One of my main goals as a music educator is to provide authentic music-making opportunities that live in the real world for my students. I want my kids to see themselves as part of a larger community of musicians and composers, because we know that when students feel a part of something beyond the classroom walls, they are motivated to make discoveries and go deeper into the world of music. Continue reading Community Music Making in the Classroom with Soundtrap and Noteflight
I’ve recently been thinking a lot about Tom Little’s new book Loving Learning: How Progressive Education Can Save America’s Schools. In it he highlights a number of progressive school values that prepare students for success. Continue reading Original Group Song Performances
Every music director has made the following exclamation either out loud or silently while lying awake at night: “Our ensemble needs to experience playing music together after all notes and rhythms have been mastered.” Why? This is when the magic of playing music together happens. We want our students to experience how the joy and art of collective music-making is taken to a heightened state when our minds no longer need to be concerned with “what note is that?” or “how does that rhythm go?” What’s more, when students can play their music effortlessly we can put our energy towards exploring and practicing the many nuances necessary for bringing the music to life. Too often directors and students spend their valuable class time going over things that should be tackled before or after a rehearsal. Continue reading Progressive Approach to Practicing: HS Wind Ensemble’s Peer Evaluations
Am I able to check in with which each of my students with enough regularity that I know what their needs are? And more importantly, are my students able to reflect upon and articulate their needs themselves? Up until recently I’ve relied upon assessing their work at certain points in a project or class time check-ins whenever possible to keep each of my students’ needs on my radar. For the student who is more of a quiet learner and less comfortable interacting and expressing themselves it is often a bit of a puzzle for me to determine their needs. Continue reading Do We Know What Our Students’ Needs Are?
As part of the first Innovation Institute, our middle school cohort consisting of Susannah, Sherezada, Dave and Matt took on the challenge designing the weekly block of time that will be designated for individual student exploration. Our initial prototyping dealt with testing out the process through which students will determine their topic of exploration. We brought in 3 middle school students to test our initial ideas. Here is a video recap:
You can view our slide show presentation here.
