Standard 5: The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in selecting, analyzing, interpreting, presenting, and

evaluating music and music performance within the context of music education.

As a music educator, I strive provide my students an education that will expose them to a diverse
selection of music reflective of the many cultures, styles, and approaches toward music in our world.
Utilizing these works I intend to work to foster an independence and self-efficacy within my students
regarding both their musical ability and cultural acuity. With the development of these qualities, I hope
to equip them with the freedom to apply their skills to their future musical (and life) goals as they
choose. To achieve that goal, I must effectively select music that caters to their interests, highlights their
strengths, and encourages their continued development. Further, I have to help students to expand and
refine their ability to identify and articulate qualities of music and performances that they both enjoy
and dislike. This development of their ability to evaluate music will help my students to develop as
musicians as they will be more able to work toward displaying the qualities that they identify make for a
good performance. In addition, I believe it will prove to assist them in their journey of self-discovery.

I have found that as I select music with a focus on articulating special and effective qualities about each
piece, my ability to identify how to approach pieces improves. In this way, my understanding of style,
composer's intent and theory join with my strengths to support me as a performer. All of those
developments have made be a better educator through an expanded concept of the music and
performance. Articulating strengths and weaknesses of selections will benefit my students as performers
as well. For this reason, I look to give students opportunities to compare and evaluate. This can be seen
in my curriculum for middle school choir. For one lesson, students compare and contrast two
performances to describe the differences and how they might approach them differently in
performance.

I aim to provide my students with experiences that will develop their holistic understanding of music,
because I believe that through continued reflection and exploration of music and performances my
students will develop a set of tools that will benefit their musical freedom and competence in the future.