Connecting Students Using Music Workshop with Amy Richter
Amy Richter founder of Music Workshop shares how music education can be transformative experience for students. In this conversation, Amy shares that funding cuts at her children's school meant no more music education. She decided to take action and find a solution by founding the non-profit Music Workshop. Now Music Workshop is available to 6 million students around the world and it is completely free! Listen as Amy shares her story and how how music education impacts students.
Links
Music Workshop website
Music Wellbeing for Educators website
Literature review on positive effects of music education by Judit Varadi
Basic talking points on positive effect for music education from Arts Education Partnership
Transcript
Scott Lee: Greetings friends and colleagues, welcome to The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast, the professional educator’s thought partner-a service of Oncourse Education Solutions and SEL Resource. I am Scott Lee. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and education organizations please visit our website: www.oncoursesolutions.net and reach out.
As most of you know music and expressive arts are essential for positive development and wellness for children and youth. Our guest today, Amy Richter, knew from her own life the importance that music plays in healthy development. When she realized that music education was being cut within her own children’s schools, she founded Music Workshop to provide culturally responsive music curricula to K-8 teachers for free. Today Music Workshop is used by educators in all 50 US states and over 100 other countries. We’ll learn more about how Music Workshop works in classrooms, but first we discuss why and how Amy got started with Music Workshop.
All right. So, thank you for joining us today. Amy.
Amy Richter: Thank you for having me.
Scott Lee: So first off, your professional background is not as a teacher. So why decide to develop a music education program?
Amy Richter: Well, I witnessed firsthand the transformative power of music in my own life.
And I really wanted to share that with students. I was diagnosed with dyslexia and use music as a tool in my life throughout my life to better myself academically, emotionally, artistically, and all the ways that I could use music in my life. And after having my own children, I realized a gap in, music education that needed to be filled to really expose students to the world of music so that they can have choices to choose their musical path and how they use music in their own life.
So, my passion for music and my belief in its benefits drove me to create Music Workshop. And it is a program that is, filled with music empowered resources for teachers and students K through eighth grade to foster well-being and understanding of the world of music. We started locally in 10 schools in 2013, driving around DVDs and handouts to schools. And, when we hit 20 schools, I realized this was not going to be scalable. So, I worked with our web designer at that time, and we developed our first online platform that we moved our programming onto. And that is when we had, the reach beyond our city beyond our state, but really a global reach for any school to participate in our program, a hundred percent free of charge.
Scott Lee: And you've got, students are in schools that are all over the world now, don't you?
Amy Richter: We do. We are currently educating over 6 million students in over 14, 000 schools in all 50 states and a hundred and two countries.
Scott Lee: Wow.
Amy Richter: It's pretty exciting.
Scott Lee: So, what do you think music education does for students that other types of learning activities don't? I mean, you mentioned that, you noticed this was a missing piece for your own children, when they were in school. So, what do you think music does that other types of activities in school might not?
Amy Richter: Well, I think that music has been proven that. It helps to allow for emotional expression and creativity. It also helps to build confidence and self-esteem, which helps in self-discovery. It also really enhances cognitive functioning, like memory and attention, boosting student academic success.
And it fosters connection and teamwork, especially. Culturally diverse music brings in this element that really helps students to connect with each other and to connect with the global world that they are living in. It's really such a powerful tool in so many ways.
Scott Lee: Yeah, it's interesting that you mention, connection, as being part of how this helps students. There continues to be so much research about belonging as being the real way that we know students are successful in school. And so, having things that, that promote belonging in schools is just huge. How does Music Workshop help students connect?
Amy Richter: Well, it helps students connect through shared musical experiences, exposing them to different genres, ways that you can play certain instruments that they might not have seen before music from cultures around the world that they've never had exposure to helps with this shared experience, helping them connect. Have conversations. And learn together. We hear from our teachers a lot, how this opens doors. Our program opens doors for students to have these conversations and to connect with each other. And we received this positive feedback from our teachers all the time.
Scott Lee: And I guess we should, we should mention that part of the curriculum does involve a lot of discussion, that it's not just about listening to music, that, that there are teacher led activities that come with the program.
Amy Richter: Absolutely. So, when a teacher logs into their account, it takes about 30 seconds to create a free account, and then they're automatically into our portal and in the portal, they will have a selection of our curriculum. And when they look to see what type of programming they want to bring it into their classroom, it's, segmented by grade levels, K-2, 3-5, 6-8.
And our programming is on all sorts of musical topics, cultures, genres, instruments, careers in music, teaching kids. They don't have to be a rock star to have a career in music, then once the teacher selects the course that they want to bring into their classroom, they download all of the free materials and they're off to the races. It's very turnkey and they receive all of the tools to teach that program, including a video teacher led Q and A activities, take home, handouts for their students to continue their learning at home. So yes, it is much more than a video. It's so inclusive of so many different elements to help teachers to effectively teach our students this type of programming in their classroom.
Scott Lee: Let's talk a little bit more specifically about how it would work. I was thinking about, the unit on, indigenous music. You go a lot into the history, but also you have performances by contemporary artists as part of what the students are seeing and hearing and working with. How does that work?
Amy Richter: Absolutely. We work with cultural advisors on our programming to make sure that it is relevant and engaging and that the resources that we are putting forward are vetted. So, it is a discussion and a creation in conjunction with these advisors to really help provide us with the guidance on how they think the story should be told, in the classroom.
So, they provide us with that guidance from outline to script development to video creation on how we should be presenting this topic in a K through eight setting. So yes, we teach students all about history and geography and music appreciation. And All of the things that expose them to the world of music so that they can continue their learning beyond our curriculum, that they're interested. It's planting the seed to get them to really want to learn more.
Scott Lee: And you also are doing some things for teachers, before we started recording we talked about kids who have experienced trauma and we talked about music therapy. And you mentioned that you're starting, a program, a wellness program for educators. Why is that? And, and what kind of feedback have you gotten from it?
Amy Richter: Yeah, so we have been hearing from our teachers, more so now after the pandemic than prior about the struggles that they are having in their classrooms as it pertains to student well-being as well as their own well-being. They're asked to do a lot in their classroom to support their students and are not necessarily giving given the tools to do so. So, we did a brief survey of our teachers and in 24 hours, we had 500 responses from our educators teaching music workshop, letting us know that they need help in this area. They need to understand. More about student wellbeing and the importance of it and how to use music as a tool in their classroom to support it.
So, our first professional development program was launched back in May, supporting music educators in this space. So, with student and teacher wellbeing, it's an online self-paced professional development opportunity, and we will be launching one for general educators coming up this August. So, we're really excited about the launch of that same, modality.
It will be online and self-paced, which is exactly what our educators asked from us, but we will also be doing in district trainings as well in person. So that's an exciting new development. And then starting in October, we will be launching a third course for pre-service teachers. Helping teachers or students that are learning to be teachers, understand the current landscape with student mental health and how to use music as a tool. When they step into the classroom, to support their students as well as themselves with their own well-being.
Scott Lee: And I should mention that we're recording this in July of, 2024. And, so much of that will actually be live by the time listeners are hearing this.
Amy Richter: Absolutely. We are so excited about this and know already how much it has helped our music educators. We have received a lot of incredible feedback from our teachers, letting us know that this course has really made a huge difference Already in their teaching and having actionable items when they step into the classroom.
This fall is exactly what they're needing to start off right with their students and have connections out of the out of the gates with them. Because as we know, with connection creates student well-being. It helps with teachers and students to communicate with each other, to trust one another, which aids in academic success.
Scott Lee: So, this program is entirely free for teachers to access, to use with their students. How are you able to do that?
Amy Richter: So, we fundraise throughout the year to provide our programming are in classroom programming 100 percent free of charge. It has been a part of our mission from the beginning. We want to remove the barriers to relevant and culturally responsive. Music empowered education, and to do that, we need to provide teachers with free of charge resources as well as a platform that provides them with easy access to these resources and programming so no matter where a teacher is. Or what their resource situation is. They can have and teach our program completely free of charge. And we do this off of grants and donations. So, we're always looking for support in the community and beyond for donations, for grants to support this free curriculum in schools. It's so very important. The support that we receive to keep building this. Programming that teachers need and want. And I think our numbers speak to that knowing that we're educating over 6 million students with our program.
Scott Lee: That's especially important. I think considering how much music education and arts education in general has not only been underfunded but, has been cut back so much recently.
Amy Richter: Absolutely. We see it in our own community. Our largest school district in Oregon is cutting a significant amount of their music education programming this coming year. And the other thing with the lack of funding has created a lack of reform. So, we know and see that predominantly music education is Eurocentric, not bringing in cultures from around the world.
So, this is something that was. A major focus point and part of our mission is to make sure that our programming is culturally responsive, showing students all about the world of music and giving students in the classroom connection points to their culture and cultures beyond their own. It is so very important.
We hear all the time from our teachers that students who are connecting with their culture for the first time in their educational setting are speaking up, are wanting to share more. It is providing them with that safe zone to do that. And I have a great story about that. One of our teachers sent us this incredible email and then sent us a video of it as well. But one of her students who is very shy, hadn't spoken up all year after she, showed and taught our Native American traditional music course. He came up to her and he had never spoken to her until this point. And he said that he knew how to drum like they were showing in the video that his uncles had taught him that and could he show his classmates.
So, the very next day he got up in front of his class and he showed them how he could drum like some of the drummers in the course itself. And it’s impactful moment because here was this instant connector point for this child who then Expanded the learning of his peers and his classmates by showing them what he had been taught to do. It was just such an incredible story.
Scott Lee: Yeah. Do you have any other stories that you'd like to share about students in the program?
Amy Richter: We hear all the time from our teachers, the impact our program is having in the classroom.
We require feedback from our teachers. That is their payment to move from one program to another. They have to provide us with feedback. We want to improve our programming for them. So, we hear stories all the time about the impact our program is having on students that are normally not responsive in class, keep their head down, don't participate.
And it's bringing their participation to the surface. They love what they're engaging with. They're connecting. And that is an area that we hear about a lot. Another is students. Feeling connected to their educational design because for the first time their culture is being positively represented in their classroom.
So, we do hear specific stories about students wanting to bring in their instruments and showcase. More of their culture in the classroom after a course has been taught that has reflected the culture that they come from. And so, so many amazing stories that we've had along the way a teacher was teaching a strings class.
To her students that had disabilities and one student who normally is non responsive for the first time. She saw him wave his arms in the air and he was so excited about the music that he was listening to. So, these points of impact are so meaningful to us and to me personally, to keep moving our mission forward at music workshop.
It just helps us to know we're doing great things in the community and we're going to keep moving forward and any help that, people want to give us along the way, they can go to musicworkshop. org and communicate with us. Sign up for our program, share our program with their music teacher in their school.
If they don't have a music educator, share it with their principal to help bring in our program in the, into their school we need all the help we can get to share the word about music workshop. We have so many more schools and students to impact. And we need all the help we can get to get there.
Scott Lee: Yeah. And we'll be sure and put a link on our website as well to music workshop. dot. org. And do want to point out that is a. org and not a. com.
Amy Richter: Thank you.
Scott Lee: Well, thank you so much today for joining us, Amy.
Amy Richter: Thank you so much for having me, Scott.
Scott Lee: The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is brought to you as a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and youth organizations strengthening learning cultures and developing more resilient youth, please visit our website at w w w dot oncoursesolutions dot net.
This has been episode 11 of the 2024 season. If you enjoy this podcast, please tell your friends and colleagues about us, in person and on social media. Also, five-star reviews on your podcast app helps others find us. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is a production of Oncourse Education Solutions LLC, Scott Lee producer, a member of the PodNooga Network. Guest was not compensated for appearance, nor did guest pay to appear. Episode notes, links and transcripts are available at our website w w w dot thoughtfulteacherpodcast dot com. Theme music is composed and performed by Audio Coffee. Please follow me on social media, my handle on Instagram and Twitter is @drrscottlee and on Mastodon @drrscottlee@universedon.com
