On Tour: Two Montgomery County Music Teachers Take Their Professional Development on the Road
November 13, 2024
November 13, 2024
By Annie Chilcote
When we told people we were heading to Croatia this summer, people were consistently dumbfounded when we explained that, no, we weren’t headed to Dubrovnik or Split, the popular Instagrammable cities along the coast. We wouldn’t get to the sea at all, actually. We were headed to the countryside, about 45 minutes outside of the capital of Zagreb, to take a course for music teachers.
Yes, we were doing professional development on our summer vacation.
We, Annie and Glen, are both elementary music educators with our roots planted in Orff Schulwerk (an approach to teaching and learning music). We realize it’s not unique to be married to another educator, but we find it special that we literally do the exact same thing. We have been together since our freshman year in college, so our training is also identical. When it comes to our students, however, Glen teaches a large international population in Blacksburg, about 2 miles from Virginia Tech’s campus. Annie’s population in rural Montgomery County is very different. We decided a few years ago to branch out of the United States and find some truly international professional development to better serve our music students.
Professional development for music teachers is often self-directed, and many school divisions do not consistently provide PD opportunities for their music teachers (but bravo if yours does!). Music educators often have to go out of their way to find things that they can a) afford, b) get conference leave to attend, c) get proper credit for recertification, and d) directly use to benefit their classroom and students.
We were lucky to stumble upon the International Music Village, which checked all those boxes for us. IMV has been hosted by JaSeSoi, the Finnish Orff Schulwerk Association, since 2000; it is a “pedagogical intensive training course for professionals using music in their work.” We have now attended four times, and each experience has been enriching in a different way. It’s not just music teachers who attend this course; we have met preschool teachers, reading specialists, classroom aides, Fulbright recipients, church musicians, therapists, performers, etc. This mix of professionals highlights how important music should be in all facets of education, not just in the music room.
Fast forward to this summer. In a small village of Vinkovec, Croatia (population in the 60s), professionals from 15 countries gathered at an educational compound, created by a labor of love of a professor of music therapy and her husband, where groups can come live and work together for a short time while immersed in nature and in their work together—in this case, music. Our teachers this year were from Turkey and Croatia, with shorter sessions taught by Catalonian, Finnish, and Australian participants.
At meals and break times, we had many meaningful conversations with fellow educators. We share the same problems and the same joys, no matter our geographic location or the language we speak. Many of our struggles—respect for our content area, the harmful effects of social media, administrators who lack knowledge in music pedagogy, low or non-existent funding, the overwhelming push to standardize education with a focus not on students but on data, and even low teacher pay!—are universal. It didn’t matter if you taught in Australia or Iran, Latvia or the USA—the struggles are very real and cross-cultural.
The good news is that through these dialogues, we were able to see how other teachers take on these challenges with creativity, innovation, and grace. One key takeaway was learning that educators who experienced the most success in building successful music programs did so not alone, but within their communities. Teachers capitalized on the musical cultures that already existed, ranging from popular music to more traditional styles, and created real-life and meaningful musical experiences for their students and schools.
It was no surprise that educators who came from countries with a strong history of labor unions had the most success. Take Finland for example: Teachers who work there reported better working conditions, more satisfaction with their jobs, and a culture that supports education. The relationship between unions and schools there is seen as a partnership where everyone is focused on creating environments that focus on improving working and learning conditions.
Traveling abroad to better ourselves not only personally but professionally has been priceless; we highly recommend taking the plunge (or in this case, the flight). PD during the summer is a joy when you can experience new foods, drinks, and the small idiosyncrasies of daily life in another culture. But for us, the biggest takeaway is the relationships we have made along the way. Knowing educators from all over the world who deeply care about their students and profession and forming those long-lasting relationships brings energy back to our classrooms. Our network of music teachers around the globe who we can look to for ideas or camaraderie is a gift that is more valuable than any souvenir.
Annie and Glen Chilcote are members of the Montgomery County Education Association (Glen is a former president and current bollective bargaining chair). Annie teaches music at Auburn Elementary in Riner; Glen at Kipps Elementary in Blacksburg.
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