Olga Slavnina ; Russian_as_Second_Language, 5-8 Olga Slavnina I believe that early interaction with music positively affects the quality of children’s lives. During my extensive teaching experience, I developed a program of singing games, visual associations with sound, musical stories and other group activities where children learn in a playful environment. In my lessons I take the kids to musical adventures where they wander through fairy tales, learn traditional children’s songs, folk songs, classical music and music from a variety of cultures, styles and time periods. I introduce younger kids to various genres of music and concepts of tone, rhythm and melody, as well as the sound of musical instruments. I received my education at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and at the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow and hold degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy. I have over 25 years of teaching and accompanying experience. In Russia, I taught at the Stasov School of Music in Moscow. In the U.S., I taught at the Westfield Workshop for the Arts and gave private and group piano lessons. I am proud to bring Russian cultural heritage and see in my students the continuation of this great tradition. At the same time, I am always learning and enriching my methods with the American pedagogical approach. After all, in the words of Leonard Bernstein: “...when I teach I learn, and when I learn I teach.”