What I Teach
I believe that the primary goal of the general music classroom is to provide students a safe environment and opportunities for as much creation as possible – specifically through dance, drama, singing, instruments, improvisation (in all of the aforementioned areas) and composition, for a start. I believe in teaching music from as many world cultures, time periods and musical styles as possible. I believe in utilizing the power of speech and the spoken word to enhance and enrich my instruction. I insist on only teaching the highest-quality repertoire.
How I Teach
I strive to make a difference in my students’ lives through my pedagogy and through my personal relationships with my students, and I strive to be a positive role model in and out of the school environment.
I believe that students express their musicality via a range of media and performance/assessment tasks, and I am committed to providing a wide range of opportunities for all students to express themselves musically in a satisfying way – e.g., through dance, singing, composition, project-based learning, written/drawn work, improvisation, listening, etc. I believe that varied experiences in each music class period best benefit students’ learning and best keep them engaged. I believe that a mixture of movement, imitation, creation, exploration, intellectual investigation, exercises, repetition, performance via singing, performance via body percussion and/or instruments, and a mixture of sitting and standing/moving activities is optimal for learning and for student engagement, and I pledge to try my best to have the largest possible portion of each class period be devoted to students actively making music. I believe that it is my responsibility to help students delve “a level deeper” than they or I might always expect from a given piece of music, to make “just a song” into a genuine creative experience with opportunity for original inventiveness and student contribution(s) to the music-making. Finally, I believe in utilizing technology to the greatest extent possible in my own teaching, to engage students and enrich their experience with and understanding of the materials at hand.
Why I Teach
I believe that the general music classroom presents an opportunity to all students to experience successful music-making, self-expression, and contribution to a whole in a positive way. I love music, and I consider it my task to communicate my enthusiasm and passion to my students, not necessarily with the end goal of creating professional musicians, but with the goal of nurturing students towards loving, appreciating, understanding and creating music in their own self-validating ways.