2018 marks the first full calendar year that I have been blogging, and what a year it’s been! I have found tremendous value in writing and looking back at the blog stats, others have too. Inspired by other “Top 5” posts, here are my five most-read blog posts from 2018. The Qualities of an Empowered…
Now that I am entering my third year as a Virginia resident and teacher I figured it was time to finally attend VMEA! To ensure it happened, I submitted three session proposals last spring. Two were accepted, which was excellent – attending the conference was meant to be. (Feel free to check out the presentations here.)…
Gone are the days of being isolated in the far corner of the school! With technology, music teachers have found a variety of ways to connect with other music teachers around the country and the world. We have discovered the value of a PLN, using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and everything in between. With it now being…
Important Update: As of July 2024, Flip is now exclusively available within the Microsoft Teams platform. If you’re looking for alternatives to collect student performances, foster feedback, and build community, check out my latest blog post: The Best Flip Alternatives for Music Education. August 1st was a day many teachers on social media were looking…
I started the school year with several goals and changes I wanted to make in my music program. One of them was to incorporate a student-directed, or Genius Hour, type project. I had heard about Genius Hour several years ago, but it wasn’t until I read Amy Rever’s blog, The Noisy Room Down the Hall, that I…
When students create musical experiences, they own the process much more then if only consuming music.
I have posted a few times about my personalized learning goals for this year, and have received some questions about how it works within the band and orchestra world. I’ll try to explain how some of the day to day activities work within my classroom. You can access my previous posts here: Personalized Learning: Part…
I began writing about my Personalized Learning plan back in October, shortly after it was introduced to the students. Now that the first quarter is over I’ve had a chance to evaluate the results and am starting to make some changes moving forward. To quickly recap, during the first quarter, students were given a list…
While a personalized learning approach is definitely not on the traditional instrumental music path, I believe it will give all students the opportunity to set their own goals and move forward at a pace appropriate to them.