Ten Characteristics of a Successful TBMI Teacher

            In chapter five of Theory and Practice of Technology-Based Music Instruction (2013), Dorfman lists ten characteristics that he believes a teacher should have in order to be effective in teaching technology-based music classes. These include “willingness to experiment/be lost, willingness to ask for help, focus on musical fundamentals, willingness to listen to/teach new music, desire to teach non-traditional music students, willingness to fight the good fight, willingness to relinquish control, knowing the software and hardware, interest in fostering creativity, and willingness to fail” (Dorfman, 2013).  As I look at this list, I feel that I have five of those characteristics, there are three that (if I’m being completely honest) I definitely struggle with, one that I just have no idea about, and one that falls squarely in the middle.

            The five characteristics I feel I embody are  the willingness to experiment/be lost, willingness to listen to/teach new music, focus on musical fundamentals, interest in fostering creativity, and willingness to fail. One of my other teaching duties, and one which I really love, is working with our elementary gifted students. The first thing I learned when I started working with the gifted students more than ten years ago is that I had to be willing to experiment and get lost. I am continually doing new things with my students, based on their strengths and interests. I have had many successful lessons and I’ve had some complete failures. I think that this mindset has followed me as I moved back into a music position. I am always looking for new lessons and new ways to teach concepts. I’m afraid I’d be bored if I always did everything the same way! I also enjoy listening to new music - when my students talk about a genre or artist that I don’t know much about, I explore that. I think that being open to other music helps me to connect to my students in a meaningful way. Also, they get a big laugh from watching me try to beat-box!

I find my lessons to be focused on the fundamentals mentioned by Dorfman (2013); “rhythm and pulse, pitch, harmony, and form” (p. 74). These are the building blocks to understanding music, and I feel that if I can give my students a solid background in these concepts, they will be able to appreciate music throughout their lives, even if they never play an instrument or sing. I also work to help my students be creative, whether it is through movements to express the music they are hearing, or through writing or improvising their own music.

The final characteristic that I believe I possess is the willingness to fail. I liked the quote that Dorfman mentions from one of his “Profile of Practice” segments (p. 95). “Mrs. V” had a poster displayed on her classroom wall that read, “Life is all about making mistakes and learning from them.” If we are willing to learn from our mistakes and failures, we are showing our students in a very real way that it is okay to fail because that is where the real learning takes place.

            The three concepts with which I struggle the most are willingness to ask for help, willingness to relinquish control, and the knowledge of software and hardware. I struggle with the idea of asking for help. I am a very independent person, and I will expend a lot of energy and time to resolve issues on my own. (Interestingly, though, I am fine with having my students help me. If I am having trouble making some of the technology work in my classroom, I will first ask the students if they have any ideas of how I can fix the problem.) I think that the lack of this characteristic is related to another - the willingness to relinquish control. I am definitely happier when I am in control of what is going on in my classroom. I am better at turning over that control when I am in my gifted world, but not so much in the musical realm. I know that letting my students have more control over the learning process would give them more ownership in their learning, but this is a difficult area for me. The other characteristic that I know I have trouble with is the knowledge of software and hardware. I do not find it easy to learn new technology, and so I am always struggling with using technology in my classroom. I very much relate to the example that Dorfman shares about the interactive whiteboard (p. 77). I would love to have the board be more interactive for the students, but I find myself using it to show them information in a passive rather than active way.

            I am not sure how I feel about teaching the “non-traditional music students.” I certainly want to reach all of my students, whether they are interested in the more traditional types of music learning or not. I do know that I struggle with those few students who don’t seem interested in anything we do in music class, and that frustrates me. I am really on the fence about the willingness to fight the good fight. I definitely advocate for my students whenever I get the opportunity, but I am realistic enough to know that the supply of funding is finite, and there are many areas that should be supported with that funding. I think that is one of the reasons that this class represents a bit of a dream world for me. I would love to be able to design lessons using a music technology lab that we have read about, but I also know that the reality of my school district is that there is not the funding to support such a lab. Dorfman (2013) states that, “It is safe to assume that teachers who do not possess some degree of each of these elements would experience tremendous frustration with TBMI” (p. 81). I believe that I would have to do a lot of professional growing in order to be an effective TBMI teacher.