Mrs. Galardi
Spofford Pond
Music
978-352-8616 x 115
Kristen holds a Masters Degree in Music Education from Gordon College in
Wenham, MA. She is currently working towards her Doctorate in Music Education
and Organizational Development and Leadership.
She hails from Topsfield, MA and continues to perform trumpet professionally
throughout the US and Europe.
Kristen has performed with and conducted ensembles throughout the United
States, Canada, and much of Europe.
She currently performs with several groups including the Metropolitan Wind
Symphony, and is the conductor of the Holy Ghost Philharmonic Band in Lowell,
MA. She enjoys being an active soloist in her community.
Spofford Pond School operates under the teaching philosophy that all children
have the ability to learn and be successful in music. The focus for learning
music at Spofford Pond is "sound before sight" which is accomplished through
the use of Music Learning Theory.
"Music Learning Theory is an explanation of how we learn when we learn music.
Based on an extensive body of research and practical field testing by Edwin E.
Gordon and others, Music Learning Theory is a comprehensive method for
teaching audiation, Gordon's term for the ability to think music in the mind
with understanding. Music Learning Theory principles guide music teachers of
all stripes--early childhood, elementary general, instrumental, vocal, the
private studio--in establishing sequential curricular goals in accord with
their own teaching styles and beliefs. The primary objective is development of
students' tonal and rhythm audiation. Through audiation students are able to
draw greater meaning from the music they listen to, perform, improvise, and
compose."
- from The Gordon Institute for Music Learning
At Spofford Pond we use Dr. John Feierabend's method Conversational Solfege.
Conversational Solfege is a dynamic and captivating general music program that
enables students to become independent musical thinkers with the help of a
rich variety of folk and classical music. With the Conversational Solfege
approach, music literacy starts with great literature and an “ear-before-eye”
philosophy that correlates with the National Standards. Great songs are
broken down into their component parts and then reassembled so that students
can bring greater musical understanding to everything they do. The ultimate
goal is to create fully engaged, idependent musicians who can hear,
understand, read, write, compose, and improvise.
Conversational Solfege is the curriculum used with Third through Sixth grades.
Our mission in the music classroom is to develop life-long learners and doers
of music in their community. We hope that our students, when establishing
families of their own someday, are able to sing lullabies to their children
and share their love of music.
We keep the following in mind during each lesson:
Sing for the class, not with the class
Develop skill with patterns before songs
Develop Inner Hearing at every stage
The most learning takes place when children sing by themselves
Develop vocal proficiency before instrumental applications at any step