Helps for Music Teachers Part 2

It’s August, as is one of the most important months for music educators.

During this month, planning must occur and while still on vacation, and one must design one’s curriculum for the year, at least informally. Planning must include crafting designs while anticipating the needs of all the students.  Devising functional classroom management strategies may require extra concentration. Communicating one’s philosophy through the personality of the actual classroom by arranging seats just right, for fostering a collaborative and student centered music classroom is priority. Remember that, reflecting the needs and accommodating all learning styles cannot be planned on day one of classes, but must be planned and designed before-hand.

Planning the music curriculum

Planning is a key component to the success for one’s music curriculum. After assessing the previous year, one should know how to better plan for the upcoming year.  The 10 week cycle that I have grown accustomed to, enables me to have the same elemental focus in theory for all four quarters, as students are able to expand their musical skills based on prior knowledge. With seven musical elements as the premise for music theory including melody, harmony, tempo, timbre, form, dynamics, and rhythm, the design is developed and differentiated according to the needs of the students.

How to accommodate the desires of students but still accomplish my music goals

I teach general vocal music and one consideration I have is for the boys in grades six through eighth grades to participate in the singing as much as the girls. Some love to sing while others are into a hip-hop culture and only want to wrap. However, my philosophy for music education will not allow me to relinquish the musical selections over for students to select all of the performing music. The result will be all deserts and no sustenance.  Remember at the end of 10 weeks I have to present students in concert. So, what do I do?

Stay tuned for the next post!!!

Helps for the Music Educator

                                                                     

Knowledge is power, and after over 25 years of teaching public school while serving urban communities as a music educator, I believe I have been granted power through wisdom, knowledge, and reasonble understanding, about teaching music in the K-8 settings.  Although I believe that one should never stop learning and personally sharpening ones abilities in the subject area one has mastered; one should also be alert, and expecting that refreshing experience will occur as one will also be able to add to one’s own body of knowledge. 

Evidences from my experience as an educator are that knowledge changes, policies change, curriculums change, standards change, administrations change, schools change, and educators are moved and changed leaving the field of education with the appearance of being uncertain and often unstable. Changing authorities and approaches elicit one's wise responses to the changes in education as to avoid becoming indifferent to change. One's own philosophy then guides the path as the inpetus and motivation for the educator in the midst of change.  This philosophy will guide as one determines to operate within the realms of ones convictions, while alleviating some of the frustrations that accompany uncertainties for the educator.

I respect serving in a valued autonomous learning environment as this environment fosters growth as one develops skills for aligning and designing one’s curriculum  reflecting the students one educates. I believe that autonomy helps to promote one’s own craft as a facilitator able to select skills and knowledge believed most valuable to one’s students.  Educators who do not posess the freedom to design or craft units of learning are often devoid the full joy of teaching, as teaching then is no longer an art but has become a rigid system with restaints where teachers and students cannot be free to think critically.

Because the Internet has profoundly affected the lives of students in the K-8 settings, one cannot ignore the era in which our music students live. Different ways of learning within the music education classroom in the K-8 setting must undoubtedly be research-based and relevant, reflecting the interest of the students if we will have active learners. This means educators must be sensitive to facts that students are exposed to youtube, itunes, Pandora, Spotify, and other music listening sites daily. Therefore the music classroom cannot abandon current and relevant music of the day. One must make difficult choices relevant for the educational setting and the music classroom.

As iron sharpens iron, through this blog, I wish to provide for you a rare opportunity. I believe music educators have extreme power in schools but often lack forums for discussing many of the necessary choices relevant to music education. Therefore, the next few blog posts will provide helps for the music educators, to help with making sound choices, while not compromising one’s philosophies nor the researched educational advantages for the music curriculum in the K-8 setting. Stay tuned as I seek to provide "helps for the music educator".