Mary Higgins

Standard 1: The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in pedagogy (planning, delivering instruction,
and assessment) for vocal, instrumental, and general music.

It is vital to the success of the students that I as a music teacher understand the pedagogy of
music. Unless I understand the concept of how to teach music, my knowledge of repertoire and
technique will do no good to the students and they will not be set up for success in their
musical journeys. I have been performing in both large and small ensembles for about thirteen
years now, and my participation in these ensembles has granted me experience in being a
student of music as well as a teacher of music. I have had the opportunity to play several roles
in different operas and musicals, and I have been involved in both instrumental and choral
ensembles consisting of amateur as well as professional musicians. I also do solo work through
my private voice lessons and have had significant experience as an individual singer.
Throughout my time at K-State, I have been given the opportunity to lead different groups of
musicians at all sorts of skill levels, which has taught me that every instrument, voice, and
performer is different and therefore requires different methods of instruction. For example,
during my college career when I was a section leader for the sopranos in an entry-level choir,
there were several women who had had extensive musical training and several women who
had never been in a choir before. This required me to adjust my instruction so that I could guide
the inexperienced individuals while still challenging the experienced individuals. Students in the
music classroom cannot and will not be successful without proper and individualized
instruction, which ultimately stems from the teacher’s pedagogical knowledge. There is no all-
encompassing rule about how students learn; however, with intelligible knowledge of
content and pedagogy I can help my students foster a love of music and be successful.

In my classroom, the student and I both constantly learn from each other. The student learns
from me by example how to become a better musician and how to become a productive
member of society. I assess the learning occurring in my classroom to gauge how I can help
them better understand music. My students will be able to trust in my capability to teach them
repertoire as well as performance techniques and how to grow as an individual musician,
because I have many skills and experiences I can pass down to them. I also hope to have my
passion for music be very evident to my students. Students know and can pick up on when a
teacher doesn’t care about their work. If a teacher shows no interest in teaching, students will
show no interest in learning. My aim as an instructor is to have my students inherit a spark of
interest in music by the time they leave my classroom, to help them gain an appreciation and
love for music, and to model how rewarding music can make one’s life.

Pedagogy is the most important aspect of the music classroom because without it there would
be no organization to what we are teaching, and because it always keeps the learning being
done by the students as the top priority. Music is a very abstract subject to teach, so I must
always be learning how to grow as a teacher so that I can continue to expand upon my skills
and transfer that knowledge to my students. With my past experiences and the future
knowledge I will gain throughout my career, my students will become strong musicians as well
as human beings.