Coffee Hour

Meghan Cabral

What the Flip’ – Flipping the Music Room

The Flipped classroom model has been around since the early 2000s. Learn how to incorporate this model into your classroom not only NOW for distance learning but how to also utilize this model in the future to be able to streamline lessons and gain more IN CLASS time on task with your students. Examples for all music classes will be utilized and relevant classroom examples will be shared.

Synthia MacEachern

Sing, Play, Move, Create – Spiraling Instruction from K to 3

Simplify your planning and unify your music program through spiral instruction – the Orff way. This session will look at spiral instruction strategies, achievement indicators, developmental appropiate activities.

Dr. Rollo Dilworth

KEYNOTE: Putting our Songs to Work: Social Justice in the Music Classroom

Anne Fennell

Social-Emotional Musical Learning— Intentional Integration of

Habits of Mind into Music Education Join Anne Fennell for an interactive session to delve into the Habits of Mind necessary for intentional integration of socio-emotional learning in music education. No fluff – it’s the real deal – and for all ages, classrooms, and ensembles! As a trained facilitator for the use of Habits of Mind, Anne will actively involve participants to experience and apply the character concepts to develop independent, reflective, and lifelong learners in music. She will also provide resources, activities, and examples of quality social-emotional learning connections and facilitate participants to find pathways for immediate application.

Jessica Peresta

Making Your Classroom Your Own… Even If You’re Teaching

Virtually As a teacher, it’s so easy to fall into the comparison trap. You want to bring your own personality and teaching style to your students, but may not know how. It is possible to make your classroom your own, even if you’re teaching virtually. In this session, we’ll discuss ways to help you completely be yourself in your classroom and to teach to the students you have.

Marci Major & Hannah Knauss

Beyond the Virtual Ensemble – Focusing on People and Process

What are our priorities? Covid-19 shelter in place challenged choral music educators to think beyond the focus of performance. Now, we must do better in helping students of differing demographics connect. Come to this session to reflect, share, and gain new insight on how to reimagine the choral classroom.

AMA with F-flat co-founders Sarah & David

Have burning questions regarding F-flat Books, our vision, favorite foods, or what bad puns are in store for future t-shirts? This is your chance to ask us anything. ANYTHING.

Our sister (and office manager), Rachel, and our killer intern, Rosie, might even show up.

Amelia Garbisch

Fundraising and Grant-Writing in Music Education

This informative and interactive interest session is designed to help music educators in the K-12 setting find, develop, and write grant proposals. Session attendees will learn the “ins and outs” of successful grant writing, practice writing a grant, and be given a comprehensive list of available grants in both music  education and education in general. Additionally, session attendees will get a “sneak peek” of the author’s book entitled Orff On A Budget. This book, published last year by f-flat books, contains lesson plans, tips, and strategies for the music educator who would like to use Orff in their music classroom, but whose budget simply doesn’t allow for the expensive instrumentarium.

Erol Ozsever

Guitar & Ukuele: Strumming for Kinesthetic Learning (PLUS a concert at 1:30)

This workshop will have a brief presentation on kinesthetic & motor learning followed by hands-on exercises for guitar and ukulele strum patterns. This program advocates the importance of teaching popular music for student motivation, achievement, and understanding form and song structure.

Marci Major & Adam Gumble

Music Service Learning: From MUE to MU-”WE”

Music Service Learning is an organization that strives to put music teachers and music students in mutually beneficial situations to solve problems and better the field of music education. In this session participants will learn more about and how to benefit from the organization

Eric Jimenez & Justin McLean

Emotional Deposits: Fostering Relationships in the Music Classroom

Teaching music in any capacity can present several challenges, but building relationships with your students should never be one of them. Eric and Justin provide solution based strategies to establish, foster and nurture relationships with your students.

Jose Valentino Ruiz

REVAMP: Entrepreneurial Suggestions for Creative Professionals amidst Covid-19

This presentation will provide foundation pillars [to imbed within respective enterprises] for anyone who is facilitating, leading, guiding, and/or teaching students with musical aspiration that are entrepreneurial in nature. Covid-19 has presented many challenges but the opportunities for music creators, educators, and business professionals are very, very promising!

Franklin Willis

Using Interactive Literature: The Power of a Story

Whose stories are we sharing in our classrooms? Where do we begin on incoporating stories that reflect the students that we teach? How can we do so while still teaching musical concepts? In this session, I will share strategies to answer these questions and more. Stories have transformational power and our music classrooms can be the space where we foster a love for literature and music.

Beth Philemon

#morepeoplesinging….even online

In this session, Beth defines successful choral experiences and outlines a simple, achievable plan to help you achieve that success. With a passion for more people singing, the tenets for teaching choir online or in-person remain the same. In this session, we’ll explore what those are and how to implement them for this year and years to come.

K. Michelle Lewis

Drum Your Way to Mindfulness

Little has been researched about mindfulness strategies in group drumming, but commonalities appear in the literature which support mindfulness and drumming as they connect to communication, activelistening, and attention. Group drumming and mindfulness have similar elements within them that create a holistic view of how we understand and practice mindfulness in our daily lives. In this workshop, participants will learn how to facilitate a drum circle using research-based protocols that connect group drumming and mindfulness.

Czarina Jimenez, Alice Tsui, and Jackie Sunga

The Model Minority (Musician) Myth

The model minority myth — a myth that stereotypes Asian students as high-performing and exceptional — negatively impacts all of our musicians. Together we will unpack the racist history of this stereotype, the way it perpetuates an unhealthy striving for perfectionism and disrupts team building, and how to dismantle the myth within our ensembles.

Naarah Callender

Popular Music in the Classroom

Reframe the way you think about popular music in your classroom! Discover engaging activities and methods to further your students musical experiences using pop music.

Kat Reinhert LIVE IN CONCERT

Virtual Open Mic

Join us on zoom as we share music from our living rooms! Sign up upon arrival to share an original song, a cover, or even a song you want to perform in your classroom. All are welcome to join!

Danielle Larrick

Project Based Learning in the Choral Classroom

Looking for fresh and innovative ideas to integrate into your choral rehearsal to help your students go beyond the music? If so, join us for a workshop on project-based learning in the middle school choral ensemble. We’ll explore how you can utilize these ideas both in-person and virtually.

Jose Valentino Ruiz

Less Technical, More Musical: Production & Audio Engineering Tips for Music Educators

A workshop on mixing, recording, editing, and mastering for teachers who are already teaching on Garageband-type programs (DAWs); perspectives and demonstrations from a GRAMMY® and EMMY® Winning Producer & Audio Engineer.

Gareth Dylan Smith

(Re-)Discovering Spirituality at the Drum Kit

About 20 years ago I realized the holy spirit I was channeling while drumming in the worship band at my church was probably just adrenaline, since I got the same feeling in every good band I played with; in fact, it was usually heightened in non-praise contexts. After exploring drummers’ identities and learning (2013), in recent years I have turned my research inward (Smith 2017, 2019, 2020), exploring feeling, sensation, embodied cognition, liminality and timespace to try to account for my experiences playing drums alone and in bands. In this presentation I use Boyce-Tillman’s (2011) five-part framework of non-religious spirituality to explain aspects of why and how I play drums, leading to suggested takeaways for music learners.

Nilesh Thomas

Redefining Online Music Learning

Many in the organised world of music education would have experienced the motions of introducing technology enabled learning as part of a wider institutional policy, perhaps as early as the beginning of this decade. From my personal experience in 3 different countries, such initiatives often faced resistance (to change) and struggled to make any meaningful impact in the face of collective attempts to prove why it simply doesn’t work. Then came March 2020, and I witnessed collective consciousness magically taking over to create a highly engaging online learning environment. I’m looking forward to sharing the learnings from transforming a 95% brick and mortar music school to 100% remote learning in 3 weeks, and launching a second, fully online music school in another 4 weeks.

Chelsea Dehner and Riane Lumer

Imagine that! Connecting Your School Community through Music

“Imagine all the people..” singing together as one! When  COVID-19 hit our community in the height of Spring Concert/Musical Season, it was time to get serious! By providing a space for the staff of LMTSD to create music and send the message to the students that they care, we were able to connect ONE THIRD of the staff and reach thousands of people all over the country. Learn how you too can bring your school community together virtually to create a memorable experience for all!

Michelle Rose

What’s Your Student Engagement Plan?: Classroom Management for the Virtual Music Educator

How do you engage students when they’re not physically present in a room in front of you. Classroom management looks different in the virtual setting. In this session, attendees will learn tips and tricks for student engagement, the strategy of the “classword,” and how to help disengaged students get back on track.

Darlene Machacon

Introduction to Breaking the Cycle of Elementary Eurocentric Music Approaches

As an elementary music teacher, are you a part of this cycle? What if your approach is not truly connecting with your students? This session will answer the question why we should change the Eurocentric narrative in our classrooms and how you can emerge out of it in your own teaching.

Kat Reinhert

Staying Creative

So many music educators stop making the minute they start teaching. Yet this is often the thing that can lead to burnout – we forget to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others – or we just think we don’t have time. This webinar will address some ideas on why we stop as well as provide tips and practices for staying creative – for making things, overcoming the fear of trying new and being uncomfortable, and address simple, daily practices that can be included in even the most rigorous and
overscheduled of lives.

Sarah Gulish, Marissa Guarriello, and Matthew Shaffer

The Creative String Orchestra: Strategies for remote and in-person creative work

There is a need for greater creativity in large ensemble classrooms, but how is it possible to create in a traditional orchestra? In this session, authors of the book, The Creative String Orchestra, will provide practical strategies for engaging students in improvising, composing, arranging, and much more! Strategies and ideas will be presented for both in-person and remote instruction. This session will focus on secondary level ensembles but the concepts. can be easily adapted to other ages and ensemble types.

Steve Holley

Five Ways to Engage Your Students in Hybrid Rehearsals

Has moving to an online format brought to light our deficient pedagogy and a lack of imagination in teaching beyond how we were taught? How can we, as creative pedagogues, design and implement innovative  solutions to the ensemble rehearsal? In this session, we’ll discuss feasible
solutions to rehearsing while exploring options for a productive rehearsal
that might exist outside our, perhaps, more traditional experiences. What are other ways of rehearsing that exist outside our current model that are efficient, productive, and musically worthwhile? Are we willing to alter our square peg if the result is a more generative music learning experience for our students?

Michelle Rose

Back to School Virtual Edition: Setting Yourself Up for Success

Every teacher knows the first few days of class are crucial in setting the tone for the school year. But how do you do this virtually? In this session, attendees will learn how to create class culture, get to know your students, set up procedures, and start the year off right.

Nathaniel Strawbridge

Drumming & Grooving: A World Drumming Experience for ALL

Learners! This “hands-on” session will provide participants with strategies for engaging all learners in positive and culturally enriching music-making experiences. Through the use of tried-and-true ensemble-building activities and K-5-specific, multi-level/multi-purpose, world drumming pieces, participants will experience the process of building drumming proficiency in students of varying levels of ability —incorporating listening, movement, improvisation, creativity, group unity, and of course, some heavy grooving! Materials appropriate for K-5 drumming groups, advanced hand drumming ensembles, and/or general music class students. A focus on playing techniques and teaching methods will be included. Online class learning applications will be discussed. Participants will need a drum, or “any surface that they can be struck with the hands without breaking.”

Kat Reinhert

Contemporary Vocal Basics and Beyond

With the influx of popular music into music education, there often comes the question of how to best help the singers in these spaces: How to use a microphone? What are different techniques that can best help young students maintain good vocal health? How is singing in contemporary styles different than singing in classical styles? This presentation will address the basics of vocal function, discuss singing in contemporary styles, go over basic microphone technique and usage, and delve into a few nuanced stylistic differences that can quickly help students – and teachers – understand ways to use the voice in popular music spaces.

Courtney Powers

Social Media and Music in the Age of Covid-19

Music Citizenship in the digital age during of Covid-19 has grown my music program. I’m not talking about band/orchestra/chorus numbers but the social and emotional connection that has been lost from being in the classroom. Join me in this diverse community digital discussion of how students use media in a fresh manner that may suprise you!

Music Creators Academy (Ben Taylor)

Creating Music with a Virtual Ensemble

Music Creators Academy is a virtual, summer music experience bringing together middle- and high-school students and professional, mentor composers. For two weeks in July 2020, we created new music, collaborated and rehearsed online, and ultimately premiered new works in an online performance. We sincerely hope that our experience can benefit large ensemble directors everywhere and provide ideas, strategies, and specific activities to allow the rising generation to continue to make music together.

Sarah Gulish and Victoria Boler

Data Stories: Research-Based Conversations with Administration

How can we advocate for our programs and students during Covid-19? How can we begin the conversation with administration about the role of music in the school this year? In this session, we examine research possibilities for K – 12 music teachers and provide practical strategies for
program advocacy.

Lauren Marcinkowski

Lifting Up Each Voice: Working with Students Presenting Behavior Challenges and Special Needs in the Music Classroom

A tutorial for music teachers on the ins and outs of behavior management and how that affects their musical classrooms. A how-to of enabling every student in the classroom for success. by learning this we can truly lift every voice in our music classrooms by understanding what is driving the behavior in the first place and meeting the students where they are.

Jose Valentino Ruiz LIVE in concert

Virtual Dance Party for Music Educators

Join us as we MOVE and use music TO CONNECT