Hannah Byrne-Wolfson
Videos and Links
Third UConn Reflection
This page holds all videos and links for projects from Teaching and Learning Music 1802A.
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Link to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpRvAD9JyYKEH_cZDCGPBOg?view_as=subscriber
Music in My Life
First UConn Reflection
Movie Clip #1 - Professor Umbridge (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
Scene #1 - This scene, Umbridge’s first scene in the classroom, begins with the students staring in wonder at an origami bird that their fellow has managed to set in flight (using magic, of course). Though many of the students jokingly attempt to knock it down, using elastics and swatting at it, Umbridge is the only successful one – not only does she knock it out of the sky, she burns it out of existence. This destruction of student imagination is foreboding and symbolic, especially considering her following actions. Her immediate focus on the upcoming examinations reveals her teaching style as more temporary preparation than real learning. She cares very little whether her students actually learn to defend themselves in Defense Against the Dark Arts – she simply wants to see good test scores. This gives the students a sense that they don’t matter to her. She also practices a punishment based system (“study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be severe”), which is problematic in a classroom setting, because it teaches students that the main reason to do the right thing is to avoid punishment. It also reinforces fear culture, which creates a negative learning environment. By and large, kids learn better from someone they trust, not someone they’re afraid of. She then introduces her curriculum, which focuses entirely on one mode of learning (visual). This alienates all non-visual learners. To follow it all, she makes it quite apparent that she does not plan on listening to the views and thoughts of her students, and when one student challenges her ideals of standardized learning and cognitive dissonance, she not only refuses to hear him out, but quickly escalates the conflict into a shouting match ending with disciplinary action.
I chose this clip because when I think of exceptionally problematic teaching, I think of Umbridge. She was one of the first educators I came across who hurt me simply by watching her interact with her students. I remember, as a child, feeling so deeply for her class and feeling so hostile towards her after being immersed in the fictional world. It felt like, when she was cruel to her students, she was hurting me, too. Both this clip and the following have a deep emotional connection for me, because they were some of the first examples of fictional educators in my life.
I’m a big believer in the idea that the best of anyone in any profession is someone who is passionate about what they’re doing, and Umbridge here is anything but. She would much rather have students adhere to archaic rules than to have a real understanding of practical concepts, and it is this that leads me to call her a problematic teacher at best.
Movie Clip #2 - Professor Lupin (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
In this scene, Professor Lupin is teaching the students how to face boggarts – a creature that shapeshifts into what each individual fears most, and can only be defeated with laughter. Lupin has first made sure to gain the trust of his students, and approached the topic with care and tact. The first student he calls on is the most anxiety-ridden in the class. This allows the student to not have any expectations. Though it is scary, Lupin tells the student exactly what to do, step by step, coaching him through it and encouraging him. The student successfully turns the boggart into something that makes him laugh, increasing his confidence by a mile. A warm, welcoming and safe classroom environment is introduced. The rest of the students are also empowered, feeling that they can do it too. And they do! Until one student (Harry himself) faces the boggart and it turns into a dementor, which is a creature that feeds on the joy of others and eventually drains them of all positivity. Harry is frozen in the face of such a universally terrifying creature, but Lupin springs into action, ignoring any fear he feels or any embarrassment he may face from his students discovering his greatest fear. He runs into the path of fear and shame in order to help his student. This shows his students that they come first in his mind, and that he won’t hesitate to help them even at a great personal cost. The best part of the whole activity is that it’s risk free – despite the fact that boggarts manifest as a person’s greatest fear, they cannot actually hurt anyone. This effective use of multiple learning styles, the amount of careful planning put into an empowering activity for students, the safety precautions put in place in balance with the ability to have a meaningful learning experience, and the sheer dedication to his students demonstrated are all ideas of what makes Lupin a thoughtful teacher.
I chose this scene for a number of reasons: first, because it was extremely empowering for me as a child, and showed me how important education is and how much a teacher can influence a learning environment. It is also a wonderful contrast to Umbridge’s strict and tyrannical teaching of the same subject. It represents a teacher who truly cares for their students in a really heartwarming way. And frankly, it just makes me feel good. I love watching this scene, because it provides such a sweet break in an otherwise action-packed series and viewers really get to see the students blossom. It’s just a lovely scene. My only major critique would be the choosing of the order and the mandatory nature of it.
My main takeaways from both these scenes is to observe how much a teacher impacts a learning environment, and how even the smallest of choices they make has an influence on students. Teachers who show that students are more than grades on a paper often have more successful students – the impact of having just one person believe in you ripples beyond the classroom.
