As we count down to the AOSA National Conference in Des Moines, we continue our series of talking with music educators who double as authors. In this article, we talked with Katie Grace Miller, an educator based in Florida who has written five published books and another on the way.
AH: Tell us a little bit about you, your background in music, and then if you could extend that also into some of your first experiences with Orff Schulwerk, and Orff training, and how you kind of got into this world with it.
KM: I grew up in a very musical family. For those of you who know me, my aunt is Artie Almeida. Artie Almeida is my dad’s little sister. So, I grew up watching her teach music. I had a great opportunity; sometimes my sister and I would go with my aunt and watch her teach for the day. My sister would sit in her office the entire time and cut lamination. However, I was front and center, watching Artie teach, and was enamored. I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world; all I wanted to do was sing. I’ve always loved performing, and music education was that draw for me. I loved it from the beginning; I loved that it was basically a career where I was performing all day long. Now, my audience is from ages 5-11, but they think I do a fabulous job and it’s so much fun, it’s always different, and it’s never the same. Because I got to watch Artie teach, she utilized a lot of the Orff Schulwerk and the instruments in her classroom, and watching her process out lessons and things like that. At that young age, I didn’t know what it was called, I didn’t know what it meant, but obviously watching her and seeing how she made it happen with groups of 40 kids at a time, was really interesting. So, my first experience with Orff was bringing all of the knowledge from college and prior together, and I loved that it blended the teacher-led that I had seen for so long, and then later learned how it could be kid-led. Like, how can you bring the children and give them a morsel, right, and then let them make a meal out of it and see what we can do and grow from that.
AH: Was it hard for you to start letting the kids take more control of things?
KM: 100%. Absolutely. Yes. I will be fully the one to admit that when I first got to my teaching, I started and have always been at Title 1 schools. There is a level of structure that you have to have in your classroom to be able to allow that creativity to take place. So, it took me a long time to build that foundation. Not only as a first-year teacher, but also figuring out what my life was, and giving them the freedom, but also doing it with structure involved because if you don’t then it’s chaos, it’s not creativity, it’s chaos. So, I definitely had trouble, and there are still quite a few things that I still have trouble with. I still have trouble letting go of certain things, but I feel like I’ve done a better job of allowing the kids to take more ownership of what we’re doing and creating—but, with structure.
AH: What are some of your favorite things about teaching with an Orff approach in mind?
KM: Yeah, I think my favorite thing about teaching with the Orff approach in mind is the kid-centered aspect. How many things can your kids create and then open up different ideas and then be—which is the part that I have a problem with—open and flexible enough to be like, “Okay, that’s not the direction I thought this was going to go, but let’s go in that direction,” right? I have to say when I first started with Orff, I thought, “It’s kid-centered, here we go, let’s make this happen.” But I forgot that the kids needed a foundation, right? You can’t let them be creative if they don’t have anything to be creative about, or the knowledge to do so. In Florida, we see our kids once a week for 45 minutes, so, I found that I needed to have that good balance and that’s what the Orff approach allows for. That’s a consistent thing that I have to work on to make sure that I’m building the foundation, but then allowing for that creativity to be laced through, but the Orff approach, if I really focus on it and stick to it, allows for that kid creativity.
AH: What inspired you to start being an author as opposed to just teaching?
KM: It harkens back to Artie because I don’t even know how many publications she’s up to now, it’s a lot. But then in college going through my internship, not only did I have kids giving me feedback in real-time, but I also had an adult, a seasoned and experienced teacher, going “Okay, here’s what we need to change about that,” and it gave me the confidence to actually be like, okay, this stuff is actually working. I just love to hear the feedback, so what encouraged me to put it down on paper was that my village was vast and was loving at every step of the way, whether it was a great lesson or a lesson that needed improvements. So, definitely my village. On top of that village is Artie obviously.
AH: Tell us a little bit about some of your books.
KM: My very first book was in tandem with Artie, it was our book Get to the Point which is basically a bunch of pointing pages; it focuses on music constructs, tracking, and rhythms, but being able to have that visual aspect and having the children basically follow along with iconic notation, rhythmic notation, traditional notation. Then, I started showcasing more of my children’s literature lessons; I love children’s books, and I have a massive obsession. So, then I came out with Awesome Books with Musical Hooks which was my first solo publication, and explored the things that I did with children’s literature to, again, build that foundational aspect in the classroom, and then open it up with some creativity and improvisation. Then I did Musical and Magical Movement, Oh My! and that’s basically a bunch of ribbon streamers, scarves, manipulatives, Harry Potter conducting, and a bunch of different things that will showcase active listening and really getting to listen to classical pieces of music instead of passively listening to them as we move to them. Then, Beginners at the Bars was my basic mallet technique and that’s what I’m presenting at AOSA, is my mallet technique and bar basics that I use for my itty-bitties, but it also transitions with all of my older kids to get them to understand basic mallet technique so that not only are we being creative with them but we’re also playing correctly. Along with that, not only teaching them mallet technique but making sure that I’m also teaching them about steady beat, tempo, melody, rhythms, or quarter rests or inserting some other musical standard that I needed to cover while also doing the technique because, as we all know, we can’t just teach one thing at a time. Then, I have a new book coming out, Poems, Props and Play with Personality and that one is going to kind of be a smorgasbord of movement lessons, play-alongs, and some more children’s literature lessons. That’s still in the editing process, but we’re hoping to get it out by nationals.
AH: What are some of your favorite children’s literature books?
KM: I’m going to give you authors. I use Pat Hutchins, she has The Doorbell Rang, Goodnight Owl, and Rosie’s Walk are some of my favorites. Karma Wilson did the bear series: Bear Snores On, Bear Says Thanks, and Bear Saves Christmas, I’ve done a ton of different simple, quick lessons with those books that just teach about musical standards, again, building that foundation, and then allowing it to make creative juices flow into the Orff process. I love the Pete the Cat books and the rhythms that come with them.
AH: What would you say AOSA has meant to you as both an educator and as a person?
KM: In all of the things I’ve talked about, it goes back to a community. I didn’t get to join AOSA until my 8th or 9th year of teaching and I really wish I had joined it my first year. I’m angry at myself that I didn’t. Just the emails of “teachers teaching teachers” and a little snippet of a lesson plan—just the other day I was reading one of them and I was like, “That’s something very close to what I did, but I could turn it into this song that I’m using this week and use the same thing.” The thing I love about AOSA teachers and that community is that they would be thrilled by that. They wouldn’t be insulted—they actually encourage it. That encouragement to make it your own is one of my favorite things about this community and why I value it so much and why it has helped me become the teacher that I am today.
You can find Katie Miller’s products here.
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Aaron Hansen is an experienced K-6 General Music educator, passionate about bringing music to life through the Orff Approach. He holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Northern Iowa. Aaron has completed comprehensive Orff Teacher Training, including three levels at the University of St. Thomas and an Orff Master Class. His dedication to the Orff method took him to the Summer International Course at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. Aaron also shares his expertise by teaching movement at various Orff Teacher Training Courses and conducting workshops for local Orff Chapters.
