, I was apart of the community band while I was a sophomore in high school. I originally was applying to SNHU for Criminal Justice but at the last minute I changed my mind and went into Music Education. I do not regret my decision at all. I love working with kids but I would rather work with middle school or older. I enjoying playing my instruments, I couldn't imagine giving up my music. What I like most about our music department is that it's small, so we get one on one help and get hands on experience in actual classrooms in the surrounding towns.

http://www.tagxedo.com/artful/a18969a845e4472c