Avery Elementary School
Meet the School!
Avery Elementary School, based in Dedham Public Schools in Massachusetts, is an incredibly diverse and enriching school to work in. The student body has an incredibly differentiated set of needs from student to student, and in very dynamic classes like General Music, Band, and Chorus; a music teacher has a lot to think about when developing their curriculum. The school itself has formed a tight-knit community between students, teachers, and staff under the leadership of Edward Paris. The main music teacher and my supervising practitioner for this placement, Sara Santos, has been teaching at this school for 9 years before I was placed into her classroom as a student teacher.
Lesson Plans, Videos, and Resources
Here are some resources, clips, and full lessons from the time I taught at Avery Elementary. Through these videos you can see me teaching band, chorus, and general music. Through these resources you I demonstrate my strategy of “sound-before-sight” based learning in each class, my rapport with students, and my ability to manage behaviors in each class.
My Experience:
Student Quotes:
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“I loved every song I sung with him.”
3rd Grade Student
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“He is a great teacher”
4th Grade Student
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“I liked Band Class with Mr. Salerno”
4th Grade Student
Skills Developed
The development as an educator I experienced at Avery Elementary School felt essential to the direction I would like to take my classrooms. The diversity at the school, support from my practicing supervisor, and school community allowed me to flourish my skills in all aspects of my teaching. I was able to build relationships and rapport with students, which in turn helped my success in running the classroom.
The music classroom I entered into, lead by Sara Santos, was based mainly upon John Feierabend’s research about music learning in children. The classes we taught are very aural based, and on developing children’s musicianship similar to a language learning model (hearing/speaking, reading, writing). This teaching is something I am aligned with philosophically, and melds well with my style of music teaching. Developing my pedagogy through exploring John Feierabend’s research and extending these skills into how I teach instrumental classes like Band was a cornerstone of my time at Avery Elementary.
One of the more difficult skills in an elementary music classroom is interacting with student’s behaviors, needs, and actions throughout a dynamic class. My classroom management skills in instrumental, general, and choral formats were put to the test. After working with these students for an extended period of time, I feel my skillset, vocabulary, and mind-set in dealing with these behaviors has become highly diversified, efficient, and supportive in nature. I feel as I have become clear with setting expectations for my students, and well-versed in being able to set students from spiking behaviors back to a peaceful, neutral state. This can be evidenced in the teaching videos, lesson plans, and images below.