You are an early childhood teacher. You know that music is magic with young children. You use music to quiet an excited group and excite a quite group. You use music to work out the wiggles on days that children cannot play outside, or to move children to another activity or another part of the room. You use music to serve the development of language skills, large and small motor skills, listening skills, body awareness, interaction and social skills. You and your children have favorite songs and musical activities that are always welcomed, and you integrate songs and musical activities into your day to day routines.
You learn that the many delightful music activities that serve so many kinds of learning do not serve music learning. You learn that early childhood is the most important time for music learning, just as it is for language, and that the young child’s natural musical talent has to be nurtured in the earliest years, or it will wither rather than bloom. You realize that you are responsible for your children’s musical growth and development just as you are for other dimensions of learning. You are now a music teacher.
You have to shift back and forth between the hat of early childhood teacher and that of music teacher. You engage children in favorite songs and musical activities to stimulate language development. Then you use a different kind of songs and chants to stimulate music development. You use movement one way to foster gross motor development and another to foster music learning.
Wearing the hat of music teacher does not diminish the delight or learning value of musical activities that you do with the hat of early childhood teacher. Rather, it indicates that you know the difference between music activities for learning and music activities for music learning, and that you take the responsibility of meeting your children’s musical needs as well as their intellectual, physical, emotional, and social needs.
You will become more adept at changing hats. You will understand that the process of music learning is much like learning language, and provide for both immersion and interactivity. You will find ways to integrate activities for music learning into your day to day routines—perhaps using a rhythm activity while children get in line, walk outside, or pick up toys; perhaps using a tonal activity while children are resting, entering the room, or coming together for reading time. You will respond musically to a child’s spontaneous music babble. Perhaps your greatest challenge will be knowing which hat to put on when responding to a child’s utterance!
