2/9/2017 1 Comment My reflexionsJosh Dunham
This class has made me think largely on my personal experiences, and how it has affected my personal opinions on teaching, specifically in music. I have largely been questioning, what is “good” teaching, specifically while watching conductors. Many of the conductors I work with are or have been teachers and I see them as the closest representation to a high school teacher. Many high school teachers will conduct bands and I observe how they interact with the ensemble. My largest questioning of conducting has been largely on tuning and how different conductors will tune their ensembles. I am in an ensemble where tuning is stressed before, and during each piece, and I am also in an ensemble that so far I have not witnessed tune yet. I am attempting to question my own biases on tuning and find do I desire the same importance of tuning as others or the lack thereof? Onto the course what I enjoy most about it is the interactions I have with others in the class. We often get to discover our own philosophies while in conversation and learn about others as well. My biggest question for others is, is our own personal desires for music transferring to how we want to teach? Is what we wanted as students affecting how we think we should teach? The reason I think this is important is because what if these are not the common desires of music students. I am unsure of this but I believe that most students who take music in high school do not continue into music. If we as teachers who go into music at the university level design curricula for students similar to ourselves, with this impact the amount of students who take music in high school? Will it strengthen or weaken it? I personally do not think that high school music should attempt to push students towards a career in music. This may seem controversial to some, but I do not think it is our job to create musicians. I think it is our job to give the tools for that possibility, and to allow students to de-stress from the world. A safe environment where they do not have to think about science tests, and stress from home. I believe that we as teachers should notice students who may show desires to pursue music as a career and help them achieve that goal, but I do not think our main focus should be in continuing music. I am probably wording this wrong and many may disagree, but for now this is where I stand.
1 Comment
Sam
2/13/2017 07:00:13 am
I really appreciated your thoughts on how high school music class should set up students in music. I believe that the main goal for studying music is to be given the tools to help you discover what interests you.
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