Teaching Metaphor Revisited

After having taught a full unit this semester, I believe that my orignal teaching metaphor still stands. While I was teaching my unit, I did feel like a conductor of a band at many times. I had to organize all of my lessons just like a conductor plans rehersals. I had to think about what my students already knew and base my teaching on their prior knowledge base. Just as a band needs new pieces to work on that challenge their existing skill level, so to does a class of students need new material to work with and learn that challenges their existing knowledge. However, a band cannot be given a piece that is too complicated for its members to play. If this happens, the band will not grow and develop new skills. Instead, the band members will become frustrated with failure. In the same way, I had to make sure that I was targeting my students at their instructional level and not giving them material that was too difficult. Sometimes it was hard to find this delicate balance.

My class was also composed of many different students with different skills, backgrounds, and interests. Just as a band must learn how to play euphonious music with all of its various instruments, so too did I have to learn how to teach a group of very different students so that they all learned and benefitted from my instruction. Although this process was not easy and took a lot of effort, it was definitely worth it. Just as a conductor smiles and bows proudly after his band has played a piece successfully, so too did I smile and bow in my own head after a successful lesson.