Music Driven Classroom

The cure for chaos

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Classroom management is maybe the most important skill for a music teaching artist to develop. A well managed class is crucial to the overall experience of the students. If there is chaos, we can’t have music. In many ways music is the cure for chaos. If the students are going to connect to music and experience its JOY, the class must be well managed. Not only is music the goal of the class, it’s also the solution oftentimes to classroom management.

When I first started teaching in San Diego, I was hired as an itinerant elementary instrumental teacher. I would teach at 7 schools all over the county, in wildly different communities. In the morning I would teach often in southeast San Diego, where the students were often times the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. Many of them spoke little English, some of them none. I myself only speak very basic Spanish, and not very artfully at that. I am so thankful for this experience because it really forced me to develop my classroom management strategy around non-verbal cues and instructions.