Community Connection

For this project I chose to interview a music teacher who teaches at a middle school and also plays violin for the Kamloops symphony orchestra. She is in charge of all the music classes in the school and teaches beginners and advance students for band and choir. Her name is Sharon Ipe and she teaches at eagle mountain middle school, I am so glad she accepted to be interviewed. I have always been interested in music since I was little, so I learned piano when I was a kid and a little more then a year ago I started violin in my middle school. For the teaching part i’m still not so sure if I want to teach music but I like helping others with things the don’t understand.

The Questions:

1. Can you explain your roles and responsibilities with your current position?

Her response: I am the one music teacher for the grade 6-8 middle school.
I am in charge of the performance music classes: Beginning Band, Advanced Band and Choir which takes up a quarter of the school’s population and I teach all of the Music Exploration classes, teaching everyone in the entire school.
I choose all the music the Band and Choir will perform for the concerts throughout the year and we put on 2 large-scale performances a year, and a handful of smaller performances.  I plan all the curriculum for Music Explorations.  .

2. What obstacles have you faced to get to where you are today?

Her response: I had to learn to play all of the band instruments – oboe, flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, trombone and percussion.

3. What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?

Her answer: I tell others give it all you’ve got – whatever school level it is.  Kids are worth your energy and expertise.  They want to learn.  Every age has amazing things for a teacher to work with.

4. Why are you passionate about your job or role?

What she answered with: I believe music is an underestimated powerful tool for every person.  I love creating my curriculum so that I can choose what I believe kids need to know and how to make it interesting for them.

5. What motivates you to keep teaching each day?

Her answer: Following through with my curriculum and seeing kids learning, persevering and coming out the other side saying, ‘now I know how to read music’.  For kids to see they can do it too.  When kids say thank you, it motivates me.  When parents say thank you, it motivates me.

6. Are there any advantages or disadvantages while teaching?

Her response: Advantages are that you are teaching people and making connections with youth.  Your efforts are making a difference in their lives.
The disadvantage…?  Sometimes the school doesn’t have enough money to support what you would like to do.

I learned that it is very important to know how to work with younger kids or with people who are new to the things you are teaching, it is not easy to do that. So for me I need to work finding more ways to connect with others, so that I can help them more. It’s so important that the one you are teaching wants to learn and would not just give up or is forced into it. I think the advantages and disadvantages would be different for everyone but since we are in Canada there are a lot of different people here and knowing more than one or two languages can help so much more people.