Teaching is ALL about finding a community of people that can help guide and shape you and what you do with students everyday. This is a collection of 5 educational influencers (and former educators) who have excellent content and really have helped shape me as a teacher (and writer!)
Ready? Let’s dive in!
Educational Influencer #5. Joy Morin, Color In My Piano (Music Blog)
I first learned about Joy’s blog when I was stressed out one night trying to get my piano curriculum semi-established for my brand new 8th grade piano class. I am NOT the world’s best piano player, but I have played for a long time and I LOVE it! Color In My Piano is a wealth of resources geared towards any type of piano teacher (public school or private studio) and the amount of premade, FREE worksheets, notation files, and other content is incredible (and SO generous)!
Joy also has an incredible library of paid content on her website for her more intricate and full-scale resources. As a personal testament, I know I wouldn’t have survived my first venture into teaching piano if it wasn’t for Joy’s Color In My Piano blog.
You can learn more about Joy & Color In My Piano here: https://colorinmypiano.com/
Educational Influencer #4: Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy (General Education Blog)
When I consider what makes teaching HARD, so much of it isn’t the content, but the “other stuff” that really is the cause of burnout. Cult of Pedagogy speaks to my teacher soul. Jennifer is a WEALTH of excellent information and has advice about everything from learning theories, classroom management, instructional techniques and self-care.
Jennifer’s podcast, the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast, was one of my very choosy picks for what to listen to in the car on my way to work in the morning. It’s fantastic! She has a way of taking things that are yucky and uncomfortable to talk about and turning them into something insightful and uplifting. I don’t know how she does it, but it sure feels like teacher magic to me.
You can learn more about Jennifer & Cult of Pedagogy here: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/
Educational Influencer #3: Dale Duncan, Music In the Middle with Mr. D (Music Blog)
When I started teaching choir 8 years ago, it dawned on me after about the first or second day that I literally didn’t know ANYTHING about actually teaching choir. Sure, I went to college and student taught and had come up with a beautifully-themed classroom, but when it came to the fundamentals of how to teach sight-reading and process to my little 10-14 year old singers, I was completely lost.
Dale is the creator of a very successful sight-reading curriculum called “S-Cubed” which gives us a peek into his wildly successful middle school choral classroom and guides choir teachers into how to sequentially teach lessons because we actually get to see him do it. That’s the real magic behind S-Cubed: not just being given lessons in an order that make sense to students, but support for teachers along the way. Dale also updates his blog with useful tips geared specifically towards middle school choir teachers and the unique challenges that come with teaching “in the middle”.
You can learn more about Dale & In the Middle with Mr. D here: http://inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com/
Educational Influencer #2: Katie Wardrobe, Midnight Music (Music Blog)
I was going into my 5th year of teaching and had just transferred from massive Denver-area district to another district in Northern Colorado that had a big claim to fame, “1:1 Technology.” Every single student in the district had a provided iPad and I was stumped as to how I, as a music teacher, was going to incorporate music into the technology and make it real and meaningful.
I came across Katie’s Midnight Music blog in my online meanderings and subscribed to it immediately. I learned so much over those first few weeks of reading her free blog posts that I became a member of her paid platform, Midnight Music Community. In there, is a complete wealth of information including entire Garageband courses you can teach students on iPad, handouts for all sorts of music technology lessons, Webinars, podcasts, and my personal favorite, the “Making Beautiful Resources on Canva” course.
I also loved Katie’s blog so much that I actually joined her staff part-time recently to help promote her content and assist with ALL that goes into her incredible empire of music technology education. She is a truly gifted teacher who never talks down to you, but gently guides even the less-than-technologically-inclined among us, towards achieving music technology greatness.
You can learn more about Katie & Midnight Music here: https://midnightmusic.com.au/
Educational Influencer #1: Kelly Treleaven, ‘Love, Teach’ (General Education Blog)
Kelly Treleaven and her blog, ‘Love, Teach’ are basically my teaching spirit animal. I don’t think there are enough words to describe how important it is for educators to be able to come to a place where they can shed a couple tears and have a good ol’ belly laugh after a tough day in front of the classroom. If you need to feel inspired and also feel like you don’t need to take life so seriously sometimes, Kelly is your girl. Part inspiration, part comedian, and all love.
Kelly, for a long time, was an anonymous writer whose blog and accompanying Facebook page became massively popular before anyone knew who she was. When she released her first book earlier this year (along with her true identity and her wedding announcement) ‘Love, Teach’ became even more successful. Kelly is very active in her Facebook community and helps teachers find the joy of teaching and the humor in it at the same time.
You can learn more about Kelly and ‘Love, Teach’ here: https://www.facebook.com/loveteachblog/
Final Thoughts
As you can see from these great educational influencers/rockstars, there truly is a blog for every style of teacher. There are blogs for ALL teachers that focus on both the heavy and light side of teaching, there are blogs for music teachers that delve into the technology and theory sides, and there are even niche music education bloggers that help change education inside of specific classrooms, like choir rooms.
I like to see myself as a combination of all of these people (and many more I didn’t have the space to name) who have each influenced me as a teacher, my students, and the community within my classroom. Though there’s alot of negativity out there, there really has never been such a great time to be in education as it is right now.
Do you follow any of this great educators? How have they impacted you as a teacher? Leave a comment below!
