Ms. Brown is a certified First Steps in Music (FSIM), Conversational Solfege, and Orff-Schulwerk educator. She uses these different approaches to Music Education to allow students the ability to become tuneful, beatful, and artful.

FSIM is a research based approach to music education that is using sound before sight. Teachers lead classes through an 8-step "workout" where music skills, theory, and history are taught. Steps include Vocal Exploration, Fragment Songs, Simple Songs, Arioso, Movement Exploration, Movement for Form and Expression, Beat Motions, and SongTales. Kindergarten through Third Grade enjoy lessons based on this approach.

Beginning in Second Grade and continuing through Fifth Grade, students begin Conversational Solfege (CS)- a research based music literacy program that uses sound before sight teaching. Students are able to develop aural skills that will help them throughout their life. This approach is very similar to the RISE Initiative for Literacy that all grades are using.

Orff-Schulwerk is used in all grades to develop musicality and literacy hand in hand with the FSIM and CS approaches.

More information on FSIM and CS may be found at http://bit.ly/FSIMInfo .

More information on Orff-Schulwerk may be found at http://bit.ly/OrffInfo .