Teaching Bio
I am currently in my senior year, pursuing a double major in Vocal Performance and Choral Music Education at California State University, Long Beach. I look forward to teaching middle school or high school choirs and teaching private voice lessons.
My interest in music education began in Girl Scouts when I learned to lead campfire songs for a dozen troops. The sensation of people singing together and developing memories and friendships inspired me. Then, as a section leader in my high school choir and in my community college jazz choir, I cherished the moments that someone “clicked” with a new concept.
Music has healing properties for its performers and its audience. My students will gain confidence in themselves by learning that they can achieve difficult things with enough dedication, and they will learn to bring each other up to be stronger musicians and better people.
Teaching Philosophy
Videos
Backstory/Context
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Teaching the "Knitted Cap Song" was my first experience as a public school teacher. In the video, I am teaching two classrooms' worth of students.
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"We Come From the Mountains", my Orffestration of choice, is a song that sparked my interest in music education when I was in the seventh grade.
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My Ukulele pop video for "Happy" by Pharrell Williams has a swing feel. It's slower than Pharrell's original tempo, so it's friendlier to beginners.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that every child is incredible. When learning about music, each student will thrive in unique ways; in my classroom, every student will find where they thrive, and will embrace the challenges that new instruments and new songs present.
Additional Materials
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Orff Orchestration We Come From the Mountains PDF
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Orff Orchestration Lesson Plan
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In-Person Lesson Visual and Karaoke Track
"Power Statement"
Music is an excellent tool for students to understand themselves, their peers, and the world around them.
Implementing hip hop and
music technology
In my time at CSULB, I learned how valuable hip hop culture and music can be in the classroom. Through this class, I experienced how listening to hip hop music, responding to its qualities and its culture, and creating my own hip hop-inspired projects helped me develop as a musician and as a well-rounded individual. I will implement what I learned from this class in my own teaching, so students can explore as many cultures of music as possible. Both of the projects below were made primarily using Soundtrap.
"Just Like You" is an all-in-one pop, metal, and Carneval remix using original audio from
Barbie: Princess and the Pauper! It was featured in our Remix Café under "Brianna Walters and Mitchell Moffitt".
MDHHCD is a retelling of the story "The Hook" from Alvin Schwartz's "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark". I adapted the lyrics to fit the style of my original backing track.
I wrote about my process while creating "Just Like You" in these journal entries:
Here are some materials as examples of how I
can use these techniques in my curriculum.