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Capstone Challenge

My capstone challenge was about the issue that music teachers around Montana are not always able to recieve relevant professional development. My focus for this capstone was to develop relevant music professional development for music teachers all around Montana throughout the year. I am the secretary for a music curriculum chapter called Big Sky Kodály that provides relevant professional development for music teachers. I have talked with other music teachers around the state and have found that there is a want and a need for other music professional development opportunities throughout the year that music teachers can take. Music teachers around Montana really want to continue learning for the benefit of their students and themselves, many are just not sure where to start.  

Artifact #1: This is a professional development schedule for the 2023-2024 school year in the Belgrade School District. In this schedule, it is clear there is no specific training for specailist teachers within the district. This seems to be the norm in many schools around Montana. 

Diverse Stakeholders

The stakeholders for this project are other music teachers around Montana who attended the Montana Music Educators Association Conference and BSK's first Winter Workshop. When talking with the stakeholders about professional development for music teachers a few topics came up.

• The type of professional development workshops that were wanted from Montana music educators are: curriculum development, year long planning, and Kodály based teachings. 

• The teachers are willing to learn, just not sure where or how to start. 

• There is not enough relevant professional development  or training for music teachers. Teachers feel unprepared and like they are winging it. Teachers are lacking a foundation, resources, and curriculum in their districts to provide students with the best music education they can.

Artifact #3 is from a meeting with some of the diverse stakeholders about possible professional development music teachers from around Montana are interested in learning more about. 

Why is this Important?

All teachers should be able to have professional development that is relevant to their subject area. This creates more informed teachers and, in turn, benefits students in the long run. Rather than being ill prepared and uninformed, with relevant professional development being provided, teachers can have the resources and tools to help them build a foundation for their classroom to be very successful in music education. 

How will this support or promote the foundational competencies?

Addressing the capstone challenge has explored and challenged inequity by providing relevant professional development to music teachers, which in most districts is not being done. In transforming for explore and challenge inequity it says, "model, propose, design, and/or implement equitable policies and practices to promote diversity and inclusion", which is the whole goal with trying to create professional development for ALL music teachers. 

Is it your intention to broaden the existing vision, values and/or culture of the association or to create a cultural shift?  

My intention was to create a bit of a cultural shift so that relevant professional development will be avaliable to all teachers, no matter what their subject area is. It would be wonderful if districts could provide this to each teacher, no matter what subject area, but I am not sure that is a reality. The goal was to bring relevant professional development to all music teachers in Montana, then perhaps other states. My hope is that other subject areas that might not get relevant professional development will follow in the footsteps of this project, creating relevant professional development for all teachers, no matter the subject. Hopefully in the future, relevant professional development for every subject area is more welcomed and expected instead of specialist teachers being brushed to the side or forgotten about. 

Why might this strategy be a viable solution for your Capstone Challenge?

My work with Big Sky Kodály is a direct solution for my Capstone Challenge. By working with Big Sky Kodály I was able to help create, plan, and execute professional development opportunities all throughout the year for music teachers around Montana. In doing so, it has started the shift to have relevant professional development avalible for music teachers, and hopefully other subject areas in the future. 

On which two Overarching Competencies will you focus in addressing your Capstone Challenge?  Why are they relevant? 

The two Overarching Competencies I focused on for my Capstone Challenge are Communication and Continuing Learning and Education. Creating professional development for music teachers around Montana created the opportunity for teachers to continue to learn and continue their education in a relevant way to their subject area. Figuring out what type of professional development and what topics teachers wanted to see created many opportunities for communication. Communication was also used in many different ways to get the word out there about the professional development that my team and I offered. 

If your foundational competency is not Explore and Challenge Inequity, please explain?  Why is it important? 

My foundational competency was Explore and Challenge Inequity because I think each teacher, no matter the subject area, deserves relevant professional development. I hope to start that trend for all teachers by providing professional development to music teachers. 

Which Leadership Pathway competency will you focus on in your Capstone Challenge?  Why is it relevant? 

The Leadership Pathway I chose for my Capstone Challenge is Instruction Leadership/Coaching and Mentoring becuase my project was all about providing professional development instruction for music teachers around Montana and helping them further their educational journey. It was about giving music teachers resources they would have not otherwise recieved and providing a cohort of music teachers that in the future could be mentors that other music teachers can reach out to.  

With whom will you work in addressing your Capstone Challenge?  Who else might you recruit beyond your own cultural and/or professional identity group?

When starting to plan and executing professional development, I rely heavly on the Big Sky Kodály board because we end up picking presenters, and figuring out how to provide workshops as a team. It would be great in the long run to recruit other teachers who are interested in becoming members of Big Sky Kodály and can bring new professional development ideas to the table. It would also be great to connect with other Kodály chapters around the country to see how they develop and execute different types of professional development. 

Which resources (such as, people, money, programs, time and space, etc.) do you have to address in your Capstone Challenge?   What resources will you need?  How will you obtain them? 

There are many steps that need to be addressed in my Capstone Challenge. When creating professional development workshops many things need to be figured out:

• Location of the professional development

• How many workshops are we doing during the year?

• Times and dates of professional development

• How many credits are offered and getting those credits through OPI

• Promoting/spreading the word of the workshops to music teachers around Montana

• Figuring out costs for students, Kodály members, and non-members

• Will the professional development be online only, in person, or both, and how do we execute that?

• Will lunch/snacks be provided? Will there be a charge for lunch?

• How can we compensate our presenters?

• Plane tickets, hotels, transportation for presenters

• Continue to learn what Montana music teachers want to see in professional development

• Figure out how to get more people to attend professional development workshops

• How can we provide workshops for those who might not be 100% sold on the idea of the music curriculum Kodály?

• What can we do as a team to reach as many music educators as we can?

• What is relevant to the music teachers, what do they want to learn?

• How can we make our professional development "worth it" for music teachers to attend and hopefully come back in the future?

Artifacts #4 and #5 are Empathy Interviews with one veteran teacher and one brand new teacher. I wanted to learn more about what actual music teachers in Montana look for in professional development. In the interview we discuss why teachers might hesitate about attending a professional development, what makes professional development meaningful, and what are things they enjoyed about previous professional development workshops in the past. From these interviews, I had many take aways that I took back to Big Sky Kodály and collaborated to develop our professional development workshops and try to make them meaningful.