Starting a blog/podcast/youtube channel
So I've had this idea for a while now, but I want to basically make a "music education" channel on YouTube to be informative for other people, and also for myself.
The basic idea is to talk about teaching music in a rural K-12 setting. I want to go over my experiences and what I've learned from them. I am doing this so that I can organize my own thoughts, maybe just to be a better teacher, but also maybe to eventually write a book someday or get my doctorate or just help someone else who is pursuing a similar path.
Okay.
So I am brainstorming some ideas here: I think that I want to do a podcast/blog combination first and then eventually start making youtube videos.
I don't really want to start with youtube videos because I feel like those need to be the best versions. What I mean is that I want to have "episodes" that people can watch, almost like an overview to teaching K-12 Music. Episode 1 would be like the first "class" on a topic, and episode 2 would be the second class, with a certain number of classes from beginning to end.
On the other hand, I could just have an unlimited number of episodes and just keep going until I run out of topics. Basically there are two ways to go about doing this: start with a basic idea and just figure it out as I go along, or figure it all out ahead of time and then plan on making a certain number of videos.
But what's the point of all this? Isn't the idea to have an outlet for thoughts about music education? Aren't I trying to articulate my methods of teaching music? That's basically the point. To talk about teaching music in a rural K-12 setting. To describe the challenges of only having 28 students enrolled in school, or having to plan and teach kids and classes of all ages and types. To talk about what works and what doesn't work, what I've been through and what I'm going through now.
Really quick, I know that once I start talking about a topic, I will have more ideas later, or admit that I need to do more research.
But what's the point of talking about all of it? Who am I trying to help? What am I trying to accomplish? Myself, first. By talking about this, I am improving myself as a teacher. I am talking about the problems that I have or have had, and I am talking through the solutions. I am reflecting on my experiences and what I've learned from them, which makes me a better teacher. And I want to be a good teacher. I want to be the best music teacher. I want to be really, really good at my job. Because that's a huge part of my identity, and I want to be the best that I can be.
So what's the point of all this? Becoming a better teacher. Why does it help me become better? Because I am describing how to be a good music teacher. Because I am thinking and organizing my thoughts to make them more easily accessible.
So part of me wants everything to be perfect. I mean I want every word to be the right word, and I want every thought to be an accurate and well-thought out thought. The other part of me says that is too much work, and I won't follow through with this if I'm spending hours every day researching and recording and so on. So what do I do? Maybe spend 50% of the time planning out what I'm going to say and then 50% talking. So 10 minutes writing an outline and 10 minutes recording audio. Do I stop and edit if I make a mistake? Maybe. If I stop to edit, it will sound better but it will take longer to finish. I'll stop and edit rather than leaving in errors and mistakes. I think that I will get better as I keep recording.
The other point of this is to help other people. I want to help recent music ed graduates. I think my channel would be most helpful for music teachers who have just graduated, are about to graduate, are applying for jobs, have accepted a job but haven't started yet, or have already started teaching. I think it would be helpful for teachers in their first year especially, but also second year and third year teachers.
What? How is it going to help other people? I guess it isn't going to help them unless they watch it. And they aren't going to watch it unless I advertise it. Who is going to look for my channel? I would have to promote it and tell people to look at it, which doesn't feel right to me. If I want to help someone, I should be talking to them, not telling them to watch my videos. Who would watch them?
One of my goals in life is to help other teachers, like I started doing this year. But I think that is something separate from this podcast project. I think the podcast project is more like a journal. So what's the best format for a journal? Paper is nice, but it takes a lot longer to write. Electronic is good, but the files are so hard to keep track of in the long run. Maybe I could just keep an electric journal and do a better job of keeping track of the files. The other nice thing about those is that I can include visuals.
An audio journal (podcast) is a new idea to me. I guess I like the idea of podcasting because it's like talking through a problem versus writing an essay. A video journal (YouTube) is also new. I like the idea because you can talk and show visuals. I can write on a white-board, for example, and talk about what I'm writing as I'm doing it. I would be able to upload visuals by drawing them on paper and scanning them and posting them with the audio if I did podcasts. I feel like, if I'm teaching people, that the video is more effective. But I already said that I'm probably not going to get this stuff out to other people. Who is going to bother to read it? Or listen to it? Or watch it?
So here's a thought: what if I make a couple of videos, just to try it out. Make a couple of podcasts, just to try that, and then decide.
Another thing was making the podcasts and blog posts for myself first, and then going back to change them into videos at a later date. Make the podcasts and blog posts for myself (basically) and then design the videos for other people to watch.
Okay, I need to wrap this thing up.
Starting a blog/podcast/youtube channel.
What? talking about teaching music in a rural K-12 setting
Why? become a better teacher - organized thoughts
When? I'm ready to start asap.
How? I guess stick to the original plan and just go for it.
So to summarize:
I am going to start blogging, vlogging, and podcasting my thoughts about teaching K-12 music in a rural setting. This project is mainly for myself and to organize my thoughts about teaching. Eventually, I may share these thoughts with other teachers or even use them to help get a doctorate or publish a book. My plan is to divide this project into four different parts: elementary, choir, band, and other. I will create podcasts on individual topics that are about 5-10 minutes in length. I will spend 10-15 minutes writing an outline, 10 minutes recording, and 5 minutes editing out mistakes. For now, I will keep the files on this laptop computer and also on a flash drive so that I can work from other computers as well, and I will organize the files by topic and name them by subject.
The basic idea is to talk about teaching music in a rural K-12 setting. I want to go over my experiences and what I've learned from them. I am doing this so that I can organize my own thoughts, maybe just to be a better teacher, but also maybe to eventually write a book someday or get my doctorate or just help someone else who is pursuing a similar path.
Okay.
So I am brainstorming some ideas here: I think that I want to do a podcast/blog combination first and then eventually start making youtube videos.
I don't really want to start with youtube videos because I feel like those need to be the best versions. What I mean is that I want to have "episodes" that people can watch, almost like an overview to teaching K-12 Music. Episode 1 would be like the first "class" on a topic, and episode 2 would be the second class, with a certain number of classes from beginning to end.
On the other hand, I could just have an unlimited number of episodes and just keep going until I run out of topics. Basically there are two ways to go about doing this: start with a basic idea and just figure it out as I go along, or figure it all out ahead of time and then plan on making a certain number of videos.
But what's the point of all this? Isn't the idea to have an outlet for thoughts about music education? Aren't I trying to articulate my methods of teaching music? That's basically the point. To talk about teaching music in a rural K-12 setting. To describe the challenges of only having 28 students enrolled in school, or having to plan and teach kids and classes of all ages and types. To talk about what works and what doesn't work, what I've been through and what I'm going through now.
Really quick, I know that once I start talking about a topic, I will have more ideas later, or admit that I need to do more research.
But what's the point of talking about all of it? Who am I trying to help? What am I trying to accomplish? Myself, first. By talking about this, I am improving myself as a teacher. I am talking about the problems that I have or have had, and I am talking through the solutions. I am reflecting on my experiences and what I've learned from them, which makes me a better teacher. And I want to be a good teacher. I want to be the best music teacher. I want to be really, really good at my job. Because that's a huge part of my identity, and I want to be the best that I can be.
So what's the point of all this? Becoming a better teacher. Why does it help me become better? Because I am describing how to be a good music teacher. Because I am thinking and organizing my thoughts to make them more easily accessible.
So part of me wants everything to be perfect. I mean I want every word to be the right word, and I want every thought to be an accurate and well-thought out thought. The other part of me says that is too much work, and I won't follow through with this if I'm spending hours every day researching and recording and so on. So what do I do? Maybe spend 50% of the time planning out what I'm going to say and then 50% talking. So 10 minutes writing an outline and 10 minutes recording audio. Do I stop and edit if I make a mistake? Maybe. If I stop to edit, it will sound better but it will take longer to finish. I'll stop and edit rather than leaving in errors and mistakes. I think that I will get better as I keep recording.
The other point of this is to help other people. I want to help recent music ed graduates. I think my channel would be most helpful for music teachers who have just graduated, are about to graduate, are applying for jobs, have accepted a job but haven't started yet, or have already started teaching. I think it would be helpful for teachers in their first year especially, but also second year and third year teachers.
What? How is it going to help other people? I guess it isn't going to help them unless they watch it. And they aren't going to watch it unless I advertise it. Who is going to look for my channel? I would have to promote it and tell people to look at it, which doesn't feel right to me. If I want to help someone, I should be talking to them, not telling them to watch my videos. Who would watch them?
One of my goals in life is to help other teachers, like I started doing this year. But I think that is something separate from this podcast project. I think the podcast project is more like a journal. So what's the best format for a journal? Paper is nice, but it takes a lot longer to write. Electronic is good, but the files are so hard to keep track of in the long run. Maybe I could just keep an electric journal and do a better job of keeping track of the files. The other nice thing about those is that I can include visuals.
An audio journal (podcast) is a new idea to me. I guess I like the idea of podcasting because it's like talking through a problem versus writing an essay. A video journal (YouTube) is also new. I like the idea because you can talk and show visuals. I can write on a white-board, for example, and talk about what I'm writing as I'm doing it. I would be able to upload visuals by drawing them on paper and scanning them and posting them with the audio if I did podcasts. I feel like, if I'm teaching people, that the video is more effective. But I already said that I'm probably not going to get this stuff out to other people. Who is going to bother to read it? Or listen to it? Or watch it?
So here's a thought: what if I make a couple of videos, just to try it out. Make a couple of podcasts, just to try that, and then decide.
Another thing was making the podcasts and blog posts for myself first, and then going back to change them into videos at a later date. Make the podcasts and blog posts for myself (basically) and then design the videos for other people to watch.
Okay, I need to wrap this thing up.
Starting a blog/podcast/youtube channel.
What? talking about teaching music in a rural K-12 setting
Why? become a better teacher - organized thoughts
When? I'm ready to start asap.
How? I guess stick to the original plan and just go for it.
So to summarize:
I am going to start blogging, vlogging, and podcasting my thoughts about teaching K-12 music in a rural setting. This project is mainly for myself and to organize my thoughts about teaching. Eventually, I may share these thoughts with other teachers or even use them to help get a doctorate or publish a book. My plan is to divide this project into four different parts: elementary, choir, band, and other. I will create podcasts on individual topics that are about 5-10 minutes in length. I will spend 10-15 minutes writing an outline, 10 minutes recording, and 5 minutes editing out mistakes. For now, I will keep the files on this laptop computer and also on a flash drive so that I can work from other computers as well, and I will organize the files by topic and name them by subject.
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