comprehensive musicianship through performance
Bring New Life to Your Music Staff David Bowman, CMP Committee Member
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If music is for life and it lasts a lifetime, it should follow that we as music educa- tors would seek to become ever better and more skilled at our craft. The Manitowoc Public School District has chosen to achieve this by using Comprehensive Mu- sicianship through Performance (CMP) for the district’s music department staff development. I will attempt to relate how we went about implementing this initia- tive in spite of limited resources, time and closely guarded “fiefdoms.”
There are two important things to con- sider when trying to get your district to embrace and support staff immersion in CMP – key players and commit- ment. Let’s talk about key players first.
Key Players
Who are the people on the music staff who would help take the lead? Do you have fellow staff members who have been to the summer workshop? Are there people who have “always been interested” but have never taken the step to attend? Do you know of other districts in the area that might be looking for in-service topics and would be able to combine with you? Start the conversations that are needed to create an atmosphere that will make the implementation of CMP easier. As music department chair, I began those conversa- tions several years ago and encouraged the staff to attend the summer workshop. Three years ago, after we had representa- tives from each grade level and discipline attend, we decided we would like to take it a step further and make CMP our staff
“The key to success in this venture is that we were able to state how
CMP lines up with the district-wide development plan…”
development focus for at least two full years. This brings us to the second set of key players.
“Providing Excellence in Musical Opportunities” 2011-2012 Concert Season
Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concerts Saturday, November 12, 2011 1:30pm Sinfonietta and Concert Orchestra 4:00pm Percussion Ensemble and Philharmonia Orchestra
Sunday, November 13, 2011 2:00pm Harp Ensemble and Youth Orchestra
Winterfest Concerts Saturday, March 10, 2012 11:30am Harp Ensemble and Sinfonietta 1:30pm Percussion Ensemble and Concert Orchestra
4:00pm Philharmonia Orchestra 7:00pm Youth Orchestra
Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family
Spring Concerts Sunday, May 20, 2012 1:30pm Sinfonietta and Concert Orchestra 4:00pm Percussion Ensemble and Philharmonia Orchestra
7:00pm Harp Ensemble and Youth Orchestra 608.263.3320 •
wyso.music.wisc.edu 46
Who is in charge of your staff develop- ment? Get them to support your idea! In Manitowoc, it is a combination of the director of elementary and secondary education and building principals with input to varying degrees from building staff. We began by talking with the direc- tor of education about a CMP “immer- sion” experience for the staff. The key to success in this venture is that we were able to state how CMP lines up with the district-wide development plan, which has focused on authentic intellectual work (AIW) for almost a decade. I won’t bore you with the details, as every district has their own culture and “educational-ese,” but the director was quick to realize that we were talking about good teaching and in-depth student learning. We assumed the harder sell would be to building principals who were jealous of the limited time they have to address building specific issues. Individual meetings were held with each principal to share the process of CMP. Guiding them through the process, several made the observation that understanding CMP would help them in evaluating teach- er performance in the classroom. With all agreeing that this was valuable, it was easy to take the next step and ask for all staff
September 2011
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