A Music Education Blog Collective

September is such a busy month for all educators. As an elementary instrumental music teacher I find myself struggling this month with issues around the following two themes:

1. Inclusion/Exclusion: I have spent more energy than every before in creating an inclusive performance program. Although my program is optional for students, I am doing my best to not let any child “fall through the cracks.” It makes me sad when I hear from adults that they never played an instrument because they missed the sign-up day. I view my position in the school building as an advocacy position. If I don’t advocate that participation in music is for all students, who will? To that effect, I have given classroom presentations, sent home letters, and met with each child that played an instrument last year or signed up to learn one this year individually. I have made more parent phone calls in the beginning of this year than ever before. I have scheduled an evening band parent meeting. At the same time, I realize that participation in my program might look different for different children. How do you deal with the part of your job that expects you to select and sort students?

 2. Goals and Professional Development: My district requires that we write our professional goals each year. As I ponder mine, I am stuck with a sinking feeling in my gut that the resources and training is not going to be available to me to support the goals I would like to write. First, I think schools do a poor job of continuing education to begin with. Our one-day professional development days (Superintendent days) have had little or no affect on my teaching practices. While state and national conferences in music education are available, my district is unable to fund my participation in anything outside our local area. In what ways can we as music educators supplement our own continuing education? What role can online resources and community blogging play in that endeavor?

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