BC Orff Chapter scholarship recipients, Jessica Nicholson and Yvonne Fawcett with Pam Hetrick at Orff Level I , Vancouver Community College, August 2016
The Level One Orff Schulwerk was an amazing experience. The teachers were inspiring and taught me so much. I originally took this course because I wanted some experience and teaching materials for when I start teaching elementary school music. However the concepts of music being a unity of speech, movement and song have inspired me to start changing the way I teach piano instantly. After one week in the course I could feel the way I was viewing my music shifting. The Orff Schulwerk opened a door to creativity I thought was long closed. During a piano lesson, I no longer have children just reading off the music. I have them up adding movements to help them be expressive with the phrasing, improvising rhythms and then creating melodies out of a pentatonic scale, and then we combine it all back into the piece they are learning. I would like to sincerely thank the BC chapter of Carl Orff Canada for the scholarship which aided me in taking this course. The BC Orff chapter is a community which inspired me to create an opportunity to inspire others.
– Yvonne Fawcett
The Orff Level 1 Training during August, 2016 took place at Vancouver Community College in Vancouver, BC. I had the pleasure of working daily with Pam Hetrick and Susie Green as well as some amazing guest artists who provided workshops in music and dance.
These fun filled days of learning were highly interactive and creative. Each day allowed for greater depth of learning, understanding and what often felt like play! The activities and experiences provided participants with a hand on experience like no other; we really were able to see what it would be like for students in an elementary classroom.
We were provided with resources to last all year and then some! Our instructors were kind enough to include notes on all of the activities as well, so we could fully participate and not have to sit and also write everything down – such a treat.
A major highlight was the final performance where we could invite friends and family to witness our creations in music and dance. How inspiring to have been able to participate in this two week intensive!
Jessi Nicholson
K-7 Music Teacher – Burnaby School District