Hello world!

Hello world!

My name is Robert Showalter.  I'm from Greeneville, TN.  I enjoy teaching music because I love helping people learn more about the world around them, as well as helping them discover and develop their abilities. Music and the arts allow us to understand more about ourselves and each other.

I have been teaching seriously in some capacity since my freshman year in high school, and decided my sophomore year that Music Education was what I wanted to do with my life. Outside of teaching in a school environment, I have spent many years working church or sports camps with children of all ages. I spent the majority of my afternoons in high school leading sectionals, small and full ensemble rehearsals, and teaching private lessons at either the middle school or the high school. My passion for teaching comes from these first experiences, where I saw early and often how much of an impact I could have when I shared knowledge and understanding with someone. During my years at UT, I have had the incredible opportunity to teach multiple high school ensemble rehearsals, as well as lead and be responsible for the Pride of the Southland trombone section.

I have been using technology for my entire life, and have been heavily involved in web design and development since my junior year in high school.  While I don't expect to learn too much about technologies in TPTE, I am glad that I will be learning how these technologies are applied in the educational field.  I am currently learning a programming language and accompanying web framework so that I may build a web app to help music educators better manage their band programs, and seeing how schools and teachers apply technology will help me fine-tune my software to suit their needs.

When I'm not in school, you can find me playing my trombone, tweaking/critiquing websites, or reading anything I can find.

 - B