Northeast Iowa snow has finally come in mass and seems to be blowing around endlessly. I don't like the feeling of being shut in, but it has provided some time to attend to things that I've been meaning to attend to like practicing piano, catch up on some reading I've been meaning to do and yes, I have embarked on the holiday baking season-risky-but I did it anyway.
This time of year also has me reflecting on this first year at North Fayette. There's been so much to learn and reflect on, it's hard to know where to start. This year to a degree feels like another "first year" of teaching. Sure, there's things I've gotten better at over the past year(classroom management, and sequencing of my instruction) but still there are things that have to be "relearned" and habits that need to be broken in order to adapt to the new system.
Our bands our constantly preparing for the "next thing". That being the next performance, the next public event etc. This consumes a large amount of our time. Sure, we want our students to perform well and that's what the community, administration, and students demand of us. So we deliver. But in the midst of all of this I worry what will happen to us in today's "assessment" climate.
Why am I concerned? Through inservice and even all they way back to my teacher preparation days at Luther we are constantly trained to assess the cognitive abilities of our students-what they know. Standardize tests have become the norm and the guide by where the "money flows". This method of assessment only addresses the learning that happens in direct instruction classes or the "core" classes.
Where does that then leave the arts and more specifically music? It almost seems like we need to play "the game". By that I mean integrating theory, music history, and other elements into our teaching of the skill of playing. "Playing the game" could create more "legitimate" assessment (legitimate in the eyes of the powers that be) extending our lifeline and allowing us to continue to teach what we teach, thereby, no longer making us "expendable".
But really, should that be the mentality? In the end, we need to ultimately ask ourselves what is best for our students. Is it best for them to teach them "just what they need to play" for the next performance or do we give them some depth, context in order to enrich their learning? I realize that this is incredibly difficult due to time constraints, but it has to be made to work.
Comprehensive Musicianship teaching is a great way to give students a more meaningful, enriched, experience. Maybe if they understood the musical context or theory behind the music that they are playing, that could actually foster the aesthetic experience. Isn't that we want students to achieve anyway?
