First, what do these
girls' statements, and the video in general, demonstrate about the value of
music in people's lives?
(18 points) Second, how
could you make this fact better known in your community and school
district? What more can you do than just say, "Every student should
have music"? In addition to making the performances informative about
music and the school music program, think of at least three ways in which you
might educate people who are not musicians about the importance of music.
Possible actions might include
holding a "parents' evening" in which parents can sit with their son
or daughter as the group rehearses, or having a student essay contest on the
topic "Why music is important in my life."
A city such as Cateura, Paraguay
does not have excessive amounts of money to spend. They are built on a landfill and the people
of the city work in the landfill.
Despite the fact that there is no money and that the cost of a violin is
greater than the cost of one of their houses, inspiration took root when they
found a shell of a violin.
The
people of the city created what they call the “Landfill Harmonic.” In order to promote music, the take garbage
from the landfill and up-cycle it to create musical instruments. This demonstrates the power and desire that
music brings to a culture. People yearn
for music. Every culture has music but
they may not have the funding to give a great music education to its young
people. The people of Cateura did not
let that stop them from promoting a music education in order to promote a
culture of music. This really shows that
people search for music in any way, shape, or form that they can: despite
living in poverty, they found a way to include music in their culture by using
the materials of their culture.
I have
experienced trying to promote the value of music education to the community in
which I teach. I am new to my school
this year. I arrived at the school,
coming from a school that was a small private school. At my previous school we had 6 Orff
instruments that were completely broken and almost unusable. At my new school, I had 14 Orff instrument in
great condition. I found myself feeling
very blessed. However, my boss at the
county level came and visited me and noted, “You only have 14 Orff instruments?” At the time, I stated excitedly “Yes, I do!” She insisted that in order to have a proper Orff
ensemble, 14 instruments were not enough.
I quickly found that she was correct.
I could only accept 14 students into my ensemble. During class, I found that I had some classes
up to 28 students. Students would have
to take turns playing the instruments.
Or, if we were low on time, I had some students playing a game to the
song while others would play. The
students would then leave without getting play that day. We would have to wait a week more and then
have the students switch.
I
decided to try to get a couple more instruments. I went on a website called Donorschoose.org,
and very ambitiously created a project worth 2,200 dollars that would give us 4
more instruments if it was fulfilled. I
managed to raise 1,400 dollars until it expired yesterday. My boss at the county level got wind of
this. She had a little bit of money left
in HER budget and ended up buying us the instruments we needed! So in addition to raising 1,400 dollars from
the community, we ended up getting 2,000 dollars’ worth of instruments from her
as well.
In
order to promote this project to the community, I did the best I could. From flyers, facebook, pinterest, and other
places, I managed to get the word out. I
attempted to reach out and connect to other people’s experiences with
elementary music class. I ended up with
donators who understood the power of elementary music. These donators were not music educators. Some were teachers, others engineers, and
more.
In
addition to this project and the information that I provided people, I would
like to do something fun for parent-teacher conferences next year. I never get parents who stop by during these
conferences. It’s so bad that they don’t
even expect me to attend parent-teacher conferences. I would like to shake that up. Next year, I plan to leave signs around the
school inviting parents and teachers to my room after their conference. In my room, I would have instruments set up
in stations so that the students could bring their parents around the room and
show them all of what they learn in music.
In addition, they can teach their parents to play the instruments they
have been learning in class. I think
this would be a great opportunity to show the parents that the students DO
learn things in music class. This would
give evidence of learning. A lot of
parents think music class is sitting around and singing songs. This would show them that the students are
learning how to play, sing, the theory, compose, improvise, notate, and more.
Another
idea to inform the parents of how valuable music education is for their
students is to have the students keep a portfolio. I started gathering a bunch of student work
this year. This is going to be a lot of
work on my part, but I’d like to create folders for my students to keep their
musical work together in one place. I’m
still debating whether or not to send them home at the end of each year or to
keep the work from Kindergarten until they reach 6th grade and have
them take the portfolio home in 6th grade. I may just have them keep the portfolio with
me until 6th grade but I can bring them out to show parents during
the parent-teacher conference time. So
in addition to playing and showing their parents what they are currently
learning in music class, the students and parents can track their musical
progress during that time as well. I
think this is a really great way to show the parents they are LEARNING music
and that music is valuable!
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