Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, all open doors to meeting other teachers asking the same questions and seeking resources that somewhere out there one of us has already found. I am excited by entering this broader community of teachers and hope that I will find those resources of my own that can be meaningful for you.

To let you know me, I am a music teacher in a French immersion school where I am lucky to have a mutuality with my students that helps encourage their learning -- I am not as fluent in French as many of them are by their grade 6 year. Because of this, I can encourage them to help in my area of growing while I am doing the same for them musically. I can't even count the number of discouraged looks that changed to hope and self respect as they realized how much we are really "in this together".

I also have students who are studying the guitar or piano who have had much to teach me about their instrument. I, in turn, can teach them how knowledge of chords and rhythm can help them to add the dimension of improvisation to their work on their instrument as well as give opportunities for them to explore a wide variety of instruments. Their knowledge becomes a resource for the class which further encourages their own learning.

I guess to make it short, I would just have to sum these and other similar insights by saying we are a community of learners in my classes and, as such, part of my mandate as a teacher is to develop the leadership potential in each child in the community, yes, even the one who seems to not get it when we are doing some activity. By watching for these areas of strength, all students in the class are learning that music, in so many ways, is a communal activity and only by supporting all its members will we have the best possible performance to share with others.

So this is where I begin sharing musically. Right now, I am looking at philosophies like the Circle of Courage, the Habits of the Heart and the work our division is doing in UDL to help me become a greater facilitator of the ensemble spirit in my classroom as we develop the skills and knowledge to creatively engage with music.