CHRISTINA M. WELLING

MY MISSION

 

Music can be such a positive influence in a child’s life. Membership in a music ensemble promotes student bonding, friendships, skills in leadership, teamwork, personal skills, responsibility, confidence, diligence, dedication, a means for expressing emotion, and so much more; I truly believe these humanistic qualities are beneficial for every young person. Thus, I feel a desire to inspire students and guide their success through music as they learn and grow into adolescents and adults in our increasingly fast-paced, up and coming society.

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My mission as an educator is to guide students to discover and apply these practical life skills. Specifically, in reference to music education, I support students in finding their inner musicianship through organizing and implementing creative and technical lessons in the classroom while encouraging students to take risks to develop their skills. I strive for building these skills in an all-encompassing cooperative and safe environment that inspires them to learn and grow.

 

WHAT LED ME TO TEACHING?

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I have always loved working with children. As a young child, I enjoyed playing with my dolls. Even some of my first words related to teaching and children such as “baby” and “bus” because I never seemed to go anywhere without my dolls and I was always fascinated by the yellow school bus that drove by every afternoon. As a young adolescent, I enjoyed playing "school" with friends and organizing outfits for my dolls to wear to pretend school. My mother always said these organizational skills would make me a good teacher. I also did a lot of babysitting for the neighbors growing up. Another factor that led me to go into teaching is that my mother is also in the business. She has been teaching vocal music in the public school system for over thirty years! I always loved attending her students’ choir concerts. I used to think "wow, you can do this for a living?” The stage would always be set up nicely, the songs were so much fun to listen to, and the students always seemed happy to be on stage performing. As I started to think career paths in high school I knew two things, I love music and all the band and choir classes I have been involved in and I love children. It seemed a no brainer that I wanted to put those two passions together and major in music education. So, I did my research on college programs and decided on Michigan State University because of its excellent credentials! I worked hard to get into the Music Education program with diligence, practice, and dedication to further my music skills. When I was accepted into the program I worked just as hard and graduated with honors. I left MSU with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree and found myself soon after teaching middle school choir and computers in a public school system in the Metro-Detroit area.

 

WHAT ARE SOME OF MY LEARNING GOALS FOR STUDENTS IN CHOIR?

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Choir teaches so many life skills that it’s hard to answer this question so simply put. Here are just some of the goals I have for my students when they take choir for a year:

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• Learn some of the basics of how to read music and musical notation so you can apply this skill to other areas of music outside of choir

• Learn some proper singing technique (the longer you are in choir the more skilled you will become with working your voice and understanding what is happening while you sing different styles and ranges of music)

• Make new friends who share a common interest with you

• Learn to work with others who are different from you

• Develop confidence in your speaking, performing or singing ability

• Learn the value of teamwork

• Learn the meaning of perseverance, diligence and grit

• Train your musical ear becoming your own music critic, so you can have your own educated and informed opinions

• Make beautiful music together as a group

• Have an emotional connection to a piece of music and value your feelings and expressions for beauty

• Attend enrichment field trips inside and outside of the community and see the value behind having an arts education

• Forget you are “learning” and “in school” and have fun learning!