Thoughts and Educational Philosophy
Please look under the headings for thoughts on different topics
School Environment
Schools have the immense opportunity and responsibility to develop and train students’ minds to be able to recognize and search for truth. With this in place, students are more able to learn and discern what is happening around them on a societal, moral, spiritual, and intellectual level, as they seek knowledge and wisdom. Each subject is only part of the equation, and the environment of the school provides the rest. The environment must provide for the safety and inclusion of all students in an equitable manner, while allowing for the free discussion of ideas. Education needs to be standards-based, challenging, and foster life-long learning while supporting society and the community. Schools also need to focus on equitable education by narrowing the gap in academic achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
Schools need to have a positive and safe environment for learning. This includes finding ways to nurture and include all students. Space must be provided for students to have multiple opportunities for development, including rebounding and learning from failure. Schools should promote and incorporate Professional Learning Communities that delegate and share administrative activities, as well as provide formative assessment and peer learning for teachers. As teachers, we have to decide what is worthy, developmental, and what keeps our students involved. I believe that experiential learning helps tap into student interests. Activities and arts are great at helping to spark learning. Creating an experience that moves toward a goal can help students to learn much more than taking notes. Schools need to create positive and challenging learning experiences for students to take control of their learning.
Leadership
An administrator’s job is a difficult one, as they are at the nexus of multiple competing concerns. They must balance the needs of students, teachers, parents, and the wider community. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, academic, cultural, and social, with varying life experiences. A coordinated effort must be made to ensure a common vision and mission are evident and present, but those must also be living and utilized in all aspects of the school. The mission and vision can be used to guide teaching, policy, and evaluation. As there is never enough budget for everyone, or time for everything, someone has to decide between multiple and sometimes equally valid needs. One of the best ways to do this is through tying everything back to the mission of the school, through the lens of core values. One has to look at the long term vision and be able to look at long term impacts, compared against the short term. At the same time, a leader needs to have support and empathy for those under their care, and never forget the human side of things.
Sometimes, one has to sacrifice something important for a greater good. I recall being on our Crisis Response Team in the first year of COVID, and we had to make the decision to cancel the prom. I realized the weight of how we were going to impact our students’ lives. The decision was not made lightly, but we had to err on the side of safety and compliance with local regulations. That balancing act stays with me as I continue to have to make decisions regarding how we move forward in this lingering pandemic. I believe in helping to provide the infrastructure and guidelines in place to allow teachers and professionals to do what they do best. Teachers and students need some guidance in order to prevent burnout and inequity, but I generally find that educators want to do the right thing. An administrator’s job is focused on creating an equitable space for the community, that can withstand long term changes.
Working with Students
I have found that wherever the students are in their development and knowledge, you simply have to meet them there. It will do no good to talk over their heads and not explain background information. Teaching is not about ego, either from the students or the professor. One should develop a collaborative rapport with them to get the most out of them, and foster mutual respect. Also, curriculum and sequencing needs to be designed in such a way that students will learn concepts in the most logical sequence, as well as give opportunity to apply the knowledge learned.
Sitting down with students and tackling a problem together, while explaining the process, lasts much longer in a student's mind than does a lecture note. Working side by side with students on projects and productions helps them to create and form long-lasting skills, problem-solving techniques, and fosters a vocabulary of creative inspiration.
Another thing that I find valuable in the classroom is letting capable students move ahead. As a student, I was in the gifted program, and looked forward to those times when I was able to break free and work at an accelerated pace. In my classroom, depending on the subject, I let students move forward faster than the pace of the class. This works well in my piano and guitar classes, where individual work is possible. I set a minimum standard, and then let students work ahead. Over time, I usually find three to four subsets of students in each class, and group them together based on their ability and rate of study. Each class turns into naturally differentiated sections, which is a challenge to keep up with for the teacher, but does provide an outlet that is tailored to meet more individual students’ needs. I do realize that this approach may not always be feasible, particularly in ensembles, or in a highly defined curriculum with end goals in mind, as in most college courses. But I do remember being thankful in my undergraduate lighting design class, when my professor allowed me to work on a graduate level final project instead of the undergraduate project.
Role of the School in Student Development
Schools should seek to develop and train students’ minds to be able to recognize and search for truth. With this philosophical background in place, then students are more able to seen and discern what is happening around them on a societal, moral, spiritual and intellectual level. It is important to teach students the skills to discern what is right, what is truth, and how to deduce the rest. Students then need to learn how to act in an ethical manner. This may include simple things such as using materials without waste. It also may appear as an ethical discussion about intellectual property and copyright issues in an age of rampant uploading and downloading of material that many people worked hard to create. It could appear in discussion about the impact that media has on society, and how the creators of content should consider the affective nature of their work on their audience, and choose whether to create art for art’s sake (if this is entirely possible) or to use it as a societal tool.
Performing Arts as a Subject
Too many times music and the arts are seen as extracurricular subjects, with little or no value in life. I believe that these areas have their own inherent value to study, and do not need to be tied into other academic areas to justify their worth. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought the arts important to study, and it appears that over time we have somehow diminished this idea in western culture. Music was one of the earliest degrees ever offered, well before science and technology degrees. We should study and perform art, because it is what moves us and makes us human.
I must also add that if justification is required, then much of my technical knowledge and applied skills came not from science classrooms, but from theatre: working the physics of sound in live and recorded situations; geometry and applied engineering skills learned from having to build unconventional things; wiring and electrical skills from lighting, sound, and soldering cables. All of these skills were acquire in order to create beautiful, aesthetic experiences. My sole purpose in buying my first computer was to compose music, and from that small step I have learned to record and edit audio, MIDI, and video, as well as many sorts of mundane tasks including office software and even computer repair. All of this stemmed from using the computer for artistic purposes.
Attracting Students to the Arts Program
In general, I believe simply that one should make and teach performing arts with good quality. Quality will become its own motivator and recruitment tool. Also an open rapport between students and educators helps attract students to a program. I have found that sometimes an overly bossy director can drive students and actors away from the program. At the same time, I have seen very picky directors create beautiful works of performance art. If the end result is amazing, people will tend to want to stay with the process, but it certainly helps if the students can make a connection to the staff.
Students need to learn to deal with multiple personality types, but I personally find that creating beautiful stage works does not have to be a chore. I usually find myself in the role of being the levelheaded one that pulls things together for the show. If I am in a panic, something is indeed very wrong. I prefer not to indulge in melodrama, but treat students and colleagues with respect, and find a way to work without yelling and storming. I also find that this attracts students toward working with me in class and during productions.
I find that at the high school level and beyond, students know what constitutes good work, and typically do not wish to be patronized, whether they state this or not. I simply find the best practice is that I do not praise mediocrity in my classroom. I will praise students that have had struggles and are making successful pathways, but in general my students know and understand that I expect them to perform well and produce work that we will both be proud of later.
I find that students like to relate to their teacher outside the classroom as well. Most of the time students are with their teachers more than their parents, and as result look up to them for advice and guidance. Many times students tend to stay and visit in their favorite teachers’ rooms after school and just talk about things other than coursework.
Aesthetics and Style Choices
There are some values that might seem to be transcendent, but artists seem intent on challenging and straying from those norms, thus making some comparisons impossible. One could talk about form, balance, and spacing between Michelangelo and Matisse, but the same discussion or rules don't work for Pollock. Talking about the use of functional harmonic textures may work for Bach and Mozart, but not in the same way it works for Schoenberg. Although all could be examined for counterpoint, one should not expect strict species counterpoint to appear in all three, and certainly not with the same rules Bach would have used appearing in Schoenberg. Similarly, Shakespeare and Beckett can’t be compared by the same set of standards, let alone Fosse, Graham, or Tharp. Students should learn about style movements and then become free to express in an idiom that speaks to them, while under guidance and being exposed to many examples of current and historical practice.
I believe that the principle of decorum applies to artistic works. One should rehearse and perform a work based on its own merit and stylistic concerns, and should perform it well, within its own genre’s standards and guidelines. For example, ballet is different than modern dance; each are respected as art forms, and are not judged in the same way. We wouldn't judge marching band music the same way we would opera, but they are both valid performing ensembles. We wouldn't look at Michelangelo, Picasso, Da Vinci, and Dali with the same criteria. In different time periods, regions, and cultures, tastes and styles are different and change. One might subjectively say that they do not like Picasso, and still subjectively say that they like DaVinci better - but art students and historians would argue that each is artistically great and valid, and that one should look at their approaches differently. Of course, mixing and matching styles and historical periods is a great way to enhance (or detract from, if not done well) the dramatic effect onstage, and can help deliver or create subtext.
Modern vs. Traditional
In programming, if a teacher completely ignores the student culture, they are not necessarily going to go over well with the students. I think if some ensembles do not perform something modern occasionally, the students may not continue in the music program. Even by giving the students one or two songs during the year (guided by teacher discretion, and arrangement, etc.) they feel more valued, like their opinions do count, and that the teacher is not aloof to their interests. Active thought about student choices and current trends when programming concerts, so the students also get more out of the concert. They will usually work a little harder on other things for that carrot in front of them, that one fun song, while not necessarily noticing that the madrigal is turning out quite nicely. I point it out to them over time. Having some popular music seems to have worked, as every year, I actually do get a few students at the high school that transfer into performing arts classes, not having had them before. I always think the best motivator is literature that is of good quality, combined with solid performance.
In our own classrooms, we are the ones setting the canon. Should we choose nonwestern music? Should we use jazz? Or popular song? Should we have Broadway songs? Should we play music from films - after all, if the symphonies take these seriously, then shouldn’t we? So do we play Metallica, like on the Symphony Metallica album? It certainly is technically challenging. So as teachers, we have to decide what is worthy, developmental, and what keeps our students involved. They probably will learn something, as long as we choose music with our good intent and with musicality, whatever genre it may be from.
Technology
I am fairly innovative when it comes to using technology in the classroom. I designed and implemented a MIDI/audio recording lab for my music classroom that enables me and the students to communicate through headsets, record projects, practice piano and guitar, use online materials, and send files through the network to different workstations. I teach students to use multiple types of software, and actually require them at times to use software that they are unfamiliar with. One example is that I do not use Microsoft Word in the music lab. Instead I have used Apple's Pages, NeoOffice, and TextEdit. Using different software to achieve the same result pushes the students out of their comfort zones and opens them up to other possibilities. Instead of printing and wasting paper, I have had students e-mail, send files across a network, or store their work on a flash drive to submit assignments; of course, now we use collaborative Google Docs for nearly everything. In small ways, this lets students see and experience new ways of doing things, and propels them into a 21st century method of doing things.
Some people think that technology is the answer to everything. On the contrast, while I embrace and use technology for most things, it is not always the best choice. At times using a Smartboard makes sense, such as when demonstrating software, or presenting visually-laden material. Sometimes it is just simpler and easier to use “chalk and talk.” For example, it is much easier to work through the circle of fifths and key signatures by quickly drawing things on the board. The important thing for an educator is to know is which tool to use and when. I have had some success with using a website and podcast style posts to augment what I do in the classroom, and provide a reliable resource for students outside of class. I realized I was doing this before “flipped classrooms” became a buzzword, and it came naturally out of finding a method to adapt new technology to help students learn independently.
Please look under the headings for thoughts on different topics
School Environment
Schools have the immense opportunity and responsibility to develop and train students’ minds to be able to recognize and search for truth. With this in place, students are more able to learn and discern what is happening around them on a societal, moral, spiritual, and intellectual level, as they seek knowledge and wisdom. Each subject is only part of the equation, and the environment of the school provides the rest. The environment must provide for the safety and inclusion of all students in an equitable manner, while allowing for the free discussion of ideas. Education needs to be standards-based, challenging, and foster life-long learning while supporting society and the community. Schools also need to focus on equitable education by narrowing the gap in academic achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
Schools need to have a positive and safe environment for learning. This includes finding ways to nurture and include all students. Space must be provided for students to have multiple opportunities for development, including rebounding and learning from failure. Schools should promote and incorporate Professional Learning Communities that delegate and share administrative activities, as well as provide formative assessment and peer learning for teachers. As teachers, we have to decide what is worthy, developmental, and what keeps our students involved. I believe that experiential learning helps tap into student interests. Activities and arts are great at helping to spark learning. Creating an experience that moves toward a goal can help students to learn much more than taking notes. Schools need to create positive and challenging learning experiences for students to take control of their learning.
Leadership
An administrator’s job is a difficult one, as they are at the nexus of multiple competing concerns. They must balance the needs of students, teachers, parents, and the wider community. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, academic, cultural, and social, with varying life experiences. A coordinated effort must be made to ensure a common vision and mission are evident and present, but those must also be living and utilized in all aspects of the school. The mission and vision can be used to guide teaching, policy, and evaluation. As there is never enough budget for everyone, or time for everything, someone has to decide between multiple and sometimes equally valid needs. One of the best ways to do this is through tying everything back to the mission of the school, through the lens of core values. One has to look at the long term vision and be able to look at long term impacts, compared against the short term. At the same time, a leader needs to have support and empathy for those under their care, and never forget the human side of things.
Sometimes, one has to sacrifice something important for a greater good. I recall being on our Crisis Response Team in the first year of COVID, and we had to make the decision to cancel the prom. I realized the weight of how we were going to impact our students’ lives. The decision was not made lightly, but we had to err on the side of safety and compliance with local regulations. That balancing act stays with me as I continue to have to make decisions regarding how we move forward in this lingering pandemic. I believe in helping to provide the infrastructure and guidelines in place to allow teachers and professionals to do what they do best. Teachers and students need some guidance in order to prevent burnout and inequity, but I generally find that educators want to do the right thing. An administrator’s job is focused on creating an equitable space for the community, that can withstand long term changes.
Working with Students
I have found that wherever the students are in their development and knowledge, you simply have to meet them there. It will do no good to talk over their heads and not explain background information. Teaching is not about ego, either from the students or the professor. One should develop a collaborative rapport with them to get the most out of them, and foster mutual respect. Also, curriculum and sequencing needs to be designed in such a way that students will learn concepts in the most logical sequence, as well as give opportunity to apply the knowledge learned.
Sitting down with students and tackling a problem together, while explaining the process, lasts much longer in a student's mind than does a lecture note. Working side by side with students on projects and productions helps them to create and form long-lasting skills, problem-solving techniques, and fosters a vocabulary of creative inspiration.
Another thing that I find valuable in the classroom is letting capable students move ahead. As a student, I was in the gifted program, and looked forward to those times when I was able to break free and work at an accelerated pace. In my classroom, depending on the subject, I let students move forward faster than the pace of the class. This works well in my piano and guitar classes, where individual work is possible. I set a minimum standard, and then let students work ahead. Over time, I usually find three to four subsets of students in each class, and group them together based on their ability and rate of study. Each class turns into naturally differentiated sections, which is a challenge to keep up with for the teacher, but does provide an outlet that is tailored to meet more individual students’ needs. I do realize that this approach may not always be feasible, particularly in ensembles, or in a highly defined curriculum with end goals in mind, as in most college courses. But I do remember being thankful in my undergraduate lighting design class, when my professor allowed me to work on a graduate level final project instead of the undergraduate project.
Role of the School in Student Development
Schools should seek to develop and train students’ minds to be able to recognize and search for truth. With this philosophical background in place, then students are more able to seen and discern what is happening around them on a societal, moral, spiritual and intellectual level. It is important to teach students the skills to discern what is right, what is truth, and how to deduce the rest. Students then need to learn how to act in an ethical manner. This may include simple things such as using materials without waste. It also may appear as an ethical discussion about intellectual property and copyright issues in an age of rampant uploading and downloading of material that many people worked hard to create. It could appear in discussion about the impact that media has on society, and how the creators of content should consider the affective nature of their work on their audience, and choose whether to create art for art’s sake (if this is entirely possible) or to use it as a societal tool.
Performing Arts as a Subject
Too many times music and the arts are seen as extracurricular subjects, with little or no value in life. I believe that these areas have their own inherent value to study, and do not need to be tied into other academic areas to justify their worth. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought the arts important to study, and it appears that over time we have somehow diminished this idea in western culture. Music was one of the earliest degrees ever offered, well before science and technology degrees. We should study and perform art, because it is what moves us and makes us human.
I must also add that if justification is required, then much of my technical knowledge and applied skills came not from science classrooms, but from theatre: working the physics of sound in live and recorded situations; geometry and applied engineering skills learned from having to build unconventional things; wiring and electrical skills from lighting, sound, and soldering cables. All of these skills were acquire in order to create beautiful, aesthetic experiences. My sole purpose in buying my first computer was to compose music, and from that small step I have learned to record and edit audio, MIDI, and video, as well as many sorts of mundane tasks including office software and even computer repair. All of this stemmed from using the computer for artistic purposes.
Attracting Students to the Arts Program
In general, I believe simply that one should make and teach performing arts with good quality. Quality will become its own motivator and recruitment tool. Also an open rapport between students and educators helps attract students to a program. I have found that sometimes an overly bossy director can drive students and actors away from the program. At the same time, I have seen very picky directors create beautiful works of performance art. If the end result is amazing, people will tend to want to stay with the process, but it certainly helps if the students can make a connection to the staff.
Students need to learn to deal with multiple personality types, but I personally find that creating beautiful stage works does not have to be a chore. I usually find myself in the role of being the levelheaded one that pulls things together for the show. If I am in a panic, something is indeed very wrong. I prefer not to indulge in melodrama, but treat students and colleagues with respect, and find a way to work without yelling and storming. I also find that this attracts students toward working with me in class and during productions.
I find that at the high school level and beyond, students know what constitutes good work, and typically do not wish to be patronized, whether they state this or not. I simply find the best practice is that I do not praise mediocrity in my classroom. I will praise students that have had struggles and are making successful pathways, but in general my students know and understand that I expect them to perform well and produce work that we will both be proud of later.
I find that students like to relate to their teacher outside the classroom as well. Most of the time students are with their teachers more than their parents, and as result look up to them for advice and guidance. Many times students tend to stay and visit in their favorite teachers’ rooms after school and just talk about things other than coursework.
Aesthetics and Style Choices
There are some values that might seem to be transcendent, but artists seem intent on challenging and straying from those norms, thus making some comparisons impossible. One could talk about form, balance, and spacing between Michelangelo and Matisse, but the same discussion or rules don't work for Pollock. Talking about the use of functional harmonic textures may work for Bach and Mozart, but not in the same way it works for Schoenberg. Although all could be examined for counterpoint, one should not expect strict species counterpoint to appear in all three, and certainly not with the same rules Bach would have used appearing in Schoenberg. Similarly, Shakespeare and Beckett can’t be compared by the same set of standards, let alone Fosse, Graham, or Tharp. Students should learn about style movements and then become free to express in an idiom that speaks to them, while under guidance and being exposed to many examples of current and historical practice.
I believe that the principle of decorum applies to artistic works. One should rehearse and perform a work based on its own merit and stylistic concerns, and should perform it well, within its own genre’s standards and guidelines. For example, ballet is different than modern dance; each are respected as art forms, and are not judged in the same way. We wouldn't judge marching band music the same way we would opera, but they are both valid performing ensembles. We wouldn't look at Michelangelo, Picasso, Da Vinci, and Dali with the same criteria. In different time periods, regions, and cultures, tastes and styles are different and change. One might subjectively say that they do not like Picasso, and still subjectively say that they like DaVinci better - but art students and historians would argue that each is artistically great and valid, and that one should look at their approaches differently. Of course, mixing and matching styles and historical periods is a great way to enhance (or detract from, if not done well) the dramatic effect onstage, and can help deliver or create subtext.
Modern vs. Traditional
In programming, if a teacher completely ignores the student culture, they are not necessarily going to go over well with the students. I think if some ensembles do not perform something modern occasionally, the students may not continue in the music program. Even by giving the students one or two songs during the year (guided by teacher discretion, and arrangement, etc.) they feel more valued, like their opinions do count, and that the teacher is not aloof to their interests. Active thought about student choices and current trends when programming concerts, so the students also get more out of the concert. They will usually work a little harder on other things for that carrot in front of them, that one fun song, while not necessarily noticing that the madrigal is turning out quite nicely. I point it out to them over time. Having some popular music seems to have worked, as every year, I actually do get a few students at the high school that transfer into performing arts classes, not having had them before. I always think the best motivator is literature that is of good quality, combined with solid performance.
In our own classrooms, we are the ones setting the canon. Should we choose nonwestern music? Should we use jazz? Or popular song? Should we have Broadway songs? Should we play music from films - after all, if the symphonies take these seriously, then shouldn’t we? So do we play Metallica, like on the Symphony Metallica album? It certainly is technically challenging. So as teachers, we have to decide what is worthy, developmental, and what keeps our students involved. They probably will learn something, as long as we choose music with our good intent and with musicality, whatever genre it may be from.
Technology
I am fairly innovative when it comes to using technology in the classroom. I designed and implemented a MIDI/audio recording lab for my music classroom that enables me and the students to communicate through headsets, record projects, practice piano and guitar, use online materials, and send files through the network to different workstations. I teach students to use multiple types of software, and actually require them at times to use software that they are unfamiliar with. One example is that I do not use Microsoft Word in the music lab. Instead I have used Apple's Pages, NeoOffice, and TextEdit. Using different software to achieve the same result pushes the students out of their comfort zones and opens them up to other possibilities. Instead of printing and wasting paper, I have had students e-mail, send files across a network, or store their work on a flash drive to submit assignments; of course, now we use collaborative Google Docs for nearly everything. In small ways, this lets students see and experience new ways of doing things, and propels them into a 21st century method of doing things.
Some people think that technology is the answer to everything. On the contrast, while I embrace and use technology for most things, it is not always the best choice. At times using a Smartboard makes sense, such as when demonstrating software, or presenting visually-laden material. Sometimes it is just simpler and easier to use “chalk and talk.” For example, it is much easier to work through the circle of fifths and key signatures by quickly drawing things on the board. The important thing for an educator is to know is which tool to use and when. I have had some success with using a website and podcast style posts to augment what I do in the classroom, and provide a reliable resource for students outside of class. I realized I was doing this before “flipped classrooms” became a buzzword, and it came naturally out of finding a method to adapt new technology to help students learn independently.