Kara LaRochelle

Teacher Education Goals

04/27/2015
1. Our graduates will be knowledgeable in the subjects they teach and how to teach those
subjects to students. Our Graduates are able to:
a: Demonstrate knowledge of how to teach subject matter to their students.
My four years of classes at UNH have made me confident in what I need to know to
teach my future students. I have found that making connections between all I have learned in my
methods classes, music classes, and education classes have prepared me for the variety of classes
that I will need to teach when I am officially teaching in a school. I have been teaching general
music, chorus, and band at an elementary school and a middle school in Portland, ME. The
students view me as their teacher and they have continued on their curriculum just as they would
have with their cooperating teacher, except with my lesson plans. In addition to this placement I
have taught beginning music lessons in multiple schools including North Hampton School,
Moharimet Elementary School, and in the New Hampshire Youth Band.
b: Use multiple approaches to facilitate student learning.
A large part of my personal philosophy on education is that every student learns
differently and at different paces. I believe that differentiated instruction is very important for a
teacher to reach all of their students. My student teaching placement is in an urban public school
setting where we have a variety of learning and behavioral needs, a majority of the school is
made up of English Language Learners, and the students are split into different programs that
have completely different learning styles from expeditionary learning to a very strict traditional
curriculum. It has worked best for me to have one lesson plan that I vary for each and every class
that I have throughout the week to best tailor it to their learning needs. For instance, in the
adapted music class that I teach we still sing the same songs and have similar learning outcomes
however we structure the class more, add in more things to improve on their motor skills, and
take it at a slower pace. In the blended expeditionary classrooms we do more experimenting to
get to an answer rather than traditional teaching and assessment that other students in the school
respond to better. With our large population of students from other countries I have learned that
pictures, written out instructions for each child, and modeling work best and I have worked very
hard to gauge each childs language level so that I can teach them the best I can. I split up my
general music classes into listening, creating, playing, singing, and assessment while solidifying
the same idea through each so that every student has a chance to understand whichever way
works best for them.
2. Our graduates will be committed to their students and adjust their practice accordingly. Our
graduates are able to:
a-d: Recognize diversity among their students and adjust their practice accordingly, understand
how students develop and learn, treat students equitably, and work diligently to help each
student reach his or her potential.
In my student teaching experience in Portland Public Schools I was able to teach a very
diverse population of students. A majority of my students were either first-born American
citizens or very new to the country and the English language and many of them were refugees.
When working with a population like this a teacher needs to be aware of the different cultures,

languages, and backgrounds their students come from. I had a lot of professional development on
the different cultures my students came from and it taught me what to say and what not to say
and how to interact with them. I am lucky to have been in a school that trains its teachers so well
but I would have done the same myself had I not been so lucky.
Differentiated instruction takes on a new meaning when many of your students are
learning English as well as any other special needs they may have. Use of pictures, explaining
things multiple times, and specific instruction for certain children who need it most are
important. Soon into my teaching experience I was able to figure out who needed some extra
instruction or help while writing or speaking their thoughts and I found ways to help them
separately like explaining something to only them before we started or making sure they did not
do an activity without watching someone else model it for them first.
In my time at North Hampton School I had two clarinet students that I was able to watch
grow from fifth to seventh grade. They were the only two clarinetists in their grade and they
were significantly different learners and going at different paces. This was a very hard challenge
but I made sure to educate myself on how they would best learn and got help from my professors
and their band teacher. I eventually figured out a system in which they benefitted where I would
work with both of them to warm up and then assign the faster student something to practice and
play for me. While they were practicing I would work on specific skills that my slower student
needed more help on and give her an assignment based on that and so on. Switching back and
forth in about seven minute increments like that made a difference because one student was not
being left behind and one was not bored.
3. Our graduates will be responsible for managing and monitoring student learning. Our
graduates are able to:
a-g: Employ multiple methods to meet their teaching and learning goals, develop appropriate
objectives for themselves and their students, orchestrate learning in group settings, place a
premium on student engagement and thoughtfulness, use multiple strategies to motivate students,
regularly assess student progress, selecting appropriate measures, and plan and implement their
teaching and learning objectives.
Something that I took from my cooperating teacher was how she plans out her lessons.
She has a chart broken up into grade and class and then also playing, singing, moving, creating,
and assessment. This chart was perfect to plan out all of my lessons based on the grade, what I
wanted them to know, how that class learns best, and the different ways in which to teach that
idea. An example would be the very last lesson I taught at Hall Elementary. In this lesson I
wanted the K-2 students to understand musical contour so I split the lesson into singing, moving,
playing, and listening. Each week I tried to choose a different variation of the categories. They
sang a song that went up and down when their bodies did in the dance, they played this song on
boomwhackers and were able to figure out the difference between size and pitch by themselves
in the higher grades and then we did two carnival of the animals listening where we watched
listening maps and moved out bodies to the contour of the music.
I believe that it is important for students to be able to collaborate and learn how to work
with others so I also planned many group activities disguised many times as games so that I
could not only assess how they were understanding the topics but also see how they work with
others. An example of this is a lesson for the grades 3-5 students who had to take a song that we
already learned and come up with a four beat clapping game for it within their group. We had
just been learning about beat and rhythm and we talked about what the beat of that specific song

was. When the students performed it for the class I was able to see if they understood the concept
but also I had five minutes in each class to see how they were working together and what their
thoughts were on the subject.
4. Our graduates will be effective organizers of the classroom environment. Our graduates are
able to:
a-d: Create and maintain an atmosphere conducive to learning, create and contribute to a
community of learners, create and maintain an atmosphere fostering mutual respect and caring,
and cultivate within their own students a recognition and valuing of diversity.
I am lucky to have been student teaching in a school where they have already created a
culture of learning and diversity. When you first walk into the school they have every language
that is represented in their students on the walls. In the music room we have music written out in
every one of those languages as well. Both my cooperating teacher and I tried to choose songs
and activities that would be interesting and meaningful to the many different cultures represented
at our school.
When students walked into my classroom they knew I was not their forever teacher but
they also knew that they needed to treat me the same way. Every day I set out the expectations of
the class so that they would know what to expect for the class period. When there was excess
noise or out of control behavior I did my best to move children who made a poor seating choice
and redirected their attention back to me with a call and response or some type of dance they had
to echo back with. I think that if students are interested enough in what they are doing they wont
have management issues and I tried to come up with exciting but informative lesson plans where
they were not bored.
5. Our graduates will be thoughtful and reflective practitioners who learn from experience.
Our graduates are able to:
a-d: Make well-reasoned choices and decisions within the conflictual, complex, and demanding
conditions of teaching, analyze the effects of their actions and make changes accordingly, take
into account the moral and philosophical implication of educational decision, and improve their
practice by reflecting on their own experience, observing others, seeking advice, and drawing
upon educational research and scholarship.
When going into my student teaching experience and my college career in general,
classroom conflict was the part of teaching I was most nervous and unsure about. When we
talked about it in classes this is where I took the most notes and had to test myself. While
working in a summer camp I gained a lot of experience with these issues and it helped my
confidence. Confidence and follow through is important when dealing with these issues. Another
thing that my camp experience taught me is that many children act out for a reason and finding
out that reason can help them to not do it again.
I have definitely been able to change my practice as I have developed as a teacher and I
think I will continue to do so until I retire. Even within one class I learned it is important to
change something that just isnt working or to completely stop and start over if its really
necessary. Even though it is not always easy I found myself changing many lessons late at night
in order to make them more effective the next day.
6. Our graduates will be informed decision makers and agents of change. Our graduates are
able to:

a: Develop and articulate their own conceptual and philosophical perspective on teaching and
learning based on professional experience and current theories and research in education.
The place I have been able to work my philosophy on education and on music education
is in my many education courses at UNH. Through the many papers and readings I was assigned
I became knowledgeable on many sides of issues, philosophies, and methods. It has inspired me
to keep reading up on these topics in education and I hope to get a masters degree eventually in
education. It is important to be relevant because the world changes so fast so our teaching does
too. I now know that my teaching philosophy is based on individualized education and I was able
to take the knowledge I gained about myself and put it into practice during my student teaching.
7. Our graduates will be active members of learning and professional communities. Our
graduates are able to:
a: Engage colleagues in efforts to enhance their own teaching, learning, and professional
development.
During my student teaching I had the pleasure of being on many committees with my
cooperating teacher. As a music teacher it is easy to blend into the background but it is important
to be present in the school community. Your program will never be taken seriously if community
and school members think that all you care about is music. I hope to also continue going to
conferences like all state and take guitar and voice lessons to further my skills that will aid in my
teaching.
b: Participate in professional organizations.
I am currently a part of the National Association for Music Education and the
International Clarinet Association. Professional organizations can get you many resources you
might not have known about otherwise and they can also keep you updated on what is happening
in education and in music education.