The first semester of my senior year of high school, I did an internship with the music teacher at a local elementary school. It was great! I got to leave an hour from school early to go to my internship with someone holding a job that I've been considering.

I've known for a long time that I want to be a music teacher- especially private piano and voice lessons. I've known that at first, I'm not going to make enough to live on just the private piano and voice lessons so I've been trying to figure out which age group to work with. I'm pretty sure I'll need to start off at an elementary level and move up through junior high to high school. Then I've been trying to think about what music I'd teach. As much as I love teenagers, I don't know what class I would teach at a junior high or high school. I've done choir the most so I'd probably teach that but I'm not sure how good I would be at directing choirs. So, I'm thinking I might stay at an elementary level and teach the basics of music. I'm in an intro to music ed class right now and we've been talking lately about how important it is that children have a good foundation of musical knowledge before entering junior high so that they are comfortable with their choices in instruments and music classes. I've been thinking about what I would need to teach and remembering lessons from my internship that provided fun ways for the kids to learn basic music.

My internship was so great! The teacher I worked with was really creative and so good with the kids. Her lesson plans were all very hands-on (it's hard not to be hands on in a music class) and the kids loved her! I talked to some of the other teachers in the school and they all remarked on how their students loved going to music time. I want to be able to provide kids with positive learning experiences and a place that they can let out energy while still learning.

I want to provide them with a knowledge, not just of keeping rhythms, but of everything pertaining to music. The teacher I interned with taught one lesson a month about music from a different culture and/or country. I remember a few of them were Native American music, Australian music, and Brazilian music. She also had a composer of the month where one week she would give information about a mystery composer (where they lived, their family, favorite food, interesting facts about them) and the next week would reveal who it was and would play a well-known piece of theirs.

She also gave the kids opportunities to perform for each other if they wanted. It was great to see some of the older students perform a song from their piano lessons or get a group from their class to learn a dance. It gave them the chance to get used to performing and that's important for any of them who are going to play in bands, orchestras, or choirs in later years.

It was also good to see how patient she was. I got to see how she dealt with misbehaving students or problems that arose and she was able to do it calmly and quietly and the kids were able to participate happily again.

Overall, my internship was an extremely valuable learning experience and I would love to do another one someday.