Yesterday afternoon, I watched the annual Mum Festival Parade in my home city. I enjoy going to local parades, because there are always four really good marching bands that perform. They were all at the parade yesterday, and none of them let me down, but one impressed me for a reason I hadn’t thought about … Continue reading Why Are Some Ensembles Good and Others Great?
Classroom Management
Teaching Students to Manage Their Emotions
As much as we might want it to be otherwise, teaching music does not just involve teaching music. Because we are teaching children and teens, we must sometimes or even often teach our students non-music specific life skills so that they will be equipped to learn music. One of the most challenging areas for many … Continue reading Teaching Students to Manage Their Emotions
We Are More Than Teachers of Music
Today my post is a little different; it is more about life than about music. As music teachers, we have the opportunity to impact our students’ lives year after year. Unlike many of our colleagues who teach different class of students every year, we teach all of the students in our buildings year after year. … Continue reading We Are More Than Teachers of Music
How Can The Future Be The Present? A Strategy for the Music Classroom
Probably everyone knows that the present is not the same as the future. The present can be seen, and is occurring now. The future has not yet occurred, but will occur. You are reading this word now, but will be reading my next sentence in the future. You don’t know what my next sentence will … Continue reading How Can The Future Be The Present? A Strategy for the Music Classroom
What Can L.A. and Math Teachers Learn from Music Teachers About Practice?
It is always good to read that researchers have found ways in which music benefits brain development, spatial reasoning, language acquisition, and other areas of learning. Such studies have often been sited by music education advocates in defense of maintaining or even expanding music programs in schools. Work has also been done on integrating common … Continue reading What Can L.A. and Math Teachers Learn from Music Teachers About Practice?
What Does A Classroom Where Everyone Is Teaching and Learning Look Like? (Creating Music Part 2)
Today's post is a continuation of yesterday's article, where I began to describe using the core arts standards for creating to design a classroom environment where ideas and knowledge are shared freely as a key part of a rich educational culture. Once musical ideas have been created and selected, they are evaluated. The student is … Continue reading What Does A Classroom Where Everyone Is Teaching and Learning Look Like? (Creating Music Part 2)
Are Teaching and Learning Really That Different?
Often when reading educational theories, I find the phrase “teaching and learning.” Typing the phrase into a popular search engine yielded 113,000,000 results. In general, understanding is seen as the goal, and teaching is seen as the actions leading to that goal. In their seminal work “Understanding by Design,” Wiggins & McTighe explained a concept … Continue reading Are Teaching and Learning Really That Different?
What Approach is Best to Handle Defiant or Whiny Students?
During the course of my teaching day, I have many opportunities to prevent or respond to undesired behavior. Though no two children are identical, I have noticed that undesired behavior often can be placed into one of two categories: defiance or whining. Children who dig in and refuse to do what they are asked frequently … Continue reading What Approach is Best to Handle Defiant or Whiny Students?
mister a music place 
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