General Requirements

• Upon completion of the program for music teacher certification, students will hold a teaching certificate in all-level music, EC-12. This means that they are certified to teach choral, instrumental (band and strings), and general music from early childhood through the twelfth grade. You can understand what a tremendous responsibility you have to learn as much as you can about music, about learning music, and about teaching music.
• All music education students complete a core of required music courses, including music theory, music literature and history, conducting, applied lessons, and music ensemble. They also enroll in instrumental and choral music and methods classes appropriate to their areas of specialization. As with all Lamar University students, they follow the general education curriculum as required by the university.
• In addition, music education students complete the professional pedagogy courses culminating in a semester of internship, or student teaching. Upon passing the Texas Examinations of Educator Standards (TExES), they receive certification to teach music at all levels, EC-12, in the state of Texas.

Planning Your Schedule

Ideally, as early in their academic careers as possible, students should plan the courses they are going to take and the semesters in which they take them through their final semester.

Plan A and Plan B

Doing so will give them a "Plan A." Then they can devise "Plan B" if necessary. When students make their semester-by-semester plans of coursework, they must consider the customary days and times at which the classes are offered and the customary semesters in which they might expect the classes to be available. Some classes are offered only in spring semesters, only in fall semesters, or not in summer.