I’ll never forget that day, although I can’t remember if it was a practicum student or student teacher who had this happen.  He or she was working with some of my younger kids on mallet instruments and when they were finished playing he or she told the kids to put their mallets on their head like bunny ears.  Now, any experienced teacher reading this is going to know what happened next.  My kids became bunnies, hopping around the room with their “bunny ears”.  After we got them to stop, I asked my student where he/she learned that and they replied “Oh, we learned it in our general music methods class with Dr. So and So.”  Well, not sure Dr. So and So had been in a real elementary classroom for awhile because you have got to think like a child thinks in order to avoid having this kind of “creativity” happen in the classroom.  Not that it wasn’t funny, but it  certainly took a while to get the class back on track.

It’s all about theory versus practice.  I admire college education professors.  I have many friends who are college professors.  They have worked hard and earned those doctorates and PhD’s, much more than I have obviously.  However, only a handful of the professors I’ve known have actually kept their hand in the public school classroom on a regular basis.  Oh sure, they observe student teachers and evaluate, but when was the last time they tried to actually apply all that research and theory to real live kids in the classroom themselves?  I mean, the days of teaching “proximity” as the best method of classroom management are gone, even in the best of schools.

This begs the questions then, if it has been years since they were actually teaching kids in an elementary or secondary classroom, then how do they know they’re observing correctly?  Being able to talk the talk isn’t walking the walk.  You can tell the student teacher what to do all day but if you don’t have fairly recent practical experience, how do you really KNOW what you’re talking about based on current classroom conditions?  So many times, those professors may have had some public school experience, but they only taught for 3-5 years before pursuing their graduate degrees.  Teachers with only that amount of experience usually aren’t even allowed to have student teachers.  Why?  Because they don’t have enough experience.  I would estimate that it takes a full ten years before a teacher really finds their groove and still we continue to hone our craft.  After 27 years, I am STILL learning. And yet, it’s not unusual to have a college professor with just a few years of teaching experience trying to teach teaching.

Now, those professors who are actually getting themselves out into the classrooms bring a wealth of knowledge to their college students.  They can relate to the current state of education locally and work together to create a meaningful practicum or student teaching experience.  However, when the professor’s main job is research, while they may be able to share their findings, they very rarely put it into practice themselves in a tangible way.

Once of the finest college professors I ever had taught at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.  She is considered to be one of the best teachers in her field, teaching the Orff method for certification.  What made her so great?  I think it’s because, at the time, once a week she would go across the street to an inner city elementary school and practice her craft.  The strategies and activities taught to us had been tried on children and what she taught us could be directly applied in our classrooms.  That’s why professional development led by teacher leaders is the best because it’s not just theory, it’s practice.

Well, that’s why students go through students teaching, you say.  The supervising teacher is supposed to fill in all of the holes.  Well, sometimes, these are HUGE holes things that need to be re-taught, re-thought out, re-explained.  Things that were originally taught with no explanation as to why they are doing it and/or how it should be applied.  Nothing taught about the logistics of transitions, alternative classroom management methods, classroom environments that make teaching smoother, and age appropriate music selection, just to name a few.  For instance, my music lit class consisted of studying  oratorios and great choral pieces.  I just needed to learn how to choose music for my 5th grade choir.

While music students need to have a good background in music, thinking more on a practical level would be helpful.  For instance, instead of just teaching them to play different instruments in instrumental methods, why not teach them how to TEACH instruments to beginning students.  Instead of having voice lessons to make me sound better (important), why not also teach me how to deal with the boys changing voice?  Instead of teaching my peers and having the peers behave like 20 year olds who can just do the lesson, why not have them behave in a way that reflects the students we’ll be teaching?  Why not share with college students the fact that what takes your peer group ten minutes to accomplish will take two days in your elementary classroom?  This is not rocket science – it’s practical information to help students be prepared to be better teachers.

The vast majority of my practicum and student teachers have been bright, hardworking and passionate about teaching kids.  However, almost to a person, they all end up saying things like, why didn’t we talk about this in my classes?  I feel I should know more about overall child development but I only know it as it pertains to musical development.  Again, I know certain courses are required to graduate, but wouldn’t it make more sense to at least include in those classes, some of those hands on, practical, every day survival kinds of things to make their first years of teaching easier?  As a supervising teacher, I do everything I can do to prepare them for that first year, but it would greatly help if their college professors had some practical experience.  Then maybe we wouldn’t be trying to have kids put mallets on their heads.