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Describe your positionality AND how it influences your teaching.

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Describe your positionality AND how it influences your teaching.

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I was trained as a classical pianist to play every single note exactly the way it was written. 

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I was trained as a classical pianist to play every single note exactly the way it was written. 

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Consequently, in college I freaked out when I was asked to improvise in the slightest way. Over years I've learned it is so much fun to just go along for the ride and make things up. So now I make SURE to improvise a little bit in every lesson with my students.

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My personality is fun, crazy, and funny. Therefore, I always want my students to not take themselves too seriously and just have fun in music! I want them to enjoy and love music just as much as I do.- Wendy Liao

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My positionality as a jazz trained musician coming from Puerto Rico, leads me to expose my students to Caribbean music and to making music "in the moment".

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My positionality as a jazz trained musician coming from Puerto Rico, leads me to expose my students to Caribbean music and to making music "in the moment".

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As a father of a child who had ALL and the other CP

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As a father of a child who had ALL and the other CP

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I tend to give a little more of myself to students, and the parents of, with special needs and illnesses

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My positionality is a teacher who loves to improvise and teach students while having FUN! 

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My positionality is a teacher who loves to improvise and teach students while having FUN! 

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I was a victim of bullying in Middle School. I am very sensitive to this taking place in my classroom. I try to provide opportunities for my students to express themselves through original music compositions, with and without lyrics and provide a safe space for them to optionally share. I also write music addressing my experiences and share with my students. Many of them can unfortunately relate.

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I was born and got the most of my music education experience in another country, so when I started teaching in USA I learned the American music along as I teach my students. Even simple baby songs were new to me.  

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I was born and got the most of my music education experience in another country, so when I started teaching in USA I learned the American music along as I teach my students. Even simple baby songs were new to me.  

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My positionality is growing up listening to a lot of Asian music but getting trained western classical music in college, then took Jazz lessons afterwards. It influences my teaching to offer diverse music styles in the repertoire in my classroom.

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I was born in 1973, and every year that passes is another year that my casual cultural references become more irrelevant to the students (even cultural references that were relevant when i started teaching K-5 eleven years ago), which makes me feel old. On the other hand, this gives me an opportunity to teach about those references and incorporate more explicitly into my curriculum.

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My own experiences feeling embarrassed or ashamed at times during school when I made mistakes or was incorrect led me to shut down and not want to even try. I make sure to welcome and celebrate making mistakes so that students who are as sensitive as I was don't feel discouraged.

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My positionality as a male has influenced my teaching in the artists I have been/are mainly interested in listening to personally. I noticed most of the artists I listen to are also male, and that has limited my ability to expand the artists my students listen to. I have, since that realization, continued to make sure that the artists my students are exposed to represent all gender identities to connect and reflect the students I service. -Adam Mastrocola

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Because I am a person who almost always likes to understand how and why things work in the way that they do, I naturally want to explain a lot to my students. Therefore, I have to sometimes remind myself that at times, just experimenting first and mainly doing that is okay and still, at times even more effective with students.