Goshen College Music Center to host Music Together teacher training workshop Jan. 16-18

Event: Music Together Teacher Training Workshop
Date and time: Jan. 16-18, 2010
Location: Goshen College Music Center
Cost: $475
To register or for more information: Contact Jillian Ryblasky by calling (800) 728-2692 x329 or e-mailing jryblasky@musictogether.com
Web site: www.musictogether.com

GOSHEN, Ind. – Music Together®, the national early childhood music and movement program, is offering a three-day Teacher Training Workshop at the Goshen College Music Center Jan. 16-18, 2010. The teacher training is open to anyone desiring an overview of music development, including parents, university faculty, students, and preschool directors or teachers. Workshop participants will learn Music Together's research-based approach to teaching music and movement to children ages birth through kindergarten.

Participants who successfully complete the training will be eligible to teach Music Together parent-child or preschool classes, either at an existing Music Together center or by applying for a license to open and operate a Music Together center of their own. The flexibility of challenging part-time work with young children and parents appeals to musicians, actors, dancers, parents and educators. No formal academic degrees are required.

The workshop provides opportunities to assess children's rhythmic and tonal development, techniques for presenting musical material and strategies for lesson planning. There will be live early childhood music demonstration classes on each day of the workshop, teaching children and their parents using the Music Together curriculum.

Since 1987, Kenneth K. Guilmartin, founder/director of Music Together LLC and coauthor of Music Together, has been a pioneer in teaching parents and caregivers how to nurture their children's musical growth. "The whole purpose of the Music Together program is to enable children, as well as the adults participating with them, to become more comfortable with musical expression, and to develop musically at their own pace," says Guilmartin. "Childhood music development is a natural process just like language development."

Recent research shows that children's innate ability to make music is strongly supported as children observe the adults with whom they have an emotional bond actively engaging in making music. This is possible regardless of the adult's own musical ability. Music making is fun and engaging for children, parents, and teachers – and, as a highly beneficial side effect – contributes to the development of language and other intelligences, including spatial and mathematical.

The Music Together approach to early childhood music is taught worldwide at more than 50 teacher trainings per year. Licensed Music Together teachers currently teach children in parent-child and preschool classes in approximately 2,000 communities in 49 states and over 20 foreign countries. In addition, many teachers trained by Music Together apply the curriculum and philosophy in preschools and childcare centers.

The cost of the three-day workshop is $475. Graduate credits, CMTE Credits and CEUs are available for completion of the teacher training. For additional information about the workshop or to register, visit the Web site www.musictogether.com or contact Jillian Ryblasky by calling (800) 728-2692 x329 or e-mailing jryblasky@musictogether.com.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college's Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron's Best Buys in Education, ÒColleges of Distinction," "Making a Difference College Guide" and U.S.News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition, which named Goshen a "least debt college." Visit www.goshen.edu.