After looking at the Twitter discussions, there are several ideas out there including: how to increase participation in music classes instead of 80% not being enrolled in schools; how to appeal to students who like traditional and others who enjoy alternative music; what our definitions of “traditional” and “alternative” music is; various methods of teaching to make classrooms more creative and entertaining in a musical context; and reasons behind why students fail to demonstrate their creative abilities although they have them. A lot of these conversations posed the question of “How do I define things like creativity or traditional music?” and the result were continued dialogues that addressed the implementation of “outside of the box” methods to teach. Sometimes you would have to think rather simply and say that improvisation did not require even learning a blues scale. Instead it may simply be just having students play along to a back track and create different emotions. Other discussions were more technical like trying to apply for grants to provide more resources to connect to a wider array of students.
Some voices that I encountered were Ethan Hein, an adjunct professor of Music Technology at NYU and Montclair State University, and Michael Hayden, the Director of Orchestras at Wauwatosa East High School and state chair for the Wisconsin Music Educators Association who has written several articles about technology and music. The discussions broadened my current thinking of how simple it is to incorporate technology and how I can simplify an idea to the bare minimum or its raw contents to reach my students. Music does not have to be notation based or limited by resources. There is always a way to teach and work with what you have; if you need more resources, the music world is big enough that you can obtain help from others. This class, these discussions, and connecting to these great educators through Twitter makes me want to ask more questions, challenge myself to think outside of the box, observe more ideas, and discuss more with my peers and elders. My hope is to be the best educator I can and to do this I have to equip myself with all the proper tools and be willing to ask if I don’t know something or if I do need help. The biggest lesson I learned from this discussion is to ask questions and research to seek out the answers because in the end the stuff you learn is so beneficial. Comments are closed.
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Davina MiawOn this page, I will present examples of my scholarship in the form of reflective essays and philosophical assignments. Archives
November 2019
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