Monday’s Music Quote, Mencius: “If the King loves music, it is well with the land.”
The Morning Music News Follows Directly, Standby:
Apple wins appeal in earbud hearing-loss lawsuit: “Just because something can benefit from some improvement doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily bad for you. That’s basically what a San Francisco appeals court said when it upheld a previous ruling that Apple iPod earbuds cannot be held responsible for hearing loss, according to a Reuters report.”
The Replacements: “In 28 states, I told her, a principal can hire as a sub anyone with a high-school diploma or a general-equivalency diploma. In many places the person can be as young as 18. Not a single state requires that substitutes hold a teaching degree.” Hat-Tip: Thomas J. West
How to Train the Aging Brain: “…Given all this, the question arises, can an old brain learn, and then remember what it learns? Put another way, is this a brain that should be in school? As it happens, yes. While it’s tempting to focus on the flaws in older brains, that inducement overlooks how capable they’ve become. Over the past several years, scientists have looked deeper into how brains age and confirmed that they continue to develop through and beyond middle age.” Hat-Tip: Dr. Bill Bauer
10 Ways to Improve Your Musicianship in 2010: “1. Define your goals. What do you really want out of your encounter with your instrument? Solo enagements? First-class honors in your spring RCM/NMCP exams? The pride and satisfaction of improving your abilities over time? Or simply to bring musical enjoyment to others, and pretend you’re a rock star for the short time you’re on stage? Determining what you want out of your musical studies can in large part determine the rest of the journey.”
In-Tune Monthly: If you are a grade 6-12 Ensemble Director you must give this magazine a worth-while look. It is one of the few magazines that bridges the gap between the various types of music and presents them in a very entertaining way for middle and high school age students. In addition, it includes one of the best Teacher Guides for the contents of each issue that I ever read… I should know, I’m writing them! You can get a single subscription for the 2nd half of the year (including the Teacher’s guide) for less thatn $11.00 U.S. Their online matching website provides even more tools. Seriously, check it out!
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Good morning Joe. ” The Replacements” brings up another skill area where we need to consider the preparation of young teachers. While the schools where subs teach certainly do play a role, the colleges and universities where teachers receive their degree also have a responsibility. Looking back, I have to think my time spent in Counterpoint class… See More would have been better spent learning how to be a better educator, possibly learning how to be a sub. Looking forward, how many teacher prep programs include development in this area? Do you know of any that do? Thanks for a great Morning Mix.
Thanks Mark. To be honest, I’ve always thought the typical undergraduate music education program (as well as many other educational programs) is more geared to the cerebral side than the practical side.
A number of years a go a had a recent undergraduate write a post at mustech.net on his experience as a substititue teacher. It was very insightful as to what to “prep” for and had great advice… I read an article once that stated that each day 5 million children walk into 250,000 classes being taught by substitute teachers… Staggering numbers…
Here is the link to the mustech article:… See More
https://mustech.net/2007/11/04/substitute-teaching-as-a-music-teacher-possibilities-for-the-unemployed-graduate
Individual collegiate music education programs have little leeway to their offerings. After satisfying the general education requirements of the university, licensure/certification requirements of the state, and accreditation requirements (NASM, NCATE, TEAC, etc.), most music teacher education curricula are full. This is why almost all teacher … See Moreeducation programs across the country look very similar. It is a complex “problem.” Believe me, music teacher educators spend a lot of time thinking about it. If you want to see some of the issues that people are struggling to figure out how to address within the parameters of existing situations, look at http://smte.us/conferences-symposia/ (follow links from this page).
Bill — agreed, this is complex. But can’t some topics be added by the teacher? In “Elementary Methods” class for example, don’t teachers have the flexibility to cover “how to prepare for a day of substitute teaching”?
We do address this and earmark a couple of days in the elementary and secondary courses to that cover substitute teaching in our undergraduate courses, but I fear that many of the “teaching methods” courses have become very much a “catch all” for the myriad of important topics that aren’t covered as part of the standard curriculum.
We recently … did a comprehensive analysis of or our entire music dept. curriculum with cross anlaysis of other local, regional, national, and competive schools and I can concur with Bill that there is not a substantial difference in any of the compared curriculms due to the mandatory requirments of the state depts. of education and the accreditation agencies….