Tag: soundview school
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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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Teaching Modern Music
There are times when I think I’m biting off more than I can chew. However, unlike most things I dread doing this could potentially one of the coolest topics I teach this year. I’ve decided to take on introducing three ideas of modern music composition to middle school students. It give me a chance to…
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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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Day Job
It’s not a secret that most working artist have day jobs. However the reasons vary for person to person. I know artist who are mechanics, information technology personnel, are involved in sales of all kinds, painters of homes; interiors & exteriors, and of course many of us are in education. I often think about 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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Becoming an independent middle school music teacher
At some point after graduating with a yet another music performance degree, I found myself looking for a solution to the question of employment. Looking for a job becomes your job when you are unemployed, self-employed or underemployed. However, when you cast your net as wide as some of us do, you end up sending…
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Why I teach
In the seventh grade, I was all about playing the drums. I would carry my sticks with me everywhere I went, tapping out beats on my notebook and/or playing along with one of my favorite songs on my Walkman. On the day of our first band class of the year, my buddy came to me…
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