Last Saturday ECMMA (Find out more here: http://www.ecmma.org/) invited Dr. Tiffany McNary, PhD., LPC,NCC,CPCS, RPT-S to come and speak to us about Play Therapy and how we can use it in our classrooms. It was helpful and insightful on both the history of child psychology as well as how she uses that history in her […]
Today I was teaching a violin lesson and we were working on a George Bornoff exercise where one plays the open string 4 times, then the same string with the first finger 4 times, then 4 times with the second and so on until the 4th finger is added. Then one lifts fingers one at […]
This past week I was in TX for their annual music educators conference (If you haven’t been, you should seriously consider going ~ it is AMAZING!!) and I got into a long discussion about music literacy with a colleague. The question became ~ should music literacy be taught in K-2 when we have so little […]
Parents do not always recognize what we do or realize the impact it has on their child’s learning, so I crafted this article for our parents to let them in on what all of us know ~ we build better brains! I share this with you not only as a bit of inspiration…after all, I […]
Last week I spoke about teaching the kids how to learn new rhythms through the steady beat ~ click HERE to read. This week I want to talk a little about beats and length. We don’t really teach this. On a whole, we don’t single out notes and have kids explore counting the beat to […]
I am so excited about a lesson I did with my students last week! In a piece of music that we are working on, there is a particularly difficult rhythm. It is a sixteenth syncopated rhythm, of course, and I was thinking about how to teach it like a professional musician would break it down […]
I love putting my students into small groups! It benefits them in so many ways and it allows me to step back and observe ~ something that we do not get to do very often! It also allows me to connect with students individually as I ask questions about their work or offer assistance when […]
Good Morning!! We are in the home stretch ~ Wahoo!! Only a few more days…. we can do it!! As concert dates are quickly approaching, I know how stressful things can get! So in this issue, I thought I would give you some ideas on how to involve the audience both before, during and after the […]
I just finished teaching a small group of boys and it is clear that they need to move around and/ or use their hands!! As I researched gender differences in the classroom, it is astonishing to me that we still teach in a manner that requires kids to sit most of the day! We are […]
Classes can be crazy this time of year, especially when you are preparing for a concert! If you find yourself with a bit of time that needs to be filled, here is a fun game to play! It takes “Hot and Cold” to a whole new level!! When one is far from the object, one sings […]