Week 5 Reflection

Devan Whaley

1. With this week, Mrs. Briggs and I discussed that it was finally time to be “mean Mr.
Whaley”. Come Monday after our discussion with Jazz Band, one student practiced over
the weekend. Unfortunately this was the one student who really had her music together
and this practice just widened the gap between her and the rest of the band. We had a
serious discussion over whether or not Sir Duke would be within our grasp and I told
them, honestly, that if we continued on the path we were on, I would have to find easier
music. Which hurt because the parts we have learned of the song have been so great! I
called a sectional for the jazz band and gave each section a specific chunk of measures
that I wanted them to work on, and all of the students got metronomes. They worked for
the second half of the period in sectionals and we discussed what parts went well and
what we needed to work on. I told the students that on Wednesday we would ask for
their BPM and have them play the parts and they still didn’t practice for it. Largely the
grades for the day reflected what sections/individuals practiced and did well for playing
tests.

2. One objective that we hit this week was leadership. Not only have I been giving little
pockets of ways that the 8th grade can increase positivity. Unfortunately we didn’t have
the opportunity to implement this positivity as we had two school days. But also I spoke
with a few of the influencers of the Jazz Band and asked them how they think they can
influence their peers to help motivate them to practice more often we had some good
discussions about this as well as the new Jazz Band drummer who has been killing it on
the drumset, even though he’s been learning for two weeks.

3. CAEP Responses
a. I love starting every period off with asking if anyone has anything going on. I also
follow the Grass Lake Facebook page and write down the names of my students
who show up in sports/competitions, then I make a point to ask them how it went
and say I saw that they did well. I also ask them what they do for the weekends,
who has something coming up, and we talk about it and I never let the class talk
over someone who wants to share. I try to always have a response, even if I’ve
never done it, like the student who snowboards, and the one who goes to
gymnastics competitions to watch.
b. I use playing tests almost every day in the 6th grade, and as stated above I have
started including that in the jazz band as a way of keeping ourselves
accountable. I let the students pick the chunks that way they have a choice in the
matter and I think it will work out, they just need to develop a routine.
c. I definitely see that when I express interest in my students and show that I care
what goes on in their lives that they want to do better. The Jazz Band student
who is always down on herself has stopped looking surprised when I am
supportive of her and acknowledge her struggle as being on the right path, in fact
I celebrate her struggle in class and I think she is beginning to see a reason to
celebrate it as well.