To kick off the Collegiate MENC and New Teachers academy, Milt Allen gave the opening session”You’re Finally Here: We’ve Been Waiting Your Whole Life”, and a following session entitled,”Hero Training: How to Harness Your Superpowers”.

“You’re Finally Here: We’ve Been Waiting Your Whole Life”

Hero Training – How to Harness Your Superpowers

“You’re training the next generation of Artist Heroes”

In his second session, Dr. Allen built upon the foundation he laid in the first session – this time dealing with how beginning music educators and students can begin to hone their skills in teaching music. Dr. Allen put forth alot of great advice in this session.

He began by discussing whether or not we as teachers or future teachers were mature musicians. Some criteria he put forth to self-assess were, Do you: “Teach with the heart of a child and soul of a musician”, accept responsibility and exercise discipline, listen to music of all types, continue to learn about music no matter what your age?

He continued to give advice about your surroundings. He suggested to make sure your “hideout” (office, professional space) is conducive to being a hero, reflecting your passion and ideals. Along with this, Dr. Allen suggested to always dress professionally, and to spend money on your tools such as batons and music. He also suggested to be wary of your “sidekicks” and reminded the attendees to “Surround yourselves with greatness.”

Next, Dr. Allen explained how to Discover Your Superpowers. One piece of advice he gave was to tape yourself teaching. He stressed the importance of assessing this tape well. First, he said to watch it twice. The first time you assess the tape, note what you did well. On the second viewing, he recommended recording gestures or techniques that you used that you may have gotten from another source. When evaluating these, make note of : What did work, what could work, what could work if you modified it, and what just didn’t work. Dr. Allen said to be sure to build on what worked, modify what needs altered, and drop what just won’t work. In addition to effective assessment, he cautioned to never be afraid to try something new, and suggested to have a more-experienced teacher view your tape and ask for suggestions.

In his last portion of this session, Dr. Allen discussed “Your Musical Mission”. First he discussed something he called “Pure You”. In this, he challenged the attendees to think back to the passion of the moment when we realized that music was “it” for us. He challenged us to remember that moment in our teaching. He also told the session that we will learn much from our students.

Dr. Allen then covered some basic “Hero Rules” where he covered some thoughts that we should be thinking about. First, he stated that if the job were easy, everybody would be doing it. He also suggested having HAT (How Are Things) talks with students, where you as the teacher just check up on students and try to get to know them on a personal level. Also, he stated that teachers are on duty 24/7 – it becomes a way of life. Along with this, Dr. Allen warned that there are no shortcuts, and recommending doing things right the first time.

Dr. Allen left the session with some last closing thoughts:

“Don’t restrict your adult self”

“Dont define yourself by what others will let you do.”

“Don’t define yourself by what you have, how you got it, what you can’t get, and what others won’t give you.”

We were lucky enough to snag an interview with Dr. Milt Allen following his sessions. Dr. Allen was kind enough to expand some thoughts for us for better understanding, and delve in to some other topics in our interview. Check it out here!

Special Thanks to Dr. Milt Allen for his inspiring sessions and willingness to talk to have an interview with us!

Dr. Milton Allen is the Visiting Associate Director of Bands at The Ohio State University. He is currently taking a leave of absence from the Eastern Illinois University as the Director of Bands and Instrumental Division Director. Here, he conducts the Wind Symphony, Collegiate Band, University Band, teaches undergraduate conducting, guides the graduate conducting program, and oversees all aspects of Eastern’s band program.

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Today and tonight will be fairly low-key, but tomorrow will be anything but! The Collegiate MENC Leadership and New Teachers Academy kicks off tomorrow morning, and all four of us will be on hand to bring you live coverage of the sessions throughout the day. Here’s the academy schedule (all times EDT):

• 8:30 AM-9:00 AM: You’re Finally Here: We’ve Been Waiting Your Whole Life! (Milt Allen, clinician)
• 9:00 AM-10:00 AM: Hero Training: How to Harness Your Super Powers (Milt Allen, clinician)
• 10:00 AM-11:00 AM: Policy and Practice: What Does This Mean and Why Should I Care? (Lynn Brinckmeyer, clinician)
• 11:15AM – 12:15 PM: Nine Liberating Habits of Change (Scott Shuler, clinician)
• 1:30 PM-3:00 PM: Using Technology to Keep Sane (Jim Frankel, clinician)
• 3:15 PM-4:45 PM: Can I Do This for Thirty Years? (Jack Elgin, clinician)

In addition, there will be two other events on Saturday evening that we will cover. The first is the DCI Salutes America Premier Event, featuring five of the top Drum Corps from DCI. Andrew Ritenour and I will be updating you from the event via TwitPic. After the event, we will be attending/hosting the first annual Music Ed Week Tweetup in the hotel lounge. This event should allow the many members of our Twitter family to meet face-to-face. We’ll provide updates and TwitPics from this event, as well.

As always, you can follow along with all our updates at the Music Education Week Landing Page! Stay tuned for more info as the weekend progresses.

Music Ed Week live-blogging is generously sponsored by SoundTree

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Check Out the Live-Blog Here

SoundTree Sponsorship

Thanks to the wonderful support of SoundTree, the MusicEdMajor.net live-blogging team will have 24/7 internet access with a wireless broadband card. This will allow us to much more easily update you from inside the conference rooms, where wireless internet will not otherwise be available. With internet access inside the conference rooms, we look forward to providing you with the most up-to-date information and media from Music Education Week as it happens! A very special thanks to Jim Frankel, Managing Director of SoundTree (find him on twitter at @jimfrankel) for  his support of our live-blogging endeavors.

The First Ever Live-Blog Team

For the first time in MusicEdMajor.net’s history, we are live-blogging an event with a team of people, instead of one individual. For Music Ed Week, we have a fantastic group of four pre-service music teachers working together to bring you up-to-the-minute news and information from this event. Let’s meet them:

• Andy Zweibel (that’s me!) is the founder and editor-in-chief of MusicEdMajor.net and has been live-blogging conferences around the country for a year. He will be blogging from the Collegiate MENC Leadership Academy next week, and working specifically on video and audio content.
• Andrew Ritenour is the co-editor of MusicEdMajor.net and started live-blogging at the PMEA conference this past spring. He will also be attending the Collegiate MENC Leadership Academy, and will be providing updates from the DCI event on Saturday evening, as well.
• Justine Dolorfino is new to live-blogging, but not to MusicEdMajor.net. A recent guest poster here and a pre-service teacher at Teacher’s College, Justine will be providing updates from the Collegiate MENC Leadership Academy and the Jazz Academy, as well as hunting down interviews over the course of the event.
• Brigid Moran makes her live-blogging and Twitter debut at this event. She is also a pre-service teacher studying at Teacher’s College, and will be providing us updates from the Collegiate MENC Leadership Academy and the Choral Academy later in the week. Brigid is also new to Twitter, and we hope to encourage her to join our wonderful network of music educators as a result of this process.

What to Watch For

• Text-We’ll be updating our live-blog with comments and thoughts from many of the sessions that will be taking place at the event. Keep an eye out on the live-blog homepage for these updates
• Tweets-Our live-blog will be automatically pulling in Tweets from the official @MENC Twitter account, as well as from the official HashTag for this event: #MEW2010. Want to see your tweet in the stream? Just tag it!
• Audio-We were able to do this a bit last year, but look out this year for more audio clips from the event. We’ll specifically try to bring you a few interviews, and maybe even some audio recordings of sessions!
• Video-For the first time, our live-blog team will have video recording capabilities! Look for some video interviews and other fun video clips as the event progresses

Where to Watch

You can keep up with all the action at the Music Ed Week 2010 Landing Page, where the live-blog is located. The event will officially begin Friday, June 25, at 9:00AM EDT. If you want a reminder email in the time leading up to the event’s start, enter your email address  in the interface. From there, feel free to read, comment, and share any thoughts you may have regarding the live-blog!

Is there a particular session you would like to see live-blogged? Leave a comment here and we’ll do everything we can to get to it!

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I’m excited to announce that starting today, Ohio CMENC President Kelsey Kordella will be live-blogging from the 2010 MusicForAll Summer Symposium on behalf of MusicEdMajor.net! Kelsey is entering her senior year at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinatti, and will be attending the conference all week long. Stay tuned to the MusicForAll Summer Symposium Landing Page here at MusicEdmajor.net for the live-blog, and be sure to follow Kelsey on Twitter at @KelseyK89. She’ll be updating using the hash-tag #mfacamp during the event, as well.

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“MENC recognizes that the economic climate today can make it challenging for our student members to attend events like Music Education Week, which are important to their professional development,” explains Elizabeth Lasko, Director of Public Relations and Marketing for MENC. “We really believe that our student members will benefit greatly from the combination of education sessions and peer interaction available at Music Education Week. If waiving the registration fee will help more of them get there, we want to offer that option.”

MENC’s support of collegiate members is admirable, and their recognition of the financial troubles that many college students face is appreciated. This promotion will allow CMENC members to attend a total of fourteen sessions for free, in addition to admission to the United States Navy Band Commodores concert on Tuesday evening, June 29 and exclusive exhibit time on Monday the 28th. The sessions included in the promotion are:

Collegiate Leadership and New Teachers Academy

• “Hero Training: How to Harness Your Super Powers” with Milt Allen, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston
• “Policy and Practice: What Does this Mean and Why Should I Care?” with Lynn Brinckmeyer, Texas State University, San Marcos
• “Nine Liberating Habits of Change” with Scott Shuler (president, MENC), Connecticut Department of Education, Hartford
• “Using Technology to Keep Sane” with Jim Frankel, SoundTree, Melville, NY (Jim’s on Twitter: @jimfrankel)
• “Can I Do This for Thirty Years?” with Jack Elgin, Oscar Smith High School, Chesapeake, VA

“IN-Ovations” Academy

• “Teach Guitar! Everything You Need to Know But Were Afraid to Ask” with Glen McCarthy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
• “Across the Borders, Across the Sea: Creating Opportunities for Global Conversations and Memorable Music Making” with Patrice Rushen, Darla Hanley, and Cecil Adderley, Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA
• “World Rhythms West African Ensemble” with Ryan Camara, Medford, OR
• “Hands-on Introduction to Lap Dulcimer” with David Cross, Backyard Music, New Haven, CT
• “Putting It Together With GarageBand” with Mark Irvin, LaVista Jr. High School and Jeff Ingraham, Educational Service Unit #3, LaVista, NE
• “School of Rock” with Mark Biondi, Teaneck, NJ
• “Performing and Composing With the Keyboard”
• “Hand Drum Basics: Getting Started with African and Caribbean Drumming” with Mark Douglass, University of Tennessee
• “Putting It Together With iMovie” with Mark Irvin, LaVista Jr. High School and Jeff Ingraham, Educational Service Unit #3, LaVista, NE

Are you a Collegiate MENC member? Will this offer convince you to attend Music Education Week when you otherwise would not have? Leave us a comment and let us know how you feel! Also, stay tuned in the coming week for some exciting announcements regarding MusicEdMajor.net and Music Ed Week!

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This is a re-post of an article I wrote on my personal website a while ago. In light of some recent discussions I’ve had, I felt it had merit here. Stay tuned for a few other posts from the andyzweibel.com archives in the coming weeks!

I just recently was talking to a close friend, who is a graduate student in the Frost School of Music at UM, pursuing a DMA in Instrumental Conducting. She is also a graduate assistant with the marching band, and a TA for the Frost Symphonic Winds and Wind Ensemble. As a future band director, she recently went to the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) convention in Austin, Texas. She came back with a new found inspiration, and attributed it to the experiences she had at CBDNA, which made me think abut my experiences after returning from conferences. I’ve realized that what my friend is experiencing is similar to what we all tend to experience after an event such as CBDNA-something I have come to call “the conference effect.”

On the most basic level, “the conference effect” is the sense of inspiration and excitement for the profession that many people (in this case music educators) tend to feel after spending a day/weekend/week immersing themselves in what they love at a conference. I know the feeling myself, and I know that many of the music educators reading this know it as well. When you return from a conference, you feel revitalized-almost like a new person, and ready to take on whatever challenges may approach you. In my case as a student, conferences are the times when I find myself wishing I could actually be out in the field, teaching, right away. However you react specifically, this heightened level of inspiration motivates us all to be our best in the days and weeks following the conference.

It is important, though, to keep in mind the effect that timing has on this inspiration. I have only ever been to three different music education conferences: the Midwest clinic in Chicago in mid-December, the FMEA conference in Tampa in early-January, and MENC’s Music Education Week in June. Midwest, while extremely enjoyable, comes just at the end of the semester and the beginning of the holidays, so when the conference is over, I tend to find myself extremely inspired, but with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs for the rest of December. Music Ed Week, while also enjoyable, runs into the same problem, as it takes place during the summer holiday. FMEA, on the other hand, occurs just before the spring semester begins, and I find myself beginning each spring semester with a renewed excitement for what I am doing, in part because of the lasting effects of this inspiration I get from the conference. This has been even more obvious the past two Januaries, when I had the opportunity to spend the week in between FMEA and the beginning of classes working with a high school band in LaBelle, FL at a school where a close friend (and recent UM alum) teaches. By the time the conference was over and my week of working in a real-life situation was through, I was prepared to do whatever it took to get myself teaching right away.

I’m sure any person who has been to a conference in their field has had experiences like mine, where they have felt a renewed excitement for their profession in the days and weeks following the conference. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s likely that we are more productive in this period than we are in any other, as a result of this excitement. So the real question is-how do we artificially create this “conference effect,” and the productivity that comes with it, when there is not a conference to inspire us? If we can somehow trigger this motivation without actually going to a conference, we can increase the caliber of the work we do throughout the entire year, instead of just for a few select weeks after conferences.

Let’s examine what types of activities take place at these conferences. For music education, specifically, we can narrow it into three main activities: learning, networking, and concert-going. Generally, any music education conference will include each of these three aspects. Attendees go to sessions where they learn about a specific subject, they speak to other professionals in their field and network with them, and they attend concerts put on by performing ensembles over the course of the conference.

So, how can we recreate each of these in our daily lives to artificially create the “concert effect”?

1. Learning-Now that the Internet has improved the way we share information, there have been tons of blogs set up in which educators share their thoughts and ideas on the field. By subscribing to these blogs and reading the new entries, we can stay informed and continue to learn even when we’re not at a conference. For a great place to start looking for music education blogs to subscribe to, check out the 100 ME Bloggers, organized by Dr. Joseph Pisano.
2. Networking-Networking can be difficult when you’re the only music teacher in your school, but the advent of Web 2.0 technologies and Social Networking tools have changed that. Dr. Pisano has a great list of music educators to follow on Twitter, and if you’re interested in more discussion, consider participating in our weekly #MusEdChat on Monday nights!
3. Attending Concerts-There’s really not a great techie-answer to this one, but my only suggestion is: go see concerts! Whether it’s a school band in your area, the local community band, or the symphony orchestra in your closest city, continue to expose yourself to music performances, and listen to them critically!

Hopefully these tips will help everyone be able to re-create “the conference effect” in their every day lives. Do you have an experience with this effect? Do you have a great story from a conference you’ve been to? Thoughts on my ideas? Leave a comment!

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The preparations for Music Ed Week 2010 (June 24-29, 2010) have begun in earnest over the past few weeks. MENC recently announced that housing and registration for the conference is open, and on Tuesday, they sent information out regarding a new academy for this year’s event, the “Collegiate Leadership Academy.” This academy is geared specifically towards collegiate members of MENC, and has sessions geared specifically towards future music educators. The (tentative) list of sessions includes:

• “Hero Training: How to Harness Your Super Powers” with Milt Allen, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston
• “Policy and Practice: What Does this Mean and Why Should I Care?” with Lynn Brinckmeyer, Texas State University, San Marcos
• “Nine Liberating Habits of Change” with Scott Shuler (president, MENC), Connecticut Department of Education, Hartford
• “Using Technology to Keep Sane” with Jim Frankel, SoundTree, Melville, NY
• “Can I Do This for Thirty Years?” with Jack Elgin, Oscar Smith High School, Chesapeake, VA

Additionally, registration for Music Ed Week grants you admission to many other fantastic concerts and advocacy events over the course of the week. The other academies that are being offered this year are:

• Choral
• General Music K-12 Technology (keynote by Amy Burns)
• Instrumental, “IN-Ovations” (Teaching techniques and opportunities for teachers of non-traditional curricula)
• Jazz
• Marching Music (registration includes ticket to DCI Show)
• NACWPI (National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors)
• New Teachers

Attendance at this conference last year was a very enjoyable experience for me, and one that I would strongly suggest you try to gain. If at all possible, try to find a way to get to Washington, D.C. between June 24 and 29 for this wonderful event! Hopefully, I will also be “live-blogging” the event this year, just as I did last year! Stay tuned for more information regarding this.

Are you already going to Music Ed Week? Let me know in a comment, and we can try to find a time to meet up!

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The conference will take place from March 25-27 in Anaheim, CA, and will include many sessions geared specifically towards Collegiate members. Some of these sessions include:

• Classroom Management: More Than Just Keeping the Lid On
• Job Search and Interviewing
• Making More of Your Student Teaching and Collegiate Experience
• What is the First Year on the Job REALLY Like?

The Biennial Conference is a result of MENC’s creation of their annual Music Education Week-a week full of advocacy and development that takes place every summer in Washington D.C. The Biennial Conference, however, is more like a traditional conference, and is an extension of the national conferences MENC held before the establishment of Music Ed Week. The conference will have a special focus on research and music teacher education, and will also provide opportunities for brainstorming, discussion, and networking. For more information, be sure to visit the Biennial Conference page at MENC’s website.

This event is sure to be an extremely beneficial experience for any music educator, current or future. While I won’t be able to attend, I strongly encourage that you try to make it to Anahaim next weekend, if at all possible. If you are going to be attending, please consider contacting us-we would love to have some updates from the conference here at MusicEdMajor.net! Don’t fret if you won’t be able to make the trek to California, however, Music Ed Week is only a few months away! It will take place  June 24-29 in Washington, and I will definitely be there!

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This is a recap of a session that was presented at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, IL on December 17, 2009. The session was live-blogged on MusicEdMajor.net, and you can view a replay of the live-blog by visiting the Midwest landing page

As music education students, we spend a large number of hours of our life practicing our instruments. However, we also recognize that this will likely not be the case for our future students, may of whom will not be planning on pursuing music as a career. This, however, does not mean that their practice habits should be ignored; these students are just as capable of performing great music as those who want to pursue music as a career. This presentation focused on strategies for increasing the productivity of student practice time.

Goal-Based Practice

One of the important principles that the presenters stressed was the need for goal-based practice. Setting goals for practice allows students to have benchmarks that are tangible and clear, which creates a significantly easier practicing environment than just sitting down with no plan. In addition, having students set goals for themselves allows them to experience self-evaluation, another extremely important skill.

What Can We Do?

As educators/directors, there are tons of ways we can help establish effective practice habits in our students. Here are just a few ways teachers can go about instilling productive practice habits in their students:

• Be clear in our instruction-84% of teachers say that they instruct their students on how to practice, but only 60% of students say they receive instruction. The point is not getting across!
• Alternate between slow and fast rehearsal tempos, rather than starting slow and gradually increasing speed. Research shows alternation in rehearsal tempo leads to a more rapid increase in performance tempo.
• Record and evaluate! This doesn’t just mean recording your rehearsals and listening to them later on your own (although this is a great strategy). Play the recordings for the students, and allow them to self-evaluate. Sometimes hearing yourself play can motivate you to fix errors that you hear.
• Use aural models where possible (singing what you want to hear, playing recordings, etc.). Research proves it is more effective. If you can, establish a “lending library” so students can check out CD’s to listen to on their own.
• Model your rehearsal around a practice session. If you find a passage that needs work, use practice strategies such as simplification, mental rehearsal, and varying tempo with the full ensemble. Be sure to point out that these techniques are just as effective in individual practice.

Two Types of Practice Strategies

The presenters highlighted the fact that there are two types of practice strategies, each vital to the success of a performer:

1. Playing Strategies-These are practice techniques that are utilized through performance. Playing strategies include simplification, mapping, and varying tempo.
2. Non-Playing Strategies-These techniques can be utilized without an instrument, and are sometimes more effective than spending time repeating the same passage over and over on the instrument. These techniques, including score study, mental practice, and using a notebook to track progress, can usually be used anywhere, and can foster greater music-making upon return to the instrument.

This session was extremely informative, and highlighted many research-based strategies for improving the productivity of student practice time. Thank you very much to Bill Bauer, Stacey Kolthammer, and Matthew Schattt from Case Western Reserve University, for sharing their thoughts on the topic!

—————————————

Photo Credits: Front Page Image – Gil Searcy, Student – Cehwiedel

Disclaimer: This post is a summarization of the thoughts/ideas presented by those leading the session. All thoughts/ideas are the intellectual property of the credited clinicians, and are in no way intended to represent original content developed by MusicEdMajor.net.

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You can find the live-stream at the special Midwest landing page that I created here on the site. If you have any comments/questions, feel free to post them, as well; I’ll do my best to bring you answers!

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