Tag: music ed monday

Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Monday – A Flute Player’s Relationship With Music

Good afternoon! Here is another essay from a Grade 11 Fundamentals of Music student describing her relationship with Music.  It’s very personal (but I have her permission to post it) and that’s its greatest strength: It’s authentic. This reminds me how lucky I am to teach Music to young adults who are invested in this collaborative effort.  But while the ensemble is collaborative, there are individual rewards 🙂 … Continue reading Music Ed Monday – A Flute Player’s Relationship With Music

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Mondays – What We Remember

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

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Monday – … Now Go Do It

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

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Mondays – What Does That Look Like?

In our last post, we talked about the things that that get in our way, if only… Your homework was to find an “if only” in your life and write it down.  Beneath it, you were to write “what does the solution look like?” So how did that go? It’s hard to get what you want if you don’t know what it looks like.  We … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – What Does That Look Like?

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Mondays – If Only

“If only.” Do you ever find yourself saying that? I find myself saying that all the time. “If only there was more time in the day.” “If only there were more money in the budget.” “If only I weren’t so tired all the time.” Those two words carry a lot of power because they really convince us of our own limitations as though the universe … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – If Only

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Mondays – Life Includes Mistakes (Part 2)

Welcome back! In the last post, we talked about how stigmatizing mistakes probably isn’t the best reinforcement of learning.  I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the last week and it’s become more complex and paradoxical and moreso the more that I think about it. I think that the caveat lies in the degree of the mistake: Not putting in an apostrophe isn’t going to … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – Life Includes Mistakes (Part 2)

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Mondays – Life Includes Mistakes (Part 1)

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)

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Mondays – The Music Lesson (Part 2)

So, how did your homework go? Could you see Music? What did he/she look like? How are you connected to him/her*? This is one final essay and the student allowed me permission to use it.  It’s a long read, but I promise you, it’s worth it 🙂 ———————————- Music and I have a complex relationship.  There are times when we are inseparable, and times that we … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – The Music Lesson (Part 2)

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Mondays – The Music Lesson (Part 1)

In our course, “The Fundamentals of Music,” we teach a novel called The Music Lesson by world-renowned bassist, Victor Wooten. There  are two provocative parts to that opening: 1) Fundamentals of Music? Yes, they take place in both Grade 11 and 12, split into Fundamentals I and II.  While they started as a theory and performance course (as a buffer to the performing ensembles), we’ve … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – The Music Lesson (Part 1)

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Music, Music Ed Mondays

Music Ed Monday – The Medea Hypothesis

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

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