Taylor Carpenzano

Art of Teaching Music I

May 3, 2017

Dr. Holcomb and Dr. Morrow

Final Synthesis Paper

A great teacher is someone who is encouraging and understanding. Someone who is

willing to learn new things, and willing to benefit from the knowledge of others around them.

This is something I have learned from working with and watching the teachers around me.

Teachers who are so experienced and knowledgeable, such as Dr. Morrow, are able to teach us

information, but also able to learn from what we, as future educators, have to say. A

transformative teacher is someone who is able to create a safe and encouraging space in their

classroom. Someone who creates a space where it is okay for their students to make mistakes as

well as not being afraid of being themselves and expressing themselves how they want and feel

comfortable doing.

I believe that a great classroom environment is one in which students have some say and

input in what goes on. Paulo Freire believed that students should be conscious of what they were

learning, rather than simply storing the information they were taught in their mind. Using this

model of classroom learning, I can encourage my students to have conversations with one

another, and learn from what their peers have to say. For example, they can learn about different

cultures. I would have students talk about the distinct characteristics of music that is related to

their own heritage or a culture of their choosing. This can allow students to teach their fellow

classmates something about themselves as well as open up a discussion between the students and
teachers. I believe that doing this can create an environment that is encouraging for students and

forms a more connected and tight knit community.

I believe technology is one of the most important things to incorporate into the

classroom. This is because of the society in which we live in. Todays youth are growing up in a

world where they can hold the answers to any question in their fingertips. Although many may

believe that technology can be a distraction to students in classroom settings, there are in fact

many beneficial uses for technology in music classes. For example, Smartboards make it easy

for teachers to pull up staff paper in which they can write on for the class to see. They can also

use the Smartboard to pull up pieces of music to do a thorough analysis of on the board. This

same Smartboard can also be used to pull up a song that you are going to have your students

learn for their spring concert, or a recording of them that you took at their last concert, so they

can hear what they sounded like. I believe this can be used to help the students learn and evolve

into better musicians.

I believe that more handheld technology, like iPads can be encouraging of getting

students engaged in the classroom. When Mr. Daniel Beal came in to do his presentation about

iPads in music classrooms, I was a little unsure how this would be beneficial to music education.

I had no clue that creative and informative music programs existed at the touch of a students

fingertip. The main aspect of the iPads that is extremely evident are the creative apps like

Incredibox and Launchpad that allow students to create their own songs by tapping and dragging

a few buttons. iPads can even provide students with ways to learn about music; more specifically

solfege with programs like DoReMi 1-2-3, which allow students to apply solfege to songs that

they already know. I believe this is important in helping students learn music because it presents
music on a medium that is easily accessible to them while allowing them to compose music, on

apps like Incredibox, without the limitations of complex music notation.

Similarly, to this, one concept I plan to incorporate into the classroom is the idea of

collaborative solfeggio. Collaborative solfeggio is a way to teach students solfege by doing the

solfege to songs that they already know. I am a strong believe in using modern music in the

classroom to better strengthen my students musical abilities and vocabularies. I believe using

collaborative solfeggio will allow students to become more comfortable with solfege that way

they can apply it to new music they are learning. I hope to incorporate this into my teaching so

that my students can learn solfege and understand music better.

In my classroom, I would love to utilize pieces from the Orff methodology. Orff

instruments allow everyone to create music on their own level. I believe that encouraging my

students to play and compose using Orff instruments can help my students enjoy music making,

regardless of their playing level. One of the benefits of using these instruments is that you can

adjust some of the instruments to adapt to the playing level of the student. For example, when

using xylophone or a glockenspiel, you can remove unnecessary bars from the instrument so that

you student only has to work about the bars that they will need to play. I believe that this is

important in encouraging students musical development.

As a music educator, I hope to inspire my students to pursue music as an extra-curricular

in school and out of school. I will encourage my students to enjoy making music even if its just

as a hobby. I hope to create an environment where my students leave everything except their

love for music when they walk into my classroom. I intend to do this by creating an environment

where my students feel as if they are welcomed and safe at all times. When I was in high school,

one of the few things I remember was being able to hang out in the chorus room and eat lunch.
Many of my fellow peers, including me, would go there to escape the pressure of trying to fit in,

in high school. Our teacher always let us know that if we ever needed to talk about anything, his

door was always open to us. Similarly, to him, I wish to be a teacher whose students trust me.

Just like I will trust my students to work with me to create a collaborative and encouraging and

environment.
 References

Abrahams, F. (2005). Transforming Classroom Music Instruction with Ideas from Critical

Pedagogy. Music Educators Journal, 92(1), 62-67. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3400229

Freire, P. (1968). Chapter 2. In P. Freire (Author), Pedagogy of the Oppressed (pp. 21-31).

Retrieved from

https://selforganizedseminar.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/freire_pedagogy_oppresed1.pd

Hickey, M. (2001). Creativity in the Music Classroom. Music Educators Journal, 88(1), 17-18.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3399771

*Content in article taken from notes and presentations made in class*

Dr. Abrahams Critical Pedagogy presentation- April 13, 2017

Dr. McBrides Gender and Sexuality presentation- April 21, 2017

Mr. Beals iPad presentation- March 31, 2017