First Days: Lotts Elementary

I have been a student-teacher for a whole five days over the last two weeks (due to snow days, which has been interesting by far) in Knox County in Tennessee. I am currently at A.L. Lotts Elementary School and am being mentored by Tracy Ward, general music teacher extraordinaire. I am her first-ever student-teacher, and we are both very excited for this semester to unfold.

The first day last week (before the snow) was a simple in-service in which Tracy introduced me to the school, administrators, and several teachers. She informed me that Lotts has a total of FOUR music teachers on-staff. She and one other teacher, Brenda Swinson, work full-time, while two more are part-time at this school. Sherry Rumbolt and Ben (?) work a few days a week at this school and rotate to others during the week.

The schedule here at Lotts is a little complicated when it comes to non-core classes. Music classes see a music teacher twice every nine days. Some of them see one to four different music teachers a year, simply because of the crazy schedule! Additionally, on days in which a part-time teacher is here, TWO classes are in the music room at the same time. Half of the day is my mentor's to teach, and the other half is taught by one of the part-time teachers. It was difficult to understand at first, but seeing it for the past four school days shows me how difficult it is to teach consistent lessons. Sometimes one half of a music class has to be re-taught a lesson, and it can be confusing to keep track of who's-who throughout the week. After all, over 1100 students attend here, and the schedule makes learning names even more difficult. I suppose I didn't realize how complicated scheduling can be, but at least I am seeing how music teachers cope with students who learn similar content in different places. Tracy Ward simply keeps going and tries her best to work around the schedule with her lesson plans. In all honesty, the lesson is aided by other teachers' similar lessons already taught. The students do not seem to object to learning music from different teachers in the rotation. It seems to make them learn more, but I hate seeing that consistency in teaching is difficult for Tracy. She carefully plans and writes out small summaries in her calendar for each class period to keep track of who has learned what.

So far, the students have been very well-behaved. Tracy is able to keep control over her classrooms, guiding them to be polite and attentive. She emphasizes singing, which I love. Her degree may be piano-based (Music Education from UTK with a piano/general emphasis), but she always teaches singing in the classroom. She has a good balance between a capella singing and singing with accompaniment (piano or guitar.) I am learning so much already, simply by assisting her and observing classes.

I'd like to comment on two things that I have seen in Tracy's class that have been enlightening: Recorders and BOOKS!

She has been teaching her 4th grade classes some intro lessons here in my first days here. She actually is a church-musician who plays recorders (as well as the piano.) She is able to demonstrate the instrument well for the students and is able to control the environment well enough that the students learn efficiently and effectively.
Historical content is extremely important to Tracy's lessons. She reads books to her students that explain songs, famous singers, and even operas. So far, we have heard Marian Anderson's biography (in preparation for MLK Day and learning about Civil Rights), the story of the opera William Tell, and Follow the Drinking Gourd.

This semester marks my last and final months of my undergraduate college career. I am looking forward to learning so much here at Lotts for the next two and a half months.