Must have trades/skill sets of a Music Educator!

"Let's face it, one can't dedicate one's life to teaching without being an optimist. We take those who don't know, and believe that we can help them to learn." (Boonshaft, 'Teaching Music with Purpose" p.217). Being optimistic does not mean that you without a question of a doubt, 100% of the time, believe that the world is comprised of rainbows, unicorns and puppies. Oh no. That's just nauseating and no one wants that. No one. It's certainly a key component to teaching with purpose. This optimism is applicable to you (as a teacher, human being, lifelong learner, etc) and also to your students, ensembles, choirs, bands, and fellow musicians. Optimism gives us the mindset in order to move to the next level, it helps us grow and to celebrate even the 'smallest' milestones. You as the educator, need to have that positive mental outlook on life, especially when you have that student who is stuck in that rut and needs that nudge to get out of it. I remember my first Aural Theory I class at the University of Bridgeport. I felt extremely confident in my level of expertise in music theory, and music in general. (Singing was never my forte). Sight-reading reading, oh yeah, I have the skills for that. Solfege syllables, I pretty much knew as well. So here I am, first Aural Theory course ever, Junior year of college. It was a small class, and everyone seemed nervous about singing. Some did not know how to sight-read, others had no notion of what solfege is, or how to read a note or tell a time or key signature. So I felt pretty confident that I'd do well in this class, and be able to help teach some of my peers. Well I was the third person to sight-sing on the spot. First person who went, sung on the syllable 'loo' and it was pleasant and beautiful. Next girl who went, was weary because she did not know solfege.... but when she sang it was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. (Come to find out later, she was taking private voice lessons, specializing in an operatic style) So now, that was the act I had to follow. Last 'singing' experience I had (omitting singing in my car or the shower) was seventh grade choir; which had no warm-up, no music, just some lyrics, and a bunch of adolescents screeching and screaming to a poor accompaniment on an out-of-tune piano. So here I am, about to follow up the up-and-coming opera singer, and I panicked. Needless to say this was not a good 'performance' on my part. After class, I had an emotional break down! I actually cried. It was a pitiful sight. Luckily, he (Prof. Frank Martignetti) is a phenomenal teacher. He was calm and collective, had me take some deep breaths, showed me some basic breathing techniques and worked with me. He was optimistic and I saw an instant result as I echoed what he sang and played on piano. It truly helped settled me, and (although I am still not an exemplar singer) I feel more confident in my ability to sight-sing. He always kept an optimistic attitude and would point out the things that I sang in tune, or if I finally was able to sing certain intervals, he truly embraced even the smallest milestone with constant encouragement. Always embracing the growth that I made in my sight-singing abilities. For this reason (and many more) I will try to emulate these skill sets and personality traits that make him an exemplar teacher.

"When I think of excellence- true excellence- I think of the drive to do more than what is required, to do better than what is needed, and to go further than what is necessary." (Boonshaft, 163) It is implausible to think that it is possible to be a master at everything. Besides, what fun would that be? To be a 'know-it-all' at anything and everything? 1. You wouldn't be able to learn anything new and 2. Most people would probably really dislike you, especially if you had a constant arrogance about you. It's the strive to exude excellence. To always be grow and be better. Excellence comes in a plethora of forms. It can be proper posture, good breath control for a singer, utilizing proper stretches and muscle warm-ups, developing aural skills, sight-reading abilities, proper embouchure for brass and wind players, accurate body map, and so on and so forth. But the mindset of excellence will be the true driving force to get carry you through life with purpose. Excellence is not about gauging your skill sets to those of others, striving to be up to par with another, or better. Oh no. Excellence is linear, and based on you and your personal gains. No steps backwards, either stagnant lack of motion, or expelling that motion forward. It's about your own personal gains and triumphs! True triumphs of your students is not your doing as the educator, it's their strive to learn. That's their accomplishment. You giving them the basic skills and knowledge to help propel their inner desire to learn and grow, that's your doing. You as the educator plant the seed, you may need to tend to that seed and help it along, but it's only going to grow if it has the willpower to do so. True excellence cannot be taught. You can (actually, should) emulate it for your students through yourself. Let your students see you fail, bomb and go down with the ship! Then let them see you swim to shore, jimmy-rig another ship and succeed! Let your students see your practice, point out when you mess up, and let them see you figure it out. If they ask a question to which you are not very knowledgeable about the answer, let them know that you do not know. But then follow up by telling them that you'll figure it out for them, and encourage them to do the same. I learn the most about myself from my students. After all you're only human and no one can know everything, and that's one of the beautiful things that makes life so great. Just because you're the teacher does not mean your students are the only ones that get to experience the joy that is learning! Do not deprive you or your students of that constant thirst for knowledge. Excellence in a nutshell.

I feel that a lot of educators (while good and with the best of intentions for their students) forget what it is to be a student. We've all been a student, for me all I've ever known is how to be a student. I was in school since I was four years old, I'm 24 now and I'm still a student. While I'm excited to soon have my Masters, I never to stop learning, whether I'm in a classroom setting or not. I've had more experience being a student than being a teacher. So that's my strong skill. I don't want to forget the feeling of being at the receiving end of learning, asking questions and developing critical thinking skills, those late nights of little to no sleep perfecting that paper, hours of practice time until I fall asleep with the guitar in my arms, nestling it like a newborn child, having your hands and fingers fatigue from pages of note taking, and dreading every and any power point presentation, being perplexed and wondering 'why on earth is this teacher having us do this?' and trying to apply it to real life situations. I can't even begin to explain how many teachers I've had tell me 'you'll use everything you learn in this class', "the $175 mandatory book you buy will be a staple in your library" and we probably went over one chapter in that book during the duration of the course, and the book serves better as a shim for a wobbly table than a good read. I vow to have my students be the top priority. Now note taking, papers, hours of practice, and yes, even pricey books may all be necessary at one point or another, but I will only utilize these options when they are pertinent and applicable to the needs of my students. For the students that need to work two, three jobs to just be able to survive or pay tuition, I feel you. I've been there (am still there) and I will applaud their valiant efforts to stay in school and better their lives. For the students who do not have to work to live, but apply themselves and focus on their education and bettering their lives, I applaud them too. Good work ethic comes in many forms. I swear, if you cut my veins open in my undergraduate pure caffeine would've oozed out, for coffee is my college drug of choice and was my saving grace to get me through triple shifts and a course overload. I intern at an elementary school and let me tell you, those 4-12 year olds work incredibly hard. Their life is a series of post tests, tests and pre-tests. Learning how to read and write is incredibly hard, especially for a five year old. But it is such a necessary skill set to have. Multiplication and division, golly. It's easy for us now, but for the kids just learning it, it takes a lot to master these skills. It's easy to lose sight of where you came from. Kids need to learn certain things (like basic math, reading and writing) in order to be productive members of society, of course. But be sure to allow creativity and time to be a kid! Some kids have such a difficult time using their imagination, if it's not on a note card or in a text book, they've been brought up to believe it isn't pertinent to know. How horrible! Luckily as music educators, we have that ability to incorporate creativity and imagination in our lessons! We also incorporate math, science, English, history, etc (mwahaha, our students will be none of the wiser! And when they do realize it's all related, it won't be so scary for them). It's extremely difficult to make memorizing a multiplication table fun, but sneaking in fractions in music, oh man, now that sounds like a party to me.