Hello and welcome to another edition of Interviews to Empower, where we seek to inspire you by introducing you to those who are making a difference in the blindness community. We’re so glad you could join us today. This month’s interviewee teaches music to students who are blind and visually impaired, and his passion for music and his students is what makes the music program such a success. Come with me, and let me introduce you to Mr. Josh Haza.
Hi there. My name is Josh Haza. I am originally from Frederick, MD. I graduated from McDaniel College in Westminster, MD with a Bachelors in Music Education. I taught in Baltimore for 7 years before moving to Hampshire County WV. Besides being a music teacher, I play music outside of school with a band called Hay Fever. I am married with two children; 6 year old son and a 2 year old daughter.
I am the music teacher at the West Virginia School for the Blind. I was looking for a music education job in this area when the music job at WVSB became available. I sort of just fell into the field of blindness by accepting the job offer at WVSB. I love it here.
I've been teaching at WVSB for 8 years now. I went through the WVU VI program and now have my VI certification. One of my assignments during my time in the WVU program was to walk around the mall blindfolded, with a human guide. I stepped on a lot of toes and bumped my knee on a wall. I believe it was not my fault, but the fault of my human guide. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. lol
My approach to teaching various instruments has changed and it took awhile for me to figure out what best works with various eye conditions and with various types of students. Also, my approach to our music programs has changed from what I was used to when I taught in Baltimore. Making sure everything is accessible (music, lyrics, instruments, etc...) is very important in order to have a successful program. It takes time and effort, but nothing feels better when a child who thought they couldn't play an instrument or sing a solo, ends up doing an incredible job.
The only advice I have for someone who is new to the field of VI/Blindness is to be open minded with your teaching approach. Techniques or the way you might be used to doing things might not work in this field and being open minded to new techniques and having patience is something that is surely needed.
Like I mentioned before, besides being a music teacher, I play professionally in my current band Hay Fever. We are a neo-traditional Appalachian band. We stay pretty busy throughout the year with performances every month. We are just wrapping up the recording portion of our first album and will hopefully have it finished by the start of the summer.
To see Mr. Haza perform with Hay Fever click here. He's the one rocking the mandolin. :)
Thank you, Josh for allowing us to feature you on the blog this month. And, thank you, dear readers for being with us.
Be sure and come back each 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month, as that is when we post. Also, feel free to share and follow this blog.
Blessings.
No comments:
Post a Comment