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An example of an activity she participated in as part of her course was taking a children ’ s book and writing a musical accompaniment . The instructors had the class read through the book and add those musical elements , with students playing different parts of the accompaniment together . During Falk ’ s annual book sale , Esswein says , she found books that fit the activity beautifully and was able to incorporate the activity into her classes .
“ There might be three characters in this book who have a saying that they repeat several times ,” she says . “ So when one character appears , some students play the motif on rhythm sticks , and when another character appears , other students use egg shakers .”
What made the training especially helpful , Esswein says , was the transferable knowledge it provided . She came away not only with resources and activities that were new to her but flexible ways of thinking about music instruction that allowed her to create resources with things she was already doing in her Falk classroom .
During her undergraduate education , Esswein was advised not to pursue Orff-Schulwerk certification until she had a classroom of her own , she says , because the training might be too abstract without a specific context in which to imagine the curriculum . That turned out to be excellent advice .
“ It was definitely helpful to be able to think about how one group of kids will really love an activity ,” she says . “ It was really valuable to get to know the students and go into the training thinking , ‘ What are the things I think Falk kids will really respond to ?’”
She will be taking Level II instruction and anticipates delving more into Orff-Schulwerk ’ s elements of improvisation .
While earning her Orff-Schulwerk certification , Esswein also has been earning her master ’ s in education through the University of Pittsburgh School of Education .
“ Doing both simultaneously has been a cool experience because I ’ m able to look at the education side of things through the master ’ s program while also looking at those ideas in the context of music education through Orff-Schulwerk .”
Lisa Giardina
Lisa Giardina , fourth- , fifth- , and sixthgrade Spanish teacher at Falk Laboratory School , attended the 2023 Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association ( PSMLA ) Fall Conference , held at Seven Springs Mountain Resort .
“ I ’ ve been really lucky to be able to go almost every year ,” says Giardina , who ’ s been at Falk since 2017 .
Language instruction changes so frequently that conferences are a crucial way of staying abreast of shifts in the field as well as of new tools and ideas that her peers are using .
In prior years , Giardina has come away from the PSMLA conference and others she has attended with ideas for places to find authentic resources she can share with her classes and how to use them in a way that isn ’ t too overwhelming . An authentic resource could be anything from restaurant menus from Spanish-speaking countries to videos and popular songs in Spanish .
“ I ’ ve gotten good tips on how to scaffold those resources and guide students toward understanding , using their comprehension strategies to break down the text ,” she says , “ and [ learned ] that it ’ s okay if they don ’ t understand every single thing .”
At the 2023 PSMLA conference , she enjoyed a presentation on how to introduce those authentic resources naturally using stories . The presenting teacher showed his students a slideshow in which he disappeared and had to be found by listening closely and following clues that led to Spain and then to the Prado museum . Trailing the missing teacher created a natural segue to introducing a pamphlet from the Madrid museum and learning about Spanish art .
Activities like these are helpful to draw students in but can be time consuming to create , says Giardina . She spends time each summer reviewing notes and other resources from the conference she attended that year , deciding which ideas and tools to integrate into her curricula for the coming school year .
One change that Giardina is considering after this year ’ s conference will save her a considerable amount of time . During a brainstorming session with other teachers , she received valuable feedback on her system of assessing students . Instead of pulling each student aside and talking to them for six or seven minutes to assess their language level , the other teachers encouraged her to condense the amount of time she spends in
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