Introduction

Here is the Crescendo Music Education Podcast – Episode 111.

This podcast is being recorded on the lands of the Turrbal people. I acknowledge them as the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to elder’s past, present and emerging. They were the first music makers on this land.

About ‘Read the Episode’: Sometimes, we would rather skim visually than listen to a podcast! That’s a great way to learn too!
The transcript of episode 111 of The Crescendo Music Education Podcast is below.

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Debbie O’Shea 

Which leads us to Music for Kiddos. So the website is an amazing resource for educators. Most of my audience are Primary or Elementary classroom music teachers. How do you see Music for Kiddos supporting classroom music teachers?

Music For Kiddos

Stephanie Leavell 

Yeah, so I would say that most of them are materials. At what age do kids start Primary School?

Debbie O’Shea 

Four. They have to turn five by the middle of the year. So our school year goes from January to December. So it’s a calendar year. And when they start in Prep they have to turn five before the middle of the year. So they’re four or five when they start.

Stephanie Leavell 

Great and what age do they finish primary?

Debbie O’Shea 

11 or 12? Then they go to High School.

Stephanie Leavell 

Oh, perfect. Yeah. So I would say most of my materials fit really, really well for four year olds, five year olds and six year olds, that is kind of the sweet spot. And so for here, that would be PreK up to about First Grade, that is definitely the sweet spot. And so we get a lot of teachers using our materials in that age range. And then a lot of our songs also fit for kind of older kids as well, but not as many. So if you teach in those younger grades, then you’ll find more songs than you will ever need on our website and in our membership. One really great resource that we have is our blog.

It’s extensive. It has a lot, a lot, a lot of free songs, free visuals, free downloads and things like that. So that’s a great place to start. And then I always tell people if they find they’re using a lot of my materials, then our membership is a great place to go and that has access to every song I’ve ever written, which I think we’re up over 600 resources now in that membership library and includes monthly lesson plans and recordings and videos and notated lead sheets and lead sheets. Just so many things and growing all the time.

Debbie O’Shea 

Wow. Okay, we’ll put all of those links in the show notes, because that’s important. So people should hop on and have a look at what’s up there for free. And then they can look at doing the membership thing if they wish. That sounds fabulous. How did that website start?

Stephanie Leavell 

Well it started after I became a preschool music teacher. And like I mentioned, it was very difficult. It was a big transition for me to go to a large group of kids. And after I felt like I had some songs under my belt. I started my Song of the Month Club and I eventually started putting those things on a website, and having an Instagram account and a Facebook account, and growing from there. And the songs just kind of spread around.

And so it’s been growing really steadily over time, and we’ve just expanded to have a more extensive blog and our YouTube channel, we have a ton of songs on streaming, and I now am really lucky to have three team members to help me with getting the word out about all of these songs and these resources and talking to school districts and getting our curriculums all over the world really.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh, fabulous. Alright, I will put in as many links as I can in there so people can get in and follow you and do all of the things. How about that?

Stephanie Leavell 

Great. Thank you.

Debbie O’Shea 

We’re now going to get to my favourite bit that I called, when I first started podcasting, nuggets of fabulous. So now I’m stuck with that. But that’s alright.

Stephanie Leavell 

Love it.

Stephanie’s Nuggets of Fabulous

Debbie O’Shea 

I quite like it. Nuggets of fabulous. People have given us all sorts of things in their nugget time. It could be anything. It could be your favourite song, songs or a tip, a trick, an idea, anything you like that you would want to share with my listeners. They would love to hear Stephanie’s nuggets of fabulous.

Stephanie Leavell 

I love that. I think that when it kind of boils down to it, a lot of what I love to do with music is this sensory regulation and emotional regulation aspect, and the way that I do that primarily is through movement and music. Pairing music with movement. And something that I find really, really useful and helpful is using movement as a sequence. So in music therapy, there’s a term called the iso principle and iso means same in Latin.

Basically what it means is that, I’ll give the example of when you’re working with a kid and you want to match the music to their current kind of energy level, right? So you match the music to the current energy level and then if you’d like them to shift somewhere else, you have to do that matching before you help them shift somewhere else. Great example of that is like, say you are asleep in the morning and somebody uses heavy metal music as your alarm clock and it’s like, volume up to 11, boom. Wakes you up, right? How are you going to wake up? Not happy, very upset, scared, all that stuff.

It’s not a gentle way to wake up. And instead, by contrast, a really gentle way to wake up is with very quiet music, maybe a simple melody, just one simple melody, maybe the next song adds a counter melody or a guitar and it gradually increases the stimuli until all of a sudden, you’re to the energy level of where you would like to be.

So maybe it’s this cheerful kind of middle tempo kind of song. And so that’s the concept of the iso principle, matching the energy level and then gradually shifting it where you would like it to go. And I think movement is a wonderful way to do that. And so I like the concept of movement song sequences. So for example, we start, if kids are moving their bodies and having a lot of energy, which every four year old that I’ve ever met loves to do these jumping, dancing, fun, active movement songs. Well, what do we do next? Because if we just kind of isolate out an active movement song and then we try and move on to something else, it’s a really challenging transition.

So instead we do an active movement song, and we do these kind of transitional movement songs. Or maybe we’re still moving our bodies, but we’re sitting and we’re doing upper body movements, and then we can go even farther and do something like a yoga song or a stretching song, and where we’re still moving, but we’re gradually reducing that energy level. And I found that to be really successful for kids, that concept.

And then what tends to happen is that if you can give kids an opportunity to move for the purpose of sensory regulation and then help them to kind of calm their bodies back down again. You have this beautiful window of opportunity at the end of that where they’re really, really ready to learn. And so I love that moment afterwards, when their bodies are all regulated and they have buy in, and they’re with you, and all of a sudden, you can have 25 four year olds in front of you, truly, who are just sitting and ready for what’s next?

Debbie O’Shea 

Yeah that’s magic and only music can do that, yeah? And I think that certainly, when I look at the way that general education has gone over the past 42 or 43 years, there are more and more students included that need specific sensory regulation. There’s all sorts of reasons for that. You know when I first started teaching, we had large, what we call special schools, and all sorts of kids were there. Most of those kids now are in mainstream education.

Inclusion is a huge thing, in Australia anyway, and so it should be. I’m not arguing against inclusion. I’m just saying that there’s a whole raft of almost, well, not new skills, a refinement of the skills that we have, and different understandings to help these kids that are now part of this large group that would probably benefit greatly from being in a smaller group, but they’re not. They’re in our giant groups. So I think that’s something as music teachers, we need more and more of these skills to help with sensory regulation.

Stephanie Leavell 

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, and help those kids to feel successful in that space. And if there is any space in the school where I hope that they feel they belong and they feel accepted and able to participate, I hope that is music. But we have to be really careful and conscientious around those students, right? Because music as a sensory stimuli itself it can really be this regulation tool, or it can send kids into overwhelm, depending on how we use it.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, yes, exactly I agree. I agree. And that sensory regulation, so was it iso?

Stephanie Leavell 

Yes. Iso principle.

Debbie O’Shea 

Okay, all right, that’s really interesting. I love that nugget. Okay, have you got another nugget? Or is it just that one nugget?

Wiggling To Silence

Stephanie Leavell 

I think that’s my main one that’s on the front of my mind for now, though. Okay, I’ll give you a really quick, silly one. My favourite way to draw in the attention of kids quickly and reduce the volume quickly. This is the tiniest nugget, but it is like one of my most useful tools. In a movement song you can sub in all your different movements and in just about any movement song, if you substitute in wiggling your eyebrows.

It sounds really, really silly, but it is difficult for kids to wiggle their eyebrows and talk and move at the same time, and they’re really interested in trying it because it’s silly and it’s funny, but I have never, ever, ever, repeatedly, again and again and again, seen a group of kids go so quiet so fast, because they’re concentrating on wiggling their eyebrows. So that is something,  just try subbing that into a movement song. See what happens. First of all, it’s adorable, so it will brighten your day, period. But also it’s a really, really great tool right away.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh I love it. I do. I think that’s fabulous. Yes, I did Move to the Beat.

Stephanie Leavell 

Oh, yes, that has it.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yeah like either last week, where, at the time of recording, I’m on my winter break now, but it was either the last week of school or the second last week of school. And I did Move to the Beat. And yes, you’re right. As soon as we get to the eyebrows, they’re all, they’re so cute to watch. Oh, they’re so gorgeous. I love it. Wiggle your eyebrows. I love it. I love it. Now we’ve already talked about how people can connect with you, so I’ll just make sure I’ve got all of those links. The best place would probably be through Music for Kiddos, the website? Or do you like hanging out on Insta or Facebook or your YouTube channel? What would be your preference?

Stephanie Leavell 

Yeah I mean, Instagram is a great way to get in touch with me. I answer all of our DM’s and I’m not so great at email. It takes me a while to get back to folks. So if you want to get back to you pretty quickly, Instagram’s a great way to go.

Debbie O’Shea 

Okay, I’ll make sure that link is in there. And one more thing that I like to ask everybody, I just think that music educators are needing more and more to fight for their very existence. We know it’s powerful. I mean, you were just talking about how sometimes it’s the only place where students can feel accepted and succeed. We know how powerful music education is and how important it is, but the systems we work within don’t always, so you’ve almost got to prove that you’re worth existing. What advice would you give to my listeners around advocacy?

Stephanie’s Tips for Advocacy

Stephanie Leavell 

There’s kind of a multifaceted response to that a little bit. One, like the music therapist in me, is like music, music, music, like, bringing music to kids that is meaningful to them, that has messages that make them feel confident and loved and successful and all of those things. I think that’s so important. And so bringing that music to kids that really lifts them up I think is very, very important. And then the music of itself will come through, if that makes sense.

That’s the woo, woo answer to that question. The more practical answer to that question is I think just prioritising the connections with the leadership of the school and the school districts. Inviting them to your concerts, inviting them to various events hoping that they will come, send them video, forward them the emails from the parents saying how impacted their child was.

Do not be shy about sharing the successes that you have, because it’s not about you, it’s about the kids and it’s a lot easier when we think this is for the kids. To be proud of the work that you’re doing. For the sake of the students that you work with, don’t be afraid to show the leadership in your schools and in your school districts that the work that you’re doing is powerful and necessary.

Debbie O’Shea

I love that. That is actually an amazing place to finish I think. I have just loved speaking to you. I am now motivated to go and learn some more Stephanie songs to add to my program for next year, and I’m going to get on and sign up to your membership too, because I have not done that yet, so I’m going to go and do that now. Thank you so much for taking time to speak to me and all of my wonderful listeners. And I’m sure everyone will be connecting with you on the internet very soon.

Stephanie Leavell 

Isn’t the world lovely like that? We can have this conversation. It’s 7pm for me, it’s 11am for you. I absolutely love it.

Debbie O’Shea

I know it’s great. I like telling the American guests that I’m in your tomorrow.

Stephanie Leavell 

I know, yeah, it looks like a lovely day, so it’s wonderful.

Debbie O’Shea 

It’s gorgeous. I live in one of the best places in the world. I am wearing a light jumper, but this is the middle of winter in Queensland. I live in the most gorgeous place. Yeah, that’s it. That’s as cold as it gets here.

Stephanie Leavell 

I love it. Wow, perfect.

Debbie O’Shea

It’s really great. We’ll have to get you out here to come and do a conference or something.

Stephanie Leavell 

I would love that. Absolutely love it.

Debbie O’Shea

Okay, let’s put that in the planning stages. Thank you so much.

Stephanie Leavell 

Thank you for having me.

Debbie O’Shea 

A delight to meet you. Bye.

Stephanie Leavell 

You too. Bye, bye.

Sign-Off

Thank you for joining me for this podcast. Don’t forget, you’ll find the show notes and transcript and all sorts of information on crescendo.com.au. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast or found it valuable, you might like to rate it on your podcast player and leave a review. I’d really appreciate it if you did. All I can be as the best version of me. All you can do is be the best you. Until next time, bye.

Just for Laughs

As we know, laughter relieves stress, don’t lose sight of the funny side of life.
McDonald’s farm. Yes, I am the C I E I O. You need that again? C, I, E, I O, it’s pretty cool.

Links Mentioned in the Episode:

📜 Music as a Tool for Childhood Success with Stephanie Leavell | 111
💻 Music for Kiddos
🎶 Join the Song of the Month Club HERE

Where to find me:

• Crescendo Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crescendocommunity
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