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music education

Setting Up Obsidian for Academic Work

For a little over a year, I’ve been using the free application Obsidian, which I’ve found to be transformative in my thinking and academic work. I keep encouraging people to give it a try as a platform for making notes, keeping track of information, making connection across ideas, synthesizing literature, engaging in research, and numerous other aspects of academic work. I’ll eventually make a post and page dedicated to Obsidian. For now, here’s a video I made recently that details… Read More »Setting Up Obsidian for Academic Work

Is "what works" holding back your music program?

Design More Flexible Music Curriculum by Questioning “What works” !

Wondering how you can design more flexible music curriculum to keep up to date with a rapidly changing society? Watch the video below and follow six specific steps for becoming more aware of and questioning “what works” or the taken-for-granted conventions in our classes, ensembles, and programs to support you in updating and expanding your program. For those curious, I draw upon on some curricular concepts along with some ideas from Chee Hoo Lum’s chapter Shifting landscapes in the 21st… Read More »Design More Flexible Music Curriculum by Questioning “What works” !

Planning for music classes & ensembles & never feel behind.

Have you ever felt behind in your plans? We dedicate a lot of our time as music educators to planning. How we plan our music classes and ensembles and what a lesson plan from our program looks like says a lot about how we think about curriculum and pedagogy. I’ve never really thought in terms of creating a “lesson plan” even when I was required to write my “lesson plans” out in a green-covered paper planning notebook to be turned… Read More »Planning for music classes & ensembles & never feel behind.

Who am I and what does that have to do with teaching music?

In the following video I describe some of the following themes, ideas, and issues that we are addressing during a Music Learning and Teaching course at Arizona State University for designing and facilitating secondary music programs: Approaches to think through our own backgrounds and how our life experiences, musical experiences, and cultures might relate to how we approach music teaching. Aspects of culture in relation to learning and teaching Working to recognize and avoid ableism Our main theme was to… Read More »Who am I and what does that have to do with teaching music?

Participatory Culture, Music Education, and The Choir Baton

It was a pleasure to join Beth Philemon on the Choir Baton to chat through aspects of technology, participatory culture, and music education. As with many conversations, there are several moments that I would love to go back in time and rethink or rephrase. Our conversation focused primarily on aspects of change, possibilities, and what choir or music education could be. Here are some resources and links related to things we discussed on the Choir Baton podcast: On Technology and… Read More »Participatory Culture, Music Education, and The Choir Baton