MY PHILOSOPHY FOR MUSIC EDUCATION
Inside this safe, respectful and joyful music classroom, I foster creative and resilient thinkers, lifelong music learners and future advocates of the aesthetic value and cultural significance of the art of music.
PIECE BY PIECE… WHY DID I CHOOSE THESE WORDS ABOVE?
“Safe, respectful” - The culture in my classroom is positive and students feel like their voices matter.
“Joyful” - Making joyful music helps to foster a love for the art, a passion for the power of music. Giving them a positive experience helps them grow as musicians and get “hooked” for the future.
“Creative” - When students create music, they are engaged in problem solving, utilizing high-level thinking skills, revising, improving and using multiple areas of their brains.
“Resilient” - I want my students to always get back up again. Keep trying. Never give up.
“Lifelong music learners”, “Advocates of the aesthetic value and cultural significance” - As they step into the future, I want my students to hold on to the value that music brings to their lives and to the world around them.
*My project results from my 1st VanderCook class
Why do my students enjoy studying music? I asked over one hundred of my third, fourth and fifth graders the above question on a Google Form. Their answers were surprising, funny and enlightening.
Here are a few of my favorite answers:
“because I think I have a great singing voice and I feel like expressing myself with music it makes me feel very very very very very happy.
“because you can let out the voice that know one hears and sing with the songs you like wich makes me cupfterble” (I love “comfortable” is spelled!)
“I like it because I really like how you let us do so many things with the instruments.”
“My favorite part of music is the dancing because you get to move your body around. I also love the musicals!”
“I like studying music because you can construct and create whatever music you want and sometimes the music you make can be really powerful.”
“Music is all around you, it's a big part of everyone's life, it's full of emotions. And that is why I like music.”
“because then i can write songs that is fun this is a very useful because you can make money off of those songs you could also learn how to play instruments that is good because it is collaborative team building activities and will help you learn how to work together it is also good because some songs are soft and soothing”
“I like studying music because I like having Mrs Jensen as a music teacher.”
After reading their answers, I decided to keep track of the specific words I kept seeing over and over again. I came up with these categories below and put a tally mark in my spreadsheet every time that particular word was mentioned. The results were a bit surprising to me! After counting the tallies in each one, I could easily see that their favorite parts of studying music were “singing” (35) and “playing instruments” (35). They clearly love to be making music as much as possible! Many replied that they enjoy music for because it is “fun” (21)! I was also impressed that quite a few mentioned emotions and feelings evoked from the art of music (13). I’m thrilled to see that they feel such joy in my classroom! Knowing this information is going to be so helpful to make future engaging lessons!
This assignment was extremely valuable for me. I feel like my students’ responses greatly reflected my philosophy. As they create music together, they enjoy having fun, and experience joy in their lives!
In the future, I plan to continue this dialogue with my students so I can keep a closer watch on their journey through this musical learning process. This information will help me create engaging and exciting lessons that are unique to their needs and interests!
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