Casey Collins
Casey Collins is a clinical assistant professor of music education at Purdue University Fort Wayne. She teaches undergraduate courses in elementary and secondary general music methods, introduction to music education, freshman success seminar in music education, elementary music for the elementary educator, and is the student teaching coordinator for the School of Music. Prior to PFW, Dr. Collins taught PK-5 elementary general music in North Carolina where she was awarded Teacher of the Year and honored as an Excellence in Education district finalist. In 2018, Collins was awarded the Global Teacher of the Year from Participate Learning. Though elementary general music is her main passion, Dr. Collins has a love for playing the flute and can often be found jumping in on university flute ensemble rehearsals when she can, and spends her summers working with high school marching bands as a woodwind tech.
Dr. Collins holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Elon University, a Master of Music in Music Education from East Carolina University, and a Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of Michigan. Her research interests are on topics such as teaching general music in high-poverty schools, trauma-informed pedagogy practices for the music educator, vocal health and hygiene for music teachers, positive psychology applications for music education spaces, and improvisation in the general music classroom. Her dissertation research was centered on elementary music teachers in high-poverty schools, aiming to shift the deficit paradigm surrounding these spaces. She has presented on these topics internationally, nationally, and regionally at various research and practitioner conferences. When she is not teaching, Dr. Collins can be found reading, cooking, or snuggling up with her two cats, Opa and Anabelle.
eBooks by Casey Collins
Posts by Casey Collins
Allow me to introduce myself
There was a subtle but noticeable change when I received my PhD. I was not treated the same. I noticed parent emails were slightly more forgiving, and my opinion seemed to be more valuable than before [...]
Music Beyond the Classroom: Interview with C.J. Blair
For the next installment of our Music Beyond the Classroom series, we're interviewing master-of-all-trades, C.J. Blair. In a whirlwind career in the music industry, C.J. has worn many hats: guitarist, guitar tech, front of house sound, engineer, and, [...]
Writing is all about editing
Some people seem to think that it stops with the writing – you throw down a flurry of words in a whirlwind of creative enthusiasm and walk away. NO!!! Initial writing often involves pouring out [...]
Music Beyond the Classroom: Interview with Composer, Richard Taylor
For the next installment of our "Music Beyond the Classroom" series, we sat down with composer, Richard Taylor. Richard studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK, and has been working [...]
The scariest thing in your music classroom
A few weeks ago, I was on a Facebook forum for music teachers. Someone posed a question about popular music education—the essence of the post was prodding at the philosophy of music educators and whether or [...]
Want to learn guitar? Start here.
Creating a Companion Method Hi everyone! I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you about my new method book, The Oz Guitar Method. There are hundreds of guitar methods out there, but I decided [...]