Introductions

[Meredith Pizzi]

Introduce yourself to the group. Tell us about your professional experiences and what motivated you to take this course. Be sure to include where you live, if you are already doing work in early childhood and how you would like to make this information part of your practice.

[Kimberly Rodgers-Melnick]

Hello! I’m Kim Rodgers-Melnick, music therapist in Cleveland, Ohio. I have been a music therapist for a little over 3 years and have spent that time working in Iowa and Ohio with a variety of populations including long-term care, adult medical and typically developing children aged 3-5 in head start programs. I recently started a private practice, Create Music, LLC (www.createmusicllc.com) 🙂 and became a Music Together teacher in October 2016. I currently teach 3 Music Together family classes, 1 general music and movement class for 3-5 year olds at Life Time Fitness, teach private piano lessons and work with 3-5 year olds in head start programs at a program called ‘Toddler Rock’ that is led by music therapists and hosted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’ve really enjoyed my work thus far with Music Together and after dialoguing with our colleague Carol Ann Blank, recently applied for the Music Together Within Therapy license to be able to use their materials in a clinical setting with individuals and small groups of children 0-5 and their families. As I’ve started my private practice I am realizing that I really enjoy working with children and am also working with another of our colleagues, Rachelle Norman in her ‘Rock that Contract’ program to hopefully begin a contract at a daycare or pre-school working with young children.

I was motivated to take this training because I was the winner of the training at AMTA National Conference in Sandusky! I had also considered the training at the time I considered Music Together training and chose Music Together at the time because of an immediate opportunity for teaching classes that was made available to me and a need for income as I started my private practice. That said, I have come to really like Music Together and am looking forward to the opportunities that the Within Therapy license will provide.

I am hoping to begin using the Music Together Within Therapy materials to lead a few small groups starting in the fall and so I am really looking forward to the knowledge that this training will provide/refresh for me related to early childhood and development, parent education and classroom management. I also purchased the You and Me Makes We song book at conference and have successfully implemented some of the songs with my groups at Toddler Rock and Life Time Fitness (used Like a Lion Like a Lamb for introducing Letter L last week 🙂 ) I have really enjoyed all discussions I have had with Meredith and Beth and any materials that they have written and feel so fortunate to have received this training! I can’t wait to dive in!!! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone. My name is Erika Svolos. I am one of the online moderators for this training. I live in New Jersey with my husband, my 3.5 year old daughter, and our four cats. It is a joy to be apart of this fantastic program and to join in your Sprouting Melodies journey. I am a graduate of Marywood University and have been a music therapist in New Jersey for the past 17 years. Over that time I have worked in a variety of settings including in-patient child/adolescent psychiatry, a private clinic for autism, a large urban public school, private practice, and a private special education high school for individual’s with emotional and behavioral disorders. In August 2013 I started my own business/private practice; Music Therapy Services of New Jersey, LLC. I completed the April 2013 Sprouting Melodies online training and it is a wonderful addition to my practice. I began offering Sprouting Melodies classes in February of 2014 and I have truly enjoyed working with my SM families.

I will be assisting with any questions and/or technical difficulties. I will be sending you an email with information about the online forum technology and my contact information. If you do not receive the email, please contact me at erika.svolos@gmail.com.

I am looking forward to getting to know each of you over the next ten weeks!

NOTE: Please be sure to answer forum questions in the Forum Topics Created by Meredith. It is difficult for everyone to read each other’s responses when they are in multiple topics. Thank you.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

Welcome to all! You will get to know me well through the videos in the next few weeks, but here are some more details. I’ve been at my current music therapy job for almost 30 years! I still find joy in my work every day. I started at Alternatives for Children when my own girls were 3 months and 20 months. A boy came along a few years later. They are now adults and so I have a long, long perspective on motherhood.
My husband and I still live on Long Island in New York and I am fortunate to come from a large family where music is our prime entertainment. One of my passions in music therapy is composing new songs for young children. Since we recorded this course, I’ve written tons of new songs and upload them to the Sprouting Melodies web site. You can view them on the Blog link. We also just created a brand new Sprouting Melodies YouTube channel. Check it out!

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful introductions! It is wonderful getting to learn about each one of you. It is also great to see everyone interacting on the forum. Please continue to check back after you post to the forum to read other participant’s submissions and to interact with other’s as we go through the training. We have found most participants get the most of the training when they do this. Thank you!

[Mabel Ortiz]

Hello everyone!

My name is Mabel Ortiz, and I am going on my second year as a professional! I am originally from Puerto Rico, and I work as a music therapist in Hospice in Vero Beach, Florida. I do not work in early childhood, and my patients are mainly 55 years an older, but I have always been interested in working in early childhood, and I am definitely passionate about babies 🙂

There are only two music therapist serving in our county! Both of us working in hospice. So my goal is to reach this population of babies, infants, little ones, since there is a need for it. Looking forward to expand my knowledge to better serve this population!

[Carolyn Keenan]

Hi everyone! I thought I posted an introduction last Wednesday…but I am looking through right now and I have no idea where it went! I am guessing I did not do it right the first time, so here is my second try. :). My name is Carolyn Keenan and I am in Albany, NY. The focus of my internship 10 years ago was in early childhood, and that’s where I find myself working today! The integrated preschool where I work is very supportive of any ideas I bring in, so I am hoping to start some classes there once I complete the Sprouting Melodies training. I became a mother last year and my son is now 15 months. I think my new mom perspective has added to my interest in taking this training. I was inspired to sign up after attending Beth’s presentation at the MAR conference in Rochester last month. The thing she said that really resonated with me (and it was covered in the video as well) was about the importance of support for new parents regardless of education, background, socioeconomic status, etc. through a class like this. Between my own experience as a new mom and my experience as a therapist with this population, I felt like Sprouting Melodies was calling my name. I am very excited about the next several weeks and learning along with everyone!

[Meredith Pizzi]

Thanks for all of your introductions here, everyone! It is great to get to know you. As Carolyn noticed, sometimes online forums, and any form of technology causes things to vanish in thin air! We don’t want you to lose your well thought out responses! Erica always recommends that you start a word document on your computer and answer the questions fully in a word document. Then it is easy to copy and paste into the forum and you have a hard copy of your answers for your records. That way if you ever lose your internet connection, or the post fails to go through you can just copy and paste it again.

Regarding all of the interests in Sprouting Melodies stated above, we are so glad to have you all here! Beth and I firmly believe that as music therapists, we have the skill set to create and develop music programming for families. We have worked to create a system in Sprouting Melodies that provides you with a depth of training and then allows you to use the music, songs, and interventions that are appropriate for your group at any given time. Other programs that some of you are involved with have a formed curriculum, and in Sprouting Melodies we decided not to have a curriculum. Since all of our Sprouting Melodies Providers are already Board Certified Music Therapists and they have completed this additional training in early childhood development, we want you to create responsive and flexible programs that will meet the needs of the children and families in your area. And Beth, Erika and I are here throughout your journey to help you figure out how to do that.

We encourage those of you who are familiar with other programs to think of this as a clean slate as you jump into learning about the Sprouting Melodies approach to working with families and young children. Let your music therapy-self shine as you explore all the ways you can use your skills to help children and families grow! Enjoy!!

We are so happy to have you all here!

[Laura Pruett]

Hello, everyone! I also posted 2 weeks ago, and I am now seeing that it didn’t go through. I will follow Erica’s advice, and keep a Word Doc with all my responses to keep a hard copy from now on!

My name is Laura Pruett, I graduated from California State University, Northridge and did my internship with Seasons Hospice. I have been working as a music therapist since 2011, and while I was living in California, I worked primarily with adults. I worked at a SNF and an In-Patient Psychiatric Hospital. When I moved to Phoenix, AZ in 2014, where I currently live, I started a private practice. I work with couples in pregnancy, labor and birth, adults with DD/ID, and kids in school and home settings. The transition to working with kids was really hard for me, but now I love my preschool groups. They might be my favorite groups.

I was introduced to Sprouting Melodies through a colleague of mine that offers Sprouting Melodies classes in our community. I am interested in working with her, and also building up my own business when I move out of AZ this fall. I am very interested in learning how to help young children connect with their families. Right now the preschool groups I do are in the school setting, where parents are not present. I look forward to learning with and from everyone here!

PS – I noticed a typo after I posted this just a minute ago. I edited the post, but when I submitted the edit, my post was gone. So, I am re-posting this. Sorry if this turns out to be a duplicate.

[Anonymous]

Hi Laura,

I’m sorry your original post did not go through. We have definitely found this happens on occasion. When you edit it sometimes take a minute to refresh and show up in the system. But, it looks like it only posted your edited version. Thank you for sharing with us. Are you working with Christine Ales Heap in Phoenix? She is a wonderful resource and Sprouting Melodies Provider!

[Laura Pruett]

Hi Erika,

Yes, my contact is Christine Heaps! She is fantastic. =)

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