Midterm blog

What A Music Teacher Needs

There are many things that come to mind when thinking about what makes a great music teacher. Fortunately for me I have had great music teachers and professors my whole educational career . Even if some of my teachers were not my favorite I still respected them and saw that they had a love and passion for music education. Some of my most memorable experiences in school were in music class. This is something I think more students should experience and for this to happen teachers must have specific traits. Three things I think music teachers need are, the right personality, they need to be actively making music, and a good music teacher must have a good “bag of tricks” or a big personal archive of music.

In the chapter titled “With out you, there would have never been a journey” from Peter Boonshaft's book “Teaching Music with Purpose”. Boonshaft is at a slow point in the year. He is tired and feels he has bitten off a little more then he can chew with his expectations for the ensemble. A student comes in and notices something is wrong. A few days later she returns with a letter. The letter stated the students journey and how important Boonshaft was as a teacher. Part of a students educational experience is the impact a teacher has on a class/students. This is why it is important for music teachers to have the right personality. A music teacher needs to be calm, funny, and patient. Music is hard at times and can make students want to quit. A music teacher with a great personality would want to make that student come back to class the next day and try harder.

Another thing that I think music teachers need to have, or in this case need to be doing is actively making music. Referring back to Boonshaft, music students are heavily influenced by their teachers, and they look to us to pave the way for them. In most cases the music teacher is the closest person to a rock star for students. With this being said music educators should set good examples by having good practice habits, playing with friends, and performing. Music is a special way of communication. It is important for teachers to be able to communicate the musical language with their

students.

The third thing that I think music teachers need is to have a good “Bag of Tricks”. What I mean by bag of tricks is a personal data base of songs. These are songs that are for ensembles to play, listen too, or watch and analyze. The purpose for this bag of tricks is management. Music classes can have large numbers of students and it is important to have good management skills. Start the day with some fun sight reading songs. And if an ensemble is just having a hard time or is getting frustrated one day, switch to an easy song that the students enjoy playing. When I teach I will have a bunch of these of these “go to” songs and learn new ones every year. Looking up and transposing popular songs for students to play in class or at home is also a great management strategy and addition to your personal archive.

These are only Three things a Music teacher needs. The list does not stop here and there are many different qualities a music teacher should have.