Dr. Harold Odegard

Dr. Harold Odegard I’m an elementary music teacher. I hope to connect with other music educators and music education researchers and share my experiences.

04/30/2025

Adolescent peer music learning interactions hold the key their teachers might employ to better help them learn music (without the teacher) in school.

08/30/2024

Lavender (2000) suggests, "Consider that some music programs offer lessons daily or two-three days per week, while other programs offer lessons only once weekly or twice monthly."

My program is biweekly or twice a month, however you want to think about it. In all my years teaching, this is the least amount of (accountable) times I have experienced in teaching general/vocal music. I see some kids on 'off weeks', but they are not to be graded (I was instructed).

What is your music class schedule?

08/30/2024

Lavender (2000) states, "As general music teachers well know, evidence of musical learning is mostly seen and heard at a concert."

This was my experience as a student and what I expected to have to show (use to demonstrate) that students had learned music in my class.

However, Lavender continues: "But a concert is one kind of musical learning product. Of greater significance is the ongoing singing, listening, reading, writing, playing, moving, composing, and describing music that occur daily or weekly in the general music classroom."

These other "products" are what I'm exploring how to evidence as occurring in my classroom.

If you are collecting data in your music class, please, comment "I do" in the comments.

08/30/2024

In "The Ultimate Music Assessment and Evaluation Kit for the General Music Teacher" (2000), by Cheryl Lavender, the author summarizes through vignette a scenario come grading time:

"Uh-oh...report card time! With hundreds of music students and not enough time to really know them, doing report card grades is definitely a pain. Let's see...Michael listens well, sits up straight, is cooperative--music grad: B. LaQuita sings beautifully, takes private violin lessons, and her father is principal clarinetist in the symphony--if that's not an A, nothing is! Then there's Billy. He has dirty clothes, is frequently absent, can't sit still--music grade: C."

Does this ring a bell with any of you elementary school music teachers?

08/29/2024

trailrnr7 wrote on Reddit, “I tell my students what…they should know by the end of the nine weeks/year…when I’m taking assessments. I teach them…4-5 summative assessments a nine weeks on each student…many more formative assessments.”

Where have I been that I don’t even know how this is all accomplished once a week in 45 minutes, let alone once every two weeks for the same number of minutes?

Which side of the fence do you fall?

08/28/2024

Assessment as accountability.

This is probably going to be a topic that comes back from time to time.

Fautley (2010) describes how music teachers, in general, might be thinking about their position. Fautley credits Salaman (1983) referring to Kapellmeister aspects of music teacher’s work: organizing, scheduling, rehearsing, arranging music, etc. Also mentioning David Bray (2000), Fautley emphasized that the job is not solely about what the teacher does but how the students are educated.

Do lesson plans suffice for accountability?

How much of a sense of growth can parents/administrators expect from students when they only go to music class once a week for 30-45 minutes? (In some cases, less days and times.)

If an elementary music teacher needed to provide evidence of rigorous teaching and progressive learning by students in order to secure a raise ($$$,$$$.$$), what would accountability look like?

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