the music educator blog

Have you ever debated changing careers? I’m a prime example of someone who loved teaching, would happily go back to teaching, but took a great leap of faith to refocus my career on what I’ve viewed as a more impactful personal mission.

As music educators, so much of what we tend to focus on stems from ensemble performances, sometimes neglecting what music education can and should be for our students in the process.

If you’ve been feeling a little emotionally challenged lately—and I can’t say I blame you, it’s a challenging time—you need this podcast episode.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the virtual classroom: student engagement. We’ve heard about students quitting music for a variety of reasons, but the truth is if they are still loving music then they will either not quit, or if they do, they will come back.

Friends, I know it’s tough right now. If you’re a regular listener, you know I’m all about self-improvement. We’ve talked about mindfulness, being present, morning routines, and productivity.

This episode is all about your students. As much as we, as teachers, need help and advice, I think we can agree our students need help too.

Now more than ever, it’s important for us to practice collaboration and to creatively communicate in ways that are meaningful for others—especially our students.

There is a new term that has become prominent in our music educator world: Zoom Fatigue. Something different happens in our minds when we’re on camera.

Six months ago, when the school shut down first started, I reached out to my friend Dr. Matthew Arau to join me for a series of webinars we called “Living in Tune.” Our goal for these webinars was to give people a single time—once per week—to get away from all of the stress, and to join in a group setting to refocus and rethink the way we approached our challenges.