Improvise Now! Using Playful Improvisation to Prepare Students for Meaningful Notation

There’s always a place for creation – a folk dance with a twist, a chance to explore the xylophone, or an opportunity to see what your body can do with one word – but sometimes these are the hardest things to pull out of our students. How can finding small steps for improvisation lead students to better notational composition in the future? We’ll explore these ideas and more as we bring it back to student-led choices, improvisation, risk-taking and more.

Matthew Stensrud 

Sidwell Friends Lower School
Lower School Music and Movement Teacher

Matthew Stensrud is an award-winning Elementary Music and Movement Teacher at Sidwell Friends Lower School in Washington, DC. Matthew is certified in Orff Schulwerk and teaches movement at Orff Levels courses in South Carolina and Oregon. Matthew frequently writes about the general music classroom and presents workshops nationally for music teachers, including at the national Orff conference and at state MEAs in Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, and Maryland. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Orff Echo and is a key content contributor to the book Responsive Classroom for Music, Art, PE and Other Special Areas.

Matthew also actively advocates for and helps teachers through social media. He's known as @MisterSOrff on Instagram and Facebook and Matthew shares music lessons of all types for fellow teachers through "Mr. S's Orff Music Room" at www.mistersorff.com and on YouTube.

Matthew grew up in Oklahoma and now lives in Alexandria, VA.

The FMEA Professional Development Conference and All-State Ensembles receive support in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.