"All of us do not have equal talent,
but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent."
-John F. Kennedy
Every student should have the opportunity to perform and create music. To often we are caught up in only servicing the very gifted and talented. I am passionate about the arts and everything that touches them. I want my students to “soar like an eagle” in the arts, so I create an environment in my class for discovery, opportunity, and expression. Everyone has a talent, it just takes time to develop.
When you put talent together with passion, WATCH OUT. That is when students really develop and create. As a web 2.0 teacher, I love the networking tools and creative uses of that combines music with technology. Collaboration, working with others, is the key in the music classroom, be it performance, composition, or creating multi-media projects.
A COMPLETE rationale
It has been a journey of thirty-two years to develop a curriculum that is well balanced between projects/performance and meets the needs of ALL students. I have always been interested in the “general education” student as well as the “band/choir/orchestra/piano” student. I make their music experience an important and purposeful class with motivating appealing activities/projects that revolve around music. I have had the pleasure to teach in only two districts in my life and have been given free reign to develop and change at a moments notice. The only “have to’s” were performing concerts such as the yearly “Holiday Concert” and “Spring Sing” in the younger graders. Other than those concerts, there has been no curriculum placed upon me. In both districts, the administration and parents have allowed me to be creative and innovative in music education, this is the reason I was able to develop a unique curriculum. Additionally, in both districts I was the only music teacher and as the program developed, additional music teachers were hired.
The MENC National standards make sense to me, along with the 21st century skills and Bloom’s taxonomy, with the stress on creating. The Vermont MIDI Project offers a wonderful opportunity for the gifted/talented musician. They all converge together as a solid curriculum. Of course, it is constantly updated and changing as new technologies and events are created and integrated within the music classroom. I have been amazed as to the level of musicianship my students have outside the classroom. My goal is for students to have a positive experience and use their knowledge of music and music technology to develop projects/talent outside the school. Sunset Ridge is small school, however when the students go on to New Trier High School, they excel in the vocal and theater department. Many have been the leads and last year at IMEA three of the six vocal representatives were from SRS, we only make up five percent of the school (50 students are from Sunset Ridge, New Trier has 1,000 students in the senior class) It is quite an accomplishment, which happens on a yearly basis.
I believe that music is visual as well as auditory. For centuries, you “watched” music being performed along with “listened” to the performance. It has only been in the last seventy years with the advent of a recording device that music became audio only. Music is NOT audio, I believe you MUST have both in order to fully experience music.
At Sunset Ridge School, one must perform, as well as create music, so the music curriculum embodies both. “Doing something that NO ONE else has done,” is a thread throughout the five years students are at Sunset Ridge. Innovation and creativity is the considered most important aspect in the music class. My goal is motivate students, not stand in the way.
I was a band-choir student, I felt General Music was boring and put “General Music” in a bad light. At Sunset Ridge there isn’t a class of General Music, simply “Music,” we don’t say “General Art” or “General PE,” so it has been “Music” as long as I have been at the school. Ever since I was in junior high I always wanted to change how music was taught in the schools. There are three groups of students that a music teacher is teaching all in one class:
1) The gifted/talented passionate musician that thinks in musical terms and has a keen sense of exactly what their projects and compositions should be or sound. (1 or 2 students in the class)
2) Band/choir/orchestral/piano student who understands how music works, enjoys music, but has other interests as well. (5-10 students in the class)
3) The dropout musician is a student who never took a private lesson or did take some lessons and can’t remember how to read music. They have a limited background in music and you will be the last music teacher they will ever have. (10-15 students)
Many (general) music teachers have been teaching to group 3, leaving the passionate and other musicians to just tag along. The music program at Sunset Ridge is project-based, with a small pullout for talented, passionate students. The talented passionate student does “instead of work, not more work.” Some are composers that are part of the Vermont MIDI Project, while others come in on Friday mornings/lunch-recess to work on projects. They work on a completely different project depending upon their interests and goals WE set up together. This is how www.chordville.com www.lazertron.net and a variety of compositions were produced. The secret is the balance of the three groups of students and performance with projects.
Along with projects, students are consistently performing, singing, and playing instruments. The fourth and fifth grade students have individual classroom shows. There are performed in the lunchroom, a small setting that has lights, curtains, and a sound system. With only 18-22 students in a class, students with performing talent can really shine. Additionally, those students who simply have a difficult time performing in front of an audience can be in the “chorus” and work stage crew. No one is forced to perform or told, “Please do not sing.” Students find instant success and many students partake in the afterschool all-school musical. The yearly “Talent Show,” is another performance opportunity for all students to participate in. There is NO contest; simply performing in front of the entire student body is a contest enough. Over 85% of the total student body partake in the musical, talent show, or have a file posted on www.carolbroos.com
-Carol Broos
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