Teachers assess for multiple audiences. The best way to assess for grading, a teacher’s own use, and for administrators may each be distinct. But more time on assessment means less time for teaching and learning. How might an educator balance these? What about qualitative assessment of musical growth? Music teachers could document student process and…

Our education system is currently built on a faith-based model. Students who are successful learn to efficiently memorize facts but not to question what they are told. My own school experience almost always valued memorization over higher-order thinking. In the process, teachers neglect many other cognitive skills and habits. Faith accepting something at face value,…

In addition to listening, playing, and creating music for its own sake, I believe the other primary value of music education is to learn about our world through its sounds. Here are four ways to put that into practice. Sound as a lens for: Understanding their own lived experience.What are the sounds of your life?…

The purpose of this exercise was to challenge myself to organize everything I believe music can teach. Surely my thinking will evolve, and I will build on this as I continue to learn, think, and write. Listen, Play, Create By directly engaging with sound through listening, playing, or creating, we can learn to hear our…

Teaching is helping others learn. People learn through experiences. So to help me become a better teacher, I have been trying to understand how the brain processes experiences, emphasizing the parts most relevant to learning: 1. The self – consciousness and memory. who you are in the present moment based on everything you have experienced…

In my experience, teachers think their course content is really important, and they privilege memorizing content knowledge over other kinds of learning. In order to resist this tendency in my own teaching, I have attempted to categorize everything that can be learned: Knowledge – rules and expectations, and content and interdisciplinary knowledge, on a spectrum…

Elliot Eisner suggests that, “thinking and experiencing cannot be easily separated.” That, “no form of experience is possible without cognitive activity and that such activity is itself what we mean by thinking.” (Elliot Eisner, Cognition & Curriculum) Might it be clearer then if we consider them one and the same? Let’s call this concept “cognitive-experience”.…

Recommendation – 5/5 Summary In order to do something in a healthy and sustainable way, the primary motivation should not be the end result but rather the day to day process. A growth mindset rather than outcome oriented. When identity is tied to results, inevitable failures can become debilitating. Insecurity can lead to overworking. Run…

Yesterday I sat through my first math class in about 12 years. There were symbols and concepts I knew, some that were coming back to me, and some I’d never seen in my life. It is a good experience being an outsider again. To be a little lost. I will have music students who are…