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jedscott
Sing With Your Kids
“Ah, music! A magic beyond all we do here!” – Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone The value of reading aloud to your child is well-documented. And the joy of sharing books like the Harry Potter series with your kids can’t be overstated. Just as important, […]
Practicing Compassion
Piano. Reading. Yoga. We learn to practice the skills that we value in life, but many think of compassion as a trait, not a skill. What if it isn’t? What if compassion is a muscle we can exercise and build? Who would then argue that we shouldn’t teach, exercise, cultivate […]
Composing Sight Reading: Priorities
I’m in the midst of writing sight reading exercises for MSVMA 2016 Festivals; here are my top-5 criteria in composing the exercises. 5. Appropriate intervallic material. MSVMA designates three levels of sight reading at the high school level, each with specific permitted intervals. 4. Appropriate rhythmic material. Same as 5. […]
Sunsets
Sunsets draw people in almost without fail. Why? What is it about a five-minute daily occurrence that transfixes us and nourishes our souls? For me, it’s a primal connection – it’s the same sunset that my ancestors have experienced; it connects me to a constancy in the world. Further, it’s […]
Building Capacity
My friend Steve runs an excellent board meeting. One of the things he always sets aside time for in the meeting is “capacity building” – activities that on the surface don’t seem to have much to do with the business of a state board. They are crucial, though – they […]
Get Good At Hard Jobs
High school students: you aren’t going to like the easy jobs in life. Easy jobs are dull. Easy jobs don’t let you be creative. Easy jobs don’t provide advancement. Get good at hard jobs now. Get good at doing more than what is asked. Get good at spinning many plates. […]
Performances With Breath
What I’m looking for in a performance? Breath. I’m not interested in a choir singing exactly the way they sang in last night’s rehearsal. What’s the magic of that? Sometimes the breath comes from an edge of danger. Music slightly too difficult to perform easily. An unexpected starting tempo that […]
My Kind of Unique
You spend your life looking for people who are “my kind of unique.” Weird like us. Fellow geeks. There are people I recognized in ten seconds as on the same road as me. The trick is knowing them from the people at the same intersection, but on a different road. In […]
Coach vs. Guru
Are you a coach or a guru? A great coach gets people to achieve by pushing them further than they think they can go, keeping the pressure intense. When we were preparing students for jobs with vertical structure – bosses with bosses – the skill of being pushed by a […]