I can honestly say that I am confused. The article by Peter Webster was very interesting and easy to read, but I felt that he did not cover his point well. His "teaching strategies" for the teacher were not creative at all. Everything that he mentioned I felt has already been done, or common sense. I felt that as a future educator, I would have done what he mentioned without reading his article.
The article does have a saving grace. The section on what students can do was phenomenal. Here the teacher would have to give the students creative ideas like write their own etude or score a film (which I have done, and loved it). This section was so fun to read and made me think of even more ideas that I could do with my students.
The reason why am confused is that the article was so "bipolar". I felt that the teaching strategies were actually in the "helping students" sections. And that the actual teaching strategies was just more of an administrative way of using technology. As a teacher my goal is to help my students have a deep and personal relationship with music. I think that is why I connected so well with the second part of this article. It gave me awesome ways to help out my future students.
The other article that I found very interesting was the Vermont MIDI Project. This idea is just so cool, I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am about it.
What makes this Project so special to me is that it came from the east coast, and more importantly New England. Many east coast states have good music programs such as North Carolina, but New England states lack in this area. The focus is more on sports and academics. So, I am excited to see that a New England state has come up with such an innovative way to have students learn music.
What I really like about this idea is that students get to have their music performed as well as recorded. I know that if I got a chance to have one of my pieces recorded by professional musicians, and then recorded, I would be so ecstatic. I am happy that this program exists so students can get that feeling of wonder and amazement.
I am very happy that this article was brought to my attention. I feel that it gives music a push in the right direction. Music is just as important as anything else that the schools can give our youth (in my opinion the most important). Seeing people get creative and push the limits of their thinking is very inspiring, and I can only hope that I can do the same when I am a music educator in the field.
1 comment:
Well, I'm glad that you feel that you'd attack most of the creative tech ideas presented in the Webster article. Remember that these ideas may be totally new to a number of music educators - especially those that aren't as tech savvy as someone your age. It's great to find new ideas that make you excited about teaching. As you come across these things, jot them down somewhere so that you can remember them once you're in the trenches.
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