TEACHER TRAINING WORKSHOPS - SUMMER 2005

WELCOME, NEW TEACHER TRAINERS!

SUMMER 2005 – READY, SET, GO!

SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR SUMMER!

FROM ROB

MUSIKGARTEN FESTIVAL INFORMATION

AWARDS

COMPOSE YOURSELF: THE RITUALS OF MUSIC MAKERS

NEW PRICE LIST

FROM LORNA

Nature’s Music – Now for Mixed Ages!
This special supplement to the popular toddler program allows you to invite families with babies through 4-year-olds to share in the fun. Parents with more than one young child will appreciate this offering, which will benefit all of their active “creepers, leapers, and singers.”

Camping at the Seashore
Music Makers at Home’s Seashore program is now offered as a new summer event for your families. Let’s Go to the Seashore is a 5-day camp that will give children 2-3 hours daily of music and art activities centering on the seashore theme. New features include

• Making an instrument to take home
• Family Time with siblings to end each day
• Storytime about the magical seashore

Marketing Your Summer Program
New, professionally printed flyers designed specifically to market all of Musikgarten’s summer programs are now available:

• My Musical World (0-4)
• Nature’s Music (toddler or 0-4)
• Cycles Summer (3-5)
• My Neighborhood Community (4-6)
• Let’s Go to the Seashore (4-7)
• Nature Trail (4-7)

Each flyer describes the activities and includes a parent testimonial to help promote your program to families in your community.

Note: Flyers and lesson supplements are available free of charge to licensed Musikgarten teachers. Write info@musikgarten.org or call 1.800.216.6864.

Consider providing Musikgarten T-shirts for all your participants at the end of camp! The new T-shirt features the Musikgarten Logo plus “Music Brings Kids to Life!” All sizes are now in stock; each is available at $8.00/shirt, plus minimal shipping.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR SUMMER!
by Martha Hallquist

Many of you will be offering summer classes this year, and here are some ideas that may prove beneficial, relaxing, and fun. As you advertise, state that summer classes are different from the rest of the year’s. Perhaps put the something in bold print across the top of your information, similar to what is found in the title above.

Consider these choices as you explain how summer classes will be different:

1. Instead of your usual class format, you might offer a 40+ minute Family Class for children under 4 years, where parents participate fully with their children, plus a 60+ minute Children’s Class for 4- to 6-year-olds, which feature music and movement games and activities that conclude with a 10-minute sharing time. Design the classes so that parents can attend classes with younger children and then join their older child for sharing time.

2. Both classes might be positioned next to a playgroup time, which will allow you extra contact time with other families. You could lead this, it could be a collaborative mothers’ play group, it could be supervised by parents who receive scholarship help, or you could hire someone to supervise. Be sure to check your insurance provisions for this, as well.

3. Tuition might be based on families’ attending 1/2 to 2/3 of the classes, but they may come to all of the classes, if they so choose – a summer bonus!

4. Instead of signing up for a particular class, families may attend any or all of the classes as they are able. They are encouraged to come to as many classes as possible and may also invite a friend to attend one free class with them at any time.

5. The last class might be followed by a picnic or special treat.

6. Later in the summer, consider offering a few additional classes that will be free if they bring a friend. That’s the only requirement! Those who have trouble bringing a child friend can bring any friend – even an adult or grandma. Serve treats, feature favorite summer activities, and have fall registration materials available. Even though you’re trying to recruit, you mainly want to spread goodwill!

7. Offer an incentive to enroll for fall before the end of your summer program. If you’re teaching only in June, than say something like, “$10 (or $15) Savings for all Registrations Received before June 30.”

8. Perhaps offer two classes per week in June or one per week in June and July for a total of eight possibilities. Charge for four to six classes, but allow parents to come whenever they are able.

FROM ROB
What a pleasure it is for me to be associated with such a vibrant organization as Musikgarten! Just yesterday I received an e-mail that began as follows: “I frequently use your excellent materials in my elementary methods classes here at the college. I will gladly submit your company as a presenter at next spring’s conference.” Such goodwill is typical of my daily encounters with music educators, including a growing body of prospective and current Musikgarten teachers.
Spring has been a season of excitement at the Musikgarten Office. The annual round of Workshop Previews has come to a close, and Workshop enrollments for this summer are developing nicely. The Musikgarten staff has devoted innumerable hours to calling prospective enrollees, and Musikgarten teachers have given untold time to making sure that our events run smoothly. The company’s Teacher Trainers, meanwhile, have coordinated their schedules to produce a most impressive array of educational offerings worldwide.

Martha and I recently attended the annual conference of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, held at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center. Having the opportunity to meet prospective Musikgarten teachers at the company’s exhibit was a thrill for me, and I was reminded of the many of you who assist with our annual presentations and exhibits at music conferences and trade shows. These opportunities are critical to “getting the word out” about Musikgarten and its excellence!

As we move from Preview to Workshop season, I express a special word of thanks to all who helped to make this year’s Previews a success. To each of you who agreed to help advertise Previews and Workshops, graciously assisted with receiving and shipping of Musikgarten materials, and helped to arrange demonstration classes of children, I say “thank you, thank you, thank you.” To all who facilitated and led this year’s Previews, we express appreciation by listing your names and locations below:

Amy Rucker Dallas, Texas
Betty Todd Smith Kansas City, Kansas
Carol Ourada Chicago, Illinois
Cynthia Hirst & Nancy Kubo Seattle, Washington
Ellen Johansen Long Island, New York
Helen Flannery & Jennifer Hardacre Toronto, Ontario
Jan Vidruk Appleton, Wisconsin
Jill Hannagan & Li Ping Hudson Washington, D.C.
Joyce Jordan Miami, Florida
Laurie Mueller Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lianne Brewer & Joyce Scott St. Louis, Missouri
Linda Palko Charlotte, North Carolina
Marlene Lee St. Paul, Minnesota
Mary Rekers Cincinnati, Ohio
Nan Croney Salt Lake City, Utah
Ruth Prevette & Tracia Austin Richmond, Virginia
Tamara Albrecht Atlanta, Georgia

Thanks also to teachers willing to present Workshop Previews in their areas: these include Dorothy Denton, Diana Greene, Karen McIver, Stephen Reen, Lynette Schwane, Cheri & John Steele, and Jill Waggener.

MUSIKGARTEN FESTIVAL INFORMATION
“For me, Festival is a comprehensive, energizing overview of the curricula and their benefits, with the input of many
trainers – for the best price! Lots of bang for the buck, thank you!” (2005 Festival Attendee)

Musikgarten Festivals are memorable events! As you enjoy photos from this year’s festival (below) at the Bishop Mason Retreat in Flower Mound, Texas, plan to be with us next year at the Summit Conference Center just outside Greensboro, NC.

Festival 8: Friday, April 21 – Sunday, April 23
Keyboard Day: Sunday, April 23 – Monday, April 24
Special Guest: Audrey Sillick

AWARDS
In 2004, we began offering special recognition to Musikgarten
teachers who have shown exceptional commitment to educational excellence and who have benefited families through offering a breadth of Musikgarten programs. At the 2004 Festival, in Chicago, we held our first Awards Ceremony for those teachers. The smiles on the teachers’ faces as they received their certificates were enough to convince us to continue this offering!

Musikgarten Achievement Award
Musikgarten is pleased to salute those teachers who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to continuing education. The Musikgarten Achievement Award recognizes the following licensed educators, who have successfully completed the entire Musikgarten Series of Musikgarten teacher training workshops.

Recipients for 2005
Kathy Azari Roann Keen
Nan Borden Jean Minger
Rebecca Bostron Bobbi Morgan
Diana Greene Narjes Soliman
Justina Henry Lisa Thompson

Musikgarten Exemplary Program Award
This special designation is given to teachers who not only offered several different levels of Musikgarten classes during the 2003-2004 year, but have also been actively licensed with Musikgarten for four or more years.

Recipients for 2005
(* indicates 2nd year of Exemplary Program designation):
*Tamara Albrecht – Emory University
*Arleth Anderson – The Musik House
Brenda Arthur – Columbia Institute of Fine Arts
Tracia Austin – Musikgarten of Richmond
Laurie Baker – Grace Notes Music Classes
*Jan Boner – Music to Go and Grow
Nan Borden – Musikgarten of Corpus Christi
Caryn Borgetti – Caryn’s Musicreators
*Lianne Brewer – The Music Factory
Tracey Brownell – Kids Creative Arts Center
Rita Burghart – Burghart Music Studio
Childsong Studios – Arlynn Schaffert and Betty Hansen
*Janet Crawford – Make a Joyful Noise Music Studio
Nan Croney
*Dorothy Denton – Music Moves
*Glenda Duffus – Musik Makers
*Suzanne Franklin – Children’s Academy of Fine Arts
*Cindy Freeman – Early Childhood Music School
Madeleine Gourlie
*Betsy Grizzell – Betsy’s MusiKids
Sylvia Hamilton – Early Childhood Music of Topeka
*Jill Hannagan – Hockessin Music School
*Karen Haughey – Karen Haughey Music Studio
Debra Hetherington
*Linnea Hillesland – Linnea’s Musikgarten
Nancy Holmes – Beginning With Music
*Ginny Jacobson – Musikgarten of Anoka
*Ellen Johansen – Ellen Johansen Music Studio
Roann Keen – Keen Music and the Arts
Vernita Kenney – Musikgarten of Long Island
*KinderStudio of Musik - Marlene Lee and Michelle Thompson
*Guy Kirk - Haddonfield School of Performing Arts
*Lisa Lown – LaGrangeville School of Music
Ginny Matherly – The School of Fine Arts
*Cathy Mathia – East Dallas Children’s Music
*Karen McIver – Bethany Academy of Music
Lana McMains – McMainly Music
*Leilani Miranda – The Music Garden
*Molly’s Musik/Gayle’s Garten – Gayle and Molly Sprinkel
*Musikgarten of Carmel Valley – Melonie Clearwater and Marilyn Staffieri
*Valerie Nelson – Step Into Music
Amy Pappageorge – Musikgarten of Oak Park
Sylvia Petersen – Sylvia’s Musikgarten
*Ruth Prevette – Musikgarten of the West End
Quincy Conservatory of Music – Mary Shelor and Leigh Ann Coats
*Amy Rucker – The Arts Academy at Park Cities Presbyterian Church
*Shenandoah University Arts Academy
*Somerville School of Music
*Carol Spencer – Mistletoe Musikgarten
*Suburban Community Music Center
*Jennifer Tutt – Musikgarten of Lexington
*Union Colony Children’s Music Academy
*University of Miami MusicTime
*Wheaton College Community School of the Arts
*Rita Whitaker
*Kay Ellen Wilkins – Rochester Conservatory of Music
*Page Williams – Early Childhood Musik School of Warwick Memorial UMC
*Patrice Yearwood

Compose Yourself: The Rituals in Music Makers
by Amy Rucker

Charlotte Mason, an eighteenth-century educator and author, once said, “Good habits are the best magistrates.” In my fifteen years of supervising teachers, I have noticed that often it is not the activities themselves that need the most attention and improvement, but rather the “spaces between the activities” that lack discipline, order, and the nurturing of good habits. In Music Makers we are faced in each lesson with many “between” moments. How we handle these is very important.

Getting ready for writing exercises is a prime example. The children need to take out crayons, paper, and mats for writing. Establishing a ritual or ceremony for the children to follow will help ensure the success of each child and the smooth running of the class as a whole.

Simplicity, a highly underrated skill, is often the key. As I reflect on recent teaching experiences both with a middle-school choir and a toddler class, I realize that the best moments – when I felt that I held the entire class in the palm of my hand – were simple transitions between activities.

Many years ago I watched Dr. Heyge teaching five-year-olds. After they had walked around the room taking their pretend dog for a walk, the children gathered around a tiny table to watch her draw the dog walk: concentric circles, finally tying the dog to a stump in the middle of the page. To my amazement they stood motionless; in her choice and few words, she spoke very slowly to direct their attention to her careful work. Even then they stood waiting to see what was next. I will never forget this moment because it impressed upon me children’s desire and eagerness to be engaged in simple, careful, and well planned moments in a lesson. They can run later. They can vocalize later. It’s all in the lesson plan, after all, so that the quiet moments may be just that, and they love it. They need it.

Why have I always felt so strongly about creating these moments of transition in a class, these smooth but structured parts of the whole? Why do they work? My reading brought me moments of joy, as I discovered once again how well planned even the tiniest segments of Musikgarten lessons are. Layers upon layers of developmental understanding underpin every single aspect of the lesson.

Remember a quote from Maria Montessori: “Don’t do anything for a child that a child can do himself.” Often we think it much simpler just to hand out materials and get on with it. You, the teacher, have just finished a beautiful demonstration of notating “du du,” and the children are mesmerized and eager to get started. Just say “Go, get your crayons and paper and a mat, come back over, and sit down,” and chaos ensues! Put a ceremony in place of that chaos, and you will gain discipline and control. The ceremony quickly becomes a habit, and the teacher can proceed with ease, putting energy into the concepts, rather than crisis management.

I first saw the crayon-paper-mat ceremony demonstrated by Karen McIver at a Music Makers workshop. Materials needed for the activity of writing include crayons (all one color), paper, and a writing surface, such as a place mat. The materials are placed out in stations, spaced several inches apart. After demonstrating the notation/drawing activity, the teacher, choosing words very carefully, says “I want you to watch what I do.” She then slowly walks to the each station, taking first a crayon, then the paper, and finally a mat, turns and carefully walks all the way back, placing mat and paper down with crayon just above the mat on the floor, parallel to the paper. “I wonder who else can do that” are the next sounds heard. The students have been watching the teacher’s every move. They are eager to show they can do it; so, many hands go up. The teacher calls on one child: “Let’s watch Benjamin get his things.”

Once again the children are completely focused, and the ceremony continues until all have their materials and are ready to proceed with the writing activity. To maintain the level of attention that has been achieved, the teacher has thought through how to practice writing in the air with fingers before children take their crayons and, in their own time, complete the writing activity. I should mention that I do this with my kindergarten class of sixteen children, and it goes very well. Through the semester the pace can be quickened if desired. The children become so accustomed to this pattern that two may go at a time, for example, with the same results. Even though it takes a few minutes of your class time, it is well worth it when you realize the time you will gain and the calmness you will achieve in your classroom!
The control of the class may be one of the greatest rewards that come from taking time to do a ceremony such as this. It will not fail you! If a child decides to use the moment to act out – which is rare – I just say “Uh-oh, Jacob forgot how to do this. Jacob, come sit down and maybe you can try again in a moment.” Children thrive with this kind of order and specific requests for actions. Dee Coulter has said this about behavior, “Behavior requests are literal and body based. For example, not ‘Be careful,’ but ‘Hold it with two hands and walk slowly.’ Not ‘Calm down,’ but ‘Sit down and breathe smoothly three times.’”

The broad developmental issues underlying this simple ceremony address four areas of the child’s self-control needs:

• Attention: Break the task down into digestible chunks: the line, stations, directions, and visual cue to imitate.
• Impulse: Give children clear steps to follow. If directions are vague, a child can get “lost” on the way to the task, turning attention to other things or “acting out.”
• Mood: The teacher sets the mood by the simple introduction and modeling. Just as children are fascinated by the first line of a well-told story, the teacher’s voice and posture will dictate the importance of the activity at hand and how seriously the students take it. Many years ago I remember Linda Robinson saying to children “Today we’re going to learn something about this string.” That was all she said, and it was, truly, just a black string. And yet the children were fascinated because of the way in which she spoke that introductory sentence!
• Pace: We must start slow enough and quit before they are tired. The ceremony starts slowly and sets the mood. Children anticipate their turn and are therefore easily and quickly engaged in the moment and primed for the actual activity to begin.

Music Makers presents us with many opportunities to create ceremonies for our students, for example,

• Rhythm patterns: always echo the pattern, before writing or pointing
• Manipulatives: ceremony for getting cards out, putting them in the same order
• Mallet ceremony: when multiple barred instruments are used
• Folder/album time, listening: designated area, where/how to sit, expectations of quiet listening, and taking turns in responding
• Parent time: entrance ritual, expectations about participation, boundaries for talking

We must become aware that any repeated action will become either a bad habit or a good habit. The rewards are far-reaching – not just for your immediate need of classroom control, but for the development of the whole child. As we take time for this kind of attention to detail, we are laying down the rails of habit. Karen Andreola, quoting Ms. Mason in her book A Charlotte Mason Companion (Charlotte Mason Research and Supply Company, 1998), writes, “One of the great functions of the educator is to secure that actions will be so regularly, purposefully, and methodically sown (in the brain) that the child will reap the habits of the good life, in thinking and doing, with a minimum of conscious effort.” And to quote an old saying attributed to Thomas à Kempis:

Sow an act, reap a habit,
Sow a habit, reap a character,
Sow a character, reap a destiny.

The habits that we are forming in this one ceremony include attention, courtesy, taking turns, thoroughness, obedience, manners, neatness, and doing your best. I will close with a quote, also from Charlotte Mason, that I am sure resonates with all of us as Musikgarten teachers: “It is well we should recognize that the business of education is with us all our lives, that we must always go on increasing our knowledge.”

NEW PRICE LIST – effective June 1, 2005
Musikgarten is pleased to announce that all Family
Packet prices will remain the same as those of the 2004-2005 academic year. There are a few price changes for instruments, namely resonator bar sets and single notes, sandblocks, jingle bells, and Chinese bells. Please call 1-800-216-6864 to ask that a price list be sent to you.

FROM LORNA

I have had the privilege this year of making Musikgarten trips to two new countries: South Africa and Mexico. Time and again I have been impressed both by the similarities of our work and the differences between our cultures, by how similar the children and parents are in their needs, and by how important it is for children and parents to be rooted in the culture of their own countries. In Musikgarten we have wonderful partners around the world.

South Africa: This is the newest country for us, and indeed a new continent. In February of this year I traveled to Johannesburg to help establish the Musikgarten Home Office in the able hands of Elize and Quintin Richards. Elize has many years experience teaching music and already has 149 children in her Musikgarten Studio! In April the initial group of workshop attendees started studios in several parts of the country. Extensive newspaper coverage and hard work have made it possible to schedule the next series of workshops in September and October 2005—African Springtime.

Canada: We take this opportunity to thank Athena Paling for being our Canadian distributor since May 2003. Athena’s family and studio are both growing, and we shall all welcome a new baby for the Palings in early May! Thank you, Athena, we wish you well and are very happy that you will continue to offer Musikgarten. Congratulations also to other excellent Musikgarten studios in many parts of Canada. You, too, are growing! We have planned workshops in both Toronto and Vancouver this summer, and hope to welcome many new colleagues. The extensive services offered to Musikgarten U.S. Licensees are now all available to Canadian Licensees direct from our Greensboro office. I hope to see many of you at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers National Convention in Calgary in July 2005, where I will be offering two sessions, one with a demonstration class of children from Glenda Evans’ studio.

Malaysia: Jenny Ong first started working with me in 1989 and became the Musikgarten Teacher Trainer for Malaysia and Singapore in the 1990s. Jenny and her business partner brother Tommy Ong have attracted excellent teachers throughout the region, offering all levels of Musikgarten. Jenny’s Musikgarten Workshops attract teachers from many countries in Southeast Asia, most recently Indonesia, India, and Australia. Once a year the Ong’s invite a U.S. Teacher Trainer: in May, 2005 Karen Haughey will teach workshops in Musikgarten’s Malaysia Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Taiwan and China: Musikgarten programs have been building in Taiwan and China since 2000. In March, Piper Tseng, President of Pied Piper Enterprises (our Chinese Musikgarten Company), invited Howard Baer to oversee the recording in Beijing with various Chinese children’s choirs. The new recordings are for the second year of Family Music: Play with Me and Clap with Me. Highlights of these recordings are new Chinese songs carefully selected from the many folk traditions in this vast land. Piper also invites a U.S. Trainer once a year: Cathy Mathia will be offering late summer workshops in Taiwan (FT, CYC & MMH in Taipei) and China (FT & CYC in Beijing).

Germany: Musikgarten celebrates 12 years of programs in Germany! A highlight of this year was a November presentation for the German National Association of Music Schools in Hannover. In May the revised edition of “Die musikalischen Jahreszeiten” (The Cycle of Seasons) will be published; in the new format there will be two semesters of 16 lessons each (Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer). Additionally a children’s book has been created to enclose the animal cards, “Pictures-scores,” coloring games, and photos.

A Musikgarten Model-program, in Groß-Umstadt near Frankfurt, introduced Music Makers: At the Keyboard in November. There are now four classes, all with very involved children and parents. Gabriele Zimmermann, teacher and owner, will attend the Baltimore Workshops this summer. Plan ahead: the first Musikgarten Festival in Germany is scheduled for May 2006.

Korea: Celebrating seven years of Musikgarten in Korea, publisher Allen Oh visited Greensboro this year to plan further growth of Musikgarten in Korea. Our U.S. and Canadian teachers have been able to enjoy some of the outstanding Korean folksongs on the new CDs for Family Music. Allen also invites a U.S. trainer to Korea, and Dr. Mary Louise Wilson has become an important mentor to teachers there. This November Dr. Wilson will make her 5th trip to Korea, teaching workshops in Seoul in addition to other cities and speaking at the Korean Musikgarten Festival.