“Focus on what’s most important in music teacher education,” pleads Jennifer Parker. The MENC member has been a music teacher for five years since completing a bachelor of music degree in education at California State University (CSU), Stanislaus.

Parker continued, “Everything that I studied in my college music program was useful, but there are topics that were never brought up in my training, and many that a lot more time could have been spent on. Never did I hear a word about

•  Public relations
•  Fund-raising
•  Managing music accounts
•  Bidding for musical instruments
•  Trip planning
•  Grading
•  Scheduling
•  Being a teacher that students come to with all of their problems (and the ethical issues that can arise from this)
   

I am painfully aware that most of these are things that everyone must struggle with on their own, but a class with a discussion of these topics would have been very helpful.”

In the past five years, Parker’s taught everything from elementary classroom music to secondary orchestra, choir and jazz band. “I’ve had only one onsite music colleague, who was a great asset to me,” she said. “I had worked very hard through my four-year music education program and cannot think of a single class that was too slow-paced.”

“The CSU methods classes were very informative, but we should have been required to play a different instrument in an ensemble. I’m currently teaching choir and jazz band and have never been a participant in either type of group. I’ve played in orchestras, but only as a horn player. These things should have been a required part of the curriculum, but I don’t see how they could possibly have fit into the program,” Parker stated.

California requires an additional year of study after finishing the music degree to get a teaching certificate. For music teachers, this year seems jerry-rigged to try to make it fit music education. Most of Parker’s classes had nothing do with teaching music. Parker would gladly have studied an extra year to be able to acquire more relevant and useful information and earn her teaching certificate.

MENC member Jennifer Parker is director of music at Marina High School in Marina, California.

Resource:  Music Teacher’s Success Kit, available from MENC for a small fee by contacting Member Services at 800-336-3768, or you can view tips from the kit on My Music Class.

--Ella Wilcox, November 10, 2008, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)