Less Words : Don't Miss This Video

TEAMM Workshop

Each month our TEAMM meetings gets BETTER and BETTER! This past Monday we had a large group that was so engaged and creative, talking about leading our classes without using TOO MANY WORDS. We discussed the Balloon Time activity in depth, really talking about how it has been honed over the years to limit the amount of verbal instruction. So many TEAMM members chimed in including All-Stars KuanTing, Cathy, Emily, and Andrew. If you are teaching this way, you really don’t want to miss their insights. In this post I’ll share the FULL video of the meeting! But first…

Housekeeping:

I’m so glad to be invited to present THREE SESSIONS at the upcoming OMEA State Conference! Make your plans now! See you in Cleveland.

If you are a supporter of this effort, to bring DALCROZE principles into mainstream music ed spaces, then consider upgrading to the TEAMM! We’d love to have you in our community.

From the Archive:

There are a lot of good reasons to think about minimizing verbal instructions in a music class. Whether it’s part of an effort to encourage children to discover and explore their own connection to music, or it’s a process by which we can foster a beautiful aesthetic in a lesson, finding “extra words” to eliminate is a constant process that yields great results for me. I find that my students are more engaged and learn more, and the class is just far more enjoyable.

Many of the concepts outlined in the video are straight forward, just parts of a good teaching practice. However, there are some specific considerations for movement-based teachers that I think are prescient. I hope you can find some ideas to implement in your room immediately, as well as some interesting food for thought that might take a longer philosophical shift to realize.