Calvin Berkenbile, Music Education
Phone: 503-649-5518
E-mail: calvin.berkenbile@tualatinvalleyacademy.org

Curriculum

In the course of a school year, Preschool through 4th grade (in varying degrees of hardness according to grade) learn a variety of music concepts, including:

  • Singing

  • Music listening

  • History of composers

  • History of songs

  • Music theory

  • Instrument recognition

In 5th and 6th grade, students are learning to play recorders and entering into playing band instruments.

Junior High and High School have the opportunity to be in band and/or choir. In choir, they learn new songs, learn and practice the parts of a choir and sound as a unit.

Performances

Performances are a part of the music curriculum. Tualatin Valley Academy offers two official program each school year. The Christmas Concert is in December and the Spring Concert is at the end of the school year. An additional goal is to provide our local churches with music as we give back to our community and churches.

Music Education Philosophy

As a music teacher in a Christian school, my goals are to provide an environment that has Jesus in my classroom and for my students to feel safe, welcomed and excited to learn and grow. I want students to feel this is a classroom not only for learning, but a place that is free to make mistakes. Growth and character come from making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

I want my students to constantly be learning. In my classroom, I will teach them music theory, about composers (dead and alive!), to identify instruments, and how to listen to music and recognize beats, rhythm, and what instruments they hear playing the song. Students will sing in a choir as part of music class.

I hope to provide ways for my students to excel, feel confident and to be innovative learners. A goal is for my students to be able to take their learning and give it back to their community, their school, their church, and their family.

Music is mentioned over and over in the Bible. In fact, there are over 1,150 musical references in the scriptures that have to do with singing or playing instruments as praises to the Lord. Here are a few:

Address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. - Ephesians 5:19

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. - Psalms 104:33

And it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” - 2 Chronicles 5:13

Shout for joy to the Lord, O you righteous! Praise benefits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. - Psalms 33:1-4

God even has a special song that the redeemed will sing for him in heaven! It is my hope that my students learn how to praise Jesus with music and will be in the special choir in heaven.

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