Ah, the Smell of Music in the Morning!

A couple of e-mails I received this week have really gotten me thinking. I was invited, to my surprise, to speak to the music education majors at Clarion University about teaching music in a rural school. I also got an e-mail from a former substitute teacher asking a few questions about band literature (Congrats on the new job, Abby!) I suppose because this is something that I do everyday I’ve never taken much time to really sit down and analyze it.

What makes teaching in a rural school different than teaching in a suburban or urban school? The more I think about it the more things there are. The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is dealing with small performance groups. The small size of performance groups offers both challenges and benefits. It provides more one on one time, student accountability, and opportunity for some less traditional ensemble projects. However, there are less students to encourage and challenge each other, more parts to be rewritten, rearranged, and re-orchestrated, and scheduling lessons during the school day is nearly impossible. Scheduling lessons and rehearsals after school is also difficult because the kids that participate in performing ensembles are the same kids that play soccer, basketball, volleyball, and participate in FCCLA, JH, Drama Club, and the many other activities.

These issues have forced me to evaluate and reevaluate my philosophy on music in education many many times. Why am I here? What’s my job? Well, this is my current stance on the issue: I’m here because of the music and the kids. These kids are going to be “stuck” with whatever person comes into the room. It is my job to make their learning experience as full, productive, and enjoyable as possible. I will not, and do not accept negative thinking, attitudes, or agendas. I refuse to lower my standards to account for small groups sizes. I feel a responsibility to prepare them for the future, not just for the next concert or class project. I want them to think, analyze, question, and explore the world, music, and each-others’ thoughts. Of course, the music is just as important but I guess that seems to be such a given that I don’t really feel the need to explain it right now.

I’m sure this just skims the surface of some much needed analyzing and consideration but, it feels like a good start.

As for what’s going on this year: Hopefully by next week we’ll have our first podcast put together and published. Moodle class discussions are catching on and providing a connection for students in split performing groups as well as a fabulous collecting place for students in general music class. Online assignment submission is the best thing ever invented – and my currently clean desk is proof of that. Elementary students are very excited to name our class webkinz that will help them post class projects and ideas to our new music class wiki which is (sadly) still empty. They will also be taking our new pet on field trips, which will also (hopefully) be posted to the wiki, with them throughout the year. There is much to do, much to organize, and much to look forward to. Links to all of the above coming soon.

A huge problem I'm having right now is deciding what things to put onto my class web page, Edline, on the wiki, or in Moodle. Anybody out there have a good system?

With that, I’m going to close with a line I overheard from a 6th grade student this week: “Ahhhhhhh, the smell of music in the morning!” While I’m not sure exactly what this means, I think they’re ‘diggin’ it.