<p>Having a music department that gets great results academically and in performance is built upon the culture that is established amongst the students and staff.  It is something I constantly struggle with, trying to get it right for all our (25!) music groups. The title of this blog post is a bit misleading because there [&hellip;]</p>

<p>For me, the greatest issue in NZ High School Music Education is how do we get more schools teaching Music Technology &#8211; i.e. using MIDI and audio (microphones, DAW&#8217;s, interfaces, etc) to produce music.  While I&#8217;m a huge believer in teaching reading music and notation (in my professional career most of the work I got was because [&hellip;]</p>

<p>One thing I get asked a lot on courses I run is about how I structure my NCEA music classes.  If a typical NCEA subject consists of 22-24 credits some teachers are a little incredulous when they hear I offer 53 credits at level 2 and 64 credits at level 3. The first thing I point [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I&#8217;m delighted to let you know I&#8217;ve just been selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator. “The Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Program began in 1994, when Apple recognized K-12 and higher education pioneers who are using a variety of Apple products to transform teaching and learning in powerful ways. Today it has grown into a worldwide [&hellip;]</p>

<p>At the moment there are many people involved with the #28daysofwriting and I&#8217;m full of admiration for them! I&#8217;m struggling to keep up with one blog post per week. To be fair in my defence in the last week I have just setup a full music block and recording studio after the completion of our [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post saying why I think Presonus Studio One Free is the best DAW (recording software) for high school teachers and students to use. Well&#8230; such is the ever-changing nature of technology that I&#8217;m having to possibly change my mind. In the last few hours at NAMM Avid [&hellip;]</p>

<p>This year my year 13 music class is going to focus less on assessment and more on developing the craft to produce great art. The focus for my students will be on choosing a project that will be the focus of their year’s work… Project Based Learning. They will come up with a project that [&hellip;]</p>