“If we inspire you to do anything new at all in your [music] classrooms today, we hope it is this: Tell stories to your students! Read to them, use picture books or just tell them stories from your heart. Children NEED to hear them!” Peter & Mary Alice Amidon of…
I led a workshop entitled “Cultivating Young Musicians” on April 30, 2016 at the New England Conference of The Children’s Music Network. I highlighted songs that I regularly use in my music-teaching practice to help children learn about basic musical concepts such as scales, pitch, beat, tempo and dynamics. Here…
This is the second in a series of posts about learning through play. I had the opportunity to attend the Massachusetts Music Educators’ Annual conference for the first time this past weekend. This is my first year “officially” to be a music teacher for elementary school students, and I…
Educator Bev Bos, who recently passed on, famously said, “If it hasn’t been in the hand, the body and the heart, it can’t be in the brain.” The Roseville Community Preschool, which she founded in Northern California, is dedicated to experiential learning. Children are constantly moving, exploring the world through…
Massachusetts state officials are currently considering whether to lift the “cap” on the number of public charter schools in the Commonwealth. Governor Charles Baker has proposed lifting the cap to allow creation of more public charters, and a 2016 ballot measure could put the question to voters. I’m in favor…
What follows is an excerpt from a recent interview with Liz on the Lesley University web page. Liz received her M.Ed. degree in 2009 from Lesley’s master’s program in Creative Arts in Learning. 1 In early childhood, use songs and finger plays to encourage learning about rhyming, letter sounds, narrative,…
“He loves music!” As a children’s musician, that’s a common refrain I hear from parents. It’s just a fact: most kids’ happiness meter jumps several notches when the singing and dancing starts. I’ve written a fair bit about the connections between music instruction and early literacy skill development as well…
This school year, I have the pleasure of teaching music to 120 kindergarten students at the newly-opened KIPP elementary school in Lynn, MA. Our school will add a grade each year, so for now, we are all K! It’s great fun. One of the first literacy skills kindergarteners need to…
Many academic studies have shown a strong connection between musical activities and early literacy learning. One study that especially interests me is detailed in “Early Language Learning With and Without Music,” by Douglas Fisher, published in Reading Horizons in 2001. The study evaluated four classrooms of students in kindergarten and…
I’ve been on a hiatus from this blog because I started a new job this summer. I’m helping found a KIPP charter elementary school in Lynn, MA. I’m the music teacher for the school’s 120 new kindergarten students. Each year the school will add a grade, up through fourth grade….
