My Third Blog Post

 Copyright and fair use is a big thing in the music education world, specifically with sheet music (but also textbooks, recordings, etc). As a future music educator, I have to respect the rights of people who have produced materials that I may want to use in the classroom. I might not be able to use copyrighted material, that is, material that is made by someone, who is the only one who can use that material. However, if it falls under fair use, which in a nutshell is where if it's not copied excessively and is being used for educational purposes, then I might be able to use it as a teacher, at a free or reduced fee. I will have to budget for purchasing enough sheet music for each student of mine, and if we have performances where students pick out music to perform, I will need to ensure I've taught them about copyright rules, and make sure that by performing certain works, we are still abiding by said rules. I may write my own warmups, and possibly concert music. My students may also write their own music, on MuseScore for example. They should of course put their name on it, as well as the appropriate copyright symbol, and make sure to register it online. They could even list it on a music distribution website if they were looking to sell the music they wrote! All in all, we should make sure to keep all of our bases covered so that everyone involved is happy.

Outside of educational materials, teachers also have to deal with social issues, such as bullying, and cyberbullying. Bullying may be easier to spot, but cyberbullying would be more difficult, as it can happen outside of school hours. We may have an online communication system, such as Slack or google classroom, but students can still interact on social media. I think to combat this, creating a welcoming and loving environment between my students by doing icebreakers and helping everyone get to know each other could help initially. As well as talking to everyone about the expectations of behavior towards each other, and checking in periodically with them, or even having a reporting system if something is amiss. For decreased productivity, I think creating intrinsic motivation for my students could really help. Find out what THEY want to learn, how they want to grow, and let them take control over the music they play and make little groups. They could submit videos of them playing their favorite scale or music piece as a grade, and an extra way to get them to practice and fall in love with their instrument.

The newsletter design was good because I got a lot more familiar with Microsoft word. It was a little frustrating and took me much longer than I thought it would, but I learned how to put pictures exactly where I wanted them on the document, as well as make something for canva. I also found cute little icons I could put on my newsletter, and got to really think about what types of things I would want to include on such a letter if I really was a teacher. It was a practical moment for me, because if I have to do this again in the future, it will hopefully take less time, and I will have a sense of what I want to say. I know how to make my newsletter more engaging with color and formatting as well. To improve it in the future I would add more detail as it did not realistically cover everything I would have needed to cover. Maybe I should start making a newsletter-type document of things I would need to address in my band program so that I don't forget anything when making something like this for my classroom.