I’ve written about transition before and I’m often wondering about how the lines of communication between primary and secondary music teachers can be improved. The more that I speak to teachers about this topic, the more I get the sense that it’s an area where no one is really happy with the status quo. Many teachers want to improve the situation but, unsurprisingly, the main obstacle is time. Getting out of your own school is difficult at the best of times but doing so in order to do something that can’t be easily measured or quantified is increasingly difficult. Unfortunately, transition falls into this category – we know it’s important but how do you demonstrate its success?
A nice little solution presented itself to me yesterday when this tweet appeared in my timeline:
My letter to yr 7 music teachers
http://t.co/od1EfS4fQj
@JaneWerry
@myhanhdoan
@GarySpruce1
@johnskelleher
@Johnfinney8
@AllyDaubney
— jackie schneider (@jackieschneider) May 26, 2015
Jackie is a prolific tweeter and a vocal supporter of good transition work. She’s quite happy to have visitors come into her lessons and is always looking for ways to forge links with schools both near and far from her.
The solution that she’s offering here is so simple. Rather than hoping for the occasional visit, could transition be achieved through something as simple as a blog? The blog would have its own value within the school, probably not requiring much, if any, additional work. Could transition be improved by taking the RSS feed from all local schools and having it feed into one central blog? Perhaps looking a bit like a localised version of the Echo Chamber but focused purely on music?
As with all approaches to transition, it’s not perfect but it would certainly make a difference. Is there a music education hub willing to support their local schools in getting this going?