Mrs. Eisenman's philosophy of music education:

My mission is to engage students musically and make them feel like engaged in imaginative play, especially with my K-2 classes. My hope is that every student feels musically stimulated and challenged, no matter what stage they are in musically. I achieve this by  having children actively participate in a rich and varied music environment.  

All children have the potential to be musical.  All children have the potential to be active music makers.  Determination and a desire to learn is absolutely imperative in raising one's music achievement. 

Children's music environment should be filled with a variety of tonalities (major, harmonic minor, aeolian, phrygian, dorian, mixolydian, lydian, locrian, etc.) and a variety of meters (duple, triple, unusual 5/4, 7/4, etc.).  Playing music from various places around the world is a fantastic way for creating a rich and varied music environment for children.  Not only should children be immersed in music from their culture, but from other cultures as well.

There are parallel's between language learning and music learning.  We become fluent in language first by listening, then by speaking, next by reading, and finally by writing.

Similarly, we become fluent in music by first listening, then by interacting (singing, chanting, moving, etc.), next by reading, and finally by writing.  Music learning should be scaffolded in this way.

In Mrs. Eisenman's music classes students should HAVE FUN making music by:

• Singing

• Chanting (rhythmic speaking using neutral or specific syllables)

• Moving

• Dancing

• Playing Instruments

• Listening

• Improvising

• Audiating/ Thinking music

• Describing

Much of my philosophy in how we learn music comes from Gordon's Music Learning Theory.  It is important that children audiate (Gordon coined this term) music.  Gordon says that thought is to language as audiation is to music.  When we audiate music we are hearing music in our minds that either is no longer present or never was present.

Resources can all be found in GIA publications:

Jump Right in; The Music Curriculum, by B. Bolton, A. Reynolds, W. Valerio, C. Taggart, & E. Gordon (2000 and up)

Music Play; The Early Childhood Music Curriculum Guide for Parents, Teachers & Caregivers, by B. Bolton, A. Reynolds, W. Valerio, C. Taggart, & E. Gordon (1998)

The Developmental and Practical Applications of Music Learning Theory,edited by M. Runfola & C. Taggart (2005)

A Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children, by E. Gordon (2003)

Learning Sequences in Music: Skill, Content, and Patterns, by E. Gordon (2003)