Tomorrow begins a new school year. I'm really looking forward to this one for a number of reasons. First, it's the first semester in quite some time that I haven't had to deal with a new edition of a textbook, a new textbook altogether, or an entirely new class. So the up-front work has been greatly reduced. I did, of course, tweak a few of the classes to make them a little more to my liking. I'm focusing much more on the craft of writing in my graduate seminar on theory pedagogy, and I'm making them teach an actual class full of confused freshmen and/or sophomores. (In the past, I had them teach sample classes to their peers, which quickly devolved into silliness. This time, the peer teaching is more a gateway to the "real" teaching.)
I'm also excited because I'm teaching a First-Year Experience (FYE) course for the Honors College. The class is a modified version of an upper-level undergraduate seminar on rap music that I've taught previously in the Honors College. These students are all non-music majors and this is their (obviously) first year. The goal is to teach them how to be students; specifically, to teach them how to be honors students. That means writing, writing, and more writing, and lots of class discussion. I have two able upper-level mentors to facilitate discussion if need be. The mentors also run what are called LCGs, which are meetings outside the regular class time that deal with issues like using the library, community service, basics of voting, study abroad, opportunities in the Honors College and so on. It's a really great program and I'm happy to be a part of it.
I always like teaching freshmen: the responsibility is on me to put the university's (and the College's and the School of Music's) best foot forward. I used to for several semesters teach the freshman harmony class that met at 9:00 Monday morning--I was literally their first impression of college.
I'm also excited because I feel like I'm getting "back to normal." I taught both summer sessions this year: an upper-level seminar for the Honors College on performance studies (again, all non-majors) and then a big (90 students) history of rock and roll class (again, all non-majors). Over the course of the summer I felt as though I had drifted away from what it is I do. The rock course I had created from scratch and spent most of my days drawing up PowerPoint slide shows, troubleshooting WebCT issues, and answering e-mails. Somewhere along the line I forgot that I teach music and I really, really like it.
As I mentioned below, I saw a bunch of great operas in Santa Fe, and I just splurged on some new CDs of music that I really should know but, sadly, don't. I got some John Luther Adams (not the Nixon in China guy), Harrison Birtwistle, Kaija Saariaho (a DVD of her first opera, L'amour de loin--it's tremendous!), George Rochberg string quartets (I did my master's thesis on Rochberg) and a few other more conventional things (I had a great recording of Oistrakh playing the Prokofiev concertos that I lent to a friend years ago and haven't seen since--I just reordered it. It's nice to hear some music that I've never heard before from some unfamiliar composers--it reminds me why I got into this business in the first place.
My hope is to use some of these scores in my post-tonal theory class next semester. I'd like to get away from the "canonical" post-tonal music and look at some that is a) truly contemporary; and b) doesn't fit the pitch-class set mold too nicely.
I've cracked the books on a couple of new research projects that I'll maybe post about in the not-too-distant future.
All is well! Best of luck to all of you who are going back to school yet again...
I'm also excited because I'm teaching a First-Year Experience (FYE) course for the Honors College. The class is a modified version of an upper-level undergraduate seminar on rap music that I've taught previously in the Honors College. These students are all non-music majors and this is their (obviously) first year. The goal is to teach them how to be students; specifically, to teach them how to be honors students. That means writing, writing, and more writing, and lots of class discussion. I have two able upper-level mentors to facilitate discussion if need be. The mentors also run what are called LCGs, which are meetings outside the regular class time that deal with issues like using the library, community service, basics of voting, study abroad, opportunities in the Honors College and so on. It's a really great program and I'm happy to be a part of it.
I always like teaching freshmen: the responsibility is on me to put the university's (and the College's and the School of Music's) best foot forward. I used to for several semesters teach the freshman harmony class that met at 9:00 Monday morning--I was literally their first impression of college.
I'm also excited because I feel like I'm getting "back to normal." I taught both summer sessions this year: an upper-level seminar for the Honors College on performance studies (again, all non-majors) and then a big (90 students) history of rock and roll class (again, all non-majors). Over the course of the summer I felt as though I had drifted away from what it is I do. The rock course I had created from scratch and spent most of my days drawing up PowerPoint slide shows, troubleshooting WebCT issues, and answering e-mails. Somewhere along the line I forgot that I teach music and I really, really like it.
As I mentioned below, I saw a bunch of great operas in Santa Fe, and I just splurged on some new CDs of music that I really should know but, sadly, don't. I got some John Luther Adams (not the Nixon in China guy), Harrison Birtwistle, Kaija Saariaho (a DVD of her first opera, L'amour de loin--it's tremendous!), George Rochberg string quartets (I did my master's thesis on Rochberg) and a few other more conventional things (I had a great recording of Oistrakh playing the Prokofiev concertos that I lent to a friend years ago and haven't seen since--I just reordered it. It's nice to hear some music that I've never heard before from some unfamiliar composers--it reminds me why I got into this business in the first place.
My hope is to use some of these scores in my post-tonal theory class next semester. I'd like to get away from the "canonical" post-tonal music and look at some that is a) truly contemporary; and b) doesn't fit the pitch-class set mold too nicely.
I've cracked the books on a couple of new research projects that I'll maybe post about in the not-too-distant future.
All is well! Best of luck to all of you who are going back to school yet again...