News fom the Districs
NORTHWEST DISTRICT #1 Tom Brockman, MMEA District President
We Are All Mentors Upon driving home from the recent MMEA convention, I found myself in a unique situation and one that I would do at any time in a heartbeat; I rode home with my mentor. We spent most of the drive discussing the convention, the sessions, the concerts we heard, vendors we met, and just education in general. We shared our thoughts on applying new ideas, old ideas, and creating new ideas on helping our students to achieve at the highest. When I say, “we shared;” I should really say that I spent most of the time listening to his ideas, philosophies, and concepts in instrumental music. This individual has been my mentor since I was in high school and I am very fortunate to have the relationship that I can just pick up the phone and ask a simple question while always receiving a thoughtful answer.
The point of this above statement is to say that mentoring and our mentors are a main factor in life-long learning. As educators, we have the ability to inspire not only our students, but also each other. During the convention, I am always humbled in hearing, watching, and seeing colleagues that achieve at the highest levels in performance and instruction. I look forward to those four days on catching up with them and sharing stories of the current school year events, as well as updates on their families. I think that too many times, and rightfully so, we are caught up throughout the school year and we forget to pick up that phone, send that text or email, or even plan an evening get-together. I truly believe that life-long learning simply does not just apply to a textbook, piece of music, or a single entity. Development can be discovered everywhere and anywhere, as mentors to our students and to each other.
NORTHEAST DISTRICT #2 Marc Lewis, MMEA District President
Continual Improvement If you had asked me years ago, I would have said “life-long learning” was the most cliché term used in education. It’s no secret plenty of music
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educators become stagnate in the profession. It’s also true that plenty of music educators do push themselves and their students to the limit each and every day. Although most music educators know the mainstream expectation of our profession is to continually push ourselves and our students to the edge, I feel most need to genuinely embrace the Japanese ideal known as “Kaizen,” the bushido of the business world meaning continual improvement.
To teach music you honestly need to be a life-long learner. Adjudicators, administrators, students, and parents influence our careers. Parents force us to be effective communicators. Students change from day to day due to a variety of factors, which affect our classroom. Good administrators promote their educators to be flexible in the classroom while allowing teachers to take measured risks. Administrators also assist in not allowing a narrow focus of instruction to obstruct the global needs of the entire student body. Adjudicators give us critiques that allow us to grow as educators.
The music in which we immerse our classroom also allows us to adapt. Music changes our mood depending on what we are trying to musically communicate. This mood can vary from the intensity of a march, to the contrast of a line piece, or even the discomfort and edge we feel after being assaulted by the massive percussion sounds in some contemporary band literature. Rehearsal is our emotional roller coaster, which hopefully keeps our professional interest while at the same time inspires our students to do what they couldn’t do the day before. The musical journey experienced preparing a piece of music will hopefully evolve over time. Emotionally the teacher and students should bring the emotional peaks and valleys experienced in their lives to the rehearsal in order to allow the music to change with their emotions. What’s amazing is that everything changes …yet what is on the page stays the same….you know…since they never seem to be able to find their pencils!
Our students should see our passion every day. This ultimately should affect them. We have all seen it
See DISTRICTS, P. 35 MISSOURI SCHOOL MUSIC | Volume 71, Number 3
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