October 24, 2024 • 28 mins
Unlock the powerful role of music in transforming education with insights from Dr. Lisa Hassler and guest, Dr. Giuliana Conti, Director of Education and Equity at Music Workshop. Prepare to discover how music education can boost adolescents' mental well-being, with research backing its impact on neural connectivity and emotional health. Giuliana shares her personal journey from classical viola performance to advocating for accessible music programs, highlighting the influence of music in her life and career.
Explore their groundbreaking Soundwaves program from Music Workshop, bringing concert-like experiences right into the classroom and breaking down barriers for students without access to live music. Collaborations with top musicians and educators ensure the curriculum is culturally responsive and ever-evolving. This episode also delves into the professional development opportunities available to educators, equipping them with innovative tools to integrate music into teaching and enhance student well-being.
Join us as we champion the creation of inclusive learning environments where students can thrive emotionally, socially, and academically through music. Free Music Workshop K-8 Curriculum
To show my full support for music education, I've shameless added pictures of my son, Brandon Picciolini, from The Lonesome Family Band to this episode's chapters. Podcast music created by The Lonesome Family Band, original here. *One picture is a family oldieÂ
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (00:09):
Welcome to The Brighter Side of Education:
Research, Innovation andResources .
I'm your host, Dr.
Lisa Hassler, here to enlightenand brighten the classrooms in
America through focusedconversation on important topics
in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
(00:29):
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
student outcomes?
Today's focus is on the role ofmusic education in supporting
student mental well-being,particularly in adolescence,
(00:51):
Beyond music's artistic valueand cognitive development
benefits, recent research hasevidenced that music education
plays a significant role insupporting the mental well-being
of adolescents.
Research in the Journal of theAmerican Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry revealedthat music education enhances
neural connectivity in areas ofthe brain associated with
emotion regulation and stressmanagement, contributing to
(01:11):
better emotional health.
A 2023 study titledSchool-Based Music Education
Longitudinal Relationships withAdolescence Well-Being supported
these findings with data thatstudents who participated in
music programs reported higherlevels of emotional well-being
and an enhanced ability tomanage their emotions.
Additionally, participantsinvolved in group music
(01:33):
activities experienced aheightened sense of belonging
and improved peer relationships,both especially important
during adolescence, a time whenyoung people are forming their
identities and seekingacceptance among their peers.
To explore this further, I'mthrilled to welcome our guest
today, Dr.
Giuliana Conti.
Giuliana is the Director ofEducation and Equity at Music
(01:53):
Workshop, a nonprofitorganization dedicated to
providing culturally responsivemusic programs for classrooms
and professional development foreducators With degrees in both
music education and philosophy,and a rich background as a
musician, educator andresearcher.
Giuliana work truly exemplifiesthe transformative power of
music in education.
(02:14):
Welcome, Giuliana, it's such apleasure to talk with you today.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (02:18):
Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:20):
Your work has had a positive impact on
students and educators alike.
To start, could you share thekey experiences of your journey
that fueled your passion formusic education and what brought
you to a music workshop?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (02:33):
Absolutely so.
Growing up I lived two sort ofdichotomous lives.
I had my school musicexperience, where I started
learning viola in fourth grade.
My mom chose it for me so thatI would have more job
opportunities when I was older.
She was very entrepreneurial.
And then I went throughelementary, middle, high school
(02:57):
and college focusing onclassical viola.
But at the same time, growing up, I also experienced some
challenges with my parents'health.
That resulted in some childhoodtraumatic experiences where
music listening really became mysupport system.
I was fortunate that both of myparents had a really broad
(03:21):
taste in music so I could accessalmost anything I wanted
whenever I wanted.
So I was carrying my Walkmanaround, then Discman.
I had a boom box and car radio.
I lived and surrounded myselfin music listening.
But those two lives never reallymet because the classical world
was very do, as I say, read themusic, perform the music, and
(03:48):
then let's move on to the nextlevel where you get to be a
little bit more challenged,whereas music listening there
was just so much agency.
I got to choose whatever Iwanted and eventually I learned
how to use music listening tomeet my emotional needs and when
I graduated from college Irealized that viola performance
just wasn't where my heart was,but trying to give that
(04:13):
connection that I had to musicstill felt very important.
So I became a teacher and what Iwas able to do in the classroom
is very similar to what MusicWorkshop offers now.
And it's serendipitous that wemet, because I really wish that
I had Music Workshop when I wasteaching.
I left teaching around the timethat it started as an
(04:33):
organization, but a lot of myinstruction was based on
students' interests and wheretheir families came from.
I worked at a veryinternational school and parents
loved coming in to presentabout what they listened to
growing up and I found that Iwas so interested in what these
students' responses were to themusic that I brought in and this
(04:58):
was elementary general music,so there was a lot of
flexibility that I went tograduate school and, long story
short, I researched music,listening and culture and
identity, and Music Workshopfound me and it's just been a
phenomenal experience being ableto now channel a lot of my
(05:20):
passions through my work atMusic Workshop my passions
through my work at MusicWorkshop.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (05:28):
Yeah, Music Workshop.
So it started in 2012 and itbegan with 10 schools and now
it's in over 13,500 schools in102 countries.
It's in every state in theUnited States, so it has
exploded, and I love what youhave on your website.
It says music empowered.
Education makes better humans.
I love that.
How has Music Workshop evolvedover this last decade and what
(05:51):
benefits have you seen throughits implementation?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (05:55):
Great question.
Yeah, music-empowered, I think,is really what has opened the
door for us, because we have asignificant amount of music
teachers.
We're almost at 15,000 teachers, which is so exciting.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:09):
Yes, it's phenomenal.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (06:11):
I know and we are growing rapidly it's hard
to keep up, honestly, and whatI think we have a lot to thank
for are the teachers who havetrusted us and our content and
tells us what it is that theyneed for their classroom.
And on the inside of theorganization we say, okay, what
(06:32):
can we manage?
And then we try to produce itas quickly as we can.
And so we really have a strongrelationship with our membership
and when I use the wordmembership it's kind of a
misnomer because we are free, soyou can, as a parent, as a
teacher, as an administrator,create a free account and access
our materials.
And in this past decade we haveseen that teachers really
(06:54):
appreciate how closely werespond to their feedback we
read every piece of feedbackthat comes in and that we really
are here to serve teachers.
So when they ask for certaintopics, that's what we've
delivered and I think that levelof responsiveness has helped us
grow so immensely.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (07:12):
Absolutely.
I love the fact that it's free,and a lot of schools when
you're thinking about musicprograms and when they start to
cut costs, that's one of thosethings that goes.
So having something that's socomprehensive and research-based
, that is free and so any schoolcan use it, and it also goes
from your littles all the way up, so can you talk about your
(07:34):
program and how it works?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (07:39):
way up.
So can you talk about yourprogram and how it works?
Absolutely so.
Our free program is acollection of topics that
include a video that you canpress play for the classroom.
You can stop throughout thevideo.
We've got question and answersections.
We've got music and lifeexperiences for students to sit
with their thoughts and thinkand feel as they listen to a
(08:00):
piece of music.
We have worksheets, coloringpages for students for each
topic, sub-plan directions andteacher instructions, as well as
pamphlets that you can sendhome for students so that the
family can continue to learn andengage on these topics.
We have around 35 now differenttopics that span careers in
(08:22):
music that are not justinstrumental.
There are so many people thatmake the musical world come to
life and it's really importantthat students envision
themselves in many differentopportunities.
We've got cultures of musicthat incorporate popular and
traditional styles.
We really work hard to makesure that representation is a
(08:44):
core tenant of our materials.
So you're going to see genderrepresentation.
You're going to see differentdemographic representations in
the music, and then we've got agenre series.
One example our most popularcourse is the Birth of Rock
series.
So we go through the birth ofrock, the evolution of rock and
(09:04):
then the expansion of rock intotoday, and it covers all the
decades.
It shows real video clips ofreal musicians.
Then we've got the instruments,and when you're able to, as a
teacher, combine differentelements.
For example, even just for rockand roll, being able to show a
video on the voice or the pianoor the guitar helps students see
(09:26):
what their own potential is asa musician, so that when they do
end up pursuing their ownmusical interests, they already
have some idea of what it takesto be in a band.
And when you become part of aband where you can go from there
, what kind of people you'regoing to be working with, what
kind of music you might beinterested in playing, and so
(09:46):
for a teacher, they canincorporate extension activities
and work with it however they'dlike, and for substitutes, it's
even better because it'sturnkey, and so you can leave a
really good quality musicalinstruction.
For substitutes, it's evenbetter because it's turnkey, and
so you can leave a really goodquality musical instruction with
substitutes that don't requirethem to have any musical
knowledge and yet, in theabsence of the teacher, students
(10:07):
can continue to learn.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (10:09):
And I love the way music can be incorporated
into and enrich any subject andyou can bring in those cultural
ties or social studies, science,math and have the general
education teachers use thisprogram to support subjects
other than music.
How can they access that?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (10:26):
Yes.
So one of the principles thatwe operate on is this idea that
music can support students in awell-rounded and holistic way,
and there's a lot of researchout there on how music can
support math learning andlanguage learning.
We do want to make it clearthat music is not subservient to
(10:51):
other subjects.
It is valuable in and of itselfand with that value comes many
outcomes, because when you'reable to expose students to music
for example, let's talk aboutEnglish language learners
through the classroom either asa single song where you can
(11:11):
listen to it and havediscussions about the music
itself, you can look at thelyrics and you can analyze them.
About the music itself, you canlook at the lyrics and you can
analyze them.
You can look at them through apoetic lens, a cultural or
current event lens.
You can look at the artist'slife and background, learn how
they evolved and who theirinspirations were.
(11:31):
You can use our materials andunpack almost anything that you
need from them to be able tocater to your curriculum and
your students, and we reallyencourage teachers to allow
students the opportunity to askquestions and to say what
they're interested in after thecourse material, so that maybe
the teacher can find areas ofinterest, where it does help
(11:53):
connect to other subjects andmaybe students can bring in
their own personal stories ortheir own musical histories and
cultures.
And now you're creatingconversations, you're creating
extensions on that learningmaterial and you're able to
encompass an entire breadth oflearning material just from one
(12:17):
video, entire breadth oflearning material just from one
video.
It does require the teacher tobe asking open-ended questions,
which we also facilitate.
We do think it's important forstudents to have a voice in the
class and we've seen thatgeneral educators in their
feedback have mentioned how manyother topics come up in their
discussions and how much theylearn about their students.
(12:38):
And, if anything, for us thatis meaningful because when
students feel seen and heard andvalidated, they feel safe and
they're able to learn at aheightened level in the class
and ultimately that's what wewant from them is to learn about
music and learn aboutthemselves.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (12:53):
Absolutely.
I've had a social studies unitand we would discuss cultures
and I had a student fromEthiopia.
She brought in music and talkedabout how, in the car, they
would all, as a family, singthese traditional songs, and so
she taught us her music.
We got to sing with her, and sothat music tie was a really
(13:15):
important part of her talkingabout her culture.
You also have a youth concertseries where musicians are
making connections between theirmusic and their life, called
Sound Waves.
Do you want to talk to us alittle bit about that and how
has it been received?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (13:28):
Absolutely Sound Waves is a live
performance event series inPortland, where our offices are
located, where we hireworld-class musicians to come
perform for free for localfamilies and community members.
It's received tremendously.
I've had the privilege of beingat these events and watching
(13:51):
families enter sort of indisbelief that it's free, asking
us like what's the catch?
Is this a donation thing?
We say no, just go enjoy theshow.
We have an amazing host who hasworked with us since she's in
fourth grade, I think, and soshe asked the musicians
questions about their connectionwith the music either specific
(14:15):
songs or life events, how theybecame musicians.
We hire really talentedvideographers to capture all of
it and then, after the event, weput it together as an online
course that's also free, withour other materials, the idea
being that, yes, for thecommunity members on that day,
(14:36):
this is a really special eventfor them and their families to
share together.
We have seen monumental changesin children that go into the
experience and come out of ithaving learned something about
themselves and others.
We've had grandparents andparents follow up with us after
the event and talk about majorepiphanies that these kids have
(14:57):
had connections to deceasedrelatives.
Just incredible experiences havebeen shared with us and what we
want is that kind ofconcert-like experience and
learning opportunity to comeinto classrooms.
So if you're going to betalking about, for example, the
birth of rock, no-transcript,and they go on stage and they
(15:37):
answer personal questions andthey perform songs that they've
written and now students arebeing able to see and hear about
what it's like to be a rockmusician from musicians that are
performing live.
But now it feels more like apersonal, intimate concert
experience for students in theclassroom because it's with
(15:59):
their peers and you're hearingthese musicians respond from
their soul and from their heartsand their minds in the moment
and there's just something sospecial and unique about that,
especially for schools wheremaybe they don't have the budget
for a field trip to go out andwatch local musicians.
So they're getting somewhat ofthat experience in the classroom
(16:20):
and connecting it to whatthey've learned about music so
far.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (16:23):
I think about how many children are not
afforded the opportunity to beable to go with their family to
a concert.
You know whether it's becauseof distance or conflicts of
schedule or cost of distance orconflicts of schedule or cost.
So being able to have somethinglike this SoundWaves go into
the classroom free for Dr.
(16:44):
is bringing down some of thosebarriers and it is allowing them
access to this culturalexperience that they otherwise
might not have.
So how do you ensure that thecontent is relevant and
meaningful to students fromdiverse backgrounds?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (16:58):
Well, to start, we work with incredible
advisors who are often traveling, professional, world-renowned
musicians or ethnomusicologistswith a PhD, music educators with
a PhD faculty at universities.
We work with them to build thescript for the videos.
We work with them to find thebest representative videos for
(17:23):
that genre or culture or topic,and then, as we build our
content, we have multiple roundsof editing and review with
those advisors who really leadthe topics.
So we become more likemessengers of the information to
create content that really isrepresentative of the community
(17:45):
of musicians and artists,because that's who we work with
to build the information.
And then, on top of that, werely on our feedback from our
teachers to know how it's goingin the classroom, and so the one
requirement that we have tomake sure that our content is
free is that anyone who signs upfor our program, after three
(18:06):
courses we ask for feedback andthat's basically it, and we read
every piece of feedback.
We do bi-monthly reportsinternally and we look at
patterns of feedback for certaincourses to either see whether
anything needs updating, because, as you can imagine, a course
on pop music changes Often.
Yes, musicians that were popularfive years ago, kids now might
(18:30):
roll their eyes at us.
So we're having to constantlylook at our material and make
sure is it still relevant?
Does it adequately andaccurately represent the
populations we're talking about?
Is the way that we'veconstructed it meaningful and
helpful for teachers, who haveto facilitate it?
And then is there anything thatthey're telling us about the
(18:50):
really unique experiences thatthey have with the students in
their classroom, and that'swhere we do learn a lot about.
Even one sentence in a videomight not go over well with a
certain population of students,and when we read that feedback,
we have a meeting and we talkabout okay, how would we change
that so that every student feelscomfortable, safe, excited,
(19:13):
involved, seen, validated.
And that's how we maintain ourcultural responsiveness, because
we are responding to thestudent population who
communicate through the teachers.
We respond to the advisors whogive us feedback, and then we
are always making sure thatwhatever feedback we do get from
(19:35):
anyone, that it's read,processed and Dr.
.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (19:39):
You play a big part in the professional
development right.
Yes, and so you've recentlyintroduced professional
development courses focused onmusic and well-being, and the
courses are designed not onlyfor music teachers but also
general education andpre-service teachers, which I
love.
Could you explain howmusic-empowered courses better
equip teachers to support theirstudents' mental health and
(20:01):
overall well-being?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (20:10):
Absolutely.
If I was to speak to thegeneral educator population
first, I would say it'simportant to remember that,
whatever personal experiences orfeelings we have about music
and any barriers that we mayhave been messaged about music,
especially the idea that inorder to teach music or
incorporate music, you have toknow music theory, you have to
know how to play an instrument,you have to know how to sing,
(20:31):
those can be helpful, butthey're not the end-all, be-all
of music integration.
When music becomes a part ofthe learning process for
students, not only are werepresenting music in a positive
messaging space by saying thatit's valuable throughout your
life, throughout your day,because we already hear it at
the grocery store, it's in ourcar, it's probably on their
(20:54):
phone as soon as they get out ofclass and start walking off
school campus.
We know how in touch studentsare with their music and so they
come into school full musicalbeings.
And for teachers, even beinginterested in students' musical
interests can help foster a safelearning environment where
(21:16):
students feel like they're ableto be themselves.
And that can be done eitherthrough music that's on in the
background, where students helpput a playlist together of
calming music that they allenjoy when their own song
request comes on, they also getthat dopamine rush of oh, I
chose this.
Oh, now everybody's listeningto it.
(21:37):
Oh, I wonder what they think.
Oh, it makes me feel so good,oh, I'm so relaxed now.
Now I'm really engaged in myassignment.
Even if it's group activitiesand you have active music on in
the background to help foster afun and engaging environment,
you might find that students aremore engaged in the topic and
less likely to talk about thingswith their friends on the side.
(21:58):
So that's some of the morepassive opportunities that music
can present in the classroom.
And then actively think aboutwhat it might be like to have an
assessment of learning of somekind, where normally it would be
an essay, or for younger kids,maybe it's a packet of
worksheets and you want to knowthat they're learning the
material.
(22:19):
And maybe you have a studentwho's never really excelled in
this area.
But what would happen if youassigned, instead, multiple
options for demonstratingknowledge and understanding, if
they had being able to rewritesong lyrics, for example?
You might find that the studentexcels beyond what you thought,
(22:41):
not only in the topic butcreatively as well.
And now you're developing amore positive relationship with
that student who maybe feelslike they're able to demonstrate
their knowledge without thebarriers, and music integration
can really support studentconfidence.
It can make the differencebetween students getting lower
(23:01):
grades and higher grades,because what we want is to see
that students are learning.
I can speak from personalexperience, having grown up with
a learning disability.
Sometimes students like me justdo not memorize well.
But if you were to write thelyrics to a song about a
specific topic in school andthen perform that to your class,
that somehow is a completelydifferent learning experience.
(23:25):
That's one where I would feelexcited to show that I could do
this, not only that I rewrotethe lyrics, but that I can also
go up in front of my class anddo that performance, as opposed
to, maybe times tables, wherethe pressure's on me.
It's spur of the moment and I'mfreaking out, and now the rest
of the week is me in my headabout feeling like a failure or
(23:47):
feeling like, well, I'm reallybad at memorizing, so I guess
I'll just scratch that off myfuture list of successes.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (23:56):
Yeah, you have to offer those alternative
assessments.
So how can educators enroll inthese courses?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (24:02):
So we do have a version for music
educators and we have a versionfor general educators.
If you go to musicworkshoporgyou can find them.
They are each around eighthours long, self-paced online.
We have videos, we have smalleramounts of text we try not to
make it reading heavy and thenwe have a ton of activities in
(24:23):
the courses as well, and they gotowards continuing education
credits for most schools anddistricts so that you can also
work towards yourrecredentialing process.
And we are in the process ofdesigning pre-service options
for faculty and universityinstructors.
Our current options are theonline self-paced course at
(24:45):
musicworkshoporg and the priceright now is $129.
And the funds that we receivefrom this PD goes into building
new free curriculum, becausewhat we learned as a largely Dr.
organization is that we want tobe able to meet teachers' needs
in their requests for newtopics, but financially we had
(25:09):
to find another avenue for us tomeet that even sooner, and so
now we are able to provide both.
And we also heard from teachersthat after COVID, they are
recognizing a lot of emotionaldistress and dysregulation in
their students.
So how could we find a revenuesource that also supports
teachers as well in the meantime, and that's really what this
(25:32):
opportunity is about.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:34):
Yeah, how can schools and teachers access the
Music Workshop's free programand curriculum?
That would be the org that youjust said, right, yes,
musicworkshoporg.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (25:44):
The only thing that we really ask for is
information about your school.
This is how we track where weare and how many teachers use
our materials and how manystudents get access to our
materials.
So if you go tomusicworkshoporg, you can sign
up for free, get an account andthen, once you sign in, all
those free materials are rightthere for you in our dashboard.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:04):
Can parents who homeschool their children?
Are they able to access it aswell?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (26:08):
Absolutely yes.
We have a lot of homeschoolingparents that use our resources
with great success.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:15):
That's wonderful.
Thank you so much, Giuliana,for sharing your journey and the
incredible work you're doingwith Music Workshop.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (26:21):
Thank you so much, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:23):
As this episode draws to a close, I
encourage teachers to music,empower your classrooms to
enhance student well-being andcreate a more inclusive,
supportive learning environment,helping students thrive
emotionally, socially andacademically.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at
lisa@drlisarhassler.
com, or visit my website ww w.
(26:47):
drlisarhassler.
com and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know, thebigger impact it will have.
And if you find value to thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
in the show notes.
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
(27:08):
change.
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our student's success.
Welcome to The Brighter Side of Education:
Research, Innovation andResources .
I'm your host, Dr.
Lisa Hassler, here to enlightenand brighten the classrooms in
America through focusedconversation on important topics
in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
(00:29):
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
student outcomes?
Today's focus is on the role ofmusic education in supporting
student mental well-being,particularly in adolescence,
(00:51):
Beyond music's artistic valueand cognitive development
benefits, recent research hasevidenced that music education
plays a significant role insupporting the mental well-being
of adolescents.
Research in the Journal of theAmerican Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry revealedthat music education enhances
neural connectivity in areas ofthe brain associated with
emotion regulation and stressmanagement, contributing to
(01:11):
better emotional health.
A 2023 study titledSchool-Based Music Education
Longitudinal Relationships withAdolescence Well-Being supported
these findings with data thatstudents who participated in
music programs reported higherlevels of emotional well-being
and an enhanced ability tomanage their emotions.
Additionally, participantsinvolved in group music
(01:33):
activities experienced aheightened sense of belonging
and improved peer relationships,both especially important
during adolescence, a time whenyoung people are forming their
identities and seekingacceptance among their peers.
To explore this further, I'mthrilled to welcome our guest
today, Dr.
Giuliana Conti.
Giuliana is the Director ofEducation and Equity at Music
(01:53):
Workshop, a nonprofitorganization dedicated to
providing culturally responsivemusic programs for classrooms
and professional development foreducators With degrees in both
music education and philosophy,and a rich background as a
musician, educator andresearcher.
Giuliana work truly exemplifiesthe transformative power of
music in education.
(02:14):
Welcome, Giuliana, it's such apleasure to talk with you today.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (02:18):
Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:20):
Your work has had a positive impact on
students and educators alike.
To start, could you share thekey experiences of your journey
that fueled your passion formusic education and what brought
you to a music workshop?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (02:33):
Absolutely so.
Growing up I lived two sort ofdichotomous lives.
I had my school musicexperience, where I started
learning viola in fourth grade.
My mom chose it for me so thatI would have more job
opportunities when I was older.
She was very entrepreneurial.
And then I went throughelementary, middle, high school
(02:57):
and college focusing onclassical viola.
But at the same time, growing up, I also experienced some
challenges with my parents'health.
That resulted in some childhoodtraumatic experiences where
music listening really became mysupport system.
I was fortunate that both of myparents had a really broad
(03:21):
taste in music so I could accessalmost anything I wanted
whenever I wanted.
So I was carrying my Walkmanaround, then Discman.
I had a boom box and car radio.
I lived and surrounded myselfin music listening.
But those two lives never reallymet because the classical world
was very do, as I say, read themusic, perform the music, and
(03:48):
then let's move on to the nextlevel where you get to be a
little bit more challenged,whereas music listening there
was just so much agency.
I got to choose whatever Iwanted and eventually I learned
how to use music listening tomeet my emotional needs and when
I graduated from college Irealized that viola performance
just wasn't where my heart was,but trying to give that
(04:13):
connection that I had to musicstill felt very important.
So I became a teacher and what Iwas able to do in the classroom
is very similar to what MusicWorkshop offers now.
And it's serendipitous that wemet, because I really wish that
I had Music Workshop when I wasteaching.
I left teaching around the timethat it started as an
(04:33):
organization, but a lot of myinstruction was based on
students' interests and wheretheir families came from.
I worked at a veryinternational school and parents
loved coming in to presentabout what they listened to
growing up and I found that Iwas so interested in what these
students' responses were to themusic that I brought in and this
(04:58):
was elementary general music,so there was a lot of
flexibility that I went tograduate school and, long story
short, I researched music,listening and culture and
identity, and Music Workshopfound me and it's just been a
phenomenal experience being ableto now channel a lot of my
(05:20):
passions through my work atMusic Workshop my passions
through my work at MusicWorkshop.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (05:28):
Yeah, Music Workshop.
So it started in 2012 and itbegan with 10 schools and now
it's in over 13,500 schools in102 countries.
It's in every state in theUnited States, so it has
exploded, and I love what youhave on your website.
It says music empowered.
Education makes better humans.
I love that.
How has Music Workshop evolvedover this last decade and what
(05:51):
benefits have you seen throughits implementation?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (05:55):
Great question.
Yeah, music-empowered, I think,is really what has opened the
door for us, because we have asignificant amount of music
teachers.
We're almost at 15,000 teachers, which is so exciting.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:09):
Yes, it's phenomenal.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (06:11):
I know and we are growing rapidly it's hard
to keep up, honestly, and whatI think we have a lot to thank
for are the teachers who havetrusted us and our content and
tells us what it is that theyneed for their classroom.
And on the inside of theorganization we say, okay, what
(06:32):
can we manage?
And then we try to produce itas quickly as we can.
And so we really have a strongrelationship with our membership
and when I use the wordmembership it's kind of a
misnomer because we are free, soyou can, as a parent, as a
teacher, as an administrator,create a free account and access
our materials.
And in this past decade we haveseen that teachers really
(06:54):
appreciate how closely werespond to their feedback we
read every piece of feedbackthat comes in and that we really
are here to serve teachers.
So when they ask for certaintopics, that's what we've
delivered and I think that levelof responsiveness has helped us
grow so immensely.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (07:12):
Absolutely.
I love the fact that it's free,and a lot of schools when
you're thinking about musicprograms and when they start to
cut costs, that's one of thosethings that goes.
So having something that's socomprehensive and research-based
, that is free and so any schoolcan use it, and it also goes
from your littles all the way up, so can you talk about your
(07:34):
program and how it works?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (07:39):
way up.
So can you talk about yourprogram and how it works?
Absolutely so.
Our free program is acollection of topics that
include a video that you canpress play for the classroom.
You can stop throughout thevideo.
We've got question and answersections.
We've got music and lifeexperiences for students to sit
with their thoughts and thinkand feel as they listen to a
(08:00):
piece of music.
We have worksheets, coloringpages for students for each
topic, sub-plan directions andteacher instructions, as well as
pamphlets that you can sendhome for students so that the
family can continue to learn andengage on these topics.
We have around 35 now differenttopics that span careers in
(08:22):
music that are not justinstrumental.
There are so many people thatmake the musical world come to
life and it's really importantthat students envision
themselves in many differentopportunities.
We've got cultures of musicthat incorporate popular and
traditional styles.
We really work hard to makesure that representation is a
(08:44):
core tenant of our materials.
So you're going to see genderrepresentation.
You're going to see differentdemographic representations in
the music, and then we've got agenre series.
One example our most popularcourse is the Birth of Rock
series.
So we go through the birth ofrock, the evolution of rock and
(09:04):
then the expansion of rock intotoday, and it covers all the
decades.
It shows real video clips ofreal musicians.
Then we've got the instruments,and when you're able to, as a
teacher, combine differentelements.
For example, even just for rockand roll, being able to show a
video on the voice or the pianoor the guitar helps students see
(09:26):
what their own potential is asa musician, so that when they do
end up pursuing their ownmusical interests, they already
have some idea of what it takesto be in a band.
And when you become part of aband where you can go from there
, what kind of people you'regoing to be working with, what
kind of music you might beinterested in playing, and so
(09:46):
for a teacher, they canincorporate extension activities
and work with it however they'dlike, and for substitutes, it's
even better because it'sturnkey, and so you can leave a
really good quality musicalinstruction.
For substitutes, it's evenbetter because it's turnkey, and
so you can leave a really goodquality musical instruction with
substitutes that don't requirethem to have any musical
knowledge and yet, in theabsence of the teacher, students
(10:07):
can continue to learn.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (10:09):
And I love the way music can be incorporated
into and enrich any subject andyou can bring in those cultural
ties or social studies, science,math and have the general
education teachers use thisprogram to support subjects
other than music.
How can they access that?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (10:26):
Yes.
So one of the principles thatwe operate on is this idea that
music can support students in awell-rounded and holistic way,
and there's a lot of researchout there on how music can
support math learning andlanguage learning.
We do want to make it clearthat music is not subservient to
(10:51):
other subjects.
It is valuable in and of itselfand with that value comes many
outcomes, because when you'reable to expose students to music
for example, let's talk aboutEnglish language learners
through the classroom either asa single song where you can
(11:11):
listen to it and havediscussions about the music
itself, you can look at thelyrics and you can analyze them.
About the music itself, you canlook at the lyrics and you can
analyze them.
You can look at them through apoetic lens, a cultural or
current event lens.
You can look at the artist'slife and background, learn how
they evolved and who theirinspirations were.
(11:31):
You can use our materials andunpack almost anything that you
need from them to be able tocater to your curriculum and
your students, and we reallyencourage teachers to allow
students the opportunity to askquestions and to say what
they're interested in after thecourse material, so that maybe
the teacher can find areas ofinterest, where it does help
(11:53):
connect to other subjects andmaybe students can bring in
their own personal stories ortheir own musical histories and
cultures.
And now you're creatingconversations, you're creating
extensions on that learningmaterial and you're able to
encompass an entire breadth oflearning material just from one
(12:17):
video, entire breadth oflearning material just from one
video.
It does require the teacher tobe asking open-ended questions,
which we also facilitate.
We do think it's important forstudents to have a voice in the
class and we've seen thatgeneral educators in their
feedback have mentioned how manyother topics come up in their
discussions and how much theylearn about their students.
(12:38):
And, if anything, for us thatis meaningful because when
students feel seen and heard andvalidated, they feel safe and
they're able to learn at aheightened level in the class
and ultimately that's what wewant from them is to learn about
music and learn aboutthemselves.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (12:53):
Absolutely.
I've had a social studies unitand we would discuss cultures
and I had a student fromEthiopia.
She brought in music and talkedabout how, in the car, they
would all, as a family, singthese traditional songs, and so
she taught us her music.
We got to sing with her, and sothat music tie was a really
(13:15):
important part of her talkingabout her culture.
You also have a youth concertseries where musicians are
making connections between theirmusic and their life, called
Sound Waves.
Do you want to talk to us alittle bit about that and how
has it been received?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (13:28):
Absolutely Sound Waves is a live
performance event series inPortland, where our offices are
located, where we hireworld-class musicians to come
perform for free for localfamilies and community members.
It's received tremendously.
I've had the privilege of beingat these events and watching
(13:51):
families enter sort of indisbelief that it's free, asking
us like what's the catch?
Is this a donation thing?
We say no, just go enjoy theshow.
We have an amazing host who hasworked with us since she's in
fourth grade, I think, and soshe asked the musicians
questions about their connectionwith the music either specific
(14:15):
songs or life events, how theybecame musicians.
We hire really talentedvideographers to capture all of
it and then, after the event, weput it together as an online
course that's also free, withour other materials, the idea
being that, yes, for thecommunity members on that day,
(14:36):
this is a really special eventfor them and their families to
share together.
We have seen monumental changesin children that go into the
experience and come out of ithaving learned something about
themselves and others.
We've had grandparents andparents follow up with us after
the event and talk about majorepiphanies that these kids have
(14:57):
had connections to deceasedrelatives.
Just incredible experiences havebeen shared with us and what we
want is that kind ofconcert-like experience and
learning opportunity to comeinto classrooms.
So if you're going to betalking about, for example, the
birth of rock, no-transcript,and they go on stage and they
(15:37):
answer personal questions andthey perform songs that they've
written and now students arebeing able to see and hear about
what it's like to be a rockmusician from musicians that are
performing live.
But now it feels more like apersonal, intimate concert
experience for students in theclassroom because it's with
(15:59):
their peers and you're hearingthese musicians respond from
their soul and from their heartsand their minds in the moment
and there's just something sospecial and unique about that,
especially for schools wheremaybe they don't have the budget
for a field trip to go out andwatch local musicians.
So they're getting somewhat ofthat experience in the classroom
(16:20):
and connecting it to whatthey've learned about music so
far.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (16:23):
I think about how many children are not
afforded the opportunity to beable to go with their family to
a concert.
You know whether it's becauseof distance or conflicts of
schedule or cost of distance orconflicts of schedule or cost.
So being able to have somethinglike this SoundWaves go into
the classroom free for Dr.
(16:44):
is bringing down some of thosebarriers and it is allowing them
access to this culturalexperience that they otherwise
might not have.
So how do you ensure that thecontent is relevant and
meaningful to students fromdiverse backgrounds?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (16:58):
Well, to start, we work with incredible
advisors who are often traveling, professional, world-renowned
musicians or ethnomusicologistswith a PhD, music educators with
a PhD faculty at universities.
We work with them to build thescript for the videos.
We work with them to find thebest representative videos for
(17:23):
that genre or culture or topic,and then, as we build our
content, we have multiple roundsof editing and review with
those advisors who really leadthe topics.
So we become more likemessengers of the information to
create content that really isrepresentative of the community
(17:45):
of musicians and artists,because that's who we work with
to build the information.
And then, on top of that, werely on our feedback from our
teachers to know how it's goingin the classroom, and so the one
requirement that we have tomake sure that our content is
free is that anyone who signs upfor our program, after three
(18:06):
courses we ask for feedback andthat's basically it, and we read
every piece of feedback.
We do bi-monthly reportsinternally and we look at
patterns of feedback for certaincourses to either see whether
anything needs updating, because, as you can imagine, a course
on pop music changes Often.
Yes, musicians that were popularfive years ago, kids now might
(18:30):
roll their eyes at us.
So we're having to constantlylook at our material and make
sure is it still relevant?
Does it adequately andaccurately represent the
populations we're talking about?
Is the way that we'veconstructed it meaningful and
helpful for teachers, who haveto facilitate it?
And then is there anything thatthey're telling us about the
(18:50):
really unique experiences thatthey have with the students in
their classroom, and that'swhere we do learn a lot about.
Even one sentence in a videomight not go over well with a
certain population of students,and when we read that feedback,
we have a meeting and we talkabout okay, how would we change
that so that every student feelscomfortable, safe, excited,
(19:13):
involved, seen, validated.
And that's how we maintain ourcultural responsiveness, because
we are responding to thestudent population who
communicate through the teachers.
We respond to the advisors whogive us feedback, and then we
are always making sure thatwhatever feedback we do get from
(19:35):
anyone, that it's read,processed and Dr.
.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (19:39):
You play a big part in the professional
development right.
Yes, and so you've recentlyintroduced professional
development courses focused onmusic and well-being, and the
courses are designed not onlyfor music teachers but also
general education andpre-service teachers, which I
love.
Could you explain howmusic-empowered courses better
equip teachers to support theirstudents' mental health and
(20:01):
overall well-being?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (20:10):
Absolutely.
If I was to speak to thegeneral educator population
first, I would say it'simportant to remember that,
whatever personal experiences orfeelings we have about music
and any barriers that we mayhave been messaged about music,
especially the idea that inorder to teach music or
incorporate music, you have toknow music theory, you have to
know how to play an instrument,you have to know how to sing,
(20:31):
those can be helpful, butthey're not the end-all, be-all
of music integration.
When music becomes a part ofthe learning process for
students, not only are werepresenting music in a positive
messaging space by saying thatit's valuable throughout your
life, throughout your day,because we already hear it at
the grocery store, it's in ourcar, it's probably on their
(20:54):
phone as soon as they get out ofclass and start walking off
school campus.
We know how in touch studentsare with their music and so they
come into school full musicalbeings.
And for teachers, even beinginterested in students' musical
interests can help foster a safelearning environment where
(21:16):
students feel like they're ableto be themselves.
And that can be done eitherthrough music that's on in the
background, where students helpput a playlist together of
calming music that they allenjoy when their own song
request comes on, they also getthat dopamine rush of oh, I
chose this.
Oh, now everybody's listeningto it.
(21:37):
Oh, I wonder what they think.
Oh, it makes me feel so good,oh, I'm so relaxed now.
Now I'm really engaged in myassignment.
Even if it's group activitiesand you have active music on in
the background to help foster afun and engaging environment,
you might find that students aremore engaged in the topic and
less likely to talk about thingswith their friends on the side.
(21:58):
So that's some of the morepassive opportunities that music
can present in the classroom.
And then actively think aboutwhat it might be like to have an
assessment of learning of somekind, where normally it would be
an essay, or for younger kids,maybe it's a packet of
worksheets and you want to knowthat they're learning the
material.
(22:19):
And maybe you have a studentwho's never really excelled in
this area.
But what would happen if youassigned, instead, multiple
options for demonstratingknowledge and understanding, if
they had being able to rewritesong lyrics, for example?
You might find that the studentexcels beyond what you thought,
(22:41):
not only in the topic butcreatively as well.
And now you're developing amore positive relationship with
that student who maybe feelslike they're able to demonstrate
their knowledge without thebarriers, and music integration
can really support studentconfidence.
It can make the differencebetween students getting lower
(23:01):
grades and higher grades,because what we want is to see
that students are learning.
I can speak from personalexperience, having grown up with
a learning disability.
Sometimes students like me justdo not memorize well.
But if you were to write thelyrics to a song about a
specific topic in school andthen perform that to your class,
that somehow is a completelydifferent learning experience.
(23:25):
That's one where I would feelexcited to show that I could do
this, not only that I rewrotethe lyrics, but that I can also
go up in front of my class anddo that performance, as opposed
to, maybe times tables, wherethe pressure's on me.
It's spur of the moment and I'mfreaking out, and now the rest
of the week is me in my headabout feeling like a failure or
(23:47):
feeling like, well, I'm reallybad at memorizing, so I guess
I'll just scratch that off myfuture list of successes.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (23:56):
Yeah, you have to offer those alternative
assessments.
So how can educators enroll inthese courses?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (24:02):
So we do have a version for music
educators and we have a versionfor general educators.
If you go to musicworkshoporgyou can find them.
They are each around eighthours long, self-paced online.
We have videos, we have smalleramounts of text we try not to
make it reading heavy and thenwe have a ton of activities in
(24:23):
the courses as well, and they gotowards continuing education
credits for most schools anddistricts so that you can also
work towards yourrecredentialing process.
And we are in the process ofdesigning pre-service options
for faculty and universityinstructors.
Our current options are theonline self-paced course at
(24:45):
musicworkshoporg and the priceright now is $129.
And the funds that we receivefrom this PD goes into building
new free curriculum, becausewhat we learned as a largely Dr.
organization is that we want tobe able to meet teachers' needs
in their requests for newtopics, but financially we had
(25:09):
to find another avenue for us tomeet that even sooner, and so
now we are able to provide both.
And we also heard from teachersthat after COVID, they are
recognizing a lot of emotionaldistress and dysregulation in
their students.
So how could we find a revenuesource that also supports
teachers as well in the meantime, and that's really what this
(25:32):
opportunity is about.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:34):
Yeah, how can schools and teachers access the
Music Workshop's free programand curriculum?
That would be the org that youjust said, right, yes,
musicworkshoporg.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (25:44):
The only thing that we really ask for is
information about your school.
This is how we track where weare and how many teachers use
our materials and how manystudents get access to our
materials.
So if you go tomusicworkshoporg, you can sign
up for free, get an account andthen, once you sign in, all
those free materials are rightthere for you in our dashboard.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:04):
Can parents who homeschool their children?
Are they able to access it aswell?
Dr. Giuliana Conti (26:08):
Absolutely yes.
We have a lot of homeschoolingparents that use our resources
with great success.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:15):
That's wonderful.
Thank you so much, Giuliana,for sharing your journey and the
incredible work you're doingwith Music Workshop.
Dr. Giuliana Conti (26:21):
Thank you so much, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:23):
As this episode draws to a close, I
encourage teachers to music,empower your classrooms to
enhance student well-being andcreate a more inclusive,
supportive learning environment,helping students thrive
emotionally, socially andacademically.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at
lisa@drlisarhassler.
com, or visit my website ww w.
(26:47):
drlisarhassler.
com and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know, thebigger impact it will have.
And if you find value to thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
in the show notes.
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
(27:08):
change.
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our student's success.
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