Hey everyone!
My name is Allison. I am currently in my fifth (and hopefully last!) year in the choral and general music education program at UW-Milwaukee and will be student teaching in the spring. I grew up in Racine, WI and had a ton of great experiences with music, so much so that I knew in middle school that I wanted to teach music.
When I first started my college career I thought for sure I was going to come out teaching high school choir simply because my best experiences with music were during those years. I sang in multiple choirs, including show choir (this link is to a video of my fav performance my show choir did, just for fun if you're interested). I got to travel and have fun with my closest friends.
About mid-way through college, after doing observations at some of the local elementary schools, I decided that elementary school is where it's at. The scariest thing about this career change is knowing that, more so than I could say for high school, I am going to be responsible for some of the earliest experiences that these children will have with music, at least in a classroom setting. My hopes are that I can make the most out of these experiences to foster a lifetime love for music and the arts.
I have quite a few friends who did some singing in high school and a little in college. I actually have a friend who is in the music education program right now. Do you know Emma Corbett?
ReplyDeleteThere are perks to teaching every single age. I'm a high school girl myself. I like the idea of being able to have a genuine discussion with a group of kids about something relevant to them, like social activism, feminism, taco bell.
Little kids can be just as eye-opening though. Sometimes their honesty catches me off guard.
Hi Allison,
ReplyDeleteGlad to meet you. That's so awesome that you have made the jump to teaching Elementary Music, I'm sure with your musical experiences throughout your life you will have a wealth of information to relate to young learners!