Paul Gallinal was born and raised in South Florida and has lived there all of his life. He is currently a fourth year Music Education Major and will be doing his internship in the Fall of 2023. His plans after graduation include teaching band in the South Florida Public School System
Where to see me live
A music educator’s job isn’t to make sure they get straight ones at district MPA. A music educator's job isn’t to make sure every one of their students goes to music school. A music educator's job isn’t to make sure that every single one of their students makes All State. No, A music educator's job is to make lifelong musicians.
When music educators get in front of a class or ensemble, their job is to try to get students to connect to music on a different level than the average person. Teachers should be striving every day to reinforce students with a deep love of music and most importantly to have fun playing and performing music. There are too many teachers in our field of music education that are so selfish. They want to take their bands to state MPA so they could show off how good of an educator they are by having their students play grade 5 and 6 level music. This is all narcissism and ego. Teachers that do this are only in it for how their students' performance reflects on how well they teach. Those teachers' students probably have started to hate band and when they leave highschool will probably never pick up their instruments again. Is that what we want as educators? To show off our band so we get compliments on their behalf. This is the case for countless directors and programs, this is not an anomaly.
When you see a teacher who’s made it their sole job to try and excite their students and help them find a way to love music even half as much as you do, they’ve done their jobs. The students that are being taught in those environments may not want to be music majors in college, but they will find a way to try and experience some type of music making for their own pleasure. Now, not every single class or every single day is going to be filled with sunshine and rainbows. There are going to be hard days for teachers and students alike where there has to be hard work and disappointment. But if an educator tries everyday to get students to fall in love with music in some form or fashion, they will find that students will want to keep music in their lives in some way or another.