Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm Abraham Deshotel, a father, teacher, volunteer firefighter, runner, musician, gamer, and recently co-pastor. I'm 28 years old, have 3 children, and have been married for 11 years. I'm in my fifth year teaching music at a small middle school in the south end of Bridgeport. Although I graduated from the Univerity of Bridgeport in 2010, I'm in my first year of completing my Music Education degree at the same school.

For one of my classes, our first assignment was to read Peter Boonshaft's Teaching Music with Purpose. It's an amazing book that I'd recommend all music teachers read. It's a book with so many important bits of information about how to be an effective teacher. It doesn't exactly follow a plot. Instead every chapter is filled with anecdotes concerning every situation imaginable in the life of a music teacher. As a percussionist, I was especially impressed by the chapter dedicated to percussionists.

In a nutshell, it's a snapshot of the values that are most important to being a teacher that every child deserves. It's about shifting your perspective and trying to become the type of teacher that can leave a lasting, positive impression on students. Every chapter resonated with me. 

As a teacher, I believe that every child should receive a good music education. Every other subject is important, but to me music is simply the best. I believe that music should be fun and emotional, not intellectual and repetitive. As a human, I believe that we are all part of one family and deserve the same treatment. Music is too often left on the side or only pursued for the sake of something else. I think that music is meant to be played, enjoyed, and experienced purely for the sake of music. It's what makes us human.

For teaching, at my core, I believe that music should be fun and should include everyone. While I believe that performance is an important part of the development of a child, more than that I think that music should be performed for oneself. My favorite chapter in Boonshaft's book was concerning this. Sure, rehearsal might be the time that musicians traditionally slack off. But how much better is it to perform to the best of your abilities just for yourself with no pressure from the eyes of an audience but your peers!