Our experiences of music as children have a marked influence
on our attitudes to music as adults (Jeanneret and Swainston, 2012). For me, music was
always a part of family life. Dad was into Paul Robeson, Mum loved the Beatles
and my brothers listened to Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa. Music at
school was peripheral to other academic subjects, but I learned the recorder at primary school and started
guitar lessons when I was 12. I continued to play the guitar through
my secondary years and university for my own and others' entertainment. Inevitably when you pulled out a guitar, someone wanted to have a go, asked you to play something or wanted to sing along.
As a teacher, I will incorporate music into the
classroom so that it becomes a regular part of
our day. My previous experience of playing for and with others may help me to overcome my self-consciousness. Luckily, as
Jeanneret & Swainston (2012) suggested, a teacher’s willingness to incorporate
music into the classroom is more important than their musical talent! Dinham (2014) highlighted that teachers who did not integrate music into the
classroom denied students the benefits of music making such
as “increased language skills, maths ability, improved school grades and social
behaviour” (p.265).
My challenge will be to ensure that music activities incorporate group
focussed activities, aesthetic understanding and the joy of creating music (Jeanneret & Swainston, 2012).
No comments:
Post a Comment