September Preparation for Music Teachers
September is a busy time of year for music teachers. New students arrive. Returning students bring spontaneous interests, remarkable experiences, unusual questions, along with surprising and delightful possibilities. After our summer break, music teachers return to teaching with renewed enthusiasm and awareness. There’s an invitation for us to look beyond lessons and imagine where making music might take our students over the lifetime that stretches ahead.
Music making possibilities are endless. Students may discover something new, take an unexplored direction for expressing themselves, gain confidence, connect with others, or simply continue to experience the joy of making music they know so well. Their music making life can be a source of creativity, friendship, expression, community, confidence, discovery, challenge, comfort, and joy. It can also change as students change, taking new forms at different stages of life.
For music teachers, September is our invitation to imagine what’s possible. To think big. To throw open the gates of exploration. To consider the role of music making in a student’s life.
What kind of music making life might matter for each of our students?
I like how this question serves as a reminder that music teachers do more than simply help students learn music. We help our students deepen their relationship with making music today and long into the years ahead. Our vision as music teachers shapes the experiences we create, the choices we make, and the possibilities we place within reach.
Now with September so close at hand, it’s time to get back into action. It’s time to imagine, nurture, and inspire our students’ lifelong relationship with making music.
What will you do?
Which of your students might need something special in order to explore their own musical journey?
How can you guide your students without over-determining where their musical journey should go?
What can you do to notice, encourage, and make possible for students to deepen what making music means in their own lives?
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This is your invitation to keep the conversation going....