Ben Maynard

3-1-15
MUSED 150
Gerrity
Peer Teaching One Reflection
In terms of teaching, peer teaching one was an extremely valuable experience for me.
This peer teaching definitely advanced my ability to prepare a lesson. Moreover, the process of
teaching by rote was enforced to where I almost dont even have to think about the order of the
process. This peer teaching was moderately challenging for me because I had to teach a concept,
as well as teach by rote. After watching myself peer teach, I can identify aspects of my teaching
that went well, didnt go well, and aspects of learning and overcoming obstacles during this
project.
Several aspects of my teaching went as planned, which contributed to the students
learning the song smoothly. To begin, the rote process that I used to teach Old Dan Tucker
went tremendously well. The class seemed to have no problems with learning the song both ways
that I taught it. I made extra efforts to make sure that my pitches were as accurate as possible,
which helped the students with the pitches as well. Additionally, improvement of signaling who
is singing was much improved from previous peer teachings. This is important to me because
clearly signaling whos turn it is to sing can eliminate confusion and wasted time. I thought that I
had good ideas that I presented while explaining my concept, which was the dotted eighthsixteenth note. Even though I focused on the visual side of learning when teaching my concept, I
still feel like kids with other processes of learning wouldve understood the concept. In my
teaching, I tried to connect the symbol and notation for the rhythm, to the listening side of things.
I attempted to do so by using Takadimi and asking the students tap the sixteenth notes, and them
explaining how it fit into the beat by referencing a drawing on the board.

Ben Maynard
3-1-15
MUSED 150
Gerrity
Although there were several elements of peer teaching two that were successful, various
aspects of it need improving. From the start, more conversation between the class and I in order
to set up the environment. I feel like if I were teaching younger kids, they wouldve have been so
excited and in the mood for the lesson. My next improvement I need to make is being cautious of
singing the melody wrong at first when using problem based learning. I accidentally gave the
correct rhythm away too quickly. Furthermore, I must improve on incorporating problem based
learning in teachings. Getting in the habit of asking the class to critically think and answer
questions instead of giving them the answer needs to be in my mind when I teach. Integrating
problem base learning in my lesson plan will also help me improve using it. Additionally, I need
to either not include so much in my lesson plans or familiarize myself with them more, because I
having trouble finding where I was at. I am looking forward to taking some of these problems
and improving on them!
To conclude, I learned about several improvements that I need to make while preparing
for teaching. By completing this peer teaching, I especially improved and overcame simplifying
rhythm. Oddly enough, I have had trouble breaking down rhythms into particularly simple terms.
Having to teach a concept allowed to to actually sit down and brainstorm various ways that I
could go about breaking down rhythm in an effective way. Ultimately, I have many ideas that I
incorporated in this peer teaching that were successful and many ideas that I did not include that
needed to be included in my teaching. I am enormously thrilled to integrate new ideas into the
next peer teaching.

Ben Maynard
3-1-15
MUSED 150
Gerrity