Preface 1 😀

As a user of this web site we contemplate, I want specific answers to specific questions, e.g., How to recruit for ensembles; How to form the French horn embouchure, How to buy new band uniforms, How to select ensemble music, How to write a curriculum document and connect it to daily lesson planning, etc.  I think for most users (in-service faculty!), I need answers to my "problems" NOW and I have precious little time to devote to finding them!...especially if I'm using the site during the school year.  So that means 

· The site has to be searchable.

· Information needs to be categorized.  (In my 'personal reference system' I do this via course title, e.g., Brass Methods, Conducting I)

· Information needs to be as streamlined & direct as possible -- think bullet points.

Preface 2

A couple significant stumbling blocks -- not only for us but for the profession, in general!: 

· All teachers do not have the same baseline knowledge & skill expertise that practitioners in other fields of import like medicine or engineering, have.  Of course, that was the reason for all the furious note-taking during my session in NJ, that I mentioned earlier.

· We don't have national leadership in education, again as do other professions, so efforts need to be made to advertise the site nationally, globally.

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A thought on the site:

In the past, I've fancied creating something like Midwest Education Associates, a group practice of educators in general education and/or music education that served as a clearing house for effective materials...something patterned after the Mayo Clinic.  At its beginnings, the Mayo brothers, Dr. Will & Dr. Charlie, would scour the 'world' for effective ways of treating various illnesses and bring them to Mayo.  In some of my clinic sessions I've termed this act of 'research' as The Mayo Approach -- scour globally to practice locally.

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I offer the following as general info to show complexity, but not suggesting that it would ALL be posted on such a web site:

Mostly for my own amusement, I suppose, I've identified & gathered together the essentials of practice in education, generally, and placed them in a notebook.  All of this represents my work over 'too many' years.  I've attached the notebook Index just to give you an idea of material covered -- and of course all of it relates to music ed, as well as general ed, in practice as well as music ed 'advocacy' - helping to formulate arguments for having music in the school curriculum, to begin with.

In addition to this tome, there's all of my topic-specific course packet material like Brass Methods, Woodwind Methods, Band & Choral Arranging, Conducting I & II, etc, that adds to the complex of material.  All packets containing material I decided was essential knowledge, skills, processes, and tools...with next to no fat.  (A superb 2000 calorie education diet.  LOL!!!  :))

So, I guess, the upshot here is how global to be, or, finding some kind of happy medium of site content that will provide enough detail + context/discussion to make it understandable, yet streamlined.  My "rule" to my students is always to break learning into enough steps so that the majority of students 'get it' the first time through!  There will always be follow-up Q&A for clarifying but you want to avoid large learning gaps, or 'voids', as much as possible. 

See you soon!

Lew