Music teacher pursues classroom career prestissimo
When Brisbane musician Ethan May realised his passion for teaching music, CQUniversity’s Master of Teaching helped him pick up the tempo in realising his dream.
His rapid achievements have now been recognised, recently winning an Australia Society of Music Educators (ASME) Queensland Award for Outstanding Music Education Graduates.
Working at his old high school after graduating with a music degree in 2021, the opportunity to cover for a music teacher’s paternity leave was a deep-end dive into the career.
“I realised I loved teaching, and my mentors at Kelvin Grove State School encouraged me to enrol and get qualified,” Ethan explained.
“At that stage, it was too late for enrolment at most unis, and I was going to have to wait for the start of the next year – but I didn’t want to wait!”
CQUniversity’s two-year Master of Teaching came to the rescue, and he began the flexible online degree part-time in July 2022.
“CQU was the only uni that did a mid-year intake, and had instrumental music as its secondary specialisation,” he said.
“I remember being on the phone to a person at CQU, and I said ‘if I do six months there, can I transfer after that?’ - I think I offended her a bit!” he laughed.
“But honestly, it was such a smooth start, and fitted so easily around my job, I never even thought about transferring after that – the degree was focused on being a teacher in the field, and so was I!”
Ethan graduated earlier this year, with CQU’s three-term structure helping him fast-track the study and mandatory pre-service placements.
“Being on placement was the first time I’d worked in classroom music, and initially it felt incredibly daunting – but I quickly realised that everything I’d learned about lesson plans, and the research-informed theory, was so valuable and I could put it straight into practice,” he said.
Now an award-winning teaching graduate, Ethan is looking forward to his first graduate job in 2025 and hopes he can make secondary school music a central focus for new generations of kids.
“Music was pretty much the whole reason I went to school, and it was the same for a lot of my friends,” he said.
“I did every aspect of school music that you could think of, and I am so grateful to the really good teachers who I’m still in contact with - and I’ve worked with them since too.
“When you have a class that’s a compulsory music class, the biggest thing for me is building positive relationships with those students…even if they’re not excited to do music, I’m hoping get to a point where they’re just excited to go to class with Mr May!”
Ethan said the ASME award was encouraging this early in his career.
The annual awards recognise academic excellence, practicum success and professional attitude in new music education graduates. CQUniversity’s Master of Teaching lecturers nominated Ethan for the title.
To learn more about teaching pathways at CQUniversity, visit CQU’s Education information centre.
