Hello, all! I come to you from the Mariott Crystal Gateway hotel in Arlington, VA, where I am getting ready to meet up with Justine Dolorfino, Brigid Moran, and Andrew Ritenour to live-blog MENC’s Music Education Week! While I wait, I want to give you a brief update of what’s on the agenda for the next few days. Don’t forget, thanks to SoundTree, you can catch all the updates at the Music Education Week Landing Page. [Read more...]
Welcome From Music Ed Week!
06/25/10 By 3 Comments
SoundTree to Sponsor LiveBlog From Music Ed Week
06/21/10 By 3 Comments
I am pleased to announce that, for the second year in a row, MusicEdMajor.net will be live-blogging from MENC’s Music Education Week in Washington D.C. from June 25-29. This event will be the 4th live-blog here at MusicEdMajor.net, and for this event, we are pulling out all the stops. We have created a live-blogging team of four people, and are extremely excited to announce sponsorship from SoundTree to help provide you with live updates throughout the event with wireless broadband access.
Check Out the Live-Blog Here [Read more...]
BREAKING: Select Academies FREE to CMENC Members
06/09/10 By 1 Comment
MENC has just announced that registration for both the Collegiate Leadership Academy and the New Teachers Academy at this year’s Music Education Week in Washington will be free for all current members of Collegiate MENC. In addition, CMENC members will be given complimentary registration to the new “IN-Ovations” Academy, focusing on nontraditional forms of music education. Music Ed Week, in its second year, offered a similar promotion last year when CMENC members were able to attend the entire conference for free.
“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!
Collegiate Leadership Academy at MENC’s Music Ed Week
04/02/10 By 2 Comments
MENC has been planning for it’s 2010 Music Education Week in Washington, D.C. since last year’s event concluded. Music Ed Week is a week of advocacy, networknig, and professional development in the heart of the nation’s capital. I had the opportunity to attend last year, and was extremely pleased with my experience. The professional development portion of the week was done through “academies” in different concentrations (music technology, performance, jazz, research). The specialized academies were a wonderful way to separate the fantastic sessions that were presented.
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!
MENC’s Biennial Conference Approaching
03/17/10 By Leave a Comment
MENC: The National Association for Music Education, has had it’s Biennial Conference in the works for a year, now, and the event is almost upon us! Are you going?
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!
Conference Season
12/01/09 By Leave a Comment
It’s been quiet here at MusicEdMajor.net since the school year got into full-swing! I have a good amount of posts that I would love to write, and am just struggling to find the time to get them up! However, that does not mean that this website is going to turn out to be a flop; there’s plenty left to talk about, and what better a time/place to start than in everyone’s favorite season, conference season!
That’s right, with a few major Music Educator’s conferences coming up in the next month or so, I am back to bring you all the information I possibly can (which may not be much, depending on my ability to get a wireless signal in the conference centers!). I will be attending the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic from December 17th through the 19th in Chicago, and the Florida Music Educators’ Association (FMEA) conference from January 6th-9th in Tampa. Both of these events look to be great experiences, and I look forward to sharing the wealth of information I come across with all of you!
I have created special landing pages here on the website for Midwest and FMEA, where I will have a live-blog going. For now, the live-blogs are both open and live, and are pulling in data from the Twitter hashtags associated with the events. Comments are moderated, but I’ll check back frequently to publish anything you have to add, and I will be checking by the minute once the events begin!
Additinally, stay tuned for updates on the collegiate component of MENC’s Anaheim Conference in March; more details on this should be available in the near future!
It’s an exciting time of year! Will you be attending Midwest or FMEA? Leave a comment in this post or in the appropriate live-blog, and we can organize a meet-up!
Front Page Photo Credit: JoshC
America’s Giving Challenge-Help Win $50,000 for Music Education
10/19/09 By Leave a Comment
Anybody who has been around the arts (and especially those who have or will have a carreer in them) knows that arts education needs as much support as possible nowadays. One organization that has done a fantastic job of supporting the arts (specifically music) education is MENC: The National Association for Music Education. MENC stives constantly to increase support for music in our schools, and I am proud to be a collegiate member of such an organization.
Another group that is doing wonders for causes around the globe is the Case Foundation. This month, the Case Foundation is organizing an event called “America’s Giving Challenge.” This challenge encourages people to use their online networks to build support over a specific cause or nonprofit. The challenge also congratulates the cause receiving the most donations over the 30-day period with a $50,000 reward. In addition, each day of the challenge comes with it’s own 24-hour challenge; the cause to receive the most donations over 24 hours (3 pm to 3 pm EST) receives an additional $1,000 prize!
MENC has taken charge in the need for music education advocacy, and has created a few causes to which people can donate for this challenge. Furthermore, MENC is making a push to win the daily award for today (October 19-20).
How Can I Help?
The cause that MENC is pushing for the next 24 hours is called “Advance Music Education.” You can donate through their Facebook page (note: you do NOT need a Facebook account in order to donate!). Any amount that you can contribute-even just $10-will not only help the cause, but will also help MENC try to win more reward money to go towards the cause!
Outside of this 24 hours, the other cause you can donate to on behalf of MENC is “Save School Music.”
If you have any other questions about this challenge, or would like more information on how you can help, check out the “Donate” page of MENC’s website!