Jeni Little * Trigger warning – this article references experiences of abuse and assault so please keep this in mind when reading. Challenging and dismantling power imbalances. As a woman turning 55 this year I have a long connection and lived experience in the music industry. I’ve seen the industry from many different perspectives: as […]
I’ve been a teacher for 31 years and I’ve never really fitted the stereotype of a traditional “music teacher”. Early on I knew in my “gut” that building relationships of trust and respect were the most important thing to establish a safe classroom culture where all students felt valued and inspired to engage with learning. […]
Reflect on your own classroom – what opportunities for creativity through improvising, composing and integrated PCL do your students encounter? I view myself as an obsessively compulsive maker. I constantly have an active creative project on the go and feel jittery when I know that process is almost finished and I will always have the […]
What strategies do you use to support students through the haphazard learning that is often an outcome of using Musical Futures? I try and reflect on the nature of learning with my classes and tell them there will be a messy phase and that it is actually vital in learning to FAIL – then I […]
Having been a teacher for over 30 years, I have seen some major evolutions in education. From my own experience as a learner at school, things have changed a lot. When I was the age of the students I currently teach – music education was a purely academic thing – you had private music lessons […]
Bi-Musicality – Poly-Musicality – Meta-Musicality My story. I am the eldest of 4 children and my childhood home was a place of creativity and encouragement. Music was an everyday thing in my house – we were always listening to music and I recall dancing myself into frenzy moving to “The Hall of the Mountain King” […]
Reflecting on: Is it necessary or important to give students the opportunity to choose to learn music that they like and identify with? What opportunities and challenges does this approach present? How do you balance learner choice with age appropriate content? I absolutely believe that student agency is vital for true curiosity led learning. If […]
GIRLS ROCK! feminist as fuck I am a high school music teacher, with over 30 years experience in the classroom. For a very very long time I have wanted to do something to address issues around gender in the music industry. With other like minded music teacher friends – a few women-only music days were […]
S0. I – did – yoga. For the first time. Ever. I am fat and had serious anxiety around the whole concept. But it was my daughter’s idea – and I love her, so I thought, why not? She said – maybe you will like yoga? And I said – maybe yoga will like me? […]
(How to try and smash a union – performance pay by stealth) Reasons to fight against it – things you need to know leah haines @writeonleah Sep 6 kids are not consumers, schools are not businesses and education is not a market place. I can’t remember a time when the PPTA (secondary teachers […]
chimaeraspeak 