My vision for the Emereau music program is built upon these concepts:
Music Literacy
Creativity 
Independence

Just as the children are learning to read and write in other classes, so I teach them to read and write music in a variety of ways. This not only strengthens other literary and mathematical skills, but also prepares any student who may want to pursue a career in music or simply want it as a part of their everyday lives. Many college music students enter a university music program with very little sight-reading and composition skills. At Emereau, the children are not only learning to sing and play instruments, but are also being trained very early in the art of reading and writing new, original music, so that they will be ahead of the game when they graduate. Music literacy+creativity (reading and writing music effectively) yields
more musical independence.

To see my vision come to fruition at the end of a child's educational journey at Emereau would look something like this: by the time children reach high school (or even before then) at Emereau, their concerts and other displays of musicality would not only include studies and performances of advanced music written by famous composers, but of music written by the students themselves for our groups to perform. Furthermore, performances could be conducted by students. For each performance, students would conduct them, perform them, help run them backstage as needed, and even write the musical works premiered. To me, that is the greatest display of musical literacy, creativity, and independence.

Music is a performance-based activity, so I give children as many opportunities as I can to let them showcase their musical abilities to their classmates during our rehearsals and audiences in public performances. I also understand that some children simply do not have much of a desire to perform in public, and I make use of other forms of music education as well, to let them learn just as much as those who love to perform. This includes composition, music technology studies, and music history studies.

 

All of our activities are in line with and based on the NC Essential Standards for music, and incorporate the principles and objectives found in the Core Knowledge Curriculum. I am an action researcher and study my field and what other professionals see as new, better ways to teach and lead, and am always finding and applying new pedagogical techniques and ideas to be the best teacher-leader for all of my students.