Reverberations: Teachers Teaching Teachers is a weekly, online publication available to members that publishes models of best practice from Orff Schulwerk classrooms in the form of lesson ideas, student-tested teaching strategies, articles related to classroom applications, and more.
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List of Reverberations Articles
Reset, Reclaim, Recharge, Heal
As summer break approaches, it is time to reclaim the bits and pieces of yourself that often get set aside during the busiest seasons of teaching. If we teach students first and music second, then we are people first and teachers second. This article shares how to keep giving yourself the daily nourishment you need to stay whole—not just this summer, but all year round.
Building Community Through Music Family Night
Instead of a traditional stage program, consider envisioning the spring musical event as a Music Family Night. While students are ready to head outdoors, music teachers are often battling the “end-of-year squeeze” of testing and scheduling conflicts. This intergenerational outdoor event, centered around a theme song, swaps the stress of a formal performance for an explosion of color, community, and joyful sound by way of a musical playground.
The Outdoor Classroom: Cultivating Lesson Seeds
In our technology-driven world, both students and adults are losing touch with the restorative power of nature. This article explores a variety of ways to engage your students in creative music and movement activities beyond the traditional music classroom. Whether you are working with early childhood or upper elementary, there are lesson ideas tailored for all ages and stages of learning.
A Guide for Teacher-Authors: Planting the Seeds of Practice
Our community is at its strongest when we learn from one another. To broaden our collective vision of Orff Schulwerk in action, Reverberations is looking for fresh Teachers Teaching Teachers perspectives and we want yours to be among them! To help you feel confident sharing your voice, this article shares a few “lesson seeds” to spark your inspiration.
Level I: An Elemental Shift
A recent participant in an AOSA Teacher Education course reflects on the experience: “Level I of Orff-Schulwerk forced me to pause and overhaul everything about my music teaching. While the program provides a wealth of practical tools, the real game-changer is the constant push to integrate all aspects of the Schulwerk into an approach tailored to your specific students and setting. It is demanding work that forces deep reflection….”
The Art of the Spark: Cultivating Creativity
This article is part of a “seed planting” series curated by the Reverberations Editorial Board. As Orff Schulwerk educators, we invite children to create by engaging them with stimuli designed to spark the imagination. Whether the catalyst is poetry, mathematics, history, or the whimsical world of “found sounds,” the possibilities are as limitless as the collective creativity of our students. Here, five experienced OS educators share their initial impressions and lesson inspirations rooted in a single “seed”: a piece of contemporary visual art.
Avon Gillespie: The Gift of Possibility Teaching
A master of Orff pedagogy, Avon Gillespie was defined by his adventurous spirit and his belief in the power of student intuition. He was renowned for “spiraling” simple concepts into immersive performances of music, dance, and drama. Beyond his artistry, Gillespie significantly enriched American Orff Schulwerk by championing the inclusion of Black American music. In honor of his mother, he founded a scholarship for teachers serving Early Childhood programs with low-income populations, now known as the Shields-Gillespie Scholarship. Readers can explore his work in this collection of his writings from the AOSA Resource Library, compiled by Joan Stansbury with an introduction by Doug Goodkin.
Rhythmische Übung ¡En Español!
Written in both Spanish and English, this lesson idea features teaching suggestions to help language learners succeed. These strategies benefit both English Language Learners and students in Spanish immersion settings alike.
Beyond the Wall: Reimagining Humpty Dumpty
Nursery rhymes offer significant value beyond early childhood. In this lesson idea, Karen Petty demonstrates how “Humpty Dumpty” can challenge upper elementary students to master duple compound time through speech canons and untuned percussion. The lesson culminates in a rhythmic exploration, shifting the familiar rhyme into complex asymmetrical meters.
The Healing Power of Song
In times of external stress, we can provide a safe community for our students without burdening them with the complexities of adult controversies. Few actions foster a sense of belonging as powerfully as the simple, shared act of singing. This annotated collection of canons, curated from the AOSA Resource Library, centers on the essential themes of peace, acceptance, and harmony.
Sasara Ang Bulaklak
This Filipino song/game comes is shared by a culture-bearer and experienced Orff Schulwerk teacher. Included are sound files to help with pronunciation.
Building from Books
This article shares ideas for teachers to consider when looking for children’s books to use in the music classroom and offers a framework for empowering your students to create their own materials for use with a book.