We teachers in SBISD recognize the importance in music for our students in our elementary schools. We know that music is fundamental to the overall development of the child. In the past several years brain research has supported this belief with scientific evidence. Eric Jensen, a noted educational psychologist has recently identified in his book, Music with the Brain in Mind, several key ways that music impacts learning and the brain:

• Music enhances cognitive systems (reasoning, creativity, problem - solving, decision making
• biological value of music, links to music and emotional intelligence, perceptual motor systems music and the memory system.
• MRI documentation shows that the brain's left and right hemispheres (connected by fibers in the corpus callosum) are 15% wider in musicians who started music before the age of eight.
• Music activates and synchronizes multiple brain sites connected by neurological firing patterns.
• Studies and subsequent EEG readings suggest that listening to certain types of music even one hour per day reorganizes brain structure (Malyarenko, et al. 1996)
• The neurobiological value of music is derived when the system is actively repeated and frequently over a period of time. This has been traced through neuroimaging tools such as MRI's and PET scans.

Curriculum: Our district curriculum is based on the TEKS. http://www.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/ch117toc.html

Program of Studies by grade:

• Kindergarten
• First
• Second
• Third
• Fourth
• Fifth

The music curriculum is largely based upon the Kodály and Orff concepts of music education. Although highly structured and sequential, its ultimate objective is musical literacy on the highest aesthetic level. In order to achieve this goal, joyous participation, spontaneous responses, and artistic performance are pursued with and expected from the children.

How do we music teachers do this?

The music skill building is achieved only after much experience with various types of folk songs, patriotic songs and composed songs from around the world. The music concepts learned are extracted from the previously learned songs. Technology is also a part of our curriculum as we compose songs using music software, research biographies of musicians and/or composers,and incorporate music notation and theory software.

In every music lesson, the students sing, both individually and as an ensemble. Better listening skills are also developed when the students study classical pieces and composers from many different genres. Through focused listening, singing, playing various instruments, and moving to music, students learn about the various aspects of music such as tempo, pitch, rhythm, dynamics, form and timbre.