This weekend, MENC, The National Association for Music Education, will be hosting the first annual “Music Education Week” in Washington, D.C.! I will have the privilege of attending, and am looking forward to it immensely.
What IS Music Ed Week?
Music Ed Week is an event in the nation’s capital during which thousands of music educators will be gathering for a week of advocacy and professional development. The event has now replaced MENC’s national conference; MENC decided that this week-long event would be a better avenue for gathering music educators of all ages together in a productive way. Some of the advocacy events will include a rally on the steps of the Department of Education and a march to the Capitol Building, where MENC will present Secretary of Education Arne Duncan with their Petition for Equal Access to Music Education. The week will also include a set of concerts, ranging in genres from jazz to concert band to drum and bugle corps, and everything in between! They are sure to be incredible performances.
In addition to these advocacy events and musical performances, Music Ed Week will include five two-day “academies,” which will operate as a normal conference would, with sessions and panels on specific topics within a subject area. The five “academies” include General Music, Jazz, Music Technology, Performance, and a Research Symposium. Registrants can participate in as many academies as they wish, as well as being able to choose which concerts they attend. This ability to completely customize your event is one of the greatest features of the week!
So who can attend?
Registration for Music Ed Week is open to anyone at all, with discounts being offered to MENC members. This includes, of course, collegiate members. Registration costs ranged anywhere from free (for just concert tickets) to hundreds of dollars (for multiple academy registrations). However, MENC announced in late May that registration to Music Ed Week for Collegiate members of MENC will be completely FREE! That’s right, all collegiate members of MENC will pay absolutely nothing to attend the event, no matter how many concerts, events, or academies they wish to register for! I am attending all the concerts, as well as the Music Technology Academy, and am looking forward to the opportunity to not only help advocate for music education, but to learn more about integrating technology into the music curriculum!
What can I do now?
If you’re interested in Music Education Week, there are a few ways you can get involved:
- Attend the event! It is not too late to register for Music Education Week! Collegiate members can use the collegiate registration form (note that the fees have all been waived-all they need is the record of what events you will attend). If you can make it to Washington this weekend, please leave a comment to this post, and let me know you’ll be there! I would love to meet up with you!
- Sign the petition. The cornerstone advocacy event of MENC’s week is the presentation of their Petition for Equal Access to Music Education to the Secretary of Education. This petition calls for the inclusion of music education into the core curriculum in America’s public schools. If you haven’t gotten involved yet, signing the online version of this petition is a great way to start getting involved in spreading the word about the need for music in every child’s education. Hurry, though, there are only a few days before the rally!
- Stay updated! If you aren’t able to attend the event, there are a few ways you can stay updated about what is going on in Washington this weekend. First, MENC’s website will be updated over the course of the weekend with information from the week. Second, attendees are sure to be active on Twitter (a microblogging service I explain in more detail in a personal blog post) throughout the event. You can follow my own Twitter feed, or follow the search page for the “#musicedweek” hash tag, which will be used on posts related to the event. Finally, keep an eye out on MusicEdMajor.net for posts throughout the weekend; I will be making posts over the course of the event recapping significant sessions or activities that I take part in.
You can view more information about this incredible event at MENC’s Music Ed Week page. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you’ll be attending, or if you have any other thoughts or ideas about the event!
Photo credit: Flickr photo by Ehpien
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