Week 3 - Blog Posting #6 -Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice are very important in education. No one person can know the best way to teach everything. I am not sure what I would do without my fellow educators; I do know that I wouldn’t be half the teacher I am without them. I am the only general music teacher in my k – 8 school and my students attend a regional high school in another district. So the only interaction I have between other music educators are collogues from college and previous schools. Without sites like Facebook, it would be much harder to keep in touch. Whenever any of us find a website or new method of teaching a concept we always email everyone.

I do have a great community at school that I feel very involved with, and we do many cross-curricular activities. When I set up my curriculum, I asked all the teachers about units they teach and based my curriculum of that of the grade teachers. This made it actually easier for me. There is no written curriculum for music, just benchmarks set for fourth grade and eighth grade. So creating a whole k – 8 curriculum is a daunting task.

http://rsm.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/2/99

Deborah V. Blair a professor at Oakland University talks about communities of practice in novice music teachers in Research Studies in Music Education Journal. She states: “Mentoring new teachers is critical to music education, not only for purposes of retention and attrition, but also to provide the support they need to become reflective practitioners” I full-heartedly agree with Professor Blair. My first year teacher, my mentor was a fourth grade teacher and offered no real assistance to me. Though there is no other music teacher in my building, another specialist who teachers k – 8 would have been a better-suited mentor, or another k – 8 music teacher in my district.

http://pre2009.flexiblelearning.net.au/nw2003/presentations/Day2/Session2_1130_1715/Oxley/When%20Notes%20aren't%20enough_Dawn%20Bennett_1245-1215/Clari%20presentation%20backup_compressed.ppt

Inside music ensembles, a great community is built between its members. The above PowerPoint talks about the communities of practice in music education. Just like the pride athletes have for their chosen sports, instrumentalist and vocalists have a great sense of belonging to their ensemble.