Creating Music in the Classroom

In this article, Shand describes a variety of composer-in-the-classroom programs, including Creating Music in the Classroom and the Composer in Electronic Residence Program. Each program is individual – tailored to suit the needs of the classroom, the students, and teacher. Shand includes comments from composers involved in these projects, describing student engagement and learning in musicianship, problem-solving, musical expression and much more. Such programs are not the norm in Canadian music education. Shand sees opportunities to change teacher education in order to change classroom practices which tend to focus on performance standards as teaching goal and quality assessment. She suggests that teachers who are more comfortable themselves with composition, sound exploration, improvisation, and music technology (e.g., MIDI) will be able to bring to their classrooms a wider understanding of how to foster creativity and musicianship in their students, and will have a much more flexible and nuanced set of teaching tools at the ready