Taylors Falls second graders help teach the teachers

April 4th,2013, Taylors Falls Elementary second grade students participated in the Music EdVentures Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota. Activities of this organization are built on the premise that students should be at the center of and actively involved in the study at hand. Music and music activities become the catalyst through which this happens.

Teachers from all over the United States and Japan, at every level of the educational field attended the conference from early childhood through university, classroom and music teachers. Mrs. Steffen and Ms. Landin¹s students were part of an observation class that allowed teachers to view teaching and learning in action! Leah Steffen, Fine Arts Specialist at Taylors Falls Elementary, led the students in a lesson centered on the folk song, Sally Go Round the Sun. Using the strategies and principles of SongWorks, the students focused on vocabulary and developed their own version of this song.

When the lesson was completed the students participated in an activity with the adults. Singing, cooperating, recognizing patterns, reasoning, and problem solving were evident throughout both lessons. Conference attendees discussed what occurred while they were observing the lesson. Unanimously the discussions revealed the live demonstration class from Taylors Falls to be an extremely effective way to understand a facilitative learning environment and to help improve the teaching skills of those present.