PMEA 2009

There’s nothing like spring. Everything “feels” clean and fresh. The grass is greening, bird songs erupt in the morning and last into the evening, and the beauty of the flowering trees is unmatched. You can always count on the constancy of spring to end winter’s long stay and brighten your spirits.

Each year spring also brings the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) annual in-service conference. I don’t know how many years Clarion has had a booth at the PMEA conference, probably more than most can recall. Many of our alumni who teach in PA and attend the conference make a point to stop by the Clarion booth and say “hi.” It’s always great to see so many of our friends from the past, and I enjoy hearing what they have been doing since leaving Clarion.

While Clarion has always had an exhibitor’s booth, relatively new is the increased presence of Clarion’s music faculty at the conference as invited presenters and clinicians at the conference. This year 3 music faculty were invited to present.

Dr. Stephen Johnson, Assoc. Professor of Music, was invited to give a poster presentation of his ongoing research into sight-reading. His project, titled “A Descriptive Study of Rural Sixth Grade Instrumental Students’ Thought Processes while Engaged in Sight-Reading,” also will be presented in a research forum at the conference. Dr. Henry Alviani, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choirs, will offer a session on his vocal manual Voiceworks, published by Alfred Publishing. And, at the end of the week, I will be presenting a session on internet applications for music educators, focusing on getting novice users started on using the web to help manage, enhance, and assess their music programs.

Many other great sessions take place during the conference, not to mention the many, many fine performances presented. So, if you ever have the opportunity to attend the PMEA conference, I think you’ll agree that it is a great experience. You have to promise, though, between sessions and concerts to stop by our Clarion booth to chat for a minute. To make it worth your time, I’ll even give you one of our “world famous” Department of Music pens!

BTW – I’m video blogging about my PMEA experience at the booth just for fun at http://clarionmusicalumni.ning.com/video

New Thinking

 

I just returned from the Pennsylvania Education Technology Expo and Conference (PETE&C). This conference draws close to 3000 teachers and administrators from Pennsylvania and across the country to share thoughts and approaches on the use and future of educational technology.  I had the good fortune to present at the conference again this year, but what I most enjoy about this conference is hearing and sharing ideas with so many intelligent, forward looking educators who see the integration of technology into our curricula vital to the success of our students in the future. I always bring back new ideas to introduce into my own teaching, and feel re-energized and excited about teaching.

I took a couple of important things from this conference – not directly but inferentially through the many different sessions that I attended:

1) Life-long learning is critical to success as an educator. I shared the session rooms experienced educators who have spent years honing their craft. These professionals could easily have chosen to use the same approaches that their teachers used with them, and as their teachers before, but by their presence at the conference, are looking finding new ways to engage and teach the familiar subjects.  Yes, I think we could agree that we all ended up “OK,” but will “OK be enough for our students to be successful in the jobs of the future; jobs that may not yet even exist? Like me, I expect many of them feel reinvigorated about teaching when they return to the classroom after the conference.

The Clarion music faculty tries to offer our students good models for life-long learning. We are actively engaged in research projects, present and participate in conferences and workshops, and perform in a variety venues throughout the sate and across the globe. We wish to demonstrate how important it is for professionals to remain active in their fields – not only through our words only, but through our actions, as well. Our students have opportunities to begin fostering this concept of professionalism and service to a broader community through active participation in one of our many student service organizations, and through attendance at many of the same conferences in which the faculty participates.

The concept of “student research” is becoming increasingly important across Clarion University. Students in the Department of Music are encouraged to develop research projects of their own. We wish to support students’ research efforts in any way we can. 

2) We must look forward and be creative in our approach to teaching if we want our students to be successful in their careers. I think many teachers would agree with the statement that students change from year to year. The student of today is quite different from the student of 10, 5, or even 1 year ago. They bring to the classroom experiences and skills that are unique to their generation. In short, they are NOT like us, the music faculty. So, we would be making a grave mistake if we attempted to teach these students in the same way we were taught as undergraduate students many years ago. We must find ways to engage these new students in content, pedagogy, and practice that will give them the tools and experiences to meet the changing needs of their own students. With education becoming more collaboration and communication driven, we must give our students the resources and experiences necessary to compete and succeed in their careers

Clarion music students experience  today’s technology throughout their coursework. Three year ago, when I first asked students to complete a wiki assignment, I was met with many quizzical looks and some expressed concern about the usefulness of the assignment. Of course, I explained my rationale (which itself is a valuable exercise for these future educators, as they may need to argue the same with their administrators).  Just last week, however, I was able to give my students an assignment to create a wiki about Art Songs/Lieder, without having to explain “why” or “how.” They now know the answers to these questions.

Whether it is creating interactive wikis, using the Internet for research and email and instant messaging for communication, blogging about concerts or self-reflections, or collaborating on a Google Doc, Clarion music students are “in tune” (sorry about that) with the application of technology in the classroom because it is being used routinely by Clarion music faculty and because our students are asked to use it as an integral part of their academic careers.  Only through good modeling and application of the technology will our students have the tools to function effectively in the classrooms of the future.

The music classroom of the future cannot fully be imagined. Will we be performing in hybrid acoustic and electronic ensembles? Will students rehearse and perform simultaneously online from remote locations?  Will there even be “music classrooms?” I do not know what the future of music education will look or sound like, and neither do our faculty members nor our students. However, I am confident that the variety of experiences Clarion music students have with emergent trends in education will allow them to be open to trying new instructional approaches as they arise, and that will, in turn,  offer them opportunities to grow personally and professionally throughout their careers.

Ah….Summer!

There’s nothing like summer to enjoy time with family and friends, time away from Clarion, relaxing while sipping a cool drink on the back deck on a warm summer day, and maybe sleep in every once in a while! But, summer is actually a realtively busy time for Theresa in the music office and for many of the music faculty.

The New Student Orientation kept Theresa and me occupied throughout June. It is always exciting to see the new music students “officially” become Clarion students. The information they receive during their one-day orientation is quite overwhelming, but we do manage to go over the Music Education curriculum, make sure they have their Fall and Spring schedules, and offer a few pointers for being successful music students at Clarion. However, I know that much of this information gets lost as they are heading home from Orientation, so I am grateful to have our annual New Music Student Orientation held each year just before classes begin to go over much of the information again.

For many music faculty, this is our best opportunity to focus on professional development activities (and many of the things we really enjoy doing but never have the chance to do during the school year). Dr. Register, professor of woodwinds, again traveled overseas as a member of the International Flute Orchestra. This year’s tour included performances throughout Peru. Dr. Toney attended the 2008 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada. He is still telling stories of the “monster” players he heard and met. Don’t worry, though, he’s well prepared for this year’s upcoming Marching Band season! Dr. Dura taught several music subjects at a summer music academy in Warren, PA while teaching a course on-campus in June! Needless to say, she wasn’t overly thrilled with the higher gas prices.

Dr. Johnson has been busy collecting and crunching data for a research project involving the sight reading skills of elementary-aged instrumentalists. Dr. Alviani will be attending the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA-PA) conference in August, and Dr. Wells has been busy preparing to teach an online version of MUS 253-History of Jazz, which he designed, created, and will teach for the first time this fall.

I created and taught an online version of our MUS 131 – Music Fundamentals course during the Summer I session (this brings the number of online music courses offered at Clarion to 4!). And when I haven’t been teaching, cooking, or playing with my kids, I have been busy researching Web 2.0 applications in education and Project Based Learning. I am excited about implementing many new ideas and technologies into classroom instruction and department management this fall (e.g., this blog, our Events Calendar now on Google, department photos on Flickr, etc. – students beware!). Also, the university is changing its web site design and management as a result of a new marketing approach, and is asking all departments to recreate their web sites using the new content management system. So…guess who gets to redesign the website AGAIN?

Other exciting changes taking place in the department this summer include the installation of a SmartMusic studio in one of the practice rooms and the much anticipated (and longed for) installation of a Smart Classroom in one of our regular classrooms. Also, look for an announcement about additions to our faculty in the near future.

So, even though the perception of many is that teachers “take the summer off” (all you teachers can stop laughing now), actually it is one of our busiest times. Yes, we DO try to take some time for ourselves, since it is very important to return in the fall refreshed and energized, ready to meet the new challenges that await us, but our passions are never far from our thoughts.

I hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I am enjoying mine.