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ImpishMusician
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Name: Sue
Country: United States
State: New York
Birthday: 9/29/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: As a Music Ed. major, I guess you could say my hobbies are also part of my career: conducting/score study, stagehand work, singing (alto), listening to people and music, playing various instruments (especially trombone)... but my true love is teaching, regardless of the age of the student.
On the side (when there is time to have a side), I like reading and writing (hence, my being here), and just letting things fall into place whenever possible :-)
Expertise: I'm a first year Music Education Master's student at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. For all intensive purposes, it is safe to say that I will be at Crane until may of 2004 in order to complete the degree (and, more importantly, to be with Jay).
During the summers of 1999 and 2000, I worked as a staff member and childcare provider at The Walden School (http://www.waldenschool.org), a music camp for young composers. Summer of 2001 found me working at Tanglewood (http://www.bso.org/) as a stage assistant! :-) My least interesting job so far was working at J.C. Penney..but it provided me with money, so I can't complain too much.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
12/23/2000
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| Quick update...
All of my posts are pretty much on Livejournal now... so go there for info from now on. I'm kinda done with this place 
Other news, in brief:
Jay and I got engaged in Oct. '04 
Planning for a fall 2006 wedding...
Living in NH now (pictures here).
Hightailed it out of NYC last July.
Now, teaching at my old middle school, under the wing of my former band director until he retires a few years from now.
Life is good
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| Woah, Nelly . . . gimme some lovin' after this one, guys
Well, yesterday presented me with the shock of my life. And it is because of this shock that I had to get myself out of bed at 4:45 a.m. to get some thoughts out of my mind and put them down on virtual paper. I'm hoping I can get back to bed after I think some of this stuff out. PLEASE give me any and all feedback you can after reading through this!
First off, here is some background for those of you out there who don't know me quite so well: I'm currently earning my Masters Degree in K-12 Music Education over the course of two years, and am scheduled to graduate in May 2004. During the 2002-3 school year, I was a graduate assistant, teaching junior year undergrads how to teach general elementary music on-site in a local parochial school. All I knew for sure about the coming year was that I would have this assistantship again. The idea that I might also be teaching trombone techniques to non-trombone majors had also been tossed around, but I hadn't heard anything official. So yes, some very exciting stuff going on in relation to much-needed money! 
Ever since I student taught in fall 2001, my heart has really been in teaching general music to young learners. However, as an undergrad, my love was conducting, and I thoroughly romanticized the idea of running an award-winning high school band program. My dream job was to find myself a heinously decrepit band program and to turn it around completely, because I knew it could be done.
My own high school band program needed a treatment such as this when I was a student there... and no aid came until several years after I graduated, when the band director finally recovered from his mid-life crisis that was simply ruining the program. But, while I was attending that high school, I was getting increasingly frustrated as I watched my music-loving friends drop from band left and right, and I knew that there was a way it could be turned around, and I wanted to go to college to find out how, because my band director just couldn't, couldn't see what was wrong.
Okay, so now that you've had a crash course in Sue 101...
The following is an e-mail I received yesterday afternoon from Dr. Gordon, the Chair of Music Education at Crane. Please understand that I have not yet formally responded, so it's of the utmost importance that Cranies reading this not say a word to Doc Gordon about any of this!
<--beginning of e-mail message-->
From: Daniel Gordon
To:
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 10:15:51 -0400
Subject: Re: Trombone Tech. and other things
Sue,
You on [sic] for trombone tech. I might be moving your practicum site though. It's possible that you will be in Potsdam. Please let me know what your schedule is for the Fall. We have many holes to fill.
Sue, I would also like to entice you to consider another possibility. Next fall, the Crane School of Music, in cooperation with VH-1 and the New York City Board of Education, will begin a program to place music teachers (band directors, primarily) in New York City schools. At this point, we believe the program will be centered in Queens.
Folks who agree to participate in this program will have the following benefits...
You will one of six "fellows" in the program.
A $10,000.00 scholarship to Crane (it would commence this Fall)
A guaranteed job in a NYC middle school where you will start a new band program.
New instruments to run your program, compliments of VH-1
Two weeks of training during winterim in New York City
Sue, I believe you would be an ideal candidate for this project. We are in the process of hiring a project director at Crane and a New York City field experience coordinator who will help to facilitate housing and mentoring our young "fellows". The folks in New York City understand that these programs will need to be clustered in a small geographic region. We hope that the program will catch fire in the small region and spread rapidly throughout the city. Queens seems to be the ideal location for the project, because parts of that borough closely resemble Long Island and other suburban areas.
The exciting aspect of this program is that you would probably be the first of many "teaching fellows" in the program. Since VH-1 is the driving corporate force, television documentaries, etc. are likely to occur. I will be writing extensively on the project as well.
I hope you will consider this possibility. I think you would do a beautiful job.
In summary...
You will do Trombone Tech
You are still being asked to do practicum, but possibly at another site.
Please consider the NYC project as a possibility. You would be great.
Doc
<--end of e-mail message-->
Okay, so at first my heart is just racing because I 1) never envisioned myself in front of a band again after completing my undergrad degree, 2) never envisioned myself teaching in Queens or any metropolitan area, and 3) never expected an offer like that to come my way because everyone on the Crane faculty knows I'm a general music junkie.
There are plenty of other reasons I wouldn't have expected something like that, but anyway... I was entirely cool with the whole idea- and so was Jay- until about 4:00 a.m. when some birds chirping outside woke me up... which, combined with the oppressive humidity, prevented me from falling back asleep... which then got me thinking about this whole thing in perspective... so over an hour of thinking all of this stuff out produced the following essay, which still needs a good deal of polishing and what not, but here is the rough idea:
<--beginning of essay-->
I have been a supporter of VH-1 Save The Music since its beginnings in the mid-1990s. As a high school student going into music education, I felt very encouraged and empowered when I heard that an organization in support of school music was being built by a corporation that was already so much in the public eye. This, to me, was a perfect example of the power of publicity and media, and how that power can be used for good. However, as I continue my schooling at Crane, I realize that some of VH-1's tactics are still too businesslike for my taste.
Everything I have learned while at Crane, especially during my past year in the graduate program, has taught me that a music program has to be in place for more than just utilitarian reasons. A music philosophy that defends school music programs because of music's supposed ability to create higher grades in other subjects, because it will keep kids off the street, or because it will raise SAT scores or keep kids from dropping out, is honorable, but I feel it is missing the greater point.(1) Another philosophy- the one I have been exposed to in Crane- is that music needs to stay in our schools for music's sake. VH-1 chooses to support the former philosophy, and I just don't know how to synergize what I have learned and what I know.
I know that in order to "sell" a new music program, it has to sound enticing to people who may have little or no grounds for appreciating music for its own sake- hence the creation of all the above reasons to keep music in our schools. However, it is also true that starting out a new music program from scratch is the best opportunity to establish a synergistic approach (as suggested by Bennett Reimer in the third edition of A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision) from the get-go. What kind of result is VH-1 Save The Music seeking? Do they want band programs or music programs established in these six middle schools? This is at the root of my concern when considering taking on this challenge.
Publicity is a powerful thing. It can be used to promote and support a continuation of the status quo, or it can be used to unearth and propel new ideas, new ways of thinking. If this project between Crane and VH-1 Save The Music is to generate as much publicity as is expected, would this not be the time to demonstrate just what can be done with a music program? But I worry that this is not what VH-1 envisions when they want to start new music programs.
What backgrounds do these children have in music, in music appreciation? I have no doubt that working in a band program will be incredibly beneficial to these children. However, what are the desired results? Are these six new programs expected to teach notes and the values of performance? If we are expected to focus solely on teaching notes and being able to produce concerts, and not on teaching all of the different aspects of music in-depth-- including not just playing but also singing, exposing these students to composition and arranging, improvising, developing in these students an understanding of music's roles in relation to history, other cultures, and disciplines within and without the arts-- then I am deeply concerned.
The national and state standards that I have just outlined are incredibly important, and a "traditional" band program just can't produce young musicians who have a deep and well-rounded understanding of all of music's different values. But I fear that what is desired is product, because VH-1 Save The Music, though a non-profit organization, is still a business at heart.
(1) The following is taken directly and in entirety from VH-1 Save the Music's Website:
WHY MUST ANY COMPLETE EDUCATION INCLUDE THE STUDY OF MUSIC?
Research has shown that students' involvement in their school music program is crucial to a complete education. Musical study develops critical thinking and self discipline skills and improves a child’s early cognitive development, basic math and reading abilities, self-esteem, SAT scores, ability to work in teams, spatial reasoning skills, and school attendance. Also, researchers have found that children involved with music education are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, and are less likely to be involved with gangs and substance abuse.
<--end of essay-->
So there you have the beginnings of what could be an interesting debate... the outcome of which really has yet to be determined. I don't know if I will actually send this essay to Doc Gordon... but I will certainly make my concerns known to him in some capacity, either in a private meeting with him and the Dean, or over the phone or something. This is no longer something that can be discussed simply through e-mail correspondence.
Please, please, please give me feedback! And thanks so much for taking the time out to read this far
Take care,
Sue | | |
| New and Improved
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So.. in other words.. go to my page instead of Amazon from now on, because you can search for and buy all the same stuff and make me money!
Take care,
Sue | | |
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Sue
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