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Being Responsible for Small Humans– First Year Teacher and WCC alumn Sarah Mae Lagasca

January 12, 2014 By ferraras Leave a Comment

Van Baum interviews Sarah Mae Lagasca, Westminster Choir College alumni currently in her first year of teaching. She attended both Westminster and the Fiorello H Laguardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts in New York City. Ms. Lagasca discusses the transition from student to teacher, the successes and challenges she has faced in her first three months, and what the future could potentially hold.

  • 0:00: Fresh into the education world, Ms. Lagasca’s first year is both terrifying and amazing as she learns how to teach.
  • 1:51: The education world is not perfect, and it shouldn’t be. Ms. Lagasca is performing every day as she makes her way through the day-to-day tasks as a teacher.
  • 4:42: Ms. Lagasca is building the program she wished she had growing up.
  • 7:44: Music is “thinking abstractly but specifically,” like math.
  • 9:07: Laguardia High School—the “Fame” school influence and what music education could be like. The moment Ms. Lagasca knew she wanted to teach: freshmen year choir.
  • 11:48: First year teacher—bridging the gap between dealing the peers and dealing with your colleagues. “There is no co-op,” Helping, leading, and keeping students safe.
  • 15:22: Day to day routine as a K-8 teacher: different strategies for different classes and the ever changing lesson plans.
  • 19:28: Being a female in the education world versus the conducting world: the former is more widely accepted versus the latter. “We [women] shouldn’t have to feel like we have to prove ourselves but a lot of times we do.”
  • 21:39: Being a woman of color hasn’t hurt or helped Ms. Lagasca, but she has taken on the role as a leader and a motivator.
  • 23:26: Goals past the first three months— Ms. Lagasca wants to do everything! She says she is too young to make a final decision on her career path, but is completely thrilled to teach forever.
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Locations and Dislocations: An Ecomusicological Conversation

April 8-10, 2016 Westminster Choir College of Rider University Princeton, NJ "Locations and Dislocations: An Ecomusicological Conversation" seeks to bring together scholars, performers, and composers to further explore the relationships between music, culture, and the environment. The conference will tune to sounds as they fit or belong in the place they are heard, as they fit or belong in some other place, or as they have no ecological home, either built or natural. Among the questions at

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