Local Music Educators Association
Effective professional learning in MUSIC
5 Principles of EFFECTIVE PL
Call to Action:Story behind the story
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Honestly, as a music teacher it is extremely rare when I receive content related professional development. As a matter of fact, this is a common problem for most music educators. We have been forced to attend trainings, meetings, and professional development that quite frankly have nothing to do with us! It’s very aggravating and a waste of time. Imagine sitting through a training and having to literally adjust the presentation in your head to make it applicable to your situation. As a professional teacher, I get excited when I learn something that I can apply in my classroom or my professional life even if it is not musical, but way too often are music teachers sitting in the back listening to general content wondering if the Principal will let them go work in their classroom. Being the single music educator on campus doesn’t work well for support either. Texas Music Educators Association is the most resourceful professional development available to music teachers in the south. I now realize that it has been so successful over the years because it addresses the 5 key principles of effective professional development.
Why?(Purpose)
The status quo of professional learning across the board is ineffective because most times it is dull and or irrelevant. In some cases, there are good informative sessions with no follow up trainings. No matter what subject teachers teach, they all dread professional development for these very reasons. I have observed that having other teachers that teach your same grade or same subject is very helpful when it comes to implementing newly learned methods in your classroom. A 5th Grade math teacher has the entire 5th grade team which includes other math teachers, as well as the math teachers from every other grade to support them. Music educators are at a disadvantage when it comes to professional development for three reasons:
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1. Being the only teacher of a subject lacks in-house support for content related matters.
2. Professional developments may provide general information, but not content related information.
3. TMEA is the best music professional development available to most music educators but is sometimes frowned upon by districts because of the cost and travel requirements.
Professional Learning Strategy
The presenters that I have chosen as guests are the perfect candidates for music education development because they are experienced music educators. Some of our music teachers are new, but most of our music teachers have years of experience. These are the same caliber of guest presenters that we would usually pay for, but this is an in-district colleague peer training, so costs are covered as the presenters are also the audience. As mentioned in the outline, this is an opportunity to finally have ongoing professional learning and support for music educators as well as begin expanding the incorporation of ePortfolios to other campuses. This professional development is over a course of one school year. In this one year, you will see that music teachers are creating and building their ePortfolios as a model for their students. This is an ongoing professional learning which means it never ends. After the summer break we will continue with another year of music professional development. Year one is for the teachers to explore, get accustomed to, build, experiment, and begin connecting lessons for their students. In year two I will be helping these teachers with assisting their students in creating and managing e-Portfolios.