Every teacher of little children, whether music, daycare, or preschool, finds techniques that charm little children and help to manage them. Every classroom you visit offers the opportunity to observe techniques and their effectiveness. You can learn from all, including those that are ineffective, as you begin to decipher why they are ineffective. Techniques are like a bag of tricks that you can occasionally add to by observing others and by becoming more discerning and creative yourself. You may pick up techniques from the most inexperienced teacher aide, a mom in a grocery store, or a nanny at the park. Don’t assume that the professor, experienced educator, workshop leader, or method-certified teacher have fine techniques.

You may observe techniques in a music classroom or music teacher workshop that are effective with children but do not serve music learning, techniques that profess to address music learning but that are not musical or not effective with children, or techniques from a teacher attuned to music learning that speak to the thinking mind rather than the musical mind. The more discriminating you can become in observing techniques—others’ and your own, the more effective you will become in creating techniques that serve music learning and energy management, the more playful you will become in the classroom, and the more musical your classes will become. Developing effective techniques is a life-long process and a highly creative endeavor that can add great joy to both lesson planning and teaching.