Is music an object or an experience, or both? All views have filled pages of scholarly writing, and the answer that any music educator settles on will perhaps influence how s/he teaches music more than anything else can. If you believe that music is an object, then you will teach about music, and have your … Continue reading Views of Music
General Music
Working the Scheduling Kinks Out
Every year as I prepared to return to school, the foremost thing on my mind was what my schedule was going to look like. A schedule can make or break and entire year. I've had schedules in which for one or two days, I've taught seven classes straight through with only a lunch break, I've … Continue reading Working the Scheduling Kinks Out
Language in Music Teaching
Learning is a process of inquiry, thought, and discovery. A person is faced with an unknown, which begins a line of questioning and searching. Thoughts, ideas, and hypotheses are formed from thinking through the questions, and further searching and thinking leads to discovering new knowledge. The searching and thinking includes exploring similarities and differences between … Continue reading Language in Music Teaching
An Approach to Lesson Planning
Some districts have a template all teachers must follow in writing their lesson plans, while others leave the form to the teacher, perhaps only requiring that certain specified elements be included. My purpose here is not to prescribe what should be included in a lesson plan, but instead to suggest an overriding outline or approach … Continue reading An Approach to Lesson Planning
How Does Music Work?
We have all encountered teachers who began some music course or other by asking "What Is Music?" Leonard Bernstein, paraphrasing this often posed question, I suppose, asked "What Does Music Mean?" Many answers have been proposed to the former question, and Bernstein's answer to the latter, after an interesting lecture, was that music doesn't mean … Continue reading How Does Music Work?
Starting Out In A New School
Recently, I offered suggestions for Preparing to interview for a Teaching Position. If you are looking for a teaching job, you can follow the link to read that article. Today I would like to follow up on that post and discuss how best to proceed once you are hired. When you begin in your new … Continue reading Starting Out In A New School
Getting Your Classes Off To A Good Start at Year’s Beginning
The beginning of a new school year is always a hopeful and exciting time. Students by then are happy to return to school and be reunited with friends they haven't seen all summer, and then there is the fresh start feel of a new grade, new teachers, and new classes. It is also a time … Continue reading Getting Your Classes Off To A Good Start at Year’s Beginning
Preparing to interview for a Teaching Position
If you're looking for a music teaching position this summer, you're probably at least starting to go on interviews. Because of the sometimes uncertain way in which American public schools are funded, districts often are not at liberty to move on filling a position until fairly late in the summer. This post will go over … Continue reading Preparing to interview for a Teaching Position
Music Theory Tutorial: Chords and Voice Leading
Before I begin discussing chords and voice leading, I would like to make two points about music theory in general. Many have the misconception that music theory involves sets of rules from which composers wrote or write music. This is not the case. Music theory is not sets of rules, but rather sets of observations … Continue reading Music Theory Tutorial: Chords and Voice Leading
Beginning of the Year Assessments
All assessments, no matter when they are given, are designed with one purpose in mind, and that is to document what the students taking the assessment know and don't know. With this knowledge in hand, a teacher can design leaning, individualize instruction, and teach to a classes overall needs. Beginning of the year assessment offer … Continue reading Beginning of the Year Assessments
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