elementary general music
All Are Welcome Here Corinne Galligan, WMEA State Chair, Elementary General Music
Honest reflection time: Think back to yourself as an el- ementary learner. How would El - ementary You feel as Current You’s student? Now imag- ine yourself as your current elementary
learners… but pick a few whose life experiences are very different compared to Elementary You. How would you feel about your current classroom and teaching from their perspectives?
When we’re creating a learning atmo- sphere that is welcoming for all learners, it is vital for the music, books and other materials that we use to be mirrors in
which our students can see themselves, windows through which they can see oth- ers, and sliding glass doors through which they can step to immerse themselves in another real or imagined place. Are you using music from different times, places and genres, or are you just sticking to white American folk songs and so-called “classical music”? When teaching about the histories of oppressed cultures, are you centering their joy and cultural rich- ness while elevating and celebrating their often-erased contributions (Blair Imani), or are you only focusing on the oppression and atrocities committed against them? Are your books inclusive of a variety of genders, races, ethnicities, cultures, reli- gions, socioeconomic statuses, abilities and family structures, or are they generally just representative of cisnormative, hetero-
- Call for Research -
Wisconsin State Music Conference Now is your chance to present research at this year’s Research Poster Presentation at the Wisconsin State Music Conference! All submissions received by the deadline (see below) will be reviewed and considered for presentation. Please follow detailed guidelines at
wmeamusic.org/ research-poster.
• Research must be about music education or other related music disciplines
• Undergraduate and collaborative research projects are welcome
• Reasearch studies should be current or recent
Submit a 300–500 word extended abstract via email attachment by Sept. 3 to Tobin Shucha,
shuchat@ripon.edu.
Include all contact info (name, title, affiliation, address, email, phone number) in the body of the message.
50
normative, middle class white Christians? Are your solfege posters and other clipart representative of a variety of skin tones, or are they only representative of people who look like the person who made them or the person who purchased them?
What are you actively doing to make your Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian learners feel welcomed and celebrated in your classroom, no matter what else is going on in your community or in larger spaces? When you teach about different cultures, are you cultivating an antiracist learning space? Are you building aware- ness of microaggressions that you or other learners may commit, knowingly or unknowingly, and combating those in your classroom and in your everyday life? How are you working to decolonize your classroom? When teaching about cultures different than your own, are you check- ing to see where the authors, illustrators, performers and composers of your chosen materials are from in order to help ensure that you are using authentic resources from culture bearers? When possible, are you bringing in culture bearers themselves to do the educating, and fairly compensating them for their work?
We should also be consciously step- ping away from the gender binary in our classrooms. “Guys’’ or “girls and boys” can become “folks,” “everyone,” “musi- cians,” “scholars,” “learners,” “students,” “humans.” If you’re dividing into groups, instead of using biological sex as the cri- terion, you can mix it up by birth month, shoe size, favorite color, alphabetical order or sides of the room. If you have concert uniforms, present non-gendered options instead of requiring items of cloth- ing that conform to societal gender norms like “girls in dresses and boys in pants.” Create a place where your students can comfortably be themselves, even if they’re still mentally exploring who they are and aren’t yet ready to share the specifics with the world.
April 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
