Music Workshop

Music Workshop provides an innovative online K-8 music education program that any school can access and teach regardless of their means, location or teacher expertise. Our program is predicated on the 'open education' concept: a global movement that brings high quality online education to schools and students everywhere, free-of-charge. By providing educational materials directly to schools/students, Music Workshop gives teachers the necessary music education resources to enhance their own curriculum. Music Workshop's course content is dynamic, multimodal and exciting. It aligns with National and State education standards. Our goals are to inspire students to appreciate the arts, motivate them to play an instrument and teach them ways to incorporate music into their lives. Through Music Workshop courses, we provide tools that empower youth and promote their creativity, social development and self-worth. We intentionally expose students to a broad spectrum of music, so they become inspired to choose their own musical paths. Music Workshop recognized that music education is often focused on music from European cultures. In response, we launched our Culture Series and in the last 12 months, created 3 new courses, Native American Traditional Music; Latin American & Caribbean Music and Latin American Music; South America. For students of color, these courses can provide a sense of belonging when their cultural heritage is positively reflected in their academic learning. For all students, classrooms that employ culture-based strategies have been shown to lead to enhanced student emotional well-being, higher levels of trusting relationships with adults, a deeper sense of belonging at school, and enhanced motivation, self-esteem and ethnic pride. Music is an ideal place to start culturally responsive teaching because it crosses cultures and is an experience that can be considered universal.