Chapter 4 Bring on the Music

Chapter 4 was very humbling to me simple because we can hear about how materials are needed in certain areas and we just assume that they have them or we just ignore the request. Conroy has really stepped up what it means to be a teacher, and how we should look for outside ways to teach our students.  Conroy stepped outside the norm and brought the outside world to the students. I love to read and the library should be filled with great resources to expand the mind. Their library was ancient and had nothing that could spark a child’s mind or even want to pick up the book because it was way above their ability to read. I admire Conroy for utilizing music and geography to get the students imagination rolling. Bringing the world to them so that they can know that yes, there is much more than the Island.  He had the students to use their listening skills to recognize a melody of a song and the composer who created the piece of music with playing a little at the beginning or even trying to trick them by starting in the middle. The students listened to these now out dated records on a record player, I had a stereo that has one build inside. This is old I tell you. I thought it was a great idea to have his friends to use a tape recorder and give a brief history of themselves and the state they lived in. The state of New York was a hit with the students and they wanted to know all that they could learn about this great place. Mrs. Brown was not impressed with his new ways to teach the students, she assumed they were messing around and not sticking to the guide of learning. She always time after time want to enforce the need to teach from the outdated text books. Boring!!!!! Where would the fun of learning come from if Conroy chose not to use films, records, or even tape recordings?