Proenca 1 ! Gui Proenca Professor McCall Critical Pedagogy 1 2 May 2013 Make a Change Education.

The term education has been very near and dear to my heart ever since I was old enough to have a sense of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I have always been fortunate enough to have excellent teachers in my lower,middle, and high school experiences. I was the kid in middle school who did not say that he wanted to be an astronaut or the president of the United States, but a teacher. There are many subjects in which I could have chosen to educate my future students. I could have gone into Math, English, History, and even Physical Education. However, I chose music. What many people do not realize is that music is a lot more than just teaching a classroom a simple rhythm with harmonies. Music helps human beings with their academic skills, responsibility, emotional development, social skills. Music as a whole affects all the other subjects which are taught at public and private schools. In an excerpt from Kodaly Today, A Cognitive Approach to Elementary Music Education it states that, Music is nourishment and a comforting elixir. Music multiplies the beauty of life and all its values. Basically saying that music is an all encompassing attribute to life. Now thinking more about my future and what age group I would enjoy teaching I have narrowed it down to one age group. At first thought I would love to teach elementary school students. I had a wonderful time during my elementary years learning information from my teachers which I still recall today. The reason why I think a good elementary education is necessary is because you start learning your fundamentals at a young age. The sooner you are submerged in the world of music the more ahead you will be in the

Proenca 2 ! future. Music in the classroom also brings about a social setting in which younger children can just have fun and enjoy themselves. I am a firm believer that music should be fun. If you cannot make music enjoyable (especially with the younger children) then the chances of your classroom becoming chaotic will drastically increase. First you must compare your lessons to information in which they understand. You cannot simply present one of Beethoven's Symphonies to a middle-school classroom and expect them to analyze it or discuss it. Instead, try relating your lesson or objective towards the pop genre of music or current songs on the radio. Students will be much more responsive to such actions and not be infused with boredom. Going back to what I said in the beginning, music is very beneficial not only to the left brained individuals but to the more academically inclined individuals as well. Although music should be taught in a fun and user-friendly manner there should be situations in which music should be taught to enhance academic abilities. It has been proven that when students at that young age are introduced to music their test scores increase, their creative thinking skills increase, and they learn to be responsible at a young age. All key attributes to have as a well-rounded human being in the future. It would mean a lot for me to teach the younger children because they are the new and upcoming generation in man kind. If these children do not learn the fundamentals from a good educator it might be too late to do so in the future. As a music educator I hope to see my students apply what they have learned in the classroom to their other subjects as well. Memorizing a piece of music is the same as memorizing information for a test, being social in a comfortable music setting helps with opening up to other kids in other classes, music should be relaxing to the mind and enjoyable where other subjects could get a little stressful and hectic, and finally the satisfaction you get from performing a piece has no comparison to any other feeling in the world. The moment you perform a piece that you have been working on for months with

Proenca 3 ! your choir you just feel so accomplished. Its almost like achieving a milestone in your life. I believe that everything we learn growing up can be applied in any other subject. Math can be related to music very easily as can english. Students should be able to be spontaneous and deal with anything thrown at them as best as possible. That is where sight-reading comes in. The relationship between the music teacher and the student should be very comfortable. When growing up with music I would always go to my music teacher or the chorus room and have it be my safe haven. That was the place in school where I felt the most comfortable. Whenever I felt stressed or upset I would step inside that room or talk to my music teacher and my day would be significantly better. I feel as if every student should have that connection with their teachers. Whether it be music or not. There should be that sense of trust and willingness to learn. If those emotions are present with the student and teacher respectively; then the chemistry between them will increase leading to better understandings and results. Students should not dread going to any of their classes. The classroom should be a place of education, but at the same time the students should be able to relate what they are learning to real life situations. When teaching at a young age you need to start with the basics. One of the methods I was taught with and that stuck was the Kodaly Method. This is very effective when teaching children at a young age because it involves new concepts through experiences such as listening, singing, and movement. In the music world we use Kodaly's methods constantly. Almost every day we use the movable-do solfege syllables which Kodaly introduced. When following the Kodaly Method of teaching rhythms often sounds such as ta and ti are used to indicate quarter and eighth notes respectively. Students often enjoy this method since it also incorporates rhythm and movement in the class room. This gives the students a different perspective when learning about music. When talking about the different ways we can teach music, the different theorists we choose to follow, or the ways we choose to deal with students, we always have to remember one thing. Its all

Proenca 4 ! about the students. The reason we all want to teach is to influence our students to be the best they can be. Whether it is with dealing with music or just applying what they learned in class in their other fields. With all music has to offer it makes no sense as to why schools should not make it a required course.