March is Music in Our Schools Month in the USA. I love that there is a whole month dedicated to the awareness and raising of the profile of Music in our Schools! Here in Australia, we don’t seem to have the same battle that my USA counterparts do. In all states of Australia, some form of Music Education is compulsory in all Years from Kindergarten to Year 8. It just happens to take many different forms in each school.
I am a High School Music teacher, this means that in my State of New South Wales, Music and Visual Arts are a mandatory course in the Stage 4 classes- Years 7 and 8. For most of my students, coming to a Music class in Year 7 is the first time that they have had a dedicated Music lesson with some sort of formal learning in the subject. From Years 9-12, students can choose to continue their Music Education as an Elective subject.
But it does not seem to matter what age I teach, Music still has the same sort of physical and emotional effect on my students. For example, I was completing a listening activity with my Year 7 students last week. We were listening to the 80’s hit “Come on Eileen”. I had chosen this song because of the tempo changes and use of accelerando in it. But no matter what class did the activity, and I have 3 classes of very different abilities, they all seemed to react to the music in the same way. They all started wiggling and jiggling in their seats, moving to the music and enjoying this “old” piece of music. The next listening activity I completed with my Year 7’s had the same effect. This time we were listening to an African Drum piece. And again, they all started to wiggle and jiggle in their seats to the steady beat of the music. This is one of the reasons I love teaching music. Music brings out an emotional and physical response in all of us – no matter our musical ability.
I am sure I do not have to tell you how a particular piece of music can bring back an instant memory, or it can bring a smile to your face, or even make you cry. Music just “magically” does what it does to all of us – and that is simply wonderful.
As my gift to you, I have a set of 5 FREE posters over in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. There are 5 different quotes in the download. Each quote will mean something different to everyone. I chose these particular quotes because of what they remind me of – that Music is a really important part of our everyday life. For some of us, Music is our life, and without it we would have no reason to do what we do on a daily basis.
Below are the links to some other FREE posters that I have created in the past – enjoy 🙂
Link to Watercolour Music Quotes Posters
Link to Great Musicians Posters
Until next time
Happy teaching
Julia from Jooya