Blog 1: Hello Future Me

Dear Future Me,

This is now an official post entitled "Blog 1: 'Hello Future Me'". If you are reading this, chances are the Zombie Apocalypse has not occurred yet and you have just accepted your first position as a music educator to a lucky school. Congratulations! What's that? Part of your duties will be to teach instrumental music? Don't sweat. There are entries after this one that will remind you of different topics you have learned in Instrumental Methods (Spring semester of 2012) and different ideas you had yourself. But for now, allow me to help you remember why you chose this field of study.

Remember your first recital with mom teaching and you sang "My Favorite Things" with a group of girls? Mom made a chart of the lyrics with pictures on it for those who couldn't read yet. Then there was one of the times you performed all by yourself and sang "The Melody Within" from Rigoletto with Mom accompanying at the Nursing Home. You were nervous but it was so fun and exciting performing in front of others.

You knew at an early age that music was an extremely important part of your life. It brings you so much joy and you've seen how it's touched other lives as well. Like when you worked in the Nursing Home and it made the residents so happy to hear you sing some of their favorite songs while cleaning the tables.

This is why it was so upsetting to see it not appreciated in the school setting. It brings you so much joy, so why were there some who were not as enthused? Eventually you decided that maybe you'd like to become a Music Educator and help shape the minds of future adults. You started to write down ideas from workshops you went to and some of your own ideas.

Now here I am. 2012 and I'm a junior at MSU pursuing a degree in the Education of Musicianship for grades K-12. It's all because I am passionate about music being available for all students. Not just available, but making the program so that students really want to be there and actively seek out opportunities to perform and better their instruments.

Now then future me, since you most likely have a couple of days (or hopefully weeks) to prepare yourself for the teaching of this instrumental class, you should do some things:

• Find all the phone numbers of your instrumental professors (especially Dr. Stark because he knows his stuff).
• Make sure you know exactly where the sections should go.
• Dig out all your Instrumental Technique notebooks so that they are in your office ready to be consulted.
• Decide on repertoire.
• What songs do you want them to work on?
• Get out your calendar, when are all of the concerts going to be?

THEN, you can read more of these blogs!

Sincerely yours,

Shannalee (Me)