“Playful-shops”
staff development with a musical twist!
“Playful-Shops!”
Hello, and welcome to “Playful-Shops!” My name is Marya Katz -- I have taught public school music for 33 years, with experience in elementary & middle school general music, high school choral music, as well as church choral music (both youth and adult). And I have endured many, many hours of traditional staff development trainings...
In all these years, I have learned that certain staff development “workshops” are better than others. Those are the sessions where I have been given the opportunity to have hands-on, active experiences with the subject matter. The very best ones gave me the inspiration to apply what I already knew about teaching music to new methods or materials that I could use to enhance my classroom activities. Often times, those great sessions weren’t even specifically music-based, but the way that an idea was presented sparked my interest (which ultimately would lead to a creative new way for me to teach -- and isn’t that truly the reason for staff development in the first place?)
Oh, look -- my school system has just scheduled yet another staff development workshop. Sounds like great fun, doesn’t it? Actually, it just sounds like work (that’s probably why they call it a “work”shop). Yup -- another few hours of sit-n-git, complete with a powerpoint presentation, where someone hauls out a bunch of easels and paper and colored pens so we can brainstorm ideas at our table to share (if we dare). We might even get a few handouts of current articles to read in our “spare time.”
Oh, please. What I really want is something I can use right now in my classroom ...
A Different Path To Learning
