Self-Assessment and Professional Goals
My Personal Attributes
My name is Noah Freeman and I graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of music with a degree in Music Education and a minor in conducting, with an emphasis in instrumental music. From my past experiences, I have developed a passion for teaching and working with students. Students are at the point in their lives where they are starting to grow, mature, and find out their true identities. If I can influence just one person, then it is all worth it.
I am comfortable with taking a leadership role. During my time at Indiana, I took on multiple leadership positions. For two years, I was on the execute board for the Indiana University chapter of the National Band Association. I was Treasurer for one year, where I managed the funds of the chapter by collecting dues, paying invoices, and developing an annual budget. The following year, I was Vice President where I presided when the President was not available, organized and conducted meetings, and organized masterclass opportunities for the undergraduate and graduate music education students. I was on the Indiana University chapter of the National Association for Music Educators. I was Treasurer for the one year where I managed the funds of this chapter, including balancing the books, paying the vendors, and organizing and presenting the budget. In addition, the executive board collaborated, organized, and held a state-wide Technology Symposium for all teachers throughout the state of Indiana in April of 2017. In order to balance schoolwork and these extracurricular activities, I need to be organized. I believe organization is one of my best attributes. I come prepared for every lesson, I submit materials before they are do, I believe that arriving early is being on time, and I routinely use a calendar. I have had a lot of leadership experience and I am comfortable in being a leader as well as a follower. It is just as important in being a follower as it is a leader. I am organized and can manage responsibilities well.
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In addition to leadership and organization skills, I value my dedication and perseverance. During my student teaching placement, there were a few ensembles where the repertoire might have been slightly above the ensemble’s playing ability. Instead of giving up on the students and making them feel lousy, I took time to break down specific sections, reword instruction, and directly help the students that were not able to play the music after a long stretch of time. I was able to motivate the students and persevere through the difficult music. When it was time to perform for an audience, the students had their music ready to bring to contest. I am someone who will be dedicated to a program and its students, no matter what the circumstance is. I value the education of students, and it is the reason I became a teacher. If I am able to influence one student, all of the hard work and preparation with teaching is worth it. It is rewarding to see the progress a student makes from when you first see them to when they leave your program.
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My Professional Development Goals
During my professional career, it is my goal for students to achieve a high level of success. In order to accomplish this, emphasis must be placed on fundamentals. When students get daily practice on fundamentals, their level of success will continue upward. These fundamental techniques include rhythm, tone, intonation, music theory, scales, sight reading, as well as various marching band techniques. I believe these are vital to the success of any program. In my experience, I have observed multiple programs in various states, and I believe that not enough emphasis is placed on fundamentals. When professional basketball players get to the National Basketball Association, they do not stop practicing their dribbling technique or shooting habits, they continue to develop and refine their skill. As a teacher, it is my job to teach students how to practice these skills on their own time so they can continue learning outside the classroom. It is my goal for students to learn how to evaluate their practice habits, in and out of rehearsal, and become self sufficient in rehearsal etiquette. All of these skills will lead to learning notes and rhythms faster, and give more time to clean and perfect each musical selection.
For my own personal development, there are a few areas in which I am striving to improve on. First, I would like to project more humor in my teaching. I am comfortable teaching older high school and middle school students, but being humorous with younger high schoolers is an area in which I want to improve on. You will lose the attention of the students if you do not use a certain amount of enthusiasm and humor when teaching. I am comfortable in front of an ensemble, but I could enhance my teaching by dropping a joke here and there. I am also progressing in error detection, but I would like to become quicker with my thinking. When I have more time to think, I am able to digest the mistakes the ensemble made. I would like this thought process to become instantaneous when detecting minute details during rehearsal. In addition, I would like to improve my knowledge of each instrument. I am comfortable in teaching my major instrument, the trumpet, as well as all brass instruments. I am constantly learning more about the woodwind instruments and percussion, but it is my goal to become just as precise with the woodwinds and percussion as I am with the brass. I need to be able to have multiple alternate fingerings for clarinets when a fast musical passage is performed. I need to know the specific tuning and intonation tendencies for oboes during a slow and lyrical passage. Instead of giving general comments during rehearsal, I am striving to become more particular with my instruction for every instrument.
I can continue to improve on these areas and achieve these goals in my professional career by practicing each one. First, at Indiana University, I was able to teach my peers and get evaluated by receiving comments on my instruction. I could then document those lessons and analyze how I was progressing throughout my education. I would assess myself to see what I was already knew and what I could improve on. If I am able to correctly assess myself in my technique, assessing my students will become easier. In addition, I will talk to successful teachers in the field, previous teachers and peers, as well as my parents, who are also music educations, for tips on how to improve each objective. This, along with observing different band directors, are great ways of getting ideas to incorporate in your own classroom. Lastly, studying scores, listening to recordings, and knowing literature will help improve fundamentals, rehearsal strategies, and classroom management. The more a band director knows their music inside and out, the better prepared they are during rehearsals. This will help with the flow of each lesson and in turn, cut down on classroom management issues.
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