Personal Learning Network article reaction

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds2.feedburner.com%2FSoYouWantToTeach

In this blog, the author relates some of the ups and downs over the years in his teaching career as a band director. I liked the article because it did not gloss over the more difficult moments in his life; in fact, he even talks about some of his darkest days, where he suspects now that he was clinically depressed. I feel that the author is honest and authentic. I feel this way because reading a blog is essentially a diary entry that the whole world is open to. In other, more informal settings, it may not be appropriate to talk about some of the more negative things he has experienced in his career as an educator.

Through his career, he has been through several "stages"--many of them seem to be more about his emotions than in the development of his actual skills as a teacher. As he is forming ideas for what he wants to leave behind as a legacy in his life as a music educator, it seems that his emotional reactions are the most important things he remembers.

The first stage is his over-confidence as a new teacher. I imagine that, as a new educator fresh from Case, I will erroneously feel as if I am ready for anything. His realization that he doesn't have much of a clue in his career is the next stage that he enters. Then, he tries to use coercion and intimidation to get the behavior that he wants from his students. As he moves into a new district, he seems to have more tools under his belt to make his classroom run more smoothly.

After he decides to stop using intimidation and coercion to manipulate his students, he seems to come to a new realization about himself as an educator: that positive reinforcement and coming up with solutions for problems works for him AND works for his students. This is not an earth-shattering revelation (to me), but it is the most important thing that I read about in this blog. He had lost sight of his power to affect himself, his students, and the quality of his rehearsals. When he realized this, it sounds to me that his career seemed to get back on track. It also seemed to me that he was able to affect change in his life and in his students' lives.