I believe most of us are to the place or are working towards getting to the place where we incorporate improvisation-teaching techniques to our general music students. After all, it is the wonderful nature of our field to allow students to create, to take what exists and make something new yet recognizable, and to thrill at the end results. In our professional lives, however, so many of us are asked to adhere to standards in our curricula, teaching methods and styles, classroom management, paperwork, and assessment in order to fit with current trends in education. Sometimes that is definitely like trying to fit the proverbial square peg in the round hole. Yet, it is possible that our very jobs could depend on this adaptability. How can we "improvise" our standards and methods of teaching without compromising our personal integrity towards our own unique discipline? I am gathering, from various music discussion boards and Facebook discussion groups, that common core integration and requirements are a major concern to music teachers. In many cases, teachers are being asked to incorporate language arts and math objectives from common core into their own teaching. Personally, I am a strong advocate of cross-curricular integration, when done respectfully, with a natural segue into the objectives. I also believe this should be done laterally, as a whole, with other subjects integrating music where it will make sense. However, what to do if you are asked to document this usage? Unfortunately, the subtle appearance of many objectives from other areas can get lost in the music realm and it is up to us to help administrators, visitors, and other "laypeople" understand the importance of music on its own merits, as well as developing a more unified approach to all disciplines supporting each other. So, you will have to do some improvising to make your "integration" a little more obvious.

For instance, when you write your lesson plans, even though it might take a little more time, incorporate corresponding Common Core standards in the writing. When I wrote lesson plans (before sabbatical), I would include the corresponding Missouri GLE, Washington curriculum standards, and often, the corresponding cross-curricular applications that most closely adhered to my plans. Dividing a poem into syllables to notate rhythm? Include that in your lesson plan notation. Are students writing a critique of their performance? Include the type of writing used in your lesson plans. Teaching an alley dance? Include a description of math measurement estimation in your lesson plans. You are not changing your lesson's music integrity, but you are making it more obvious to anyone who might observe your lesson looking for integration.

Do you utilize body percussion, such as material from Rhythmische Ubung by Gunild Keetman (used in Orff) or other books on body percussion? Improvise! Ask the kids to use vocabulary words from their classroom subjects or use their spelling words to help with counting rhythm. The kids will receive diversified learning techniques that can help them, and you just gave them a new way to help them identify and count rhythm patterns. For that matter, the students can improvise their own body percussion to vocabulary words. Obviously, this will also work with music terms as well. Set barred Orff instruments to a pentatonic scale, let one student establish a bordun, and allow other students to improvise a melody on the rhythm, and you have an improvised melody while sneaking in learning reinforcement that might have your classroom colleagues buying you chocolate for a month.

Have your students describe the correlation. My students loved making the connection between what they were learning in music class and what was going on in their regular classroom. Students note this more quickly than the unprepared adult because they are living it. If you are being observed by administrators ask the students questions that lead to a curriculum integration connection. Ask kindergarteners about rhyming. (Usually, they will pipe right up and answer it.) Ask your fourth graders about that Ozark folk song or Joplin ragtime and how it ties in with their social studies unit. Ask your middle school students about their chance music composition and how it ties in with probability.

Always have that research handy and be prepared to "translate" it into terminology to which the non-musical person can relate. You will need to be your own strongest advocate, but it definitely helps to have this information available for parents as well. In my experience, in terms of advocacy outside of yourself, your students will be first, your parents second (when they get enthusiastic reports about music from their children), and your community third if you share your students with them and information about music with them. Read up on the research. NAfME journals are a good starting point. Have that information ready so you can use it to improvise your strategy in promoting music as a higher learning discipline. What is some other research that might be pertinent? Research on the importance of various musical media in performing (the importance of the use of instruments AND singing in programs, for instance); the importance of a variety of performance styles (such as musicals, choral concerts, Orff-style concerts, etc.), and whatever else you feel might be important. You never know when you will have to improvise support for your program in ways you do not expect. Music teachers have always had to improvise to be successful. We just have to change our strategy of improvisation to adapt to the ever- changing education reform requirements.