MusicEdMajor.net» Website

MusicEdMajor.Net is Expanding!

Andrew Ritenour — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:51:47 +0000

It’s hard to believe that summer 2011 is coming to a close! In just a few short weeks we will all be heading back to school or going back to work. Many band directors already have begun their summer camps in preparation for the marching season to come. We here at MusicEdMajor.Net are also gearing up for another academic year with some fresh new changes. This site has undergone quite the transformation this summer, and has hopefully become an even better resource for Music Ed Majors of all walks of academia. Check out some of the new changes below!

New Editors

In the beginning of the summer, I had the honor of taking over as Editor in Chief of MusicEdMajor.Net. In doing so I not only wanted to continue the mission of MusicEdMajor.Net, to be a great resource for undergraduate music education majors, but expand to become a resource for high school students considering Music Education as a career path, and also graduate students building upon their undergraduate education. With this thought, I quickly realized that I needed help. While I can easily write and discuss issues dealing with undergraduate music education, I have no experience as a graduate student, and it’s been four years since I was a senior in high school. That being said, I would like to introduce the new additions to the MusicEdMajor.Net blogging team!

Sari Feinstein will serve as the High School editor for MusicEdMajor.Net. Sari comes to us from Commack High School and has had experience as an author of quite a few guest posts right here on MusicEdMajor.Net. Sari will be attending the University of North Texas as an incoming freshman Music Education Major in the fall. We have seen many great posts from Sari already on the process of applying, auditioning and choosing the right music school. We certainly look forward to many new posts from her on making the transition from high school student to music major and tips for living life as a music ed major.

Kyle Freesen will serve MusicEdMajor.Net as a Graduate Editor. Kyle is currently a graduate wind conducting student at Wright State University. At Wright State, Kyle serves as a graduate teaching assistant, teaching Brass Methods and serving as an assitant to conductor Dr. David Booth. He also has much experience blogging at his own site, The Virtual Podium. Prior to attending Wright State University, Kyle graduated from Western Illinois University and has taught as a band director at all levels of public school. We look forward to many blog posts from Kyle regarding a wide array of aspects from the graduate music major perspective.

MusicEdMajor.Net Reading List

One of the best ways to continue learning about a particular subject is to dig in to a good book. The big question is where to start? MusicEdMajor.Net is making this process a little bit easier for you with our interactive reading list. Just head over to this page to find a list of books that deal with music, education and technology uses in music education. If you find a book that’s intriguing, just click on it to be taken to Amazon for ordering! We would love your input on this list! If you have read a book that belongs on this list, let us know via the contact page, or Tweet us (@MusicEdMajor)!

Stay Tuned

These are just some of the great changes coming to MusicEdMajor.Net. With the addition of the specialized editors, we hope to have current and relevant information being regularly written for the site for every type of Music Ed Major. Get the RSS feed to stay updated with the latest posts! And as always, we value any input to the articles posted here. Just leave us a comment with your thoughts!

BREAKING: Andrew Ritenour New Editor-in-Chief of MusicEdMajor.net

Andy Zweibel — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:56:04 +0000

It is with great pleasure that I announce that Andrew Ritenour, incoming senior Music Education Major at Grove City College in Grove City, PA, will be taking over the duties of Editor-in-Chief of MusicEdMajor.net, effective today! Andy has been an incredible co-editor for a long time here on the site, and has written plenty of posts both here and at FutureMusicEducators.net. He will be taking over responsibility for the day-to-day operations and the content of the site.

About Andy R

Andrew Ritenour is an undergraduate Music Education student at Grove City College, PA with a concentration in Tuba/Euphonium. At Grove City, he is active in many performing ensembles including the Grove City College Wolverine Marching Band, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Touring Choir, and two brass quintets. I has had opportunities to serve in leadership positions while at Grove City; he currently serves as the president of the 160+ member Wolverine Marching Band and has also served as a librarian in the past.

Andy has also been given multiple opportunities to gain experience in the music education field. He currently serves as a summer lesson instructor to students from grades 4-12 in the Somerset Area School District, and also works as the Brass Instructor for the SASD Golden Eagle Marching Band.

Various professional organizations Andy belongs to include: MENC – The National Association for Music Education; PCMEA (Pennsylvania Collegiate Music Education Association); Kappa Delta Pi – International Education Honors Society. You can find out more about Andy by visiting his online portfolio at AndrewRitenour.Com.

The Past and Future for Andy Z

I started MusicEdMajor.net almost exactly two years ago, with the intention of wanting to write on something I had experience and expertise in. Since I had never taught, I didn’t feel appropriate writing about teaching music. Instead, I chose to write about something I was an expert in: being a student. Doing this served me extremely well for the past few years, but it is that same philosophy that has now made me realize that once next school year begins, I no longer will be an expert at being an undergraduate student. I am beginning a new chapter of my life: I have finished my degree program and graduated, and am currently on the job hunt to become a “real” teacher (finally!). It has always been my vision that MusicEdMajor.net be a site run by and for Music Ed Majors. I cannot think of a more qualified person to take over than Andy R, and I am extremely excited to see how the site progresses under his leadership.

As for me? I will stay on and share a few posts on my job searching experience and on the first year teaching, but for the most part will serve as an advisory role and as the “tech” guy, maintaining the website from a technology standpoint.You can always get in touch with me on Twitter at @Zweibz7. Also, I have a few other projects coming down the line, as well… stay tuned for some exciting information on those as more information becomes available.

Thank you to everyone who has read MusicEdMajor.net over the past few years, and thank you in advance to Andy R for the incredible job I am sure he is going to do as our new Editor-in-Chief!

What I’m Reading: A Shared Notebook

Andy Zweibel — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:00:00 +0000

I have written extensively on how I use Evernote to manage my daily life, and I hit a few times upon the fact that Evernote allows users to share any of their notebooks with the general public. I have taken the next step in my Evernote life by setting up my first such notebook, which I am excited to share with you today.

There is so much great content out there. Between blog posts, web articles, books, recordings, and musical scores, it becomes difficult to keep track of all the “stuff” I want to consume. I have created a notebook, called “Things to Read” for lack of a more creative title, in which I am compiling all the books and scores I hope to purchase, the articles I plan to read, and the musical recordings I hope to hear. The notebook will be updated frequently with new content, and once I do read something on this list, I will remove it. This way, the notebook always only contains the most recent things on my mind.

This is what my shared notebook looks like. Check it out!

The notebook is publicly visible, and can be accessed at any time by clicking the link below. It is updated automatically when I make a change. Do you have any suggestions for books I should add to my reading list? Please leave them in a comment!

Things to Read | Shared Evernote Notebook

Quarter 1 Recap: The Top Posts of January, February, and March

Andy Zweibel — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:41 +0000

Happy April! Hard to believe, but the year 2011 is already 25% gone! It has been a hectic first three months of the year, but 2011 has brought some great content to MusicEdMajor.net. It’s time to take a look back and explore the most popular posts on the site! Check it out:

NOTE: Popularity based on page views since January 1, 2011

Top Pages:

The top static pages of 2011, Quarter 1:

#MusEdChat – The online hub for our weekly Twitter chat, the #MusEdChat homepage includes everything there is to know about this incredible Professional Development experience. If you haven’t already, check it out today!
100 MEMT – This is the homepage for the project Lindsay Morelli and I are organizing to get 100 Music Ed Majors tweeting in 2011. If you haven’t already, be sure to apply!
Archive – People have been curious about the past posts here at MusicEdMajor.net, and we’ve had some great traffic heading towards our Archive page. Have you looked through the archives lately?
#MusEdChat Transcripts – I recently moved the #MusEdChat transcripts away from the homepage and onto their own page. Tom West (@thomasjwest) has been doing a great job keeping these updated; check them out!
100 MEMT List – The official list of 100 Music Ed Majors Tweeting. Have you applied yet? I asked you to about sixty seconds ago…

Thanks for all your support in the first few months of 2011! I look forward to a fantastic rest of the year sharing with and learning from all of you!

VIDEO: Update on New Content

Andy Zweibel — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 22:10:29 +0000

It has been almost 3 full months since MusicEdMajor received its new look, and that means it is about time for a new video for the homepage! In this video, I explore some of the great new content and news happening around MusicEdMajor.net. Stay tuned in the coming weeks/months for longer updates with more content in them! For now, though, here’s the video. You can also find this embedded in the VIDEO area of the homepage:

Music and Arts Enthusiast Award

Andy Zweibel — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:00:23 +0000

I am extremely proud to say that MusicEdMajor.net has been selected as one of online colleges website eCollegeFinder’s top 75 Music and Arts Enthusiast websites! This award, “recognizes the websites that best represent the voice of music and arts in both culture and education.” I am joined on the list by many of the colleagues with whom I have been blogging for years now, including Dr. Joe Pisano, Tom West, Chad Criswell, Larry Marra, Sarah Johnston, and many more. The full list of winners is embedded below!

Thank you to eCollegeFinder for this award, and thank you for compiling a fantastic list of resources for anyone interested in learning more about music or arts in education!

The Full List of Music and Arts Enthusiast Websites:

Welcome to the NEW MusicEdMajor.net!

Andy Zweibel — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:03:49 +0000

Happy New Year, everyone! It is my pleasure to welcome you to the new and improved MusicEdMajor.net! I am pleased to say that MusicEdMajor.net is now running the Genesis Theme Framework, which means load times should be significantly faster, and you have a brand new design to enjoy! Here are a few of the great new features of the new MusicEdMajor.net:

Author Archives – You can now view an archive of all the post any specific author has published. This page includes a short bio about the author (still available at the bottom of an individual post, as well), and all post they published. To view the archive, simply click on an author’s name, anywhere on the site. Go ahead, try it with mine right now!
Brand New Homepage – The homepage has been completely revamped, including a “featured posts” image slider, a news digest including the seven most recent posts, and tons of sidebar content to help you dig deeper into the archives of the site.
Video Content – I hope to include a video update every so often on the site, and there is now an area on the homepage for this video to be viewed. Check out the first one, a quick tour of the site, on the homepage now!
Faster Load Times – The biggest improvement has been made behind the scenes, in the load times on the site. You should now find MusicEdMajor.net to be much faster, and more enjoyable to browse!

In the future, expect to see more social integration (Facebook “likes,” etc.), and continuous improvement to the layout.

What do you think of the new layout to MusicEdMajor.net? Any thoughts or suggestions? Please leave them in a comment below!

Year in Review: 2010

Andy Zweibel — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:00:44 +0000

Hard to believe it, but the year 2010 draws to a close this evening! It has been an incredibly busy year for MusicEdMajor.net, and I wanted to take this opportunity to recap some of the posts and pages that have been the most popular over the course of the last twelve months:

Posts

Here are the top ten posts (in terms of pageviews) since January 1, 2010:

Guide to Networking: Part 1-Social Networking – Despite being published in December 2009, this post still managed to take the top spot for 2010. It discusses tips for using social networking tools to help your networking goals as a Music Education Major.
May 2010 Music Education Blog Carnival – Back in May, I had the opportunity to host an edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival here at MusicEdMajor.net. This post is filled with links to the top blog posts in Music Education from the month of April.
Top Apps for Music Ed Majors – This post lists some of the top iOS Applications for Music Education Majors. Stay tuned int he new year for an Android edition!
Organization Tips for Music Education Majors – This post details some great ways to stay organized as a Music Education Major. Whether it be calendars, emails, or assignments, this post has what you need to keep yourself organized.
Comic-Dissection of a Music Ed Major – This light-hearted comic by John Bogenshutz of ToneDeaf ranked in at No. 5 on our list. How many of these descriptions apply to you?
Hire Me! Tips for Finding Your First Music Teaching Job After Graduation – This guest post by Thomas J. West has some fantastic tips for landing the job when your degree program is finished.
Practicing 101 for Music Ed Majors – Another guest post (again by Tom West), this time dealing with tips for effective practicing when you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. Check it out!
VIDEO: Peter Boonshaft – Advice to Music Ed Majors – At the 2010 Midwest Clinic, I had the opportunity to do a few video interviews with the great Peter Boonshaft. This short video includes Dr. Boonshaft’s advice to pre-service music teachers.
Join the Web 2.0 Music Classroom! – This post by Andy Ritenour discusses all the fantastic ways you can get involved in the online world of Music Education and further your knowledge. Check some of these great ideas out!
HOW TO: Get Started on #MusEdChat – Not sure what #MusEdChat is? Want to know how to get started participating in this ground-breaking chat series? Check out my comprehensive “how-to” post to help you get set up!

What’s Next for MusicEdMajor.net?

As we move into 2011, there are some big improvements in store for MusicEdMajor.net! Here are just a few of the things you can look forward to in 2011:

More Frequent Posts – I’m going to make an effort to keep the site updated much more frequently – to the tune of three posts per week. If all goes well, expect to see posts come out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week, with a few specialty posts tossed in on the other days.
More Conferences – This January alone, I plan to attend (and present at!) both the Florida Music Educators’ Association (FMEA) conference, and the Technology Institute for Music Education (TI:ME) national conference. Stay tuned right here for live-blogs from the conferences, as well as links to my presentation resources.
Student Teaching – I am beginning my student teaching experience this semester in Miami, and will be chronicling it for the world to see here at MusicEdMajor.net! Check back frequently for updates and reflections about my student teaching experiences.
Guest Posts – In addition to the great guest posters we have had so far on the site (many of whom you haven’t seen the last of!), I already have some fantastic guest posts lined up for early 2011. Want to write a guest post? Consider contributing to the site or recommending that someone else contribute!
100 Music Ed Majors on Twitter – As previously mentioned, Lindsay Morelli and I will be launching an initiative to get 100 Music Ed Majors on Twitter in 2011! More details to come in a formal post tomorrow, but if you’re a Music Ed Major (or know one!), get ready. It’s gonna be great!

A special thank you to anyone who has stopped by MusicEdMajor.net in the past year – you guys are the reason that I love to blog, and your visits and thoughtful comments make all this worthwhile for me. I look forward to a fantastic year writing, learning, and sharing with you in the new year.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2011! Happy New Year, everyone

REMINDER: METOS is Tomorrow!

Andy Zweibel — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:08:25 +0000

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow (Monday, October 11th), from noon to 5:00 pm EST, you can follow along with all the action from the SoundTree room of the first METOS (Music Edcuation Technology Online Summit) here at MusicEdMajor.net! I will be splitting live-blogging duties with Lindsay Morelli (@LindsayMorelli), so be sure to check it out! Also, if you are tweeting, be sure to use the hashtag #METOS2010 for any general discussion, and #metosst for discussion specific to the SoundTree room. Any tweets tagged #metosst will be pulled into the live-blog automatically.

Follow all the live-blogging action at our special METOS 2010 Landing Page! The session schedule is as follows:

12:00-12:50 – Technology Integration in the Music Classroom
1:00- 1:50 – Private & Professional Learning Networks
2:00- 2:50 – YouTube in Music Education
3:00- 3:50 – Creating Music With the O-Generator
4:00- 4:50 – Interactive Whiteboards in the Elementary Music Classroom

See you there!

Join Us for METOS 2010!

Andy Zweibel — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:24:02 +0000

We have posted extensively here about the effect that attending conferences can have on both our preparation/development and our enthusiasm/attitude. We have also extensively covered conferences online through live-blogging over the course of the last year. However, on Monday, October 11, thanks to SoundTree, the online world and the world of conferences combine!

METOS 2010

This summer, SoundTree announced METOS 2010: the Music Education/Technology Online Summit. This event is a full-day conference taking place completely online! That’s right – no airfare, hotel rooms, expensive meals, you can attend a full-day professional development conference from the comfort of your own home. And the best part of all is – IT’S COMPLETELY FREE! SoundTree is offering registration for METOS free of charge. The event takes place Monday, October 11, from noon until 5pm. Incidentally, many teachers/students have this day off of school for Columbus Day.

How Does it Work?

When you sign up to attend METOS, you will receive with a link to sign into the presentation room on Monday. When you enter the room, you will be able to view the presenter’s session (slides if they have them, live audio of them speaking, maybe even video of them) right on your computer screen, adding comments/questions through a chat interface and clicking a button to raise your hand and ask a question to the whole room. There will be four different meeting rooms active at one time, each sponsored by a different organization:

SoundTree
MENC
ATMI
TI:ME

You can view the full event schedule on the METOS homepage, which also contains information on signing up to attend the event. Remember, this is completely free! How many conferences can YOU say you’ve been to that you haven’t had to pay a penny to attend?

Live-Blogging the SoundTree Room

I know what you’re thinking… where’s the live-blog?

….. okay maybe you weren’t thinking that. However, I am extremely excited to announce that MusicEdMajor.net will be hosting a live-blog for the SoundTree room at METOS 2010 just as we have live-blogged from Music Ed Week and the Midwest Clinic in the past. Be sure to check out the landing page for the METOS Live-Blog and set yourself a reminder to come back at noon on October 11 to check out the fantastic resources that will be shared in this groundbreaking event!