Lifelong Learning

"Teaching in schools will improve 

if we first train good teachers 

who develop the student's ear 

and give a general musical knowledge."

~Zoltan Kodály

With Kodály's words in mind, I am taking a musicianship class at Holy Names University to continue my musical education. It is a challenging course, but the class size is small, so I have a lot of potential to grow! It has been helpful to be a student in the subject I'm teaching, to experience the same kinds of exercises at a much higher level. This helps me to have an eye on the long-term trajectory for my students in terms of what they could accomplish with continued support over years of study. Another reason for the course is that it keeps me connected to my local community of musicians and educators. Because this is a newly-created position at my school, I have no colleagues within the organization who are teaching what I do. This weekly connection in class gives me an outlet and sounding board that are important for sustainability in my new role!

Kindergarteners Create Their Own Paths

"And I would advise my young colleagues, the composers of symphonies, 

to drop in sometimes at the kindergarten, too.  

It is there that it is decided whether there will be anybody 

to understand their works in twenty years' time." 

~ Zoltan Kodály

It has been so fascinating to watch kindergarteners make sense of the material I give them. I have never taught students so young, and for most of them, this is their first year in a structured learning environment. We have spent much of our time practicing expectations during these first two months of school. Now that they are used to the Music and Dance room, I have begun to introduce content, such as vocalization practice.

The process of vocalization practice started with me leading "roller coaster" activities, where students would copy my voice and body as it went high or low in pitch. We then used our fingers to trace the paths of animals and cartoons with our fingers and voices. The activity below is our youngest students' first attempts to make their own paths using stick puppets and yarn "roads" for their characters (and voices!) to follow. I have much love and give credit to Janet Greene for inspiring this lesson.

This was very exciting to watch, as it is the beginnings of these young minds forming ideas about what it might look like to represent sound in a visual and physical way. I was able to catch a couple of brief moments on video, seen below.

Learning to Move with Abandon

For 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds who are new to movement, a creative dance class can be an intimidating and scary place. Because of this, I have seen many students cling to "dance moves" they already know, because they're more comfortable, or because they might deflect pressure by making others laugh. This can be a challenge when trying to establish an open, risk-taking creative community.

One of the strategies I've learned is to help these students get out of their heads and into their bodies as quickly as possible. I have not seen a faster way to do this than with the "Scarf Puppet" dance. One partner manipulates a scarf in different ways, and the other partner embodies the movements of the scarf, as if their partner is controlling them. This activity is widely used in the creative dance community, and the combination of copying an object and working with a partner to do so is usually very grounding for older beginners and alleviates fear within minutes.

I tried this work most recently with one of our fourth grade classes. At first, some students were still trying to use familiar dance moves (the Dab makes an appearance, then is modified), but they quickly found that there were many interesting new ways to make partners move, using the natural movements of a scarf in space. You can enjoy watching this evolution in the video below.

Beginning Audiation

To me, on of the most mysterious skills in music is audiation, the ability to accurately hear music in your head. It can feel a bit nebulous as an instructor because, without a brain scan, you can't actually see the sense-making happening for students during practice. Luckily, music educators have been grappling with this for ages so I was able to borrow from their great work to get started.

One of the ways we have practiced audiation is by tapping the beat while "singing" a known song in our head, stopping the beat at the end of the song. This gives me a clear indication as to who is really following the song, and who is just tapping along, absent-mindedly.

Another activity we have tried is singing the song "Bingo" and practicing hiding letters from the pup's name and clapping instead of singing those letters. Many students are challenged and invigorated by this task! Some students are unable to silently sing the song in pieces, and continue to sing B-I-N-G-O with all letters. Others catch on to the rhythmic pattern, but then continue to say the letters, even through the end of the song.

These activities have helped me to better isolate the skill of audiation and differentiate instruction and support for them. Bingo has also made for a fun rhythm activity for our older students, mixing up different combinations of hidden letters. Our second graders love it!

It Takes a Village

I am feeling a deep sense of gratitude today, as I received two generous donations of circle spots for our performing arts room. These are especially helpful as our younger movers get accustomed to a wide-open, slippery space!


Thank you so much to those who have donated. We are still in need of everything from mic stands to a Swiffer! If you would like to help, our Amazon wish list is here.

2nd Graders using circle spots in Shadow Dances

Beginning Mirror Dances

Today, our second grade artists tired "mirror dancing" for the first time, while listening to Le Carnaval des Animaux (l'aquarium) by Camille Saint-Saens. Students took turns being leaders and slowly moving so that their partner could copy what they saw in front of them.

It was beautiful to watch these energetic dancers sharply focus their physical attention and communicate non-verbally as they explored new ways to move their body with a partner. I noticed that, in this class and others, students continued to mirror as they lined up to leave the room. Two students were even spotted mirroring as they lined up from recess later in the week!

A New Chapter: Music and Dance at ASCEND!

This is the first year that our K–8 school, ASCEND, has had both music and dance instruction for our students. Currently, K–2 and 4th grades receive performing arts instruction 1 hour a week in our newly renovated space. With the creation of this program, students will find new ways to express themselves, learn to move with intent, and create works of art. Let the beauty begin!