arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing education, both in and outside of music
Fun and learning are not either/or. We’re taught pretty thoroughly – and consistently – in school that there are two tiers of behavior. There’s relaxed, fun, social behavior and there is serious, focused, studious behavior. The outcome is that students don’t know how to have fun while learning. They have […]
When my students haven’t mastered things I’ve been teaching, I always assume it’s for one reason. I haven’t convinced them of the value of mastering that knowledge. If I don’t know why something is important to know, I personally have trouble holding onto it. I assume it’s the same for […]
This is where we start. I think the best educators, leaders, and collaborators have love in common. Above any skill, above any vision is love. The best educators combine a love for their subject matter with a love for each student who comes into their classroom. They love each student […]
Students can learn from watching their teachers try, fail, and try again. You’d think that consistency in one place would imply consistency in another. But even though I write every day here, with no gaps in close to 9 years, I am utterly unreliable in my weekly notes to my […]
In a well-run choir class, there’s no such thing as busywork. From vocal warmups to sight reading to music literacy skills to repertoire rehearsal to good news and story time; everything is placed there intentionally to advance the growth and success of the singers. Indeed, everything is is designed intentionally […]
One more for the old cognitive dissonance file. I want my students to know that there is no hurry on achieving their dreams. If it takes a little longer to complete your music degree, or to learn to belt an A, or to find your musical community, that’s okay. We […]
Teaching is an adventure. It should be. If you aren’t finding every day different – every hour different, even with the same lesson plan! – you have lost what is essential about teaching. Teaching is not about conveying information. That is done more efficiently by books, by Wikipedia, by educational […]
If there’s one thing I think you must do to be a good teacher, it’s this. Leave them more curious than you find them. In music, science, literature, mathematics, and every other subject you can name, there are two basic attitudes we can adopt as teachers. Fostering curiosity is harder, […]
Leadership is an earned skill. You can only possibly get better at leading by doing it more. And to really experience it, that means no-net leadership. As a Scoutmaster, I am in the position of being encouraged by the organization to let the leaders do their best, and fail, in […]
Repeating means reusing. I love the second, and third, and fourth time doing something – because it gives me the chance to reuse things I’ve worked hard on. Hard-won knowledge, certainly, but even more frequently, carefully crafted documents. In my sixth time supervising the Michigan All-State Choir, I have a […]