The First Music I experienced as a child

I found the question on Wednesday night by our best speaker about recalling the first music we can remember hearing to be very provocative. The notion that our earliest experiences of music can have an impact on how we interact with music, and perceive it today is really fascinating. As I was sharing in class, […]

Scruffy Hospitality

“Scruffy hospitality means you’re not waiting for everything in your house to be in order before you host and serve friends in your home. Scruffy hospitality means you hunger more for good conversation and serving a simple meal of what you have, not what you don’t have. Scruffy hospitality means you’re more interested in quality […]

Group Song Writing Experience

This past week I tried the group song writing approach that Glen modelled for us in class earlier in the semester. I am teaching a beginner gr. 10 Guitar class and so I decided to model this approach and combine it with a unit on the blues that we have been working through as a […]

Ubuntu – Reflections after our first session

Monday night was the first session of Ubuntu. This is a project that I launched with some colleagues as part of my music program at Cameron Heights Collegiate. The project brings together established Canadian families and new Canadian families (immigrants, refugees, etc.) for the purpose of illustrating that differences can unite us and make us […]

Micro Aggressions in Community Music

Friday was a PD Day and we had an interesting presentation on the concept of Brave Spaces. As part of the discussion the term “Microaggression” was used. I had never heard of this term before so I looked it up.  Here is the definition: Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or […]

Racism in Music Education

One of the areas of interest and learning for me is developing a fuller sense of the ways systemic racism have kept traditional classroom Music Education in our province a very white, euro centered experience. I have been connecting with influential leaders in our community, and in my school system to try and better understand […]

Letting Go

I was inspired to write this blog post because of an interaction I had with a student on Friday in my Gr.10 Guitar class.  The funny thing about this interaction is that I could see it coming for weeks. I couldn’t say for certain what exactly was going to unfold, but I knew that I […]

Experiential Learning

This week I wanted to blog about one of the coolest teaching experiences I have had in the classroom in a long time.  I am teaching a small, but very competent, and very keen group of IB music students right now.  We have been working through the Medieval time period and spending time building our […]