September 2009
Volume 75, Number 1

Elementary Division
Michele M. White, Chairman

What Makes a Great Teacher?

            I was fortunate to be a participant in the inaugural class of The Choristers Guild Institute last week in Louisville, Kentucky.  We attended classes in pedagogy, choral methodology, and conducting, worked with other students, and learning about worship styles in churches. (The highlight for me was studying conducting with Dr. Anton Armstrong -- wow!)

            Most vocal/choral teachers I know are involved somehow with their church's music ministry.  They either volunteer or are a paid part-time member of the church staff.  One of the most valuable aspects of the course was when we wrote about why (not how) we teach in school and/or work in the music ministry at our church.

            The amazing Helen Kemp was there to provide a lecture on Wednesday evening and work with a children's choir on Thursday.  She is a very active 91-year-old who still is working in the profession she chose 70 years ago!  Today she directs a choir of senior citizens at the retirement community where she lives.  She reminded us that good vocal pedagogy works with children as well as with senior citizens (and, of course, middle school, high school, college and adult singers)!

            Mrs. Kemp gave us a handout with information from a Peter Jennings News story in 1991.  The advice from great teachers that he reported back then is even more important today.

1.         Teach each child, not only "the class".  Honor each child with eye contact and by being near each child with your presence.

2.         Great teachers believe ALL children will LEARN.

3.         Great teachers engage children in thinking for themselves.

4.         Great teachers master their subject.

5.         Great teachers never stop learning their craft, the subject, and the art of teaching.

6.         A great teacher is a model. . . one who is respected by the students for integrity and character as well as subject matter.

7.         A great teacher believes that EXCELLENCE can be achieved.

8.         A great teacher is a student forever.

            According to these criteria are you a great teacher?  Do you live by this advice from great teachers?  All of us have an extremely important job -- we must teach the children who walk in our classrooms with respect, dignity, and honor.  It is imperative that we strive for excellence in everything we do. 

            We should remember the words of Ruth Krehbiel Jacobs who founded Choristers Guild which is the organization most responsible for the growth of children's choirs as we know them today:  "Our emphasis must be on the child, not only the subject.  Great music has no value itself; only when it penetrates the personality and has its influence there does it really live."  Indeed, it is only when we realize that the students/children we teach are the instruments through which great music lives that we begin teaching the child rather than simply the music.

            And, perhaps most significantly, in our world where everything is computerized and technology reigns supreme, we must take these words of Tom Brokaw to heart, for our profession as musicians and music educators -- and the children we teach -- depends on realizing the truth in these words:  "It is not enough to wire the world if you short-circuit the soul."

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Turn in your professional development/leave forms TODAY for this year's LMEA annual conference November 19-21.  We will begin on Thursday afternoon and evening this year and will continue through Saturday.  This is NOT the event you'll want to miss!  The LMEA main attraction clinician is Lynnel Joy Jenkins who recently was named artistic director of the Princeton Girlchoir and will take the baton from the founding director Janet A. Westrick.  Ms. Jenkins has bachelor's and master's degrees from Temple University and Westminster Choir College.  She is a regular on the ACDA, MENC, and OAKE conference circuits and will complete her doctorate in choral conducting with a minor in music education at Arizona State University this year.   Ms. Jenkins will present four sessions at our conference in November.

            Sister Lorna Zemke will be on board as our clinician sponsored by the Louisiana Association of Kodály Educators.  Sr. Zemke has not been to Louisiana in more than 10 years.  She teaches at Silver Lake College and is well-known as a Kodály specialist and master teacher.  She will present three sessions over Thursday and Friday.

            Finally, we are grateful to the Red Stick Chapter of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association and LSU College of Music and Dramatic Arts who will co-sponsor James Mader, a world-drumming specialist from Florida.  He will present one session on Friday and two on Saturday at our conference.  Mr. Mader was selected as one of twenty music teachers from the United States and Canada to pilot Will Schmid’s World Music Drumming Curriculum. This innovative cross-cultural curriculum is aimed at raising student’s life skills (listening, respect, cooperation, teamwork, and communication) through African, Caribbean, and Latin drumming, movement, and song. We are excited to welcome Mr. Mader to Louisiana.