Tag: school
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Teaching Orchestra and Band in a Digital Space: Day 1
It’s hard to imagine how someone could remotely teach an interactive music class like an orchestra or band, but given the current situation, with Seattle being the epicenter of the Coronavirus, this is now my new reality as an instrumental music instructor. This week starts our three-week (or until further notice) experience teaching and learning…
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Things Students Say and Drizzical
After watching my colleague work herself silly conducting, planning and teaching the all-school musical, I came to a stark realization. The end of the school year can make us feel crazy like everything is closing up on all of us, students, teachers, and administrators. I’ve been especially loopy lately and so have my advisory students.…
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The things students do
The past four weeks have been quite difficult for me. I had to take a significant amount of time away from my day job as a middle school music teacher to care for my father. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about that as I continue to cope with losing him. However with all…
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Middle of summer worries for a music teacher
It’s the middle of summer, my kid is watching cartoons while I look at my units of study for the up coming school year. Since I am a middle school band director, I tend to worry about how effectively I am helping students learn specific skills on their instruments and the other parts of music, like music theory and…
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Wynton Marsalis Teaching Teachers
If I ever need reminding about the struggle of being a band director and why it’s important to do what I do, Wynton Marsalis sums it up in this talk. All of it applicable to those who learn and those who teach.
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BuzzFeed Made Me Cry
Generally I go to BuzzFeed to laugh at something or checkout something related to music. Then they hit me with a video about kids of asian parents thanking them for the sacrifices they made for them. I couldn’t help but to think of my parents and grandparents. The bit about students loans hit me the…
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Back To School
While I recognize the changes that occur in my life around the month of September are major shifts, I can’t help the feeling of running head first into the truth….. that I am an adult. Maintaining stability in two art based professions while dealing with parental and husbandly duties, is a total shift from the…
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My Green Thumb
Now and again my kid does something that makes me glad to me a parent. At my kids school, students are learning about gardening, which means we are learning about gardening. I may be at fault for planting the seed for gardening in my kids heart. (Pun totally intended) Last summer we had the…
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Things I learned from my students
I was blown away by two statements made by middle school students I teach. The first made me wonder about the way independent thought is formed and the other is just an impressive thought I want to share. “Footsteps and echoes of the environment demand to be heard through something. That something is music.” “Chapstick…
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