I'm standing in the middle of the music classroom. Two brothers sit side by side on the piano bench, rehearsing the duet they're preparing for our Spring recital. It's our first coaching session together.
Five Teaching & Learning Myths to Debunk This Year
You know those things you’ve heard that seem true? I mean, they sound plausible. Plus, if enough people say it, it must be true, right?
Before long, we find ourselves buying into the hype, retelling the story, believing something we’ve heard without stopping to ask questions.
This is how myths begin.
Sometimes, there’s simply a lack of information—nothing to disprove this theory or that idea. Other times, they sound good on paper but are only surface-level with no substance to back them up.
Whatever the case may be, we’ve all encountered myths (big and small) in various parts of our lives.
But have you ever stopped to think about myths related to teaching and learning? What stories are being told out there that affect our work and how we approach things? What’s being shared as fact when there isn’t research to back it up?
Do We Really Teach How We Were Taught? Three Things You Should Know
Do you ever think back to the teachers you had growing up?
Maybe a private music teacher or a choir director or your high school English teacher or a professor you had in college.
What do you remember about them? What was your learning experience like? What approaches did you observe? What do you find yourself incorporating into your own teaching?
There’s an age-old adage that says we teach how we were taught.
This isn’t the full story, of course: we all have unique backgrounds and a variety of experiences that inform the people we are today and the teachers we are becoming.
Top 10 Posts of 2018
It’s that time of the year! Here’s a look at 2018, by the numbers:
Launched two new mini courses for church musicians: Music Education & Leadership Skills for the Adult Choir Director and Music Education & Leadership Skills for the Handbell Choir Director
Self-published three new handbell collections: Four Pieces for Advent, Four Pieces for Christmas, and Four Pieces for Epiphany
Wrote a guest post for the Oxford University Press Choral blog, called “What Type of Choir Director Are You?”
Wrote over 50 new posts, ranging from rehearsal tips to leadership skills, anthem suggestions to worship planning, book recommendations to pronunciation guides
How to Continue Developing Your Teaching Skills This Year
As teachers, we’re never really done learning (and that’s a good thing!).
John Dewey once said, “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”
So true, right? The world is constantly changing and evolving and we need to be constantly changing, adapting, learning, and evolving along with it to be the best teachers we can be.
What do you want to learn this year? What kind of teacher do you want to become?
I shared my answers to these questions on Facebook Live a few weeks ago. Watch the replay here, in case you missed it!
