By Abigail Wroten Scribner, UM News Service
missoula – There are very few degrees that allow students to graduate with the expectation that they are 100% guaranteed a job in the field if they choose to do so. The University of Montana's music education program is one of those exceptions.
In Montana and other states, music educators are in high demand, especially in rural school districts, which sometimes struggle to fill positions.
“There are unfilled jobs in Montana every year,” says Dr. James Smart, director of the UM School of Music, who also serves as band director and teaches music classes. “We need to produce more music teachers.”
The Department of Music strives to attract students who will benefit from these open positions. This means preparing budding educators for what to expect from teaching in Montana: both the challenges and unique opportunities.
“Much of the reality of education in this state is local,” says Dr. Michael Ruibalido, music education coordinator and UM assistant professor. “Students need to interact with those teachers.”
That interaction begins early in the 100-level introductory music education class taught by Louis Vallid. This course allows students to join the working classroom early, allowing them to observe and ask questions of music teachers at work. Ruibalido said he plans to Zoom students into more music classes in more rural areas of the state.
Music education students stay in classrooms throughout their degrees, culminating in a semester of student teaching, helping undergraduates successfully transition from student to teacher after graduation, like UM alumna Haley Guilbeault. I will make it possible. At UM, Guilbeault learned to play and teach nearly every instrument found in a public school classroom. Nothing prepared her for her career more than the teaching and hands-on experience teaching students at Lolo School District and Big Her Sky High School.
“I'm very happy with my career and feel like I know what I'm doing,” said Guilbeault, a K-12 music and band teacher. lincoln Public school. “Most of that confidence came from teaching students.”
Now in her second year of teaching in Lincoln, an unincorporated area of about 1,000 people, Guilbeault said she loves making music with the more than 100 school students each day.
As a young student growing up in Western Washington, music class was also Guilbeault's favorite part of the day. anaconda, I've been playing the flute since the 4th grade. When Guilbeault chose to turn her passion into a career, she visited UM, where she met the music school's faculty and signed a contract for a place to receive that education.
“The statistics for success in this degree looked good at this school,” Guilbeault added.
After graduating, Guilbeault said it felt like the right time to stay and teach in Montana, citing her hometown roots and the music education community she connected to as a UM student.
“For me personally, it was a really good experience,” Guilbeault said of the teaching position. “I have a great administrator and supportive colleagues.”
Guilbeault teaches Guilbeau how important music education is to the social and emotional development of young students. She wants her classroom to be a place where children feel safe to be themselves while connecting with their peers and growing.
“We don't expect all of our students to become professional musicians, but we do want them to become well-rounded people who have healthy connections and are happy with themselves,” Guilbeault said. Ta. “Music is a good way to do that.”
Paige Kerwin, a music education alumnus who graduated last fall, hopes to have a similar impact. The teacher observation course helped the Kerwins hone their teaching philosophy early on before they began teaching students in the Florence-Carleton School District. This one-building school of his includes elementary through high school, allowing Kerwin to teach there for an entire semester rather than splitting his time between different elementary and high schools.
In addition to becoming an effective educator, Kerwin has been able to gain insight into contracts, paperwork, and other important matters not easily taught in UM classrooms by teaching students.
“Student teaching is an opportunity to understand what a classroom actually looks like and how it works before you try to run one yourself,” Kerwin says. “It also provides mentors to ask questions you might not have learned through college.”
Spending the entire term in school allowed the students to warm up to Carwin. They noted that music educators often teach all grades in a school and are in a unique position to form long-term relationships with students, with new teachers hired each year.
“It really allows you to make connections,” Kerwin said, reflecting on his own experience as a young student who benefited from music teacher mentorship. “When he's with the same teacher for three or four years, they know how you learn and how you grow.”
Kerwin is working as a substitute teacher while completing a job application that she hopes will lead to an opportunity in Oregon or Washington, ideally in an elementary school.
Music education student Marian Kael billings Are you wondering whether to work in your home state or leave the country to experience different parts of the country? You have time to decide. Kale is teaching students this semester and will take another year to complete her double major in performance and minor in history while applying to graduate school.
Although she has been playing the violin since the age of three and is immersed in the world of professional music, Cale almost chose a career in science, an idea that she now finds “absolutely ridiculous.” I feel that there is. However, her wariness about the horror stories of music teachers told to many future educators almost prevented her from following her passion.
Kale acknowledged that warnings about teacher pay and lack of appreciation come from the lived experiences of some music educators. However, she learned from her time at UM that music education, while challenging, is not unattainable. Kale said the warnings can be disproportionate, and that the saying “teaching is for the strong” is true in that educators need strength, but that every day in the classroom He said it was not a relentless battle.
“This is something that has always fulfilled me and obviously a lot of people have made careers out of it. It’s why I’m here, it’s why my colleagues are here, Because that’s why all of these students are here,” Kale said.
“I think some people don't want to get an education because they keep hearing these horrible things,” she added. “If your students really enjoy music and have a passion for teaching, I say, absolutely go for it. Everyone is going to have a unique experience. ”
The students he teaches five days a week at Big Sky High School and a local elementary school have reaffirmed Cale's belief in their career path. Not only is she learning, she is having fun.
“It feels like the culmination of the last three and a half years in the music education program,” Kale said. “It’s really great to just show up and do what we’ve been training to do.”
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contact: Dave Kuntz, UM Director of Strategic Communications, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu
