arrange • compose • conduct
When I started writing daily, it would have been easy to get in the habit of labeling each post with a few content tags. Even six months, in, it wouldn’t have taken me long to go back and amend the 180ish posts to more easily find topic-based essays. Now I’ve […]
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 […]
Being in a choir is more than singing together. It’s a family. It’s a community. It’s the best place I know to learn collaboration and trust. Being in a choir is more than singing together, but I just know that the first time we can all sing together again, I […]
I don’t think the right goal for most people is to be a game-changer. Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Mickey Mantle. J.S. Bach, Stevie Wonder, Jacob Collier, Esperanza Spalding. Picasso, Monet, Michelangelo. Julia Child, Alton Brown, Samin Nosrat. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Malala Yousafzai. The thing about being a game […]
The week before school starts is always a tenuous time. Then there’s 2020. The week before is about trying to balance the first-day jitters and the prep work with the desire to squeeze every last bit of joy from the summer. The week before is about looking around and saying, […]
There are at least four different mindsets around the universal human urge to make art. I want to make art, so I make art. I want to make art, so I ask for help and learn. I want to make art, but I don’t want to fail, so I wait […]
Your best work is only 10% of your collected works. This is true no matter how good your work is – the best is the best. It’s true for you, it was true for Frank Lloyd Wright, Joni Mitchell, and Ludwig von Beethoven. It’s true for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stevie Wonder, […]
This is my fourth year directing Shades of Blue Vocal Jazz Ensemble at Grand Rapids Community College. It goes without saying that normalcy isn’t going to be found in choral ensembles anywhere in the world this year. Here’s my plan for Shades of Blue. The ensemble will be focusing on […]
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, […]