Semester Reflection

This semester has been one of the most formative in my time at JMU. I was able to dive
deeper into my culture, biases, and pedagogical techniques. Through MUED 380, I looked
at general music with a different lens and greater appreciation for its ability to blossom
learners into music lovers, creators, performers, and responders.
My time exploring these elementary music pedagogical techniques taught me how to
return to the joys of music-making and experience. Simple concepts like movement, play,
and creation even helped me in my recital preparation as I interacted with the pieces in a
more experimental and joyous way. There were less ideas of objective right/wrong in my
head, and more subjective ideas of symbols and ways we find meaning in music. In
addition, deciding appropriate ways to include or isolate pedagogical techniques and
materials helped me research and uncover ideas that were more diverse, inclusive, and/or
less biased. Overall, I learned that experiences build knowledge, and young students are
in critical need of doing music.
I thoroughly enjoyed studying the interdisciplinary approach. Its emphasis on building
from student experience outside of the classroom to inside the classroom is one of the
greatest values general music courses can offer. Our curriculum has the most potential
for including student culture and sharing student culture, and, similarly, including other
disciplines and deepening connections.
My ability to design and lead experiences has grown tremendously. I am more
conscientious of student inclusion and rooting out a meaningful student experience.
Rooting out meaningful experiences means finding source material that is significant to the
students, applicable to their means of musicking, and questioned into its deep boundaries
and occupied spaces within that persons culture, beliefs, or values.
Some key experiences that led me to change, create, or better develop a belief were Dr.
Joyce McCalls visits, Dr. Alice Hammels visits, and class discussions on inclusive vs.
troubling topics in music education. I enjoyed the opportunity to put my comfort aside,
learn, and visibly see the different cultures we represent. This discomfort was healed by a
more fulfilling sense of belonging in the class afterward, and a more open-minded view
into what we each carry/see with us as we go about our daily routines.
Core Educational Values
1. Inclusive of student body
I find inclusiveness one of the biggest issues with music education. Demographics
are not represented equally in the music classroom and it is a result of a singular,
dominating culture presiding over the class, or a cognitive dissonance with the ways
students interact with music in class vs. outside of class.

Playful, Curious
This is where I believe peoples love for music is born. It is playful and inspiring.
Music will make you move, explore, alter, flip, adjust, realign, etc., and there is enough
music in the world to discover those who are thinking about music in the same way.
Personal, Meaningful
This dives into the life-long ability to talk about music. Students must be granted
experiences with personal connections and the meaningful steps those who created it took
to achieve their desired outcome. Not all students will feel compelled by classical music,
but a look at the artists lives, emotions, and difficulties will remind us that we are all
human with similar experiences even centuries later. Pop music today reflects music of
the past and students, given the chance to discover these connections, will find their own
meaning to music of any culture and period.
Representative of musics style/roles
Fair representation of the ways students engage with music outside of the
classroom, and musics great number of diverse styles, ties together the other values well.
Connected to daily life (other disciplines)
Here we combine the ways students engage with music in daily life, with the other
disciplines that (yes, you will use after school) you engage with in the world.