Think back to when you were in school… all the way back… What do you remember? (Think outside of your subject area, if you’re a teacher) Raise your hand if you remember how to play Ab major. How about the symbolism of Piggy’s glasses in Lord of the Flies? SOH CAH TOA? How many parts of the cell can you name? How about Newton’s Laws … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – What We Remember
In the last few posts, we’ve talked about visualizing our classroom – “What if it were…” and “What does that look like?” Now comes the hardest one: Now go do it. The cliche is “if you build it, they will come,” isn’t it? But the problem with cliches is that so many of them are true. Another good cliche that I love comes from (I … Continue reading Music Ed Monday – … Now Go Do It
If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never do anything original.” – Sir Ken Robinson author, “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything” (this one is quite long, but split into parts, so I hope that you’ll stick around for the read) If there is one thing that high school students really seem to be scared of, it’s making mistakes. Maybe there’s more … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – Life Includes Mistakes (Part 1)
Lately, I’ve been reading Tim Flannery’s Life on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet and it’s been blowing my mind. As you may know from speaking with me or looking at the Music page, I am quite the biophiliac – I am infatuated with life on this planet. Flannery’s book opens with Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism, exploring the separation between selfishness and altruism that social dogmatists … Continue reading Music Ed Monday – The Medea Hypothesis
While I had a whole other idea for a post this week, the “Gov. Rick Perry forgetting which three agencies he wants to scrap” has really been occupying my mind – but not for the forgetting; but rather, what it is that he wants to scrap: Commerce, Education and, uh… Wait a sec… EDUCATION?! What does that say about the state of the social state … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – Placing the Focus
“Whatever gets repeated, gets remembered.” – Michael Brandon This simple sentence blew my mind during my second year of teaching, which was the year that Michael Brandon came to our school. He and I teach the Instrumental and Academic areas of our Music Program – yes, it can be more than just Band, Choir and Drama, but more on that in another post. While we … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – “Whatever Gets Repeated…”
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all” – Aristotle It goes without saying, but sometimes we (not only as teachers, but as a culture) really get caught up in our day-to-day, be it curriculum, routine, meetings, or whatever. It’s not necessarily our fault because that’s just the pace of our world, but when we get reminded about the why of … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – Educating the Heart
