Every time I present the idea of singing to my band students, I am greeted with a whole host of negative comments and remarks. You may have had similar experiences with student dissent when it comes to singing. I believe that this has very little to do with a student’s ability to vocalize as much as it has to do with confidence and comfort.
For band kids, singing seems to be an unreasonable task because it is too far from their comfort zone. If we force our students to make a leap that is beyond their level of comfort, we risk all sorts of behavior problems and having the flow of class disrupted. Our first reaction to something like this that doesn’t work is to get rid of it and do something else, something in the comfort zone. This is where we should really examine the “Why’s” of the situation. Reflecting on the “Why,” I have come to the conclusion that students need stepping stones.
For example, during my student teaching, I was successful in getting my junior high band (grades 7-8) to sing. If you think we were singing four-part chorales, we weren’t. But what we did achieve was the ability to sing during the tuning process. First, I came up with the goal: “I want my students to sing the tuning pitch before playing and adjusting their instruments to help increase their intonation accuracy.” After creating the goal, I focused on building small successes.
I began by introducing the tuning process to my students. “We first listen to the pitch, then we hum the pitch, and we finish by playing the pitch and adjusting our instruments.” (My cooperating teacher had already taught the students how to adjust their instruments depending on their intonation, so my work was easy!) After three weeks of having the students hum during the process, I decided it was D-Day. While the students were humming, I instructed them, “Now open your mouth.” By this time, the students were comfortable and confident with humming, so they were able to open their mouths without much thought. AND BAM!! They were singing! On pitch too! It was a success which lasted for the last several weeks of my student teaching experience.
I never mentioned that we would be doing any singing or vocalizing. I merely told them that humming the pitch will help us hear it and we’ll tune better. By giving students that stepping stone and reinforcing it over several weeks, they were able to achieve the goal I had set for them.
Does anyone have any input on how they have implemented singing in their band classroom?
If you’re a music teacher, there’s no doubt that you’re up to your head in extracurricular activities. You might run glee clubs, jazz bands, marching/pep bands, chamber ensembles… the list goes on and on.
Even though I have been only teaching for a short time, I realize one of the most effective things I can do to extend the influence of my music program is to be involved in the community in non-musical ways. The possibilities are pretty limitless for before and after school clubs. I think the most important factor is that the club involves a population of your school that you do not interact with on a regular basis.
I’ll admit I was never much of an athlete; coaching a sport or even an intramural isn’t really up my alley. But I do have quite a bit of experience in technology, so this year I’ll be starting a technology club (and possibly morphing it into a full movie production club- involving directors, writers, actors, and editors). I work with Student Leadership (like student council) and I would love to find a great niche for ELL students.
Great, Dan! You’re a second year teacher with no family and too much free time!
I know I certainly have the advantage of time. But I think it’s important that teachers commit some small portion of time to becoming a mentor and interacting with students outside of their curricular area, even if their own curricular area is rich with extracurricular opportunities. Building these relationships is crucial for the morale of a school and in encouraging a general love of learning. And for the doubters in the crowd, it can even help expand your program!
My friend and colleague Andrew Beard spent time coaching boy’s basketball while being a full-time choir teacher at a middle school this past year. Can you imagine the impact that this has on students? On recruiting for Men’s Choir?
I’m spending time on Carl Ben’s School Improvement Committee. One of our goals this year is to enhance the sense of community within our school; what better way to do this than have teachers in different curricular areas form extra opportunities from students all across the school?
I’ll admit it. I’m completely biased when it comes to the world of music and copyright.
After all, the music publishing site Andrew Beard and I are designing focuses on the idea that copyright should benefit the creator of the work, not the publishing company that is trying to rake in the enormous profit for themselves. Our ideas are relatively simple:
1. The creator of a work should retain the copyright. No more petitioning a major publishing house to seek permission to arrange your own composition. Yes, a colleague of mine had to submit a written request to obtain permission to make a TTBB arrangement of his original SATB composition.
2.A composer should have the right to withdraw his or her work from a publisher. If the publishing company provides sloppy service, doesn’t market your music, takes two years to publish your piece, and makes late payments, why should you stay with them? We realize we’re taking a risk. We can’t possibly promote everyone’s music individually, but composers should have the right to control withdraw music if a publishing company simply doesn’t make the cut.
3. Music educators should have site licenses for any given piece. If Hal Leonard thinks I should only have six flute players in my middle school band, and I have eight, I am supposed to purchase two additional copies of the piece. I am not gaining any new intellectual property, I’ve paid for the score and parts already! Instead, I should pay a fixed price for the intellectual property, and make any additional copies on my own.
Now, I’m not one to break the rules. So if you’re a member of the MPA, and think that I’m consciously breaking copyright law, I am not. But I whole-heartedly support publishing companies that play by the same rules that we do at Insightful Music.
As we try to go about reforming copyright and publisher practices, we still have the ethical responsibility to play by the rules. That’s why I’m frustrated with the number of technologically literate people who continue to use other people’s ideas and images without proper attribution. You’ll notice that at MusicEdForAll, we don’t use a lot of fancy graphics to illustrate our points. Most amateur bloggers (for education or otherwise) seem to feel protected by the “fair use” clause regarding borrowed images. Some of my instructors in online classes seem to think providing a basic attribution i.e. “borrowed from Bob’s Flickr account” constitutes appropriate use of copyrighted materials. If we had a pretty sweet payroll and could shell out a hundred dollars a month, we’d have nice, glittery graphics all of the time. While Google Images (advanced search) allows you to search for public domain images, truth be told, there aren’t many free, royalty-free image databases available.
If you’re like me and have some unique ideas about copyright, you may find the website QuestionCopyright.org an extremely interesting collection of articles and philosophies.
You’ve heard the arguments back and forth- should teachers interact with students on Facebook and Twitter?
Some professionals contend that popular social media applications lack data security, have inappropriate content, and create extra liability for school districts.
Other professionals argue that social media is the social reality for students of this generation. They spend copious amounts of time texting, twittering, facebook-ing, why shouldn’t we be using this medium to engage students?
I find myself in the middle of these two camps. I think the former group is right to be concerned; social media (in its current format) is at best a messy situation for educators. But I also think the second group is dedicated to meeting students where they’re at, utilizing tools that students already use to encourage collaboration inside and outside of the classroom.
I do have a personal facebook account, as well as a facebook account that is used to interact with teachers and students. Do I find this situation ideal? No. That’s why I’ve started to explore options to network and engage students in a secured environment.
Edutech, North Dakota’s primary educational technology company, has enhanced its WordPress-powered blogging software by creating a social network for students and teachers. Many other educational technology companies are designing Learning Management Systems (LMS) that are a hybrid with social networking platforms.
iSchoolBand is an example of one of these teaching/management/social/everything tools that is receiving a lot of attention on the Music PLN and across Twitter. I think iSchoolBand has a lot of great features, and the reviews are positive, but at the price tag of $199/year, I’m not even considering it.
I prefer Edmodo, a microblogging tool for educators. Dubbed as the “Twitter for Education,” Edmodo features a facebook-style interface, 140-character style microblogging, and a secure environment. Apart from its social networking, it allows teachers to post and grade assignments, hosts a library of digital content, and allows students to set up assignment reminders as SMS messages and emails. No need for liability issues, Edmodo lets students enter their cell phone numbers; the Edmodo server sends the text messages, and you never even have to know their phone number. Best part of all? It’s free!
For professional development, I am taking three courses this summer from Virtual High School dealing with online learning. I was asked to keep a blog of issues related to the class, and in doing so, I wanted to make it relevant to the readers of the MusicEdForAll Blog.
First of all, I need to address my biases when it comes to educational technology:
1.Educational technology should help aid students and teachers as supplemental material to the content of the course. That is, while technology can act as a fun, attention-getting novelty item, it needs to be implemented to enhance the structure of the course. In our case, we can teach music through technology, and not technology for its own sake.
2.Educational technology needs to be implemented in every course. Bearing in mind point number one (we are not replacing our content with technology), every course needs to be structured to meet the needs of 21st century learners.
3.There is no “easy button” for effective incorporation of technology, just like there is no “easy button” for effective teaching. Implementing technology in meaningful ways takes an upfront investment of time; but the payback can be tremendous. There is no single piece of software or hardware that will suddenly transform your classroom into one that is responsive to the needs of 21st century learners. Start small, but start somewhere when implementing technology. You’ll quickly learn from your successes and mistakes.
4. Educational technology companies are first and foremost businesses; and while many have good intentions, they will also try to sell you things that are not conducive to a better classroom environment. One of the buzz-topics among educators are interactive whiteboards; but do they really lead to student collaboration and increased learning? Many think not: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-smartboards-are-dumb-initiative.html. Instead, there are many cost-efficient and free software that may not be as publicized,
5. We are only limited by our imaginations. Have you ever taken the time to imagine how your classroom can be transformed through technology? Often times I’ve thought, “I wish I could convert this file,” or, “I wish there was a Twitter that was safe for students,” or, “I wish we could all edit an audio file at the same time.” Lo and behold, this technology all exists, for free! Even if you feel that you are at the beginning stages of implementing technology, take time to envision your ideal classroom. Keeping a playful, creative attitude towards technology will allow you to explore many possibilities for your classroom.
Recently, I attended a course regarding the implementation of blogs in the classroom. I sincerely appreciate those who teach technology courses to teachers, as the spectrum of technology-use amongst teachers often seems as wide as the diversity in our own classrooms.
I generally see three groups of teachers at these events:
“Techies”- who sport the newest smartphone, write professional blogs, podcast, and are constantly following and adapting technology for their own interest.
“Average Joes/Janes” who will incorporate technology into their teaching as required or encouraged by the school district, but who need some guidance along the way.
“Those resistant to change” who may believe themselves to be the “best” teachers and don’t need technology, or are too old or disinterested to attempt to learn new technology.
I freely admit that I have my own personal biases. I have coached a tech club, designed a publishing company’s website, and seek to keep up in our ever-changing world of technology. That being said; those of us educators who are invested deeply in technology also get caught up in the novelty and excitement of technology. It is important for us to take a step back and see the big picture- what technology provides the greatest assistance to our teaching? How can we use technology in a responsible way?
On the other hand, it makes me sad when teachers are too preoccupied with “the way things were.” Being part of a younger generation, I know that this is a more difficult concept for me to understand. But like in anything, I think we need to be welcome to change and to examine both the benefits and the consequences of new technology.
Technology will never replace good teaching. Giving smart boards and Flip cams to every teacher will not improve the quality of teaching in the least. Administrators need to examine the value of technology before it is implemented in a school system. Simply finding “the newest thing” that worked in a different school district does not mean it is appropriate for use in your school. Teachers need to be welcome to the idea of change, and need the education and support of people well-versed in technology to accompany them along the way.
When equipped with proper education, a willing attitude, and research regarding best practices of educational technology; technology can aid teachers in promoting a healthy, up-to-date, interactive classroom.
During rehearsals, it is not uncommon for our students to continue playing after we cut them off to work on something. It can be frustrating, especially when we are trying to move through a lot of material. This causes us to get upset and scold the students who keep playing or start talking immediately after we stop, reminding them of the rule to “stop when I stop.”
I’ve encountered this in my student teaching several times and I can tell you it is very frustrating. Even to the point where I take it personally. Through reflection I’ve tried to determine the causes of this run-on playing. Often times, instead of treating the causes of run-on playing we try to eliminate the symptoms, the playing itself. However, this doesn’t answer the question of “Why?”
I’ve come to realize that all to often in our daily encounters with students, we don’t step back and really think about why they do what they do, and say what they say. I believe the reason behind the run-on playing is that students are trying to tell us “I want to learn.” What I’m getting at is a fundamental issue in music education today: Performance Education vs. Music Education.
If you have access to the technology, I encourage you to video record yourself conducting and leading a rehearsal. Make sure to place the camera at the back of the room. This will give you a view from the students’ perspective. After school, watch the video (it might be painful to watch, but keep going). As you are watching, focus on one of several things:
1. Conducting – is it how you would like to be conducted to?
2. Speaking – How often are you speaking? Are you keeping your remarks positive and concise?
and (most importantly…)
3. Material – What are you teaching? Are you really? Or could you say that for any piece? Then answer Why am I teaching what I’m teaching?
This last question is one that I love asking of myself. Why? I believe that asking “Why?” can reveal meaningful information about ourselves, our students, and our rehearsals.
My next post will be on the topic of Music Education Standards in a Performance-Based Music Education system. Stay tuned…
Well, I’ve done it. I have successfully completed my Bachelor of Music Education degree from Concordia College!
I am now in the market looking for my first teaching job. I’ll have a Minnesota license for Instrumental/Classroom Music K-12 come June. I am currently looking in Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Illinois for middle or high school level positions.
Now that I officially have my degree, you can expect my posts to be much more interesting…
As a student teacher, I have been playing secondary instruments more often. Since I am searching for a job, I am interested in purchasing several new/used instruments to have in my personal arsenal.
I am a clarinetist, I know all of the ins and outs of the instrument and its accessories. Even after my techniques courses, I’m still left with a great void when it comes to knowledge about other instruments. And this has given me the motivation to try something. I am going to find a music store/repair shop that has many instruments to try. I’m not talking just new instruments, I am talking about play testing both good and bad instruments. I want to try several new instruments as well as several used instruments, and even some in disrepair. My plan would be to go with a friend who is an expert at their instrument to a music store where we could test play many instruments. I want to know what it feels like to play a saxophone when the pads don’t seal, I want to know what a well lubricated trombone slide feels like, I want to feel the effects of a trumpet with a dent in the lead pipe. I want to learn the things that a book can’t teach you. I want to learn through guided experience.
My thought is: by increasing my experiential knowledge of the equipment students use, I will know when an instrument is holding a student back, and I will also become a more effective teacher and a better resource for students.
Does anyone have any resources that might prove helpful for this type of endeavor?
Whew! Six months into my first year, and still going strong!
I have noticed, however, that my ears and eyes are in need of energizing and renewal. Day after day with middle school students has let me “settle for less” in terms of accepting their tone quality, intonation, and sight-reading skills.
In our current focus on standards-based education, we need to remind ourselves as teachers to set reasonable expectations, but to reinforce skills needed to attain our high standards. It is far too easy to give up on a particular student or a particular skill. Listening to the pinched tone quality of an eighth grade brass player used to cause me to interrupt my lesson plan and modify embouchure or breathing. As of late, I have often moved on, thinking “eh, it’s too late to change” or “it will fix itself over time.”
I need to refocus on setting high standards, and following through with appropriate modifications. I need to set time aside for score reading. No, I will never conduct Persichetti with my middle school band, but even (good) beginning band pieces have some layer of detail that does not reveal itself upon sightreading. I need to spend more time listening to professional musicians, take advantage of the fact that I live in a tri-college area, and continue to study with professors and other musicians.
This is what I love about teaching music- I can never be so skilled or passionate about my craft to consider myself masterful in every area of music. There is so much to learn and to embrace from thoughtful and inspiring people around me!
For professional development, I am taking three courses this summer from 
