Constructing Music Programs

1
Constructing Music Programs

• By McKenzie Moton

2
Music Programs

• Behavioral and intellectual changes
• Teacher Shortages
• Lack Of Funds/ Budget Cuts
• District Expenditures
• Parental Involvement
• Interviews
• M.E.N.C (Music Educators National Conference)
• Constructing effective programs
• Question
• How can schools improve and construct sufficient
  music programs so they no longer have to
  experience teacher shortages, lack of funds, and
  will no longer be perceived as taking a share of
  cuts in extra curricular activities?

3
Behavioral and Intellectual Changes

• Elementary school is an crucial time for students
  to be first enrolled in a music program, this
  experience can shape their behavior and
  perception of the school community.
• Theres a close relation between a students
  academic achievement and positive behavioral
  changes within their students secondary years,
  in result to being enrolled in a music program in
  elementary school.
• Extramusical learning- Has an positive effect on
  the childs physical, cognitive, emotional and
  social skills. The developed cognitive skills
  enhances the students comprehension level of
  understanding musical concepts. The developed
  emotional and social skills help the students
  socialize and cooperatively work together, and
  the acquired physical skills helps the individual
  develop more precise motor skills.
• New connections between multiple hemispheres of
  the brain links visual stimuli directly to the
  auditory stimuli, which assist inner speech
  development, but must be in place for internal
  thought processes to begin.
• Inner speech The process through which we hear
  ourselves think and listen internally. As the
  child develops inner speech, the individuals
  logical thought and other intellectual thought
  processes increases throughout this development.
  Inner speech helps an individual develop
  self-control, logical thought and reasoning
  skills.
• Inner listening- is a crucial aspect in the
  creative process of preparation, incubation,
  illumination, verification, and implementation.
  In sum, The process of putting all program
  functions and activities into place.

4
Behavioral and Intellectual Changes Pt.2

• Creative intelligence- Is an intelligence that is
  stimulated by music or any other artistic
  activity, this intelligence helps the individual
  develop critical thinking skills. Creative
  intelligence assist the individual from strictly
  thinking logically, and enhances the integration
  of creative and logical thought processes, which
  is an important key to the development of
  intelligence.
• Sensory input- in a positive emotional state, the
  brain releases a pleasing opiate type of chemical
  that creates a state of increased awareness. In
  this state, learning becomes more pleasurable and
  at ease for the student, a teacher can utilize
  the benefits of music to stimulate and help the
  student develop an optimum (the most favorable
  condition for growth and reproduction) learning
  state and assist in increasing the students
  memory enhancement.
• Emotional IQ- is regulated by our limbic (a set
  of brain structures that generates our feelings,
  emotions, and motivations. It is important in
  learning and memory) brain and encouraged by the
  willingness of our society to nurture emotional
  awareness and expression.
• Outcome based Learning- Are life skills a child
  acquires through the experience of a music
  program. Content outcomes describes what students
  should know and be able to do in particular
  subject areas. Student performance outcomes
  describe how and at what level students
  demonstrate such knowledge and skills. School
  performance standards define the quality of
  education schools must provide in order for
  students to meet content and/or performance
  outcomes.
• Accelerated learning- enhances emotional I.Q.,
  which provides engaging methods for learning
  information. (Nat's presentation, for example
  playing appropriate background music during a
  class session or present.)

5
Teacher Shortage

• Scheib compiled a survey of a dozen of
  elementary, secondary and high school teachers
  about what pursues music educator to quit their
  profession, here are four main reasons that
  summarized the instructors responses (1)
  difficult working conditions, (2) low salary, (3)
  public perceptions of teaching, and (4) low
  priority of music education within the school
  curriculum.
• When an instructor is constantly battling the
  district for funding for simple necessities like
  musical instruments and equipment (such as reeds,
  lined paper for reading music, drum sticks,
  stands, etc) that a teacher needs in order to
  instruct a effective and sufficient music
  program. This places music teachers in a position
  where they often feel powerless amongst their
  fellow administrators because of the lack of
  funding and other essential needs they receive
  from the district and administration.
• Music educators are put in a position where
  theyre constantly in a rush because their trying
  to balance a rigid schedule of instructing three
  or sometimes four different schools (within the
  district) in one day. In result to their
  districts teacher shortage, music educators are
  often forced to instruct and maintain multiple
  music programs. Which brings me to question how
  much do schools care about music programs if
  theres a constant lack of administrators to
  instruct these programs?
• Nancy Anderson elaborates on the difficulties
  that inner-city schools are faced to deal with in
  the process of recruiting teachers, and also
  trying to receive enough funding to properly
  instruct their music program. Majority of the
  time, the schools are often forced to compromise
  with hiring teachers who either arent
  certified or properly qualified for their
  instructed position. "Teacher shortages in
  inner-city schools have resulted in the hiring of
  non-certified teachers in more than two-thirds of
  large urban school districts" (Anderson) This
  particular situation occurred in Washington D.C.
• Teachers throughout the country are forced with
  the impossible task of teaching students whose
  inner feelings express fear, anger, frustration,
  disillusionment, and other negative emotions.
  Teachers often struggle with conducting effective
  teaching methods that will get through their
  students, the decreased learning abilities is in
  result to an undeveloped IQ, which has a dramatic
  effect on the kids cognitive abilities or even
  their competency in life skills. This is a
  contributing factor to why music instructors quit
  their position.

6
Teacher Shortage Pt.2

• These are situations where music teachers left
  their position because of conflicting issues with
  the administration, research has clarified that
  district administrators recruit one teacher to
  fill in that position of the instructor that
  quit.
• A solution proposed by the administration toward
  the teacher shortage was alternative licensing,
  which only deals with the factors relative to
  recruiting instructors, it doesnt provide a
  solution toward recruiting effective teachers. A
  solution thats relative toward recruiting
  effective teachers was proposed by Nancy
  Anderson, which was to encourage music teachers
  to practice their techniques, methods and
  strategies amongst one another.
• There are two factors to consider about this
  issue, the first issue occurs when the district
  doesnt distribute money toward recruiting new
  teachers for its schools the second issue
  occurs when there is just a shortage of
  individuals that apply for the position as a
  music instructor.

7
Lack Of Funds and Budget Cuts

• Many districts have been forced to set priorities
  for their programs and trim down activities that
  arent considered to be essential core programs.
  In result, music is often among the first to go,
  especially at the elementary school level.
• One factor that heavily interferes with a music
  programs money distribution, are enrollment
  figures. Teachers have to maintain a music
  program that has enough students enrolled in the
  course in order to receive funding from the
  district, which is an issue for many music
  instructors throughout the country because its
  difficult to keep a certain amount of students
  enrolled with having them eventually drop out. If
  there arent enough students enrolled in the
  program, then the district has the obligation to
  cut the courses funding because there is a
  criterion of how many students that shall be
  enrolled in the program. In sum, a district
  determines how much or if any money should be
  distributed to a program or class by the
  students attendance and enrollment.
• Teachers are trying to teach to much with to
  little, music educators of elementary schools in
  particular are attempting to instruct students
  with little resources to work from such as
  instruments and other essential necessities.
• As a result of the growing school-age population
  and district budget cuts, many elementary music
  teachers are traveling among several schools,
  seeing more and more children less and less
  frequently. Ninety-four percent of the elementary
  schools reported having an elementary music
  program, 72 of which were taught by music
  specialists. Only 67 had dedicated rooms with
  special equipment for instruction. Among the 94
  that offered music instruction, only 6 had music
  every day, and 73 had music only one to two
  times a week. Class periods for music instruction
  lasted, on average, 38 minutes, and for a typical
  school year based on 40 weeks of instruction,
  children had an average of only 46 hours of music
  instruction. (Elizabeth Lasko)
• When an instructor is constantly battling the
  administration to fund the simple necessities a
  music program needs, in order for the teacher to
  instruct a progressive, effective, and sufficient
  music program (such as reeds, sheet paper for
  reading music, drum sticks, stands, etc). This
  continuous struggle for finances is very
  frustrating for an music educator, which could
  gradually pursue the instructor to quit his or
  her position.

8
Lack Of Funds and Budget Cuts Pt.2

• Teachers salaries are very low, except for
  educators who instruct at suburban schools
  because in suburban districts, where salaries
  are better, tend to siphon off the best teachers
  from urban areas. (Lasko)
• Without sufficient resources, academic
  achievement becomes more unlikely, perhaps
  impossible.
• In 1993, legislators imposed new revenue caps on
  public schools. And districts have been forced to
  make difficult decisions on how to equally
  distribute money towards the schools core
  programs and extra curricular activities. Music
  and art programs were usually among the first to
  receive severe financial blows. (Hurley)
• Music and the arts aren't government-tested like
  reading, writing and math, school districts are
  pressured to cut them first.
• Up to 28 million children are being deprived
  from being enrolled in music programs, although
  parents, teachers, and students actively support
  having music courses in elementary, secondary and
  high schools.
• Nationwide, music programs have experienced
  extensive funding cuts over the past several
  years. On average only four percent of the 450
  billion spent on teaching our children goes to
  music, which means 55 percent of our students
  aren't getting adequate music education. (Lasko)
  

9
District Expenditures

• Distributing district expenditures requires
  specifying such things as the boundary of the
  distribution range (those included within the
  bounds of equity), the relevant recipient unit
  within that distribution range (individuals,
  groups, blocs), and the nature of the good to be
  distributed (divisible and unitary).
• In the context of school finance, the equality
  among school districts in correlation
  geographical and political entities, or equality
  among pupils are critical factors to consider.
  The equality of curriculum or equality of
  opportunities to learn, minor differences among
  these positions can yield substantially different
  determinations of equality within a distributions
  of resources. The equality of resources or
  equality of welfare are all crucial factors to
  consider in district expenditures.
• School districts enrollments vary widely within
  each state, the size of the district matters a
  great deal when calculating the level of equity
  within a state. Per pupil revenues and
  expenditures within a district by the size its
  correlates with the per pupil dollar amounts of
  revenues and expenditures within districts.
• Horizontal equity is achieved when students in
  all districts receive equal funding.
• States organize education services differently,
  including school districts also present problems
  or cross-state comparisons. If schools districts
  are not separated from nonschool special
  districts, analysis of special-purpose
  governments will indicate that states without
  independent school districts have misleadingly
  low district numbers and expenditures relative to
  states with independent school districts.

10
Parental Involvement and Expectations placed upon
children

• Certainly, factors such as parental involvement
  in a students education, the educational
  attainment of parents, and the socioeconomic
  backgrounds of families are crucial factors that
  contribute to the importance of an music program
  among a school district.
• The expectations placed upon the children, the
  level of safety in the schools, the leadership
  exerted by principals, and teachers skills all
  matter significantly to learning and academic
  achievement.
• According to a nationwide survey taken in 2003
  by the Gallup organization, 95 of Americans
  believe that music is a key component in a
  child's well-rounded education. Eighty percent of
  respondents agreed that music makes the
  participants smarter 78 believe that learning a
  musical instrument helps students perform better
  in other subjects areas and 88 believe
  participation in music helps teach children
  discipline. (Ryan Hurley)

11
Garfield Elementary Interview w/ Heather Stein

• Heather Stein of Garfield Elementary (4th 5th)
  Capitol High School (9th-12th)
• QWhat do you think music programs provide for
  children, intellectually?
• A Music gives the child the opportunity to be
  creative, it exercises a different part of the
  brain using different hemispheres of the brain.
  Kids who arent strong and dont have the
  abilities to play sports, music gives them a way
  to find success through music programs. The
  experience of being enrolled in a music program
  is a valuable experience for the student.
• QDo you think that music programs are under
  appreciated in our educations curriculum?
• A Speaking for Olympia, in this community music
  is valued. Its not under appreciated but do the
  administrators appreciate music programs enough
  to fund it when necessary.
• QDo you think music has a positive effect on the
  childs behavior?
• A Yes, it does have a positive effect on the
  childs behavior. It gives the child another way
  to find success.
• QIf you were to improve anything about music
  programs curriculum, what would you change?
• A More teachers there are 7 general teachers for
  the whole district, there need to be a music
  specialist teachers in every elementary school.
• Q Has this school ever experienced a budget cut
  in the music program?
• A NO

12
Music Specialist Interview

• Q What do you think music programs provide for
  children, intellectually?
• AMusic is another way for a student to
  communicate amongst their fellow students,
  because music is expressed through emotional
  output the student develops another way of
  communication through their instrument. Music is
  a different art form for the student to develop a
  sense of individually, although being in a band
  requires teamwork amongst their fellow students
  to orchestrate, conduct and perform a song. Being
  in a orchestra, band or choir requires a group
  effort within the students, every need to be on
  the same level of what goals they wish to
  accomplish and also need to be committed to
  practicing and performing as their fellow
  students in the program. The child acquires a
  better understanding of math, which results in
  higher and better math performance in their
  class.
• Q Do you think that music programs are under
  appreciated in our educations curriculum?
• A In Olympia, music is a high priority amongst
  the district, students, administrators and
  parents, individuals within this community
  acknowledges the benefits a child acquires
  through the experience of a music program. And
  speaking for schools across the state of
  Washington, its also a priority for districts
  within this state to provide enough funding to
  have effective music programs, which will have
  positive intellectual and behavioral changes
  within the student.
• Q If you do think music programs are under
  appreciated, why?
• A It depends on the administrators who are
  leading the schools, such as how they decide to
  equally distribute district expenditures for
  supplies, extra curricular programs, salaries,
  and other school related activities that require
  some type of financial resource. The parents
  input is also an crucial factor that can
  interfere with the importance and requirement of
  an music program amongst students within the
  school, there are occasions where parents believe
  that children should devote their time toward the
  required courses such as English, math and
  history. There are to many requirements for
  children to graduate these days, students often
  feel trapped because of all the expectations they
  must fulfill in order to graduate.

13
Music Specialist Interview (Continued)

• Q Do you think music has a positive effect on
  the childs behavior?
• A Yes, a student learns about the importance
  of teamwork. Students in a music program rely and
  depend on each other to be prepared at practice,
  recitals, and concerts, which gives the student a
  sense of responsibility and individuality.
• Q If you were to improve anything about music
  programs curriculum, what would you change?
• A In some districts, not enough music is being
  taught in lower level schools such as elementary
  school, the reason why music is sometimes rarely
  taught in elementary schools throughout many
  districts in our educational curriculum. If they
  feel that having more reinforcement on a core
  subject course, then that will become the main
  priority for the district administrators to
  fulfill for the benefits of the students.
  Speaking for high school, extra curricular
  activities tend to usually occur before and after
  school because theres no time to instruct these
  programs during regular school hours.
• QWhat do you think about cutting funding from
  music programs for sports programs, because this
  is a reoccurring issue for many schools
  throughout the country?
• A ASB- Associated student body find, which is
  the association that controls and distributes
  money toward sports and music programs. The state
  doesnt allocate money for sports programs, if
  theyre in need of extra money for their program
  it either needs t come from the parents or coach
  of the team because to cut money from another
  program such as music and art program would be
  breaking many rules of the district
  administrators cod of equally distributing money
  toward all programs within that district.
• Music is art, and is now a required course for a
  student to graduate high school, and is also a
  mandatory course for a student to be enrolled in
  college.
• Q Has this school ever experienced a budget cut
  in the music program?
• A Schools in the Olympia district have ever
  experienced budget cuts.

14
M.E.N.C.

• Music Educators National Conference
• An organization that informs music educators
  about the basic concepts a individual needs to
  acquire before going into the music teaching
  profession.
• The Mission of MENC The National Association for
  Music Education is to advance music education by
  encouraging the study and making of music by all.
  
• Strategic Direction- Music for all, Recruitment,
  Retention, Professional Development of Teachers,
  Partnerships, Alliances, Music Standards, and
  Assessment.
• Objectives- Improve the quality of music teaching
  and learning and Increase support for music
  education in schools and communities
• Core Values- Belief in the value of music in life
  and the importance of formal music education.

15
Constructing Effective Music Programs

• A music teacher should articulate their goals for
  the best results amongst the students behavior,
  and academic performance. The instructor must
  acknowledge their position and capabilities to
  have an everlasting and profound effect on the
  students perception of the school environment.
• The partnership within instructors helps an
  inexperienced teacher develop skills to conduct
  effective lesson plans. Music educators who lack
  experience in constructing a music course should
  to communicate and collaborate with more
  experience music educators, this is an excellent
  method for all instructors in planning inclusive
  music lessons. Musical therapist in particular
  are an excellent source for informing
  inexperienced music teachers to understand the
  basic concepts of instructing a music course,
  musical therapists are specifically trained to
  inform inexperienced music instructors about the
  necessities they need in order to conduct a music
  lesson that engages all students.
• Dynamic teaching is a rhythmic flow of teaching
  that nurtures the creativity and discovery of the
  instructors methods and strategies, which emerges
  as an understanding within the child. Dynamic
  teaching method prompts the kids through
  developing cognitive concepts of deep expression
  of understanding and personal discovery, and
  helps the instructor to evaluate which methods
  are successful in the classroom.
• Accelerated learning provides the teacher with
  the freedom they need for opportunities to emerge
  within the context of the presentation format. In
  order to properly practice this method of
  instruction, a teacher needs to experiment and
  evaluate their daily lesson plans through an
  trial and error process. Through this process the
  instructor is capable of constructing a
  progressive music program, which gives a student
  the opportunity for personal growth.
• Rhythm Scopes helps a teacher develop the ability
  to pace the classroom through an increased
  awareness of the rhythm of the class, and have
  the opportunity to change and initiate the
  process of intentional use of specific rhythms
  for the best benefits of a effective music
  course.
• A teacher needs to develop keen listening and
  observational skills among their students,
  listening attentively increases the instructors
  ability to fulfill the criteria within their
  students, and then discover ways to incorporate
  new methods and strategies to engage the students
  in the learning process.

16
Constructing effective Music Programs Pt.2

• Teachers can formulate effective class sessions
  by developing a sensitivity to the students
  learning rhythmic patterns, which will help
  determine the students emotional needs to
  construct a balanced counterpart within the
  educational framework.
• An instructor who knows their goals,
  accomplishments and learning state they intend to
  develop throughout the course of the year is
  essential to effectively constructing progressive
  class sessions. Once the teacher has constructed
  their daily flow of energy in the classroom,
  theyll then be able to use the music to direct
  the energy toward an optimal learning
  environment.
• Developing concepts toward building the emotional
  IQ provides a greater expansion of an teachers
  instruction rhythms and increases/develop the
  ability to blend the inner and outer worlds while
  simultaneously stimulating other intelligences.
  Teachers can refine their techniques, strategies
  and methods (emotional IQ) through exploring
  their inner world.
• Phase Forward Education Guides the instructor to
  develop a conscious creative awareness. When
  teachers become part of each childs learning
  experience, the instructor is then capable of
  having a great effect upon the students
  perception of learning and school. A teachers
  success in the classroom is greatly dependent
  upon the form and structure of the instructors
  their music program. The role of the teacher is
  to orchestrate the themes and variations of the
  lesson plan, and assist students in discovering
  their own unique form of unified intelligence.
• Teachers can create an educational paradigm as
  they become more aware of the students learning
  patterns, once an instructor is capable of
  appropriately practicing this method. Music then
  has the unique ability of integrating the
  emotional, cognitive, and psychomotor elements
  that activate and synchronize brain activity.
• Music can elict a wide variety of emotional
  responses and nurture the development of subtle
  nuances emotion.
• The emotional rhythms that a teacher presents
  within their voice and teaching methods can
  powerfully motivate the child and increase
  learning potential, musical tone can be used to
  create the sense of safety and trust that will
  awaken the childs learning potential.
• A music therapist is to stimulate and improve the
  students cognitive, physical, emotional and
  social abilities (the extramusical goal) and
  construct their lessons around the IEP concept.