Nyssa Brown:

Encouraging Independence

Friday & Saturday, January 22 & 23, 2010
Fri. 7 to 10 PM, Sat. 9 to 4 PM  Meridian Park Elementary School

Encouraging Independence in the 4th-8th Grade Music Classroom: Creativity, Groupwork, and Teacher Facilitation

Do you wish your 4th-8th grade students were more innovative and independent in their music making and analysis skills? Would you like more effective and efficient strategies for helping students work in groups in the music classroom? Focusing on the developmental stages of 10-14 year olds, this workshop will give teachers practical strategies for increasing classroom community, encouraging independent thinking, and promoting creative problem solving.Teachers will leave the workshop with:

* new song/game repertoire for 4th-8th graders,

* lesson plan ideas (ready for classroom implementation),

* strategies for developing future groupwork lessons,

* connections with learning theory and educational research, and

* assessment/evaluation strategies specific to groupwork lessons.

Learn how to set students up for success in groupwork in the music classroom. Come prepared for experiential activities, hands on learning, and a creative approach to music in the upper elementary and middle grades!!

Nyssa Maria Brown serves as Music Education Coordinator for Minnesota’s Perpich Center for Arts Education whose mission is to improve K–12 education for all Minnesota students and educators through innovative programs and partnerships centered in the arts. Ms. Brown taught elementary school vocal and general music at Park Spanish Immersion School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota from 1998-2007. In 2006, Nyssa was chosen by Education Minnesota, a state affiliate of NEA and AFT, to represent Minnesota at the national level in NEA’s Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. Ms. Brown was one of ten finalists for 2004 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and received a prestigious Milken Educator Award in 2004 from the Milken Family Foundation. Nyssa is a faculty member of the Kodály Levels Courses at Indiana University and James Madison University. She has spent time in Namibia and South Africa teaching and learning music and has participated in Eastman School of Music's Umculo: The Kimberley Project. She also studied in Hungary at the Kodály Institute's summer seminar. Nyssa released her first CD in October, 2000, "Packwood or Paradise." Ms. Brown graduated from the Hartt School of Music and Hartford College for Women in 1998 with a BMus in Education and a BArts in Women's Studies. Her Kodály certification was earned at Brigham Young University in 2001.