Teaching Music in Waldorf Education
Each afternoon from 12:30 to 2:30 Pacific time music teachers will gather together for presentations and discussions specifically relevant to teaching music in Waldorf education.
Topics will include:
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Steiner's indications and the "WHY" behind teaching music grades 1-8
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Developmentally appropriate music content throughout the grades
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Meeting and engaging today's children (classroom management, time management, curriculum development/lesson planning)
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Creating space for sharing challenges, successes, and resources
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More details coming soon!
Meet the Music Team!
We are honored to be working with an amazing team of music teachers who are coordinating this portion of the conference!
Monika Sutherland MMus
Director of Teacher Education Great Lakes Waldorf Institute
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Monika began her journey as a Waldorf teacher in 1999. She created the music program at Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School in Viroqua, WI where she directed orchestra; chorus; and taught general music, strings, and served as Faculty and College chair.
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Monika has been involved in teacher education for the past ten years. Since 2019, she has directed the teacher education programs at Great Lakes Waldorf Institute. In addition to her work at GLWI, she is lead faculty at Sunbridge Institute in the Waldorf Elementary Music Teacher Education course and guest faculty at the Rudolf Steiner Centre in Toronto. She has led workshops at conferences in the US and Canada and provides consultation and mentorship for many Waldorf schools. She received Waldorf Certification from Sunbridge Institute in New York.
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Monika is a conservatory trained cellist and received her Bachelor of Music from Indiana University and her Master of Music from Northwestern University, both in cello performance. She and her husband live in rural Wisconsin where they raised their four children, all Waldorf alumni.
Melanie Whitney
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Melanie is a song leader, composer, singing voice specialist, and music educator currently living in Western Massachusetts. She is a mom of two, director of the Spirit Song Singers, facilitator of various music share events in the Pioneer Valley, and teacher of K-12 music at The Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA where she serves as the Music Department Chair. Melanie holds a BM in Music Education from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ and a certificate of Waldorf Music Education from the Sunbridge Institute in Chestnut Ridge, NY.
Music has always been a driving force in Melanie’s life and she is so immensely grateful for the meaningful and connective experiences she has been afforded because of its many gifts. Over time, she has come to know music as a wise and ever present healer, a dear friend, a distant memory, a soul salve, a humble teacher, a thought provoker, a truth seeker, a story teller, an expression of culture, and a manifestation of human evolution. Most importantly, she views music as a divine force that brings people together and brings us home to ourselves. Melanie feels blessed, daily, to be using music for healing and humanization in this broken world.
