I’m Kenley Kristofferson and I’m a senior years music educator; in other words, I’m a high school band teacher. I’m also a graduate student at Brandon University and the focus of my research has been on the intentional development of positive band room culture. To say another way, what are teachers doing on purpose to make their room a place where kids emotionally and musically thrive?

In this series, I talk with six Manitoba music educators who have thought a lot about this question and they were generous enough to share their experience with me. In fact, they were so generous that we get to share it with you too in this podcast.

I asked each band teacher the same fourteen questions to try and find patterns in the research. While there are certainly patterns in topics like positive indicators in students that culture is good, or the role music plays in manifesting a positive band room culture, there’s a variety of answers that are thought-provoking, engaging, and unique. And as with most teachers, there are some amazing stories too.