Spend Your Summer Teaching Kindermusik

Summer camps offered by Kindermusik educators worldwide provide an opportunity to inspire a child's love of learning in only 5 lessons. They are packed with music, stories, crafts and fun, all designed to nurture a child's curiosity; one that eventually draws them toward learning new words, new numbers, and new big ideas.

There are a variety of camp themes:

Sign Language
The Ocean
Giggles
Time Together as a Family
The Zoo
Storytelling
Your Backyard
Road Trips

Educators provide families with unique musical learning activities, paired with age appropriate instruments and music, all in one shorter session. Each research-proven, giggle approved activity is backed by Kindermusik's 30+ years experience in music and child development.

The First 3 Years Teaching Music

I was reading a very good article in the February 2010 edition of Teaching Music magazine which is a publication of the MENC organization called “Advice for the First 3 Years.” It offered suggestions for what beginning music teachers can do to “gird themselves for challenges of the profession.” I think this is true for both the private music educator and the public music teacher. With Kindermusik, the first three years are also the most challenging. During this time, new teachers are still learning the curriculum and how to make magic in the classroom. They are communicating with the children, their parents or caregivers, the Partnership of Kindermusik Educators, and the home office. They haven’t yet developed personal experience to draw from in times of difficulty. Our experience, like the article, is that if the educator can come through these first 3 years with positive feelings about the experience, their achievements, etc., they will most likely remain in the profession for a while. The veteran educators in the article had this advice:

• Isolation is a big issue in year one for the new teacher. Hold on to the community of people that you trained with and don’t let them go. Post blogs, start a FaceBook page, make cell phone calls, whatever works best. Make intentional efforts to stay connected.
• Classroom Management can also be a major concern. Remember, sometimes it is not the children that need the fix, but the teacher. Have someone come in and observe your classes to provide open, honest and direct feedback.
• Be sure to be student focused. The child should be first.
• Find out what you don’t know and go learn more; be a lifelong learner.
• Remember who you were at your student’s ages.
• A lot can be learned by trial and error.
• Mentoring is extremely important. Accept help that is provided.
• Pride should not get in the way. Be willing and comfortable to ask questions. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness.
• Focus energy on making a difference where you can.
• Be sure there is a mechanism in place to help you examine, reflect, and grow in your teaching practices that is completely separate from a formal evaluation.

With Kindermusik, we support new educators every step of the way. The experience begins with a comprehensive training program, including four practice teaching classes to gain comfort and experience before the course is even completed. During the online experience, she will learn the philosophy, pedagogy, curriculum and business aspects of establishing and running a successful Kindermusik program. The learning group consists of 15 to 20 other potential teachers from all over the world and is facilitated by a mentor who has successfully run a Kindermusik program for many years. This environment provides both peer-to-peer and mentor-to-peer learning. In fact, the mentor will partner with her as a business coach through the first teaching semester providing success steps throughout. We have an extensive library of pre-recorded webinars that will provide on-going professional development from both the masterful teaching perspective and to help build a successful program. In addition, we make marketing and enrollment easy with tools through our class scheduler and online enrollment system.

The first 3 years don't have to be difficult at all. Start today on your journey to complete your life's best work with Kindermusik.

Posted by: Terry P. Kilgo, Recruiting Manager

Now is a great time to become an Educator

We currently have about 604 Kindermusik educators worldwide who are looking to grow and expand their programs. They are looking for quality teachers to join their teams. Training to become certified is more economical than ever now. If you are planning to work for an educator, you can get started for as little as $199. Feel free to visit our teaching opportunities board at http://www.kindermusik.com/Teach/KIHiringAll.aspx to see who is hiring in your community.

Reclaiming the Joyful Spirit in Life

I have always loved music, and have been a musician since I was a young girl. I began playing the piano at age 7, and later added voice, clarinet, and handbells to my repertoire. Music has always brought me joy when I was feeling sad, or calmed me down when I was upset. (My family can attest that I have been known to literally “pound out my frustrations” on the piano.)After completing 7th grade, I attended a music camp at a small college a few hours from where I grew up. There I had the opportunity to take a private piano lesson from the dean of the music college. I played for him a piece that I felt I had mastered, and he proceeded to point out all of my shortcomings in a way that put my fragile 13-year-old ego through the shredder. Then he told me that if I really wanted to “do” the piece, I would have to give up the other music activities that I enjoyed (accompanying the junior high chorus, playing at church, etc.) and focus completely on practicing that piece. After the lesson, I felt incompetent and utterly dejected.As high school graduation approached, I began considering a career in music. While I knew that my musical ability had improved, that horrible music camp experience was still in my mind, and I still felt that my best efforts it would always be inadequate. There would always be someone like that music professor jumping on my every mistake, and music would become a source of stress rather than an outlet. In addition, the Midwestern work ethic with which I was raised conveyed the message that your job was just a job, and you weren’t meant to enjoy it.So, I pursued my other talents, mathematics and business, and became an actuary, working for 2 different insurance companies for a total of 16 years. I endured the stress of studying for and passing a series of extremely difficult exams, working 50+ hour weeks with no end in sight, juggling career and family, and always feeling like I wasn’t doing enough. There was very little about my career that I could call fun, and I know I wasn’t much fun to be around. What was fun was making music, as I became a church and community musician and began teaching music to children.In late 2005, I left my executive-level job to take some time off and figure out “what I want to be when I grow up.” What I figured out is that life is too short to not enjoy what you do, and what I enjoy is music. In the fall of 2006, I began teaching music at local preschools and became licensed to teach Kindermusik. Shortly after that, I formed my business and chose the word brioso, which means “with vigor and spirit.” In 2007, I began teaching Kindermusik classes and private piano lessons. And I have discovered that singing and laughing with children nearly every day is a wonderful boost to the spirit. It is my hope that all of you reading this are fortunate enough to spend your lives doing work that feeds your spirit as well.

-by Kindermusik educator Julie Bosworth. Julie owns and runs Julie's Music Brioso, a Kindermusik program in Olathe, KS.

Music Education and "a Kindermusik child"

Over the thirteen years I have been attending Kindermusik classes, I have come to be able to spot a Kindermusik child a mile a way.

A Kindermusik child:

• is curious
• smiles a lot, even when alone
• is confident in his or her own voice
• enjoys hearing other children sing and play
• can be calmed, excited, or centered by music
• has the emerging patience to try and figure things out
• enjoys – and is proud of – belonging to a group

Now imagine if EVERY child shared these qualities. Might the news headlines look a bit different every morning...?So to those who think arts education is not important enough to make a priority in our world, I say, “How would we know? We’ve never tried.”


by Michael Dougherty, CEO of Kindermusik International

Kindermusik and Babytalk's World's Biggest Playgroup Event

Once again Kindermusik International participated in the World’s Biggest Playgroup event sponsored by Babytalk. This event was held on November 10, 2009, at the Mall of America in Bloomington (Minneapolis), MN. Click here to take a look at a copy of the in-book promotional page which appears in the November issue of Babytalk, where you’ll see Kindermusik and many other child-focused companies listed as sponsors. Kindermusik provided the four musical/activity sessions during the event, and we were included as a sponsor and are being recognized in all advertising (both local and national).

Maestro educator Helen Peterson (along with a few other Kindermusik educators) led the four 20 minute Kindermusik segments during this half-day event. This brought more children into the Minneapolis area Kindermusik programs and provided Kindermusik some well-deserved national attention all at the same time. 800 to 1000 children and parents were expected to attend!

Passing the Torch!

It really doesn't seem that long ago that Rachel Roberts was in Kindermusik employee owner & educator Cindy Bousman's Kindermusik class at the Cultural Arts Center in Greensboro, NC. You can imagine her surprise and delight when she found out Rachel is currently in a Fundamentals Learning Group! It really feels good to be able to pass on the torch.

"Young" Rachel is the cutie on the left in the red striped shorts!