Notes About Music

You've probably heard before that everyone learns differently. Some of us are visual learners, some are auditory, some are kinesthetic, and so on. But it turns out there are a couple of different theories when it comes to defining exactly what kinds of different learning styles exist and how they manifest themselves. The Index of Learning Styles, developed by Richard Felder and Barbara Solomon at North Carolina State University, gives a little more detailed insight into different learning styles and the implications they might have on our teaching practices. I am somewhere between active and reflective, meaning I prefer to learn by doing (also the motto of Cal Poly, my alma mater) and I encourage my students to do the same, but I also prefer to work alone instead of in groups. I have a hard time relying on others to hold up their end of a group project, and I sympathize with students who feel the same, but they have to overcome this in an ensemble setting. I encourage stud...

Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs personality test? After taking a few different iterations of it, I've learned that my personality type is ESFJ/P, which essentially means that I: am extroverted tend to make decisions based on facts and logic rather than my intuition or theoretical information see situations through the lens of my personal experience and beliefs prefer organization, structure, and being able to see the big picture upfront You can see from the chart that I’m more or less in the middle 50% of the spectrum in all categories, and I actually fall dead center on the Judgment/Perception spectrum. According to the Myers-Briggs descriptors, this means I try to foster community amongst groups of people and help individuals find their value within that community. It also means that I am good at taking specific action in order to benefit other people. Reading over these descriptions after taking the test, I can definitely see these attributes in myself, m...

Hello and welcome! My name is Kelly Walker and I teach high school band and choir in California's Bay Area. Currently, that includes Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, Mixed Choir, Chamber Singers, and AP Music Theory during the school day. I also vocal direct 1-2 musicals per year at my school, and in the fall of 2017 we launched our new marching band program, which had been two years in the making. Conducting my Wind Ensemble at a concert. Running marching band rehearsal in September 2017 at 8 months pregnant. The show must go on! I became a teacher because I believe it's my calling. For many years in college and just afterwards, I tried to avoid it by focusing on vocal performance and pursuing a career in classical singing. Eventually I decided that that lifestyle wasn't for me, but it took another year or so before I really felt called into teaching. Now that I'm here, I can't imagine doing anything else. I believe in the importance of music in everyone's...