This week inspired thought on how I can encourage creativity in the classroom. “Music stimulates creativity because making music involves experimenting with sounds and rhythms” (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, p.112). In particular, experimenting with the pentatonic scale is an activity that I would like to experiment with in the classroom. For students with that may be apprehensive or overwhelmed by playing a musical instrument, the pentatonic scale allows students to explore sound and music in a scaffolded and comfortable way. Furthermore, as a teacher with no particular background in music, it offers me a tool to facilitate and provide effective music education.
Similarly, this week we spoke about anxiety in teaching music. Whilst the thought of teaching music is slightly confronting, I have been taking the step to become more musical in my spare time by learning to play an instrument. A driving factor in my reasons for this is so I am abler to provide quality music education to my students. Apart from being enjoyable, numerous studies have shown the effects of learning music and the improvement of academic achievement (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, p.113).
Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming
the curriculum through the arts (1st ed.). South Yarra, Vic: Palgrave
Macmillan.
EDUP3008 Creative Arts 3 