choral
Three Habits of Highly Affective Educators Marcia Russell, WMEA State Chair, Choral
When I first be- gan teaching over 20 years ago, my benchmark for suc- cess was simple: I wanted the students to like me and I wanted them to en- joy making music in the choral class-
room. I must admit that this simplistic, superficial measurement for success is still present, but it is no longer my ultimate goal. My ultimate measure for success is creating an environment that encourages my students to use music as a lens to view themselves and the world.
My teaching life was forever changed when I became a member of the Wisconsin
Comprehensive Musicianship Through Performance (CMP) committee, and start- ed spending several days each summer at the annual CMP workshop surrounded by creative, passionate and highly affective teachers. I have observed that all of them share three important habits (deference to Steven R. Covey).
Curiosity
Do you remember the first Home Alone movie? Minutes before the family is preparing to depart, a young boy named Mitch Murphy is outside the home with the taxi-cab driver asking questions at a mile a minute: “How fast does this thing go? Does it have automatic transmission? Does it have four-wheel drive?” The taxi driver’s response is classic: “Look, I told
you before, kid. Don’t bother me. Now beat it.”
You can watch the clip here for fun!
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PrNhoCVTAg4
What if we asked questions a mile a minute about the music we are teaching? What makes this a great piece of music? What is the meaning of the text? Why did the composer choose this note instead of that note? Why is the phrase structure the way it is? What is the original version of the melody?
Highly affective educators are curi- ous. They ask questions. They wonder “Why?”, “So What?” and “How will this impact my students?”. They ponder the
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April 2017
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