I had always wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. When I was young I had planned to study elementary education to teach young kids, and when I was in high school I thought I wanted to be a band teacher. Now that I'm older and actually going back to school, I've decided I want to teach choir. But one thing I really didn't want to do was to teach in the public school system because of how much red tape and politics are associated with public education. I personally think the public education system is severely broken, and even though teachers are doing their best to work within that broken system, it's not always enough.
I do still want to be a teacher. I've had the opportunity to teach in many capacities throughout my life, from homeschooling my children, teaching lessons at church, and for the last 10 years being a childbirth educator, so teaching has always been in my blood. I love it. Service learning has helped me understand that music teachers largely exist in a different space than most other teachers. They often have significant freedom to run their music classes however they see fit without having to worry too much about curriculum or standards or testing (though those things are still included when needed), which is something that was of great comfort to me.
My next steps are just to continue with my own education. It actually just occurred to me that I could also (and probably should) be observing my own teachers in the classroom on their teaching methods. I'm also feeling the desire to continue observing in classrooms, despite the requirement for service learning being over. Since I spent most all my time observing in an elementary music classroom, I'm wanting to also observe in high school and middle school classrooms as well. I have a connection with the high school choir teacher, so I may contact him and ask if he'd allow me to come observe at some point.
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