Introduction to Ms. Teed's STP

For my STP, I worked with my 6th grade band class, 1st hour of the day at my student-teaching placement, Kinawa 5-6 Middle School, part of the Okemos Public Schools District. This is their second year of band class after starting in 5th grade. 

I chose to create a Transcription Project with the goal that students would find it engaging after selecting their own songs to transcribe. I lead the entire 6th grade class of 44 students meaning I had to come up with a topic that the entire class, containing many diverse skill-levels of musical understanding, could be successful with. My mentor teacher, Natalie Sears, stayed present in the classroom during the project, however the hour was entirely Ms. Teed-lead, including answering all student questions (bathroom break or project related), monitoring student work and stepping in for assistance. 

As stated previously, my aim was to settle on a 3-day project that could be completed successfully with differing levels of proficiency that the students themselves would find engaging and interesting to work on, especially considering they weren’t being motivated by a class-grade that would appear on record.  

Over the span of two weeks, I planned 3 class times of 45 minutes for the students to work on the project, trying to structure in plenty of in-class work time. It followed the following rough outline: 

Day 1: Power Point intro-presentation with class example, start working

Day 2: Individual work, with teacher supervision 

Day 3: Finishing up, put in dynamics/final effects and performances