Reimagining the arts as a vehicle for innovation, leadership, and lifelong success.
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! I still remember a music teacher I coached who was seeking to make their curriculum more culturally responsive for her students. She knew that many of her students were Spanish speaking, so she sought out folk songs in Spanish to teach them that would also … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! An often missed opportunity when planning and creating the foundation for your music program is setting the vision. Of course, we must consider our curriculum when we think about our vision for our music programs: the repertoire we’ll teach, what musicians we’ll explore, what skills … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! I’m back this week with this month’s Song of the Month! This month’s song is “Just From the Kitchen” a singing game from the Georgia Sea Islands. For my first semester of grad school, one of the resources we were required to get was “Step … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! An essential part of cultivating a culturally responsive music room is developing a learning community where young musicians feel affirmed and safe enough to take the risks necessary to move past surface level knowledge into deep understandings. Let’s talk about why building a strong community … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! Heading back into the classroom at the beginning of a new school year, I know that one of the things on your mind as you set up your music program is how to develop classroom expectations, norms, or rules. As you consider how this will … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! It’s back to school time! As music educators, we have a million things on our beginning of the year to-do list: setting up our rooms, staff meetings, district training, pacing guides, the list goes on and on. But before you get too far into your … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! In my last blog post, I shared several programming structures that you can use to center student voice and choice in your ensemble classrooms (click here to check out that post!). But what could a rehearsal look like that intentionally centers culturally responsive practices? Remember, … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking the player below! In the traditional ensemble setting, the music director typically makes all the programming decisions for what the ensemble will perform. These programming decisions are typically informed by what the director thinks is appropriate technique-wise for the musicians, what the director thinks students may be interested … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking on the player below! In my last post, I shared that my initial career aspiration in music was to become the principal flutist of a major metropolitan symphony orchestra. As I changed my path and decided to go into music education, my first few years of teaching consisted … Read more
Listen to this blog post by clicking on the player below! For many music educators around the U.S., February is a time to pull out lessons on Black musicians and composers, jazz & blues, spirituals, and hip hop. And while I love all of those things, today I want to challenge you to challenge your … Read more