An Open Letter to My Students

Dear Student,

The fall 2020 term is now upon us. The world as we know it has turned upside-down over the last six months. We are living in a pandemic and are facing difficult (and necessary) personal and societal issues sparked by the Black Lives Matters movement. Your learning experience will be different this fall, and will likely be changed for years to come.

For these reasons, I have been preparing for you in thought and deed since May (unlike in previous years when I didn’t seriously begin my semester prep until early August). Pivoting your fieldwork experience to telepractice required a level of administrative and strategic planning that was…well, a bit next level. I have also begun the process of transforming my syllabi to be more social justice-oriented and learning-focused (a practice I will continue in subsequent semesters as my own learning and understanding deepens).

Beyond the planning and prepping, though, I also recognize that we are in this whole teaching and learning business together. As such, I have three core principles to share with you that will guide your experience in my courses this fall. I hope you see these reflected in the syllabi I prepared, and understand that they will be guiding my efforts as we navigate the semester. 

Compassion

I choose to be compassionate both with you and with myself. I aim to be patient and kind, and to persevere through this uncertainty and the changes that are bound to unfold. I will listen if you are struggling, and will work with you to identify accommodations and solutions. And I will strive to make my personal self-care a daily practice, so that I can be more fully present and available to you. 

Flexibility

The poet Robert Burns is credited with the saying “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” I am among many who have spent hours making “best laid plans” for a successful term. And yet? We don’t know what’s in store. If I had my guesses, the one thing I think we can count on is that change will happen. We will need to adapt, we will need to change course calendars, we will need to identify accommodations, we will need to problem solve, and we will need to be creative. Thus, this fall I choose to be flexible and to adapt to change and circumstance as needed. 

Learning Together

Beyond the learning that typically happens in a term—Not only your learning, but mine as well…it’s not much of a secret that the learning is bidirectional. We teachers learn just as much from you as you (hopefully) learn from us.—this semester is bound to stretch our skills and abilities in new and unexpected ways. But I aim to approach the term with the perspective that we are in this together. I will not have all the answers for you. For example, those of you doing clinical telepractice this fall? I have never before facilitated a virtual music therapy session, so I won’t have much advice to offer based on my personal experience. But you know what? In this and other situations we will figure it out and learn together.

In closing, I look forward to welcoming you again very soon, whether virtually or from a distance. Please stay safe and I implore you to make choices that will keep us all healthier. We will navigate this together, and will ultimately emerge more resilient.

Take good care,

Dr. Sena Moore    

Tagged as: academia, academic life, music education, music training, teaching