Orff Schulwerk is an active child-centered approach to music education where you take what the kids are already doing when they're born, playing, singing, dancing, speech, games, drama, and beyond. You use that to teach the concepts and the skills in music, which makes so much more sense than anything. Also, music class is not just about teaching students to be great musicians, we are teaching them to appreciate beauty, work cooperatively, and use creativity, while developing their motor skills and often performing tasks requiring independence and higher order thinking skills.
              

We all know that “education” is more than the gathering of facts and knowledge (and in the case of PKS, two languages). Social and emotional development are equally fundamental, and multiple studies demonstrate that integration of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in school pave the way for better academic learning: they teach children skills that are intimately linked with cognitive development, helping them be focused, attentive, motivated, engaged, and confident in their learning. 

October’s Habit of Character focus was Independence (独立自主). In order to develop children’s independence, we must trust them. Sometimes they will make mistakes and experience challenges both socially and academically.

To promote strong social-emotional connections and mindfulness at PKS, we look for ways to intentionally build “habits of character” in our students. Our Habits of Character were developed through ongoing collaboration among students, teachers, and staff at PKS; they are traits we hope our children will grow to value and incorporate into their lives.
 
Each month we focus on building a particular habit across the entire school. In September, for example, we focused on being responsible (有责任感). In October, we are focusing on being independent (独立自主).