Below are various resources I have created over the years for educators, especially for teaching music.
Currently, I am teaching full time at Craig High School in Janesville, WI.
For adolescent students, my coursework can be found on outschool.com where I teach short, multi-day or multi-week long courses by request or availability.
For students interested in complete asynchronous coursework, I also teach many (primarily college-level) classes on udemy.com as well.
For private tutoring, lessons, independent study/research, and all other teaching requests, please contact me through the contact form on my homepage.
You can view my teaching licenses here.
MusicAP Music Theory Form and Analysis Introductory Guitar Introductory Cello Beginner-Intermediate Piano Introductory Music Theory Intermediate Music Theory Introductory Ear Training Intermediate Ear Training Jazz Theory Form and Analysis Independent Study and Research Opera Performance Techniques Introductory Conducting Choral Conducting Instrumental Conducting Advanced Conducting Arranging Counterpoint Music Composition Choir Orchestra Voice Lessons (Any Level) General Music Music Appreciation Music Technology Music History Jazz History Rock & Roll History Audio Production, Practicum, and Sound Design String Instrument Techniques Sound and Image: Audio Design for Visual Media Music and Film Ethnomusicology/World Music
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EducationIndependent Study and Research Literacy and Assessment Strategies Curriculum Design Methods of Teaching General Music (K-12) Methods of Teaching Choral Music (6-12) Methods of Teaching Instrumental Music (6-12) Methods of Teaching Computer Science (K-12) Technology for Music Educators Early Childhood Music Teaching Methods Music Teaching Methods for Elementary School Educators Instrumental Music Teaching Methods for Elementary/Middle School Vocal Pedagogy Vocal Pedagogy for Instrumental Music Educators String Pedagogy Jazz Pedagogy Conducting Pedagogy Methods of Teaching Popular Music Artificial Intelligence for Education
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In terms of personal skills and attributes as an educator, I possess an easily adjustable personality that is both flexible in work ethic and humor. I’m passionate about working with people of all ages and one of my favorite aspects of being human is that no matter how old you get, there’s always something your students can teach you regardless of their background or prior knowledge. Communication is one of my biggest values, and making sure my students understand material that I teach them is the top concern, and my goal is to make students feel comfortable with me so they may communicate any concerns or questions they may have – both subject-material wise and with personal life matters as well especially in a case that a student may be struggling emotionally. Constantly am I evaluating and having others evaluate my methodology of teaching certain things, and making sure that I’m finding other possible ways to such things is a big concern of mine as someone who will be teaching two vastly different subjects. In regards to organization and flexibility, I believe my work ethic is probably my strongest suit – obviously managing my work and staying on top of things is a high concern, but setting aside personal time to make sure I can help any struggling students is my top priority.
I believe my abilities as a musician are definitely beyond my level of being able to explain them currently – my subject knowledge is strong but I have yet to delve into the best methods of teaching various aspects of the subject. I can easily recognize the form and analysis of a piece and recognize its subject matter and historical development, sight sing, and diagnose errors in singers to figure out what their current problems with technique and sound may be. I’m highly confident in my choral conducting abilities currently as well as my technique as a performer, and have a strong record of achievement in musical performance.
Regarding choral pedagogue, I have a strong background in choral curriculum and repertoire planning and have plans to develop a highly comprehensive high school curriculum – regardless of necessary adjustments that may be made down the line, I believe I can turn my students into near collegiate-level musicians regardless of their prior background, and I’m currently working on finding the best methods of assessment for such material. Classroom management is my current concern, however. I would like to find the most appropriate methods of controlling my classrooms in non-negative manners of course; my biggest concern is building positive relationships with all of my students so that they enjoy coming to class every day and want to get work done because they enjoy learning and want me to teach them more.
My biggest concern in terms of professional development is being able to effectively bring younger students to the academic potential of collegiate students. As someone who grew up in a school district in Michigan that placed almost no value in musical performance abilities, I was lacking in exposure to the true musician experience. After moving to Wisconsin and performing around the state in my high school choir, I realized the importance not only of performing arts, but of the value of taking students out into the world for real academic experiences. Performing with massive combined choirs from out of town and in different places all around my town made me value my skills as a performer more than ever before, and as an educator I believe making sure that students get those opportunities is absolutely critical. My biggest goal is to be able to take my students out on a choir tour around the state once a year, and maybe every other year follow the tradition of my high school’s choir in touring New York City. Of course the students primarily will have taken choir to sing and have fun, but I believe they should be able to get the true academic experience that high-level musicians are offered.
My current strategies involve intense research in choral and vocal methods and literature on the subjects especially; any information on both pedagogue and analysis is greatly invaluable. I primarily study methods of teaching and of diagnosing problems that may arise in performance – errors on vocal technique, physical issues, sound issues, and so on are my big concerns. I believe that proper curriculum planning and connection between other teachers will allow me to develop the most effective plan for teaching music to unexperienced students to bring them up to a pre-collegiate level or beyond, at least in terms of theory and score analysis that students can use to properly read and understand their scores.
In my personal experience with musical ability in relation to other subjects, I’ve found that my skills have vastly improved unexpectedly – as a computer scientist, I have found my ability to diagnose issues in reading code has become immensely faster as my ability to sight-read open score music has improved, in terms of both vertical and horizontal optical scanning. I also find myself memorizing chunks of information by remembering their function and diagnosing them, rather than by terminology alone. Music is extremely important in its ability to improve cognitive performance in students, regardless of subject matter; this is something I have discussed with both my previous choir and computer science teachers, and both sides agree with the conclusion of similar areas of the brain being used in STEM subjects and musical performance. It has been proven that music can significantly improve our skills in exercising, reasoning, visual attention, creativity, and motor skills [1] which is a valuable resource for students of any kind or subject, as the skills are highly applicable to other sciences and arts [3]. Great scientists and artists alike have been musicians, including Albert Einstein who played violin and piano as a means of boosting productivity in developing his theories [2]. With music being so beneficial in developing physical and cognitive abilities, I believe that the subject is of upmost importance in child development and plays an irreplaceable role in life experiences and physiological growth.