music

From the Stage to the Classroom: Reflection on Patty Oeste’s MEJ Article

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I’m not even sure we have one of these in this little college town!

I love getting mail! Unfortunately, 4 times out of 5 my mailbox is filled with credit card offers and flyers from the SuperSaver that got my address when I tried to win a big flat screen TV at their grand opening. Yesterday, though, I was happy to find this quarter’s edition of the Music Educator’s Journal published by NAfME. Usually, I scan through these and read one or two articles and let the rest sit, but this issue is packed full of great material and I’ve been totally absorbed in it for the last two days.

I loved Patty Oeste’s discussion of why she left the stage as a performer and became a music educator.

“Every student who enters my classroom is a story being written, and I am allowed to contribute a page or two. My pages are important, and I do not take this responsibility lightly. … I see the power of music in action every day. My students thrive. They learn to listen, and they learn to be flexible in their thinking. They take risks, and gladly. And what is truly amazing is that many students who enter my classroom don’t always shine in other classrooms. But, we can revel in their many successes in music. We laugh. We talk. We sing. We create.

I would have to say that I am not hear to teach music, but to surround my students with the beauty they may not find elsewhere.”

This description is exactly why I love teaching music! Teaching music is about giving students the chance to experience beauty that is not found elsewhere. We prepare them to encounter the world’s beauty wherever they might find it.

I also loved Ms. Oeste’s description of what leaving the performing stage was like:

“I found that the perfection and discipline demanded on stage is even more important in the classroom setting.”

Riga, Latvia after one of our last collegiate performances ever!

Riga, Latvia after one of our last collegiate performances ever!

The last five years I spent working toward my performance degree was not wasted. It trained me to be disciplined, to seek perfection, and to build an attitude of excellence that I will bring to my future classroom every day.

 

Live and In Person! The Transcendence of Experiencing Live Art

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Live and In Person! The Transcendence of Experiencing Live Art

Think of those experiences that have inspired you to want to be better, to be a part of something bigger and greater, to transcend limits and to touch, if only for a moment, something divine. Then start searching for ways to create those experiences for your students and inspire yourself in the process!

Live-and-In-Person

When I was touring with my college’s choir through Europe, I noticed that there was something different in the crowds (even if they were small) that gathered to hear us sing. There was a sense of reverence or attention that I didn’t really notice when traveling in the United States. I noticed it in Spain four years ago on the previous choir tour.

I believe that as a culture we have lost something. Now I know this sounds like a nostalgic plea for the good old days that I was never even alive to witness, but I really think we’ve lost our sense of awe and wonder in the face of great art. Not everyone, mind you, but a lot of us. I know that my experience of the transcendent nature of art is often stymied by my cynicism and envy of a performer’s virtuosity.

But every once in a while, we encounter that feeling again. For me, those moments have come when listening to a children’s choir in Naperville, Indiana, a symphonic band from the University of Nebraska – Omaha, or even while performing at a beautiful round wooden church in Riga, Latvia. The arts have the potential to give students experiences that they will not find if we do not offer them.

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Inside of the Jesus Evangelical Lutheran Church in Riga, Latvia. Taken by Holly Saalfield

It is my goal as an educator to first provide them with the learning environment for them to grow and build their skills as musicians and as human beings. Second, provide them with performance experiences as both performers and listeners so that they might share in the human experience of transcendent artistry. These two goals, artistic skill/perspective and artistic transcendence, are the ways in which the arts build self-knowledge, community, and growth that we want each student to find as they embark on their life as learners.

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Strawberries in Wittenberg

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I’ve been home from a 24-day 8 country tour of Europe with the Concordia University A Capella Choir for about a week now. The picture above was taken in the Cranach Square in Wittenberg, Germany behind the apothecary where Lucas Cranach, a Reformation painter and engraver, worked and lived. I was enjoying some alone time and had been looking for gelato (okay, it’s just ice cream) when I saw these extra-red strawberries at the stand and just knew I needed to eat the whole package.

Sitting there in the sun, I thought about my five years as a student at Concordia. I especially considered my five years in the choir and my four years in the band, and the countless hours I spent practicing, in classes, and time spent with friends becoming the person and musician I am today.

I have now said goodbye to the band, the choir, and the school. I am officially an unemployed college graduate looking for work! Mostly, that’s absolutely terrifying. But I’m also excited for what comes next. The opportunities that await me to be the great teacher I know I am and find ways to continue building my personal and professional life.

Music and music education will continue to open doors and provide me with opportunities I never could have dreamed. Opportunities like traveling to Europe, meeting people from all over the world, and creating something beautiful that will stay with me for the rest of my life. And those experiences, international or not, are what I hope to provide to my students. Connecting with people, making beautiful music, and experiencing life in new ways.

Infographic: The Psychology of Music

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Really great info graphic about the psychology of music!
I’m hesitant to link music education with academic success and social skills. One, they are correlations, that is they are linked, but one does not cause the other. There are a huge number of other social factors that impact these claims.
Two, music education does not exist to promote these other skills. I’m happy if my students perform well in their other classes, to be certain, but my purpose is a music educator is to teach students music. To teach them how to create and express through music is the highest calling of the music educator.
Great graphic, but many music ed folks cringe at the correlations as arguments for music education in schools!
The Psychology of Music
The Psychology of Music infographic

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30 Day Blog Challenge Day 1

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Day 1: How did you decide to become a teacher?

When I started college I was a pre-seminary student pursuing an undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance. During my sophomore year, I decided to drop the seminary certificate and pursue education as a career.

Photograph of The Boxcar Children books on a shelf.

I loved The Boxcar Children books as a kid! Will need to find a set before I have children of my own! Creative Commons License 2011, janielle23, http://www.flickr.com/photos/janellie23/5557021621/

I’ve always loved school. In elementary school I would have my father drive me to school early to get everything ready and make sure I was prepared for the day’s learning. I’ve always loved to read. We joke in my family that my mother once collapsed in the library while pregnant with me, and that I’ve loved to read ever since. I’ve always loved music. I remember standing and singing in my classes at my first elementary school and being told I had one of the best voices in the class.

But I’m not a teacher because I love school, because I love to read, or because I love music. I’m a teacher because I believe education is the place that I can best make a change in this world. Teaching is the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done, and I’ve only been a student teacher! There’s something incredible about making music with students and helping them find their voice and their song.

As a student teacher I worked at two different schools, with four different cooperating teachers, and with close to 700 students from grades K-12. I will never remember all of them. But I will remember that it was there that I discovered my love for teaching. It was not a chore to get up in the morning and drive 30 minutes to school with coffee in hand.

Instead, I greeted my students cheerfully (even at 7am!) and asked how their weekend was, or how the One-Act was coming along. I decided to become a teacher because I think I already was a teacher. When I wanted to be a pastor, I was drawn to the teaching aspects of the office.

Keep Calm and Teach On

Copyright 2012 Ashley Kipp at Simply Designing http://simplydesigning.blogspot.com/

As I wrote in my post, Teacher to Student, I have felt a great loss in my transition back to being a college student. I don’t receive the same fulfillment as I did during student teaching. But a bit of that spark comes back each time I browse the classifieds of districts I’m hoping to apply for, and I look forward to the day when I have students of my own again.

I guess I never did really decide to become a teacher. Instead, I chose a major and teaching found me along the way. I’ll never look back.

 

Student Teaching Weeks 7 & 8: Da Capo al Fine

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Yesterday, I said goodbye to two cooperating teachers, two other music teachers, a faculty and staff I really liked, and the last of over 400 students I have gotten to know over the last 8 weeks.

There were three individuals or groups of students that made it very hard to leave the school. First, my second grade friend was disappointed I was not able to have one more music recess with him. Today, he gave me a big hug and said goodbye before running back to his classroom.

Second, the first grade class that made a book of drawings and notes of them in music class! Later today, I’ll put up pictures of the book later today (sans names of course).

But saying goodbye to the dedicated high school musicians in the band was very difficult. I know some of them may find their way to this blog, but they already know how thankful I am for my time with that ensemble. A few gave me cards or notes, a few wanted pictures with me. I felt very connected to that group of students.

So, I made it to halfway mark, and on Monday I start the entire process over again! A new staff, two new cooperating teachers, and many new students! Da capo al fine!

P.S. – Our marching band got a Superior rating at their first ever marching contest! It was so awesome to see students who had never marched in a competitive show wow the audience and judges with a very fine musical product! Very cool!