A hybrid episode! We run the risk of oversimplifying educational concepts, packaging them in seminars and professional development sessions for sale, and actually HARMING students. Or at least not helping them. Educational theories often carry precious little evidence, but we as educators frequently feel ill equipped to question them. Often times these oversimplifications are simply Utopian visions of education. One of the buzzwords that gets this treatment in my view is “Belonging.” I have been reading a book called “Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity” by Cobb and Krownapple. In that journey, as well as in my conversations on the show, in real life, and online it has become clear to me that there are many questions still to be ASKED about this topic before we can even begin to have enough hubris to think we can answer it.
This episode started out as a car thoughts episode, which I extended with a walkthrough of two graphics that I see as questionable from the book.
Episode 307: Education is Individual. Ensembles are not
Real music literacy isn’t about robotic, first-time perfection. Here is how to create individualized leveled readers that meet every singer right where they are. If you think back to elementary school, or when your own kids were young, you probably remember them bringing home leveled reading books tailored to their specific vocabulary, phonics stage, and…
Episode 306: Why “What Works for Me?” is the Wrong Question for Teachers
ACTUAL student-centered education occurs when we design our classes, pedagogies and assessments around individual student skill attainment. The calculation of “what works” cannot simply boil down to teacher preference. One of the most common things you hear at music education conferences is the phrase: “I just do what works for me.” It sounds harmless, even…
Episode 305: An Invitation to Connection with Jennifer Lucy Cook
What happens when a choral piece becomes so wildly popular that choir directors start refusing to program it? We like to tell ourselves that our repertoire choices are based on objective artistic standards… …but all too often, artists fall into a familiar trap: the moment a piece captures the public imagination or goes viral on…
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