Welcome to Leadership University, your online personal interactive student leadership journey. We’re excited that you’re here. This first video is designed to give you a taste as to what the course is about and some things you will need to do in order to be successful on your leadership journey.
All course materials should be accessible to you immediately and can be completed in whatever time frame you choose; however, each unit must be completed prior to starting the next unit and should be completed in order. You should plan on allotting fifteen minutes per unit, not including the worksheets.
Each unit will have a discussion section. We encourage you to use this and share your thoughts, ideas, questions, and general leadership observations. This is a chance for you to communicate with other student leaders from around the country.
Please remember that it is important that prior to watching any of the videos you download the course materials so you can use them as a guide. When you are finished with them, be sure put them somewhere safe as you may want to submit them to your director at the end of the course.
The order of the attached materials is meant to sequentially follow the video. This may create some informational overlap at times, but it is more important to provide as much information in an engaging and interesting manner:
- Don’t try to do too much in one day. Rushing through a trip not only makes for a less enjoyable journey, but also makes for a poor decision-making process.
- While these materials are designed for self-reflection, the true intent is for you to use it as a “leadership journal” and share the contents with others. “The more you give” to your peers, “the more you will get” from them. Isn’t that a “win-win”?
- Your thoughts have intrinsic value just as they are — don’t try to impress anyone with them. You are an authentic person, and your individual thoughts and beliefs as a leader should be reflected in these activities. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
We are excited for you to join us on this special journey and wish you all the best in your leadership travels!
Unit 2: What Does Music Teach Us?
Being chosen to be a leader is an opportunity for personal growth and change. It takes your music experience to a whole new level and provides you with challenges that go far beyond the concert hall. It may not always be fun, but it will be rewarding.
By now, you have a pretty good idea of my passion for music education. I believe that within this unique and absurd experience lie some of the greatest lessons that life has to teach us. Music is one of the few areas that teach not only content and curricula, but character as well. Listed below is a brief summation of what I believe are the character cornerstones of a successful music education organization.
I believe music teaches that the more you give, the more you will get.
This is not a new concept and has stood the test of time. Note that I used the future tense when it comes to “getting.” You have to give. Your ability to receive is based on your ability to give first. Those who give the most get the most, but those who get the most are asked to give the most back. The best students become leaders, and we require leaders to give more. The best players are typically those who practice the most, and we require them to help those who struggle. Think about it – it is the only curricular area where we reward and require work with more work.
I believe music teaches that if you can, you must.
Whether as a result of genetics or environment, we all have a different set of skills and talents. To underutilize them – or worse yet, fail to utilize them – is a wasted opportunity. Simply put, there is a correlating responsibility between your individual assets and the group responsibility you incur. You need not rise to the expectations of someone else and you need not wish for skill sets you do not possess; you need only to use what you have to serve others to your very best ability. You are a spectacular and unique person who has unique and spectacular abilities. To fail to utilize these special skills sets is denying the world of your true presence and denying your true self.
I believe music teaches us not to quit until it’s perfect.
Think about how many times you practice the same lick, toss the same toss, or march the same drill. Music is the only curricula in which you take the same class year after year in hopes not only of learning more, but perfecting what you have already mastered.
After passing P.E., do you take the same class again in hopes of attaining a greater level of perfection? NO. Yet you take four years of your same music class often repeating activities ad nauseam in search of the unattainable “perfect.” Where else does this happen?
It is only natural to want to be good at something. Success and its sweet rewards are not just fruits of your labor; they are a part of the fabric of the human soul. We all want to be good at something. The question is this: Does our success stand in the way of someone else’s? Winning is a self-limiting behavior, as you are only doing just enough to be better than someone else, instead of striving to be the best that you can be.
Now that you know what I believe, it is time to start thinking about what you believe. I thought it only fair that before we start on our leadership journey together, you knew a little bit about the philosophies of your travel guide.
For those of you who have held leadership positions before, share in the discussion box what you have learned from being a leader. Be sure to include what to do and what NOT to do!
Unit 3: What Makes Music Kids Different
By this point in your life you have more than likely answered enough questions about yourself and your group to last a lifetime. I hope it is giving you an idea into how complex leadership can be. Now it is time to take a break and do something different. Since the materials in this chapter are designed to highlight how special the young people of your music group are, I would like you to design an activity that demonstrates to them how special they are.
Start by brainstorming about what you could do to reflect the special and unique nature of your organization. Take five minutes and write as many crazy ideas on paper as possible. Don’t worry just yet about how you will accomplish these ideas; just write, as you will have an opportunity to refine your ideas later. Don’t stop until you have at least 25 distinctly different ideas.
After you have written all of their ideas down, take a little time and rank them – not necessarily according to their feasibility, but more for their likeability. Great things are not always easily accomplished. Focus on the top five ideas and begin to hash out the details…what, where, when, how and why are always good places to start. Your ideas need not be fully developed, but you need to have enough specifics so that others can understand your idea.
Take it further: Take your top five ideas and share with another student. Get feedback and field their questions. Sometime later, in a group discussion, someone will have keep track of all of top ideas to share.
DISCLAIMER: This is purposefully vague on this activity so as to not stifle your creativity.
Think about how your life would be different right now had you not chosen to make music a part of your life.