What's Your Top Box?

We should surely be thankful that in music education we must at all times adhere to the vast array of government dictates that will make us the best teachers we can be, and pass on this excellence to our students.

With Ofsted, mock ofsted and peer observations, we can be absolutely sure that our perceived failings can be rooted out, commented upon, and held up as examples of bad practice. This is beneficial, enabling us to reflect on our work and make all the improvements required, according to the magnificent guidelines written and passed down to us by the government and its revered education department.

Just one word of advice, fellow music makers.

If, in your planning, you haven't mentioned that at any time you reserve the right to stop and plug in a microphone to capture an amazing, creative, experiential, musical moment that has unexpectedly evolved, which your students will benefit from recording and listening back to, you may be seen as straying from the session plan, and marked down accordingly.  This happened to a colleague of mine recently, working in a Leicestershire special school, which had employed an organisation to train all the teachers in the art of observing each other at work.

Observing other artists, teachers and facilitators is a highly useful tool to see how others make things work well, and how you might include this in your own practice.  Feedback from being observed is also useful, often giving us a different viewpoint and food for thought.  However, focusing only on the negative can leave us feeling dejected, unappreciated and questioning whether we're in the right job.

There are many boxes to be ticked, and thankfully in my own practice I mostly adhere to my own standards of good practice within the world of music facilitation, where "reacting responsively and creatively to the needs of the group, with sensitivity and humour" is possibly the top box on my list. 

If this makes me a maverick, so be it.  This blog is for all the other mavericks out there - don't let the Bs grind you down :)