Puppets And Props In The Music Room: Tamara O’Brien Interview

11/10/19 • 18 min

In this episode, I chat to Tamara O’Brien, an award-winning composer, creative educator and teacher trainer for early childhood and primary music, dance and drama. She provides engaging and practical workshops for teachers and childhood carers through her company, Music For Children.

Speaking to me from Frenchs Forest just north of Sydney, NSW, Tamara tells me how she uses puppets and props in the music room to help children emerge from their shell and grow with confidence, while learning at the same time.

Episode highlights:

How Tamara started her puppet journey - two former students inspired her use of puppets
How ‘Sylvester the Sock’ was born
Audiation explained - the process of inner hearing
How Tamara uses audiation in her teaching
Tamara’s use of Magic Lips - something she picked up in one of her pre-schools
Other daily items that can be used for teaching rhythms
How Tamara uses buttons to teach
How Tamara uses ribbons to teach
Other types of props Tamara makes out of everyday items
Building her puppet collection - a 15+ years process
An example of Tamara’s dragon song
Why making eye contact with the child’s puppet, not the child, is important when interacting and teaching
How puppets can help inspire creativity and boost confidence in children
Shyness vs confidence - how Tamara deals with different characters and personalities in children
Teaching in the UK and how children’s responses to puppets differ
Why Tamara enjoys teaching with puppets

Recipe:

James Morrison: Chermoula Chicken on a bed of cous cous with chilli Jam

Quote

“If I were not a physicist I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Albert Einstein

Useful Links:
Tamara puppet activity video (free)- https://www.bushfirepress.com.au/primary/professional-development/puppets-and-props-in-the-music-room-pd/

Tamara’s Orff resources (with free activities) - https://www.bushfirepress.com.au/primary/music/orff-resources/

Tamara’s downloadable Orff resources - https://www.bushfirepress.com.au/music-room-connect/

Tamara O’Brien on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-o-brien-17999b6/

Music For Children Website - http://www.musicforchildren.com.au/

[email protected]
Bushfire Press website - https://www.bushfirepress.com.au/
Mark Leehy LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-leehy-5b061b13/
Bushfire Press Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/bushfirepress.community/
Bushfire Press Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/bushfirepress
Bushfire Press Twitter - https://twitter.com/bushfirepress

Episode highlights:

How Tamara started her puppet journey - two former students inspired her use of puppets
How ‘Sylvester the Sock’ was born
Audiation explained - the process of inner hearing
How Tamara uses audiation in her teaching
Tamara’s use of Magic Lips - something she picked up in one of her pre-schools
Other daily items that can be used for teaching rhythms
How Tamara uses buttons to teach
How Tamara uses ribbons to teach
Other types of props Tamara makes out of everyday items
Building her puppet collection - a 15+ years process
An example of Tamara’s dragon song
Why making eye contact with the child’s puppet, not the child, is important when interacting and teaching
How puppets can help inspire creativity and boost confidence in children
Shyness vs confidence - how Tamara deals with different characters and personalities in children
Teaching in the UK and how children’s responses to puppets differ
Why Tamara enjoys teaching with puppets

Recipe:

James Morrison: Chermoula Chicken on a bed of cous cous with chilli Jam

Quote

“If I were not a physicist I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Albert Einstein

Useful Links:
Tamara puppet activity video (free)- https://www.bushfirepress.com.au/primary/professional-development/puppets-and-props-in-the-music-room-pd/

Tamara’s Orff resources (with free activities) - https://www.bushfirepress.com.au/primary/music/orff-resources/

Tamara’s downloadable Orff resources - https://www.bushfirepress.com.au/music-room-connect/

Tamara O’Brien on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-o-brien-17999b6/

Music For Children Website - http://www.musicforchildren.com.au/

Previous Episode

Simple Tech For Music Teachers - Interview with Cheryl Burgemeister

Cheryl’s biggest passion as a teacher is ‘Brain-based’ learning, actively engaging the whole child and bringing technology to the primary music classroom, in a meaningful and fun way.

We talked a little about tech for music teachers and how to get the most out of readily available computer software in your music room on The Music Room Podcast...

Cheryl was a classroom teacher first, then a music teacher
As well as being a school music teacher she has been working in Australia and NZ with EdNet (link below)
The easiest place to start with tech in music classes is recording students to give them feedback or feedforward
Use the recordings, audio or video, to provide ‘evidence’ as recordings are more reliable than notes
Recording allows you to be more present to the student’s work rather than assessing it as you go
Recordings are also more meaningful for the students than notes
Audacity (see link and tips below) or Quicktime on your computer can also be used to record
iPads or tablets are also suitable for recording
Label recording files in a meaningful way
Drag or drop recordings into PowerPoint or Keynote to create a digital portfolio for students, maybe with a photo of the students work inserted or a rhythm pattern displayed of what they performed
You can also record directly into PowerPoint
Powerpoint is becoming the most commonly used tool
Teachers Pay Teachers is a good resource for PowerPoint and other resources (see link below)
Google Classroom (see link below), best used on Chrome browsers, is an education focussed version of GSuite (similar to Microsoft Office products but online)
It houses and stores student work, allowing for easy marking on your laptop
Students can work on shared Google Slides documents (similar to PowerPoint)
Google Classroom also integrates with Bandlab (see link below)

Recipe

Beer Soup (Leoš Janáček)

Beer soup, you say? Though the dish may seem strange, it was favourite of Leoš Janáček from childhood. He recounted his preparation for beer soup in a letter to his fiancée, Zdenka Schulzova: “I did make a beer soup for myself the other day. Cooked the beer, beat one egg very foamy, threw in eight sugar cubes, and as the beer was cooking, poured in this egg batter. My God! From the first swallow I had a flashback of my mother and her beer soup.”

Quote

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything” - Plato

Useful Links:

Chery’s website Mrs B Music Room - https://mrsbmusicroom.com

Cheryl Burgemeister on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-burgemeister-972a35129/

Music EdNet - http://www.musicednet.com/Home.aspx

Audacity - https://www.audacityteam.org/

Google Classroom - https://classroom.google.com/

Teachers Pay Teachers - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

BandLab - https://www.bandlab.com/

Bushfire Press - https://www.bushfirepress.com

Bushfire Press Facebook Community (for discussions and info) - https://www.facebook.com/bushfirepress.community/

Mark Leehy Email -

Next Episode

Words and Music: Interview with Christoph Maubach

Show Notes:

In this episode I chat with Christoph Maubach, international lecturer, presenter and trainer in the Orff Schulwerk approach to music education.

Christoph is also a freelance musician and composer and an author of several music and dance publications for children and teachers.

Speaking to me from his home in New Zealand, he discussed his passion for ‘words and music’ - the way words can lead to music and composition, even for very young children.

Our podcast home page is at
www.musicroom.net.au
Episode highlights:

The main reason Christoph is attracted to the Orff Schulwerk approach to music education.
How the Orff approach helps other areas of curriculum.
What if there were a music education opportunity that would involve the combination of words, language/literacy, getting to know how words sound, playing with words, and at the same time learning aspects of music education?
Creating a performance piece, through language, in 20-30 minutes.
Using a small piece of poetry and developing it with percussion and voice.
Giving the children permission to participate.
Example: a poem about rain.
Developing the text through student participation, with body percussion.
Keep the text short.
The printed word comes later.
Exploring the feel and musicality of words.
Some texts/poems already have an underlying beat/pulse and rhythmic qualities.
Using phrases from a poem as a loop.
Student writing - the haiku and its musical possibilities.
Words can easily be made into music.
Poem: ‘The wind makes lots of noises ...’
How many ways can we say the words?
How can we graphically notate what we do with symbols?
The teacher can provide a graphic score.
The use of words in contemporary arts.

Recipe:

Tournedos Rossini
A French steak dish, created for 19th century composer Gioachino Rossini.

The dish comprises a beef tournedos (filet mignon), pan-fried in butter, served on a crouton, and topped with a hot slice of fresh whole foie gras briefly pan-fried at the last minute. The dish is garnished with slices of black truffle and finished with a Madeira demi-glace sauce.