So, I did a little research.
Most sources I looked at, including the texts for our classes like Teaching with the Brain in Mind, agree that curriculum is all about what we teach, and pedagogy is about how we teach it.
But what about the difference between a teaching philosophy and a pedagogy? The more I looked online, the more I found the two terms to be somewhat interchangeable. I read one article called Comparing Preschool Philosophies: Montessori, Waldorf and More, yet other articles that I found would refer to these ‘philosophies’ as pedagogies. In my own head I like the think of a philosophy as and an all encompassing force that influences both what we teach and how we teach it. In terms of music education, I think of educational philosophies to be more along the lines of why we are teaching music to children.
However, what’s important is that these are all holistic approaches to teaching children music, thus the what, how and why are forever intertwined.
Warning! This is a long, but highly important side note: in my mad late night research session I discovered critical pedagogy! As explained by Rainier Winter in The Encyclopedia of Social Theory:
Critical pedagogy is a political project that attempts to change the power structures of everyday life, especially in cultural institutions such as those in education and the media. These changes are brought about through critique, resistance, and struggle. It aims to enable people to avoid manipulation and to empower them (Winter 2004).
Aaaaah this is exactly the kind of thing that I could be found trying to explain at the bar or some social gathering. I try to explain it as a door or a gate. The people being squished under the door need to push up and be empowered to realize that they can lift the door. While simultaneously the people on top need to pull and change what they are doing so that the door can be opened. I see a really big gap in the understanding of this issue. We are in a time where racial inequalities/gender inequalities..etc need to be about the people on top of the door. For an example, people on the top need to start talking about the things which hold the door down, rather than analyzing the position of the people underneath. I’d highly recommend watching this: Ted Talk by Jackson Katz which gives examples regarding how to tackle violence against women (something that has very much impacted me). Plus, Katz explains it better than me!
The theory behind critical pedagogy is greatly influenced by Paulo Freire’s book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I was thrilled to learn through Lorrie Heagy that Freire’s theories closely fit with El Sistema core values. As it turns out, my late nights of white-knuckle-clenching and highlighting quotes from Freire’s book are helping me better understand the other book I’ve been reading Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music (yes, I am a secret nerd). But most importantly, I am slowly gaining a better understanding of El Sistema and the social change through music that is occurring right here with JAMM.
Okay, so back to the General Music Pedagogies Class! In the first two days of class we started the mornings with movement and singing influenced by Kodaly. Kodaly is all about installing a love of music in children through folk music, singing and dancing. The singing piece is a lot about developing a musical ear. Then, we moved into studying African Drumming and Ensemble, based on the World Music Drumming Curriculum. In the second part of the week each of us lead a World Drumming class at the string workshop for elementary, middle school or high school aged students.
Two major topics that we got the opportunity to study and practice were: brain-compatible lesson planning and classroom management.
A lot of our lesson planning was based on concepts from Teaching with the Brain in Mind. What stuck out in my mind was the idea of scaffolding. Which is tied into Orff, Kodaly and other pedagogies because, proper scaffolding is an essential to successfully teaching singing, instrumentation and movement. Although scaffolding can come in many forms, Jensen uses the terms Pre-exposure (weeks, months, years ahead), Previewing (a couple hours before), Priming (exposed right before learning), Reviewing (minutes after), and Revision (in the next session). I incorporated priming in my drumming lesson plan by having the instructors play the next new rhythm while the students mastered the previously learned rhythm. See my lesson plans (posted bellow) which were formatted to standards from the 4th grade Game Plan curriculum, and based on the lessons which I taught at the strings workshop.
As for classroom management, we focussed on using a credible versus an approachable body and also on the use of positive rather then negative language.
This week-long course did so much for me, because we learned everything by doing; by singing, dancing, moving, and then teaching. To have the opportunity to internalize learning, is pure gold. There was a moment when we were singing and dancing and I came to a great realization: this is exactly what I want to do with my life. I want to sing, dance and play music with children!
To have so many good idea’s in the same room throughout the week, was entirely inspiring. So, I made a list of goals and ideas that may help me develop as a music educator:
Goals:
Books to read: A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Teaching with love & logic, The Nurture Effect, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Resources: Lyrical Life Science, Getting Triggy With it, Teach Me How to Factor, Life Woven With Song, Smart Songs (learning with Hip Hop!), World Music Drumming,
Ideas from notes to research: Mirror neurons, connection between fitness and cognitive resources in students,
Training to look into: Waldorf, Kodaly, Orff, World Music Drumming, New England Dance Conservatory, Tlingit Language,
Personal goals: Practice singing (maybe take lessons), piano and guitar, focus on empowering students in leadership roles and positivity in the classroom, read more books!
Thats all for now! Thanks for reading. Please feel free to contact me with feedback :)