Lesson Reflection Redux

Let's start with the good. I feel like the whole lesson went much better than the first. To be fair, I was in a much different head space when I prepared this lesson. Planning the first lesson got me over a severe mental block I was having regarding a place to start with the topic of Louis Armstrong. Once I was able to get the ideas together for the first lesson, though a bit shaky and underdeveloped, I was able to better structure and prepare the remainder (over more time than I would have imagined). I feel like I was better prepared both mentally and emotionally, and also with worthwhile teaching material. Most of the information I planned to discuss was touched on and presented aptly. I was able to think on my feet a little, too, when things started to head into territory I hadn't thought to include (but should have...more on that later). I felt like I was able to speak to the class in an engaging way, and tried to include many more activities of the music making variety than I did in the first lesson. The presentation of the rhythms in a MIDI program, and the audio elements were also helpful and worked well. I was also given a much better "review" from Professor Schneider, and I was glad I was able to meet his expectations of continuous improvement. 

Being in the fortunate circumstance of being able to present similar content twice in a row, I was able to learn more about how I could  have improved the lesson. First of all, the video I showed at the beginning of the lesson was too long even though it was barely 2:30 minutes long. While I think it did serve as a good introduction to the lesson, and jazz in general, I do think the time could have been better spent elsewhere (and so did the professor). I also neglected the reason why the polyrhythms that informed jazz were important to music in general....I think a simple statement regarding what type of music people danced to in those times would have done the trick. While it's great to learn the building blocks of how something changed, it's at least somewhat important to reference why (I would also have liked to include a map of the West Indies for a quick reference). Lastly, I feel I could have been a little more fluid. It's tough to seamlessly incorporate AV into your class lesson, and even with some preparation time, I did hit a few slight hiccups.

I am thankful I've had the opportunity to restructure my lessons after reflecting on my experience, and seeing what great things others did. I'd like to thank Professor Schneider and all of my classmates for allowing me the time to try things out.