{"id":16851,"date":"2015-04-13T08:47:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T12:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=16851"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:28:13","slug":"bringing-music-to-life-and-expanding-the-boundaries-of-the-classroom-spotlight-on-alexis-luko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2015\/bringing-music-to-life-and-expanding-the-boundaries-of-the-classroom-spotlight-on-alexis-luko\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing music to life and expanding the boundaries of the classroom: Spotlight on Alexis Luko"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Bringing music to life and expanding the boundaries of the classroom: Spotlight on Alexis Luko\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n
\"Alexis<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Emily Cook, TLS staff writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not enough to just hear the music, you have to experience it. At least, that\u2019s a lesson students learn in Alexis Luko\u2019s classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I enter the classroom, I\u2019m really energetic,” says Luko. “I know that I have to bring a lot of enthusiasm to all the subjects that I\u2019m teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luko started in Carleton\u2019s music department in 2009 and is cross-appointed to the College of the Humanities. In her six years at Carleton, she\u2019s made a big impact, taking home a Carleton University Teaching Achievement Award, a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Award, and a New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. She was also a finalist for a 2014 Capital Educators\u2019 Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luko says she believes teaching should reach beyond the classroom. Over the course of her career at Carleton, she has incorporated fieldtrips to musical performances into her courses, a practice that has had a significant impact on students. She says at the end of the course students often cite these experiences as unforgettable. The trips also help them engage personally with music, which Luko says helps get them excited about learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m really passionate about a piece of music and then I tell students why I feel so passionately, that can be contagious,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luko also gives pre-concert lectures in the city, something she says has taught her about community engagement with music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just got really excited about making classical music accessible to everyone. Not just music majors, but everyone,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luko says her teaching style really developed in her first year at Carleton when she was working with two colleagues on an ArtsOne first-year seminar. She says the interdisciplinary seminar encouraged trying new things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of that experimentation I think made me a better teacher in the end,\u201d says Luko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of the grant she received for her Teaching Achievement Award, Luko is designing an assignment that will help students understand madrigals, a type of Renaissance music. Students will create videos showing real-time analyses while the madrigal plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she starts her sabbatical in July, Luko says she plans to restructure some of her courses to reflect that interdisciplinary work she did in her first year at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always feel like I could be doing better. I\u2019m always trying to push myself to be a better teacher,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emily Cook, TLS staff writer It\u2019s not enough to just hear the music, you have to experience it. At least, that\u2019s a lesson students learn in Alexis Luko\u2019s classes. \u201cWhen I enter the classroom, I\u2019m really energetic,” says Luko. “I know that I have to bring a lot of enthusiasm to all the subjects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16851"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43037,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16851\/revisions\/43037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}