Join the Conversation about Teaching #7:"Those Who Can't, Teach"? Think again with Music Educator Marisa Sorrentino Hickey

Have you ever heard the saying, "Those who can't, teach"? It means that if someone can't make it professionally in a career field, then they "just" teach. In this conversation with middle school music educator Marisa Sorrentino Hickey, that saying is blown completely out of the water. Marisa is an accomplished performer who intentionally chose the education path over the performance path in college. After graduating from the Pennsylvania State University, Marisa began teaching in Williamsport Area School District in PA. In addition to teaching, she feeds her creative spirit through performing and directing at Williamsport's Community Theatre League.
In this conversation, Denise and Marisa tackle the awkwardness of middle school, the social emotional needs of kids during a global pandemic, the challenge of motivating unmotivated students, coping with ADHD, advising students in potential career paths, talking in cursive, and pretty much everything in between. You'll lose track of whose laugh is whose and wish you were in the room for this recording.
For close listeners, you can find Glennon Doyle's amazing podcast We Can Do Hard Things here, and you can find Dr. Brene Brown's work here. You can also get a copy of Elizabeth Gilbert's book on creativity Big Magic here.
Marisa's "You Gotta" teaching resource, Little Kids Rock can be found here. Teachers -- remember to be careful to check out the songs your students want to learn prior to playing them in class.
You can also view the performance of "How Could I Ever Know" from the musical Secret Garden that you hear at the end of the episode here.
Music Credit: Ikson
Sound Engineers: Aidan & E Connor