DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

It is my belief that to become a successful music educator you must have a thorough knowledge of music. As an undergraduate student at Virginia Tech, my education heavily focused on music history, theory, pedagogy, conducting, and performing. Through these classes and experiences I gained an extensive knowledge of music as a content area to apply in a classroom setting.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

My first experience in a music classroom occured in the spring of my junior year in Elementary Methods. During this class I was given the opportunity to create and teach an Orff arrangement to my students at a local elementary school. The use of Orff techniques in a general music classroom is very common and is a great way to get your students making music! As you can see below, I used my knowledge of Orff techniques and musical knowledge gained from previous courses to create this arrangement. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

The next opportunity I had to apply the knowledge I had aquired about arranging was for my orchestration class. Our final project in the class was to arrange a chorale for wind ensemble (image below). As you can see this arrangement is much more extensive than my Orff arrangement and I needed a much more in depth knowledge of each instrument in order to complete it.  In order to have a successful arrangement I needed to understand the tendencies of each instrument and how they all blend together. In a music classroom you will typically not have perfect instrumentation and will need to be able to arrange a piece of music for the ensemble you do have. This project provided me the knowledge I need to be able to do that successfully.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
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DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

An important skill in music education is being able to effectively convey how you want your ensemble to perform through conducting. This past fall I was enrolled in Graduate Conducting and was able to perform a Graduate Conducting Recital at the end of the semester. The ensemble was comprised of members of the University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, which gave me a great opportunity to rehearse and conduct a piece of music at a higher level. Without having to spend time fixing notes and rhythms I was able to focus heavily on my conducting. Below you can see a video of my conducting from the recital. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Lastly, below you will see an activity that I created for my students this Spring. I developed this lesson on Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 because my students would be seeing it in a few weeks and I felt that them being able to identify a few themes would be a way to keep their interest in such a long performance. As you can see in the listening guide below many questions are based on their previous knowledge of musical concepts, such as dynamics and articulation, which were concepts I was trying to reinforce. Below the listening guide you will see the lesson plan I developed for this activity. My students were able to follow the guide easily and also demonstrated their knowledge on musical concepts.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.