A Butterfly Emerges

I have always wanted to be a teacher, but found the classroom stifling, limiting, and frankly, very boring during my first two years of undergrad; so, I stopped double majoring and focused on performing on my horn.  This experience has changed my mind forever about teaching a "normal" class.  As a music student, the most boring classes I have taken were my music theory and history classes, yet these are foundational to future success as a teacher or performer.  Making them as exciting as possible should be any teacher's goal.  I am really starting to formulate a plan for my Master's project, either through developing my Minecraft music theory lesson into an aural theory class, or develop an entire Music History I or II course on OpenSim.  I would love to share this in one of the music educator's journals and encourage other teachers to find ways to communicate that combine aural and visual stimuli to add to the learner's retention.  This is my 22nd course (or 63rd credit) at the Master's level and has to be the best course I have taken.  I have been trying to find my way in the academic world, and I have found a purpose to my learning and a direction I finally want to go.  I came in as a caterpillar and have emerged as a butterfly.  I hope that I can get an opportunity to collaborate in the future with others who are passionate about virtual learning and be a catalyst for folks in music education to leave preconceptions behind and see the (virtual) world of possibilities!

Thank you, Dr. Peter, Ty and Ivan, for an exceptional course that has caused me to grow in so many ways.  My mind has been opened and expanded.  Thank you to the resource team, J-Star (Cody) and Nancy, for the great resources we combined that led me to my ideas for our Minecraft build.  Thank you to Ed and Nancy for giving me the most positive collaborative experience I have had online or F2F and for allowing me to be as creative as I wanted.  We make a fantastic team!  Thank you to the entire class for sharing your wonderful ideas.  I've enjoyed reading your blogs.  I wish you all the best and hope you got as much from this class as I did!