The most common worry that circled around the teaching community is classroom

management. As Donna R. Sanderson said, Classroom management continues to be the most

common concern cited by student teachers (Clement, 1999; Clement, 2000) as well as beginning
and experienced teachers, (Sanderson, 2001). Managing a classroom is a difficult task and it
must be carefully planned to ensure that the pupils can be controlled during a lesson, however, I
am now come to understand that this problem can only be done with time, relationship between
pupils and teacher, and proper instructive communication. The opportunity to study the teaching
and learning activities done by Miss Grace___________________ was a one in a million chance
for me to see an experienced teacher created an exciting learning environment that balanced the
needs of the pupils and the teacher, and able to control her pupils effectively.
On ________ April, I went into one of Ms. Graces class where she taught Year 3 Marikh.
The teacher that I observed for this project is quite competent. Through my observation, the pupils
were all well behaved and listened to the teacher when she was teaching. One of the classroom
management approaches that she used was group processed approached whereby it tackles the
fundamental relationship between teacher and pupils, and among the pupils themselves. Ms.
Grace created a balance relationship with the pupils that let the pupils express their creativity but
still able to control them. The group activities organized by the teacher allowed pupils to interact in
a positive environment that developed the pupils interpersonal skills and learning interest.
I appreciate many of the things that she does in her classroom. As far as the teaching and
learning activities are concerned, this teacher is very comfortable using vocal model and her voice.
In the opportunity that I had to observer her, she used her voice as both an instructional tool and
as a model for her student to emulate.

The pacing of her lessons is pretty much on track. She is flexible enough to react to
what the students are doing. For example on 11/18 she noticed how energetic the class was and
immediately reacted to begin the lesson with a movement activity that they enjoyed. While
there was no content here that I could see, it was a testament to her flexibility.


This teachers presentation is strong. She always projects energy, confidence and a strong
sense of authority. She never comes across as mean but she is always in control and the students
respond to that authoritative demeanor. She is quite good at discipline and classroom
management although sometimes I feel that there are extra measures she could take to ensure
better classroom attentiveness. Often times she has the students sitting for long periods of time.
Not only have they just come from lunch but their attention spans are not long enough to have
that long of instruction be effective. I think that if she planned a few more movement-based
learning activities that some classroom management issues would be solved. Usually, I feel that
she is very prepared. Although sometimes her lesson plans seem sort of hodge-podge. However, I
believe that that is more due to the reality of her time and the necessities of preparing for a
program than it is a reflection on her ability to plan effectively.

In regard to the students, they are very responsive to her instructions and are often very
excited for classroom activities. I feel that the climate in the room is one of fun, which
motivates the students to want to learn. They are doing well and improving in matching pitch
(assessed in the opening activity) and are growing in their knowledge of melodic
direction/contour as well as tempo. Overall, the students are learning concepts, improving skills
and behaving in a way that is conducive to engaging learning experiences.

II. Lesson Process and Instructional Effectiveness

The lesson process and overall instructional effectiveness is not as strong as the skills of
teaching but I think most of that is due to the reality of teaching in a program that is expected
to put on a Christmas program and to meet a certain level of performance. She uses some great
strategies though. On my first observation, 9/24, she used word associations with her fourth
graders to teach them rhythms (as a counting system). However, I also dont feel that a lot of
her instruction is sound before sight or at least I wish that would experience it more before the
notation is introduced. In that same observation they were to play rhythms on instruments but
they were simply reading off the board. I had trouble knowing what purpose this was serving
except perhaps to improve reading.

For the most part her lessons have obvious objectives, although, sometimes I have trouble
recognizing the content in a particular activity. I love that she has them move when they are
really energetic but rarely does she incorporate any content into that activity. I hesitate to be
too critical though because this is another situation in which reality (classroom management) is
dictating her lesson activities. I feel that they review a sufficient amount without over-doing
their attention spans. I would be able to comment better if these observations were all
consecutive but my impression is that the students are retaining concepts.

The learners really enjoy this class. They are all very engaged and participate fully in
classroom activities. They are provided many opportunities to participate in class and they
interact when given the opportunity. Even something as simple as the opening activity provides
opportunities for interactions in music class. In the opening activity, the students are asked to
respond in their singing voice when their name is intoned. Some attempt to echo the intonation
but others improvise and she allows this. The opening activity doubles as a great assessment tool
for pitch matching and the development of the singing voice.

The instruction I observed through these observations was pretty effective overall. The
teacher does a great job of providing positive reinforcement although I am not sure that I heard
her offer a lot of feedback that was constructive. Again we have a reality problem.
Unfortunately, the reality of her situation is that most of the feedback she is able to give is
disciplinary or positive reinforcement of good behaviors. It would be ideal to have the time to
provide constructive feedback based on more than behavior but this is a constraint of reality.

The students are being provided with a variety of musical experiences in this classroom.
For example, on 10/7, the teacher utilized movement, singing, playing, notating and reading as
experiences for the learning of music. However, if I look at all of the observations, singing is
most often used as the pathway to music. Moving is utilized a lot but often there is no content
associated and it is for more management reasons than anything else. The students are getting
opportunities for varied experiences but the balance still tips in the traditional way of singing
being the main medium of instruction.

Overall, I think that the teaching that I observed is excellent. While there are many things
that I as an outsider can comment on as not ideal, she does a wonderful job considering the
realistic implications of her job. I think that this classroom is a good example of how to
incorporate what we learn in college. Unfortunately, we probably will not be able to create an
ideal curriculum. We will probably have to devote several classes to performance prep (like the
teacher I observed) but it is a balancing act between what the reality requires and what the
students need.

lesson was the way she conducted her pupils discipline. As told by Ms. Grace herself, she
have introduced a set of rules to the since the beginning of instructional language that she used to
initiate pupils behavior.