“My education and experiences have led me to believe that positive psychology is the key to learning and retention.”

​

My goal is to create self-motivated, creative learners. Through the means of positive psychology we can create a high-gain, low-risk environment for learning through play. We recognize and celebrate that every child has their own unique needs for learning and many ways to express themselves creatively.

​

Positive Psychology and Music Together

 

In positive psychology, a “flow” state is the mental state in which a child performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. You often hear professional athletes and other performers referring to this state as “being in the zone.” This feeling of exhilaration and accomplishment ties in with the theory that cognitive abilities are socially guided and constructed. In short, culture and our experiences serve as a mediator for the formation and development of specific abilities, such as learning, memory, attention, and problem solving. Understanding and adapting the activities to the ages of our young learners is also a major key to learning. At this stage in their development, we focus primarily on Trust, Autonomy and Initiative.

 

All of this is done through movement and music! Creating lesson plans that engage our young learners to sing, dance, and play music is how we succeed in building a “flowing” learning experience. The class involves a collaboration of professional musicians and students playing music together. 

 

Core to my own teaching principles is the philosophy of experiential learning. The process of I do (teacher models how to play), We do (collaborative playing), and You do (students play independently) is the foundation for creating his lesson plans. We learn by playing music together.

“Most people think being musical is a question of talent—you either have it or you don't. While that may sound reasonable, it's completely untrue! All children can learn to dance and sing just as naturally as they learn to walk and talk.