arrange • compose • conduct
Posts discussing education, both in and outside of music
“In preparing for his oral qualifying examination, a rite of passage for every graduate student, he chose not to study the outlines of known physics. Instead he went up to MIT, where he could be alone, and opened a fresh notebook. On the title page he wrote: Notebook Of Things […]
Host Drew Carey began episodes of the improv comedy show “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” with the tag phrase, “the show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.” If there ever was a phrase for the utter reinvention of education in 2020, that’s it. And if we recognize […]
We can choose to seek many different destinations: Novelty Satisfaction Curiosity Distraction Dissociation Connection Peace Conflict Comfort One of the main lessons I seek to imbue my students with is to make the destination you seek beauty. Prioritize seeking beauty. To me, the outcome of all art should be beauty. […]
Punctuated Equilibrium is the theory, proposed and popularized by Stephen Jay Gould, that evolutionary change isn’t gradual, but instead has long periods of stability interspersed with rapid change. It is not the only theory to describe evolutionary change, but it is a persuasive one, and one that rings true when […]
In the first few turns of Yahtzee, your scorecard is wide open. You can take huge risks, knowing you’ll be able to score something, even if it isn’t ideal. And your risks can pay off with lucky rolls and higher scores. In the last few turns of Yahtzee, you’re most […]
I have been consistently inspired the past few weeks by the collaborative, supportive, freely sharing spirit of educators. So many teachers are spending every available moment creating new content, researching new techniques, learning new modalities – and they are freely sharing whatever they discover with colleagues. A pandemic makes us […]
To varying extent, we all teach in real time, rather than from a concrete plan. Good teachers react in the moment to their students’ faces, to the questions that are asked, to the specific singing that they hear from the choir. We make detailed lesson plans, and we throw them […]
A recent CDC study says that 25% of 18-24 year olds contemplated suicide in June. Even more reported anxiety and stress-related disorders. That’s got to be our top priority as teachers. Before we get to talking about robust learning, scaffolded growth and learning communities, before we get to talking about […]
Weeds aren’t manageable if you’re only available to manage them intermittently. For essential reasons, I’ve spent most of the summer unable to work in my new vegetable garden. (I built a 4×12 raised bed last spring, and added its twin this spring.) They’re fully planted with organic veggies – herbs, […]
Among the most pervasive arguments for reopening school buildings centers around student mental health. Here’s a quote from the initial guidance from the American Association of Pediatrics: “COVID-19 Planning Considerations: Guidance for School Re-entry” stresses the fundamental role of schools in providing academic instruction, social and emotional skills, safety, nutrition, […]