Have you ever stopped to consider how much different the job of a music teacher is from the job of any other? I'm not trying to say that one job is easier or harder, they are just very different.
Imagine that you were hired to teach 7th grade math. Chances are, you would find in your classroom a nice fat text book that was officially adopted by the district's or state's school board. Open the book to page one, and there is the first lesson. What do you do when you finish lesson one? Turn the page and you move on to lesson two.
Now let's take a look at the music teacher. Unless you are teaching beginning band, chances are there isn't such a curriculum for you to rely on. Yes, there are method books that are used at levels above beginner, but you certainly couldn't rely on such a book as your soul curricular resource.
I'm now off to begin my career as an elementary music teacher, and I realized, that while I had no trouble as a band director with this void of curriculum that I had to make up as I went (a band class can easily be defined by its performances) Music is a very broad subject. My state has some very vague standards that need to be met by certain benchmarks, but leaves all of the intermediate steps up to the educator. For example, the first rhythmic concept found in our standards in at grade 3 in which students are supposed to be able to read patterns of quarter notes, pairs of eighth notes, and quarter rests. It is left to the teacher to figure out when and how these concepts should be introduced so they are mastered by third grade. I am excited to start this new career, but a bit nervous that my job is so vaguely defined.
P.S. I, in no way, mean to imply that the jobs of other class room teachers are easy. Just that they are better defined than the job of the music teacher. Also, I realize that the experienced math teacher (or any other subject teacher) is not likely to just go from page to page blindly following the lesson plans in the book. After all, we are all experts at teacher and our respective subjects and can tell when supplemental instruction, beyond what is found in the book, is needed.
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2 comments:
I'd have to disagree somewhat. The experience you are about to face is very similar to the one I faced as an 8th grade science teacher last year. I was charged with teaching physics & chemistry. Yes I had a text book, but it was so awful it was useless. Yeah I know my science, but just know there are many many teachers out there who are forced to create their own curriculum just like you. You are not alone.
Congratualtions on teaching elementary music. I know you've been at it for a semester now, but I had to share. I loved elem. but now teach middle school music. I had text books, but they were from the early 80's, so I left them on the shelf. I spent my elem. career creating my own curriculum. I picked what I needed from the books and made up the rest. My first job was at a charter school that taught by themes. I think it is a wonderful idea. So I used it as a building block idea to get kids from K to 5 teaching with real-world music to introduce the standards.
K-1 - American folk music, 2nd - Intnl Folk music, inst. families,
3rd - composers, intro to note reading, 4th - year-long recorders just like it was band, 5th - Jazz
Anyway, I used music from those general themes to teach the concepts. I HATE the "canned" songs in music text books. I wanted my kids to hear, sing, perform music like Sakura, Ode to Joy, Fly Me to the Moon. I also wrote my own programs centered around the theme for that grade. My favorite was a USO Show using music from WWI and WWII and some great Jazz standards.
You will find there is great freedom im making up your own curriculum. Use the state standards as little guideposts and lead-on. You'll find your own "Band Geek" following in elementary school too, if you haven't already!
Kerry - Maestra in Colorado
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