Who We Are
The SongWorks Educators Association (SWEA) is a community of educators who engage learners through SongWorks, a principles-based approach to teaching music.
SongWorks principles and practices offer teachers both grounding and flexibility in making purposeful, caring choices in their interactions with people and music. Songs are the foundation for study and learning experiences that nurture playfulness, responsiveness, and musicality.
Through developing and sharing ideas centered around the SongWorks teaching approach, SWEA members support each other in growing as educators and learners.
Events
Certification Courses
July 13-17, 2026
Salt Lake City, UT
Annual Conference
April 2026
Online
News
From the President – February 2026
Dear SongWorks Educators, It has been an unusually snowy and cold winter here in Cleveland, Ohio. We have already racked up seven snow days this year and have about a foot and a half of snow on the ground! My students are having a blast playing on the mountains of...
Arranging and Composing with “Tricky” Ideographs
“What song could this be? See what comes to your mind while I draw. What can you sing back?” I love to present kids with a “secret song” by drawing an ideograph. Perhaps I had drawn the ideograph when first presenting the song in order to clarify their...
In Loving Memory: Fleurette Sweeney
Dr. Sister Fleurette Sweeney April 19, 1929 – November 1, 2025 Fleurette Marie Sweeney, SC, died peacefully at Caritas Residence in Halifax, NS on Saturday, November 1, 2025, at the age of 96. Sister Fleurette was born in Kentville, NS on April 19, 1929, the daughter...
Remembering Fleurette from Z to A
Kate Smith shares a story remembering our dear friend and mentor, Dr. Sister Fleurette Sweeney. For many decades Fleurette lived, studied, and taught in the lower mainland of British Columbia. My husband, Bill, and I visited with her frequently in Vancouver and often...
From the President – February 2026
Dear SongWorks Educators, It has been an unusually snowy and cold winter here in Cleveland, Ohio. We have already racked up seven snow days this year and have about a foot and a half of snow on the ground! My students are having a blast playing on the mountains of...
Resources
Looking for Songworks I & II or other printed resources?
Head over to our Books page for these and more!
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From the Archive
Playing with Sally
“Sally Go ‘Round the Sun” is a classic game to play with younger elementary students! You may have read many variations of how to play the game, add partner songs, and more in the Sturdy Songs Collection on the SongWorks website. I have used this song with grades K–2...
Looby Loo Scores and Scrambles
Playful Teaching – Vibrant Learning! What an inspirational tagline! Yet we easily fall into ‘habitual teaching’ where we take the same route to achieve a specific learning goal. This group of lessons is suggested as a pathway to vibrant learning. The ultimate goal is to be skillful in reading and musical in performing several different scores for “Looby Loo.”
A Musical Evolution of Notation: Introduction
Often, conventional music notation is studied on an elemental level by pulling visual symbols, representing rhythm and pitch, out of their musical context for study. What happens when we consider that complex traditional music notation has become so rigid that its study at an elemental level lacks value, function, or power?
We’ve Had a Good Time Playing the Game: Now What? (Revisited)
Have you ever felt stuck or unsure what to do next after you’ve played a game with your students? In this article from the August 2013 MEI (SWEA) Newsletter, Dr. Peggy Bennett gives us specific ideas for how to progress from sounds to symbols in order to study a song.
Playing with Sally
“Sally Go ‘Round the Sun” is a classic game to play with younger elementary students! You may have read many variations of how to play the game, add partner songs, and more in the Sturdy Songs Collection on the SongWorks website. I have used this song with grades K–2...