We meet lots of folks via social media. Twitter for example, gives us a chance to observe the pulse of our profession and every now and again, converse or banter with those who have the same or differing viewpoints. Over the past few years we've had  posts featuring Kat Fulton, Lisa Canning, and Patrick Kolhami, all folks we met via social media. 

Now I bring you April Estep (or as I've known her for the past year or so on Twitter, @MsEstep). April is a high school music teacher, she is an avid tweeter using the #musiced hash-tag, and she also maintains a wordpress blog called I'd Rather Be Tweeting...

I contacted April because she is a music education  'insider' (working in a public school) with a keen interest in reaching 'the other 80%', i.e. those interested in learning music but who do not access band, choir, or orchestra programs in schools. She agreed to answer a few questions for us.  Be sure to show her some love on Twitter and check in on her blog as well!

Q. Tell us a little about yourself, what brought you to be a music teacher?

A. I'm not sure what to tell you about me. (I do much better with specific questions, lol.) I grew up in southern West Virginia and teach in the high school I graduated from. I was a stereotypical band nerd through junior high and high school. I became a music teacher because I loved band so much that I couldn't see myself giving it up.

I am currently teaching grades 7-12. I have a junior high general music class and junior high choir. My high school classes are music appreciation and guitar. I have a small high school choir that meets after school one day a week...even though state policy requires choir be offered in the regular schedule.

Q. How do you use technology in your classroom? Anything on your wish list?

A. Tech is fairly non-existant in my class on a regular basis. But we do get time in the computer lab when we can. My music appreciation classes do composing and mixing and we also do musical autobiographies with movie maker. I also use my iPhone to record and share student work in guitar class.

If I could have any kind of tech, I'd have a class set of iPads with garage band...maybe some macs. Also, unfiltered access to YouTube would be great! :)

Q. How do you think tech has affected music education.  How might it evolve in the future?

I think technology has made a big difference in the way I teach my "other 80" classes. Composing is so much easier and more accessible for students. They can also share their work, like original songs, to a much bigger audience outside my classroom. I love that!

Tech should be impacting all of education. There are people in my building who think tech is destroying creative thought and problem solving (with which I totally disagree). I think tech gives us new ways of thinking and creating that are just as important as the more traditional models of thought.

Q. I sense from your tweets and your blog that you sometimes get frustrated with the administration or administrative parts of being a music teacher. Can you shed some light on that?

A. Yes, I get very frustrated at times.  It may be a touchy-feely Mr. Holland's Opus kind of answer, but music is so important to us as humans yet the powers that be in education think it's unimportant. It's nice to have, but no one really cares if they cancel choir to fit in an extra geometry class.

I also get frustrated among music people who think performing ensembles are the most important music classes.  Another band director in our district actually said to me, "Screw guitar class. I'm not a music teacher, I'm a band director. I'm here to build a band and that's all."

It may sound like I don't think performing groups are important, I do. (Nerdy band kid here, remember?) I just really think music ed. needs to do more to reach ALL students. Instead of seeing a kid that's got a good sense of rhythm and pitch and saying, "you should join band (or choir, or whatever)" we should find out what they want to do and find ways to help them reach their musical goals.

Thanks April, we couldn't have said it any better than that!  Keep up the good fight and hope we will bump into you down the road sometime.  Cheers from all of us @DLP_DSM.