Your Metaphor – The Band
My metaphor for teaching is a band. The image I found was on unsplash.com; it jumped out at me when I first saw it because I am a musician and enjoy playing in ensembles together with other individuals. The group sounds good as a whole because we are all playing together. Though our parts are different, the best groups are able to utilize everyone’s strengths and abilities to end products advantage.
This represents my teaching because, the students, and me, are like the instruments; we all have different strengths and weaknesses and we all have different abilities and purposes within the band as a whole. The lead guitar plays the solo, but the rhythm guitar provides the progression. The drums provide the foundation, the rhythm and beat, it holds everything together. The vocals and lyrics provide the storyline and narrative. Every instrument gives something different to the collective to make it stronger.
If you make everyone play the exact same thing in the same way, it is boring to the listener. The song will be better and more interesting if each instrument is allowed to have an opportunity to showcase itself. This is like how students are all different and the classroom becomes a more positive space when we allow room for differences and openness in contributions to discussions and assignments. Permitting creativity and experimentation is another element which is important in a band and can also translate to the classroom. Everyone feels more valued if they can come up with their own ideas and have them incorporated into the larger work and have them appreciated.
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