General Music Update

I had decided to start with Orff levels because I had been told I had a natural knack for Kodály in my classroom. I had been brought up in stricter school settings, and trained to be a similar kind of teacher. Orff unleashed the fun in my lessons, but then it was time to revisit the structure of my teaching. As we pored over research materials to find the oldest, most authentic versions of traditional songs, analyzed those same songs for the building blocks of our teaching sequence, and buttressed our sight reading skills I found myself looking at the music I had been teaching for years in a whole new light. My lessons stopped being a list of activities, and instead became pathways to unlocking the musicianship in my students. Song by song my students not only interacted with cultures from around the world and throughout time, but they also became stronger musicians who had sight reading chops! Coming from a small private school myself I hadn’t learned any of these skills until college. It always gives me such pride to be able to teach my students to be strong musicians through authentic music from around the world. In addition to the advantages for my students there has also been the added benefit of lifelong friends and mentors I have gained through these programs. These classes introduced me to a number of other teachers who were also passionate about improving their teaching practice, who I can bounce ideas off of and occasionally commiserate with. In fact for several years one of my classmates and I did all of our planning together. We had taken all of our levels courses together and worked towards combining the approaches in our classrooms to create our own hybrid curriculum. The teachers of my levels courses are also valuable resources. They have always been there when I needed to ask a question about implementing a new technique in the classroom or to refresh my memory about something we worked on in class. It’s been several years since my adventures in those Orff and Kodály levels, and I’m once again feeling the pull of the summer class. This summer brings the exciting possibility of Dalcroze levels and World Music Drumming for me. I’ve experienced workshops and sessions for each, and it feels like time to explore some new ways of experiencing music alongside my students. It can be so easy to get stuck in the rut of the same lessons every year, taught in the same way. I encourage you to research some of the classes in your area; try out something new and see where it takes you!