It's Time to Take a Step Back and See the Big Picture!

My desk is a mess! There are six projects in various stages of disorganization piled on top of each other and spilling on to the floor. On top of that, each day my email in box welcomes new fires to be put out. I get so busy producing material and putting out the fires that I forget the underlying reason behind all of this and begin to lose my sense of direction and vision. I think this happens to all teachers. We're so busy doing and producing that we forget our purpose. We forget that we are here for our kids—to give them a place to belong, to be active, to be loved, to work together, to learn, and to express themselves in ways words cannot. At this point in the school year, I think it's a good idea to take a step back and remind ourselves of our purpose, our values, and our vision for our students. Otherwise, we lose our sense of direction, our vision, and in extreme cases, our hope in ourselves and for our students.

Every now and then, we need to remind ourselves of our vision for our students. What is it that we ultimately want them to learn from their experience in our classes? Surely, our goal is more than for them to learn to perform a small collection of songs. Those songs are simply the materials we use to develop musical skills and personal habits that transfer to other areas of life. But, what are these skills and habits and how do we know that our students are actually learning what we are intending to teach? We often get so busy teaching the material, we forget to ask ourselves if the content is transferrable to new situations or if it is worth teaching in the first place.

Taking a step back allows us to look to our future and recognize the potential of future trends. Two of the articles in this issue may help. Nate Kruse's article on teaching adults discusses research findings in regard to music learning from an adult perspective. It reminds us of effective teaching practices while at the same time, looking forward to new opportunities to bring music to people outside of the traditional K-12 model. Brad Howey's article discusses the possibilities inherent in guitar ensembles, which are a growing trend in music education.

Taking a step back also allows us to focus on how students learn in order to help us make effective pedagogical and curricular decisions. Katharine Mansfield- Dresser describes the multiple benefits researchers have found in learning music by ear and suggests strategies for music teachers who want to incorporate learning by ear into the music classroom. Marshall Haning provides six practical tips for teachers who want to incorporate technology into their teaching. I only wish I would have taken his tips to heart earlier in my career!

Once we take a step back, writing them down helps us organize our thoughts clearly and then we can share them with others. For many of you, it is now your turn to share what you know with the profession. We have many music teachers in this state who have a great deal of advice to offer their peers. Please consider sharing your knowledge by authoring articles for the KMR. Because we are an online journal, we have the unique ability to embed demonstration videos into our articles as well. We are very interested in publishing articles aimed at ways to address the new national standards, teacher evaluation, and creative teaching. Interested authors are encouraged to contact me. I would be happy to help you create a great article.

We have chosen a demanding career field, but one filled with rewards that money can't buy. Though it is easy to become entirely focused on the preparation of performances and the administration of a program, we need to continually remind ourselves of the real reasons we do what we do. Only then can we determine the most effective ways to do it, and only then can we see that what we do makes a difference in children's lives.