Isabelle
How do I combine math and music and teaching?
I love math. Before I loved it in school, I would go work out math puzzles with my uncle Richard, compete and train with Math Counts, take the AMC tests, and calculate measurements with my dad in his workshop; now I take the hardest math classes at my school and tutor math through National Honor Society. I’ve gotten to study fractals, harmonics, and the Gamma function through those classes, and the more I study, the more I discover that math is awesome. When school was easy, math was a place I could go to get challenged, to get lost and find myself again. Once school got hard, my perseverance from math helped me push through. But I always hated that most of my peers never felt the way I did about math. They would groan whenever homework was assigned, complain for hours about tricky tests, and get so bored and lost in math class that they would fall asleep.
For the past few years, I’ve tutored both formally and informally for my peers and seen just how much a teacher can change a student’s attitude. It only takes one bad math teacher to convince someone that they’re “bad at math,” but one good teacher, like the fabulous Mrs. Olsen, can give them hope. She is still spreading her knowledge in her 33rd year of teaching and makes every student in her classes feel confident about math. I want to be like her. I want to stop pushing kids away from STEM solely because they don’t have the natural talent to succeed under a bad teacher. I want to end the default “I’m bad at math” and replace it with the confidence of a student who is ready to use their math for the rest of their life.
But, I am a musician. Music holds me together through the long nights of homework and studying, and I would not be able to keep my grades up without it. I want to do everything in my power to bring music to people in every community, so my heart is slashed open every time I see another arts budget cut, another music teacher fired, another kid told they’ll never succeed in the arts. After all, when a school is short on money, like many schools in America are, arts are the first things to go. While I love STEM and know that it will build the future, music will keep the people of that future passionate and alive.
I want to earn a certification in math education and music education and bring music to low-income schools who have cut their arts budgets to stay afloat. I may not be able to teach full-time music, but I can be a math teacher to bolster STEM comprehension in a low-income school, while I also run a few music clubs on the side. This could grow to teaching a few in-school music classes, as well as offering free music lessons for students, or reaching out in some other way to spread music through my community.
Is this feasible? What degrees should I get? What should I do? aaaaaaaaa
#math #mathematics #music #music-education #music-industry
2 answers
Judeanne Armenti
Judeanne’s Answer
Bravo, Isabelle!
It's a beautiful thing to be talented in a subject and empathetic to those who aren't so confident in the same subject. You sound like a natural teacher.
I remember a number of young women who were terrified of math in college and the professor who worked with them, through their fears and into the best math grades they'd ever had in school. It is an essential skill to free people from their fears, particularly for a skill set that is so essential in our lives.
You've got great ideas about how to live as both a math and a music teacher. First, start researching schools with strong education and math departments, and a full music program too. Since you already consider yourself a musician, I don't think you need a full music degree. A minor in music should do. A degree in education will be essential to teach in lower grade levels but speak to recruiters about a double major in education and math, or a math or STEM minor.
Have you thought of this... Why not stoke students' passion for math with their passion for music?
Basic music theory can be a great tool in teaching fractions. Why can't you teach algebra with writing a song? (If there are so many bars in a verse, so many in a chorus, and there are so many choruses in the song, how many bars should be in your bridge? or (x*verse)+((y*chorus)*z)=b for example)
Even better, you could create all kinds of songs to help kids remember various rules in math. You could make math class into a mini music class everyday. What kid wouldn't love that?
If you can find a partner in crime who knows about electricity, why not teach about the science of amplifying sound? The science of acoustics? Or how engineering works in making things like pipe organs or electric guitars.
Don't worry about supplementing your income with side jobs, every other musician does too. You can teach both kids and adults on the side. You can play gigs in hotel lounges, clubs, weddings, etc. You can busk at a mall, train station, bus stop, or anywhere people like to hang out. Busking is a great means of strengthening any musicians' skills and sometimes I worry it's a dying art.
You, Isabelle, have talents, skills, and a level of empathy that is essential to being a teacher and being a musician. I have nothing but faith in you to do everything you already dream of doing, and so much more than you expect you can do.
Judeanne recommends the following next steps:
Andy Dahl
Andy’s Answer
While I think your passion might be greater than mine for math, I'd argue we have a lot in common. I'm also a musician and have stayed close to that passion throughout my life. Math is a great baseline for a number of careers, including accounting. Have you ever thought about pursuing an accounting degree and/or perhaps even someday becoming either a full-time or adjunct professor of either math or accounting at the university level? Perhaps there are some ways to combine your love for STEM, music and teaching into a career, but you will also have a lot of opportunity to use your gifts outside of your vocation, whatever you choose. I can't help but think about how marketable your skillset would be in the life sciences industry, for example (I work for Medtronic). I followed a public accounting track after completing my undergraduate studies, which offered me a strong understanding of business as well as an opportunity to quickly move into coaching, mentoring and teaching others as they joined the industry. I have enjoyed keeping up my love for music and the arts as a hobby and to bring joy and service to others, and that brings me balance and purpose outside of business hours. Best of luck to you in your journey!