It is my mission to nurture life skills, critical thinking, and responsibility through music, and to provide a safe space for self expression and creativity as students learn to master their instruments and music-making. It is my mission to help students understand themselves and music in a manner that will ignite a passion for success and the arts.
As a music educator, my vision is a classroom filled with expressive music making. Students are comfortable taking musical risks and are constantly analyzing their own performance as well as others in order to adjust and fix. Students work with fellow members to exchange feedback and provide techniques that will assist in elevating the group as a whole. Students leave the band room with a greater understanding of the music as well as a necessary life skills.
As a music educator, it is important to me to provide an environment that helps students grow into responsible young adults with a strong foundation in music fundamentals and techniques and are able to create expressive, meaningful music. These students will be seen as leaders around campus and their community as they prepare to enter the next stage of their lives. As an educator, it is important for me to teach musicality, responsibility, and leadership because I believe this is necessary to create well-rounded students who are able to enter a musical field but are able to succeed in other professions if they do not pursue music as a career. As a musician and educator, I want to share these qualities with my students because I understand the importance and impact music can have on developing students. As a high school student, I was able to create life-long friends as well as gain needed leadership experience within my marching band; I would like to provide the same opportunities to the students I teach.
Music fundamentals are essential to the success of any performing ensemble; without fundamentals musicians cannot build and grow to more advanced and extended techniques. Similarly, for an ensemble to have one cohesive sound, these fundamentals have to be performed the same way across the ensemble. I believe this assists in the growth of students’ ability to work as a team towards a common goal. When students understand basic techniques, they can begin to listen across the ensemble to match articulations, style, or dynamic ideas. I start all students with a strong emphasis on basic technique: breathing, articulation, rhythmic counting, balance and blend, and tone production; with this comes the sense of team and community. The ensemble can succeed, as a whole, when all students contribute proper technique. Once the ensemble has a collective understanding of fundamental skills, I have students work in small groups to assist each other and try to resolve musical issues while developing a sense of community in the ensemble. This is important to students' future, as it can help them work with colleagues and their community once they leave the band room.
Once students have command of their instrument, it is important that they learn to express themselves through the art of music. Musical expression, when created and explored by students, can have a lasting impression because it helps them grow as musicians as well as learning how to express themselves outside the band room. As a music educator I demonstrate, to my students, the difference between sequencing notes and rhythms accurately and performing music with expression and meaning. I regularly demonstrate for my students the difference between accurate music and expressive music, showing them that there can be many different ways to play one passage. This assists in leading students to their own creativity and musical decisions. When students are comfortable being creative in and make musical decisions, it helps them become better decision-makers in other aspects of their lives.
To help students develop the skills and to see themselves as leaders, we work together to learn how planning and preparation can have a positive effect on instruction, the students as individuals, and the ensemble. Students are given expectations of how they should treat and handle their own instruments which in turn gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility for their instrument as well other supplies they might have. Responsibility is paramount to the success of the performing ensemble because the ensemble as a whole relies on the individual contributions of each performer; it is also an important trait needed outside of the band room. Students learn the importance of being on time, planning and creating their own schedule, as well as taking care of their belongings and will be able to carry these traits in the real world. I hand out weekly practice logs as an outline to what their at home practice should look like. From there, it is up to the student to plan when they will practice and what they will practice in order to be prepared for the next rehearsal. In order for the ensemble to be successful all students need to be prepared. It is important to me that students understand how their choices effect the outcome of the ensemble and are able to take responsibility for their actions, both positive and negative. When students are responsible for their own practice they are able to take ownership for their success as an ensemble.
As the director of a public-school music program, the growth of my students as musicians falls squarely on my shoulders, however, responsibility, knowledge of music, all arts, and self expression are ideals I try to share with our entire school community. I engage with other teachers to share in the curriculum of their classes in order to reach as many students as possible, not just those enrolled in band. I work to be the best music educator I can be by participating in professional development whenever it is available. I attend the concerts of colleagues as well as have in depth discussions with them on pedagogical approaches, literature, and band operations. In addition, I work with my colleagues and collaborate both within the fine arts as well as with academic classrooms. Collaboration is critical because it helps create a more positive work environment as well as give more students the opportunity to experience the arts.
As an educator I believe I must provide the best education possible to my students everyday. I work to provide an environment that will send my students to the next level with music fundamentals, expression, responsibility. This is important to me to because it helps facilitate students to grow into responsible young adults with a strong foundation in music fundamentals as well as important life skills. Being able to work as a team while expressing their own creative ideas is an extremely beneficial skill students will be able to take with them as they move on the next stages of their lives. It is important to me that students are able to create art in a safe environment where students work as a team towards a common goal, demonstrating strong fundamental technique while performing expressive, meaningful music.