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 310: Drawing Your Line in the Sand on AI in the Classroom with Dale Duncan
What happens when a choir director with thirty years in the classroom builds an AI app trained on his experience? His own teachers’ Facebook group turns on him for it. Does he deserve it? Every time I open Facebook lately, some music teacher has a brand-new AI app to sell me. Dale Duncan is no…
Episode 309: Cross-Training For Singers with Dr. Nicholas Perna
A singer trained in only one style is leaving half their instrument unbuilt. We hear a bright, forward, Broadway sound walk into the rehearsal room and reach for the same correction every time. But what if that instinct is the problem? She belts in musical practice after school and sings Palestrina on Sunday morning, and…
Episode 308: It’s Just Intonation After All with Ross W. Duffin
What if the piano — the instrument sitting in every choir room in America — is quietly teaching your singers to sing out of tune? I rehearse a cappella. From the first day of rehearsal to the final product, no piano. I’ve been saying it for years, and I catch heat for it. So when…


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