Pathway to Progress: Empowering Educators for Today’s Classrooms

This interactive workshop will share the exciting music cognition research of the past 30 years with teachers. Science confirms what many teachers have understood intuitively—music is a powerful mnemonic tool; not only is learning accelerated, but the duration of retention is often life-long. However, memory is only one of the areas influenced by musical practice. Musical practice is a powerful ally for developing language skills and literacy. Language IS musical, and musical practice fine-tunes syllabic and phonetic recognition. Rhythm and mathematics are also linked; early rhythmic entrainment prepares children for success in numeration, fractions, and proportions. Musical practice also develops self-control, interpersonal connection, and focus. These skills have proven to be more important than IQ in longitudinal studies.

My workshop will explain how teachers can use music for:
- classroom calm and transitions
- attention and self-control
- literacy (association of reading and rhythm)
- mathematics
- interpersonal connections

The interactive workshop will demonstrate that even without formal musical training, teachers can bring music to their classrooms with remarkable results.