Educational Philosophy

A lot of my desires to become a music educator were fueled by my experiences in music

education as a student. My middle school band director was vibrant, caring, and easy-going, yet

was still able to achieve great successes with our band and his individual students. My high

school band director was cold, manipulative, and inconsiderate, and relied on a handful of

talented individuals in the band to create success for the group as a whole. These two completely

opposite experiences have greatly informed the kind of educator that I would like to be in the

future.

First of all, I want to create an environment in which the students feel comfortable being in

and are allowed to ask for help and advice at any time. Although this is not music-related, I

believe it is extremely important to make students feel welcome in their music class. In some

instances, there can be variables in which the environment can be unwelcoming, which will drive

students out of the program and keep them away. As much as it sounds like it would be common

knowledge to treat our students nicely, I have had experiences as a student in which this was not

the case.

Another concept that I would like to incorporate into my teaching is the human quality of

music-making. Often times, music educators can be too focused on the concept of being

technically proficient. While this is extremely important of course, it can be easy to bypass

making music that has an expressive quality to it. Some of the best experiences I’ve had have

been performing on stage and making music with my peers, without a worry of technical

proficiency. I think it would enhance the experience of the students if this were brought to

attention in class.