Any teacher, not just a music teacher, works in a field that is constantly growing and/or changing. If a teacher stays stagnant and stops the learning process in him or herself, then they are dooming their students to failure in the classroom. No one stops learning when the graduate from any institution, and that includes the teacher above all. Professional development comes from many different sources, including, National Association for Music Education (NAfME), National Band Association (NBA), and Indiana Music Educators' Association (IMEA).
Another way of continuing to grow as an educator to constantly reflect on lessons and planning. Being able to reflect after a teaching allows the teacher to understand what worked, what did not, and how they can improve on the problem spots in future lessons. A reflection can only work if the person reflecting is honest about what they see and hear from their lessons. That means being honest about both the teacher's and the students' actions during the lessons and how they reacted to certain things throughout the lesson.
Reflection MusED 375 (A reflection statement after a micro-teaching in Secondary Instrumental Methods.)
Reflection MusED 355 (A reflection statement after a peer teaching in Elementary General Methods.)
Rationale: I have had to write reflection statements during my college career since my MusED 100 course. But I choose these two reflection statements because there are from later in my college career and they are from a secondary class and an elementary class. Both reflections were written after an in-class teaching episode in from of my peers. The first teaching was conducting a small ensemble and the second was teaching a song by rote. Both of these statements show my ability to reflect in a professional manner after a teaching episode and my learning of Principle 9.