Innovative Leader

In Music Teaching and Learning, I was introduced to Evan S. Tobias's work on Music in Participatory Culture, and the ways that people engage with music outside of academics. By incorporating these practices into the classroom, I strive to ensure that my classroom experience is generative, vibrant, and positively residual.

Learning about Merriam's functions of music helped me to better understand what roles music had in day-to-day life, and to move away from standards that are only in practice due to how long they have been known to be in the classroom to favor a more engaging classroom dynamic. Approaching music education from the lens of how music functions has helped me emphasize certain qualities of music that would have otherwise been unknown to me.

For a mini-project in Principles of Music Education, I was tasked with creating a personal metaphor for teaching and learning. My metaphor was "Education is Photosynthesis". In photosynthesis, a plant utilizes the sun's rays as well as water and carbon dioxide to create energy for the plant to mature. This process is similar to my philosophy on education. The sun can help facilitate the growing of the plant, but the plant is the one that must ultimately grow, much like a contemporary music classroom. The teacher can give the students the materials to thrive, but the learning ultimately falls to the student.