My 48th First Day of School

Zankel Hall Entrance to Teachers College - 120th Street btwn Broadway & Amsterdam

Yesterday was my 48th first day of school. I LOVE the first day of school. So many possibilities, a renewed sense of purpose, syllabus revamped, new students to interact with, all of it. I have had the privilege of teaching the music technology courses at Teachers College Columbia University for the past 24 years. It is truly an honor to be associated with the school that helped my career so much. I look forward to my Monday nights all week. After leaving public school teaching over 15 years ago, TC helps remind me on a weekly basis why I went into music education in the first place.

I teach two courses at TC: Introduction to New Technologies in Music Education and Intermediate/Advanced Applications of Technology in Music Education. Typically I only teach the Intro course in the Fall, and both levels in the Spring. Like many schools and universities around the world, the last few years have been challenging - especially not meeting with students in person. Last night was the first time I felt that everything was finally “back to normal”. A full class, unmasked, and ready to start learning in person. So cool.

My Intro course is a whistle stop tour of all aspects of integrating technology into music instruction. We start with some philosophical conversations about the how and why of technology in the music classroom, and then dive into the vast number of resources currently available to teachers to help them engage with their students, simplify and centralize assessment opportunities, and foster creativity in their classrooms. This semester I will be covering Canva for the first time (I retired Prezi from the syllabus), I am focusing at least one of my classes on artificial intelligence (AI) in music education, and will be having my students compose music using a variety of tools - both notation and DAW software titles. I always have a bunch of students from outside of the music department, and while this might seem like a challenging situation, I love it. I love having outside perspectives in the class and I can easily adapt assignments to suit their skill levels. The reality is that having non-music students in my class is just like teaching music in K-12 schools. I need to teach every student, regardless of their previous musical experience.

My Int/Adv course takes a deep dive into a smaller number of applications, including Logic, Ableton Live, Scratch, WeVideo, Squarespace, and focuses on creating instructional materials with technology for all aspects of music education. I love teaching this class because the pace is a lot slower and we can focus more of our energy on instructional design and pro level software functionality.

So after 48 years, I am still excited to start teaching - I even wore a new shirt to class. I am hoping that many of you still have that same excitement at the start of the school year. I will freely admit that I am usually exhausted by the end of the semester and looking forward to the break, but I seem to always want to get back at it a few weeks later.

Have a great school year everyone!

My tech lab at Teachers College - Macy 345