11/6/2021 - Virtual Professional Development Day

MMEA Virtual Professional Development Day
Saturday, November 6, 2021

Link to Registration Form

Session descriptions follow. Sessions are listed by strand and by time.

Strand: General Music
9:00am
Story Time in the Music Classroom
Presenter: Steve Damon
This session serves as an introduction (or review) of music-related books that music teachers can use in their classes. I read such books as Abiyoyo, Willie Was Different, and Moonlight Over Manhattan. For each book, there is a song or activity that correlates to the National Standards. For instance, after reading The Birth of Little Tune, we will sing the song and participate in an improvisation exercise. Many, many standards are covered.
As with all my sessions, Story Time in the Music Classroom is conducted in a light-hearted manner. After all, I target children between the ages of 4 and 9. Although the session is taught in a light-hearted manner, the participants will find many new books and activities that will help in the music education of their students. Education and fun - all in one clinic.

Strand: General Music
10:00am
Engaging Middle Schoolers - Best Practices for General Music
Presenter: Lovely Hoffman
Have you ever attended professional development and walked away questioning how you will incorporate what was presented in your classroom? Well, this PD is all about best practices in the Middle School General Music Classroom. Lovely Hoffman-Wine will provide you with the various ways she engages her middle school students and how she incorporates these practices, which focus on student representation in the curriculum, social-emotional learning, and ethnomusicology. You will walk away with resources, strategies, and tools you can incorporate into your classroom right away!

Strand: General Music
12:00pm
Ukulele Exploration
Presenter: Miles Wilcox
The 'ukulele is a versatile instrument that is known for being "easy" for adults to play, but where should we start when teaching the 'ukulele to children? Upper elementary students may be able to learn the "four magic chords" but how can we use the 'ukulele to engage students in early elementary? This session will cover techniques and activities for using the 'ukulele as a teaching tool for diverse elementary students--if you have the instruments and are wondering about where to begin with the curriculum, this is the session for you! The 'ukulele can be used to teach concepts & standards you are already covering in a new and fun way, and can be a minimal learning curve for educators. Included in the session will be tips for engaging neurodiverse students.

Strand: General Music
1:00pm
Creating Culturally Responsive Lessons
Presenter: Maria Del Valle and Lauren De Lago
In this session, we will define explicit, implicit, and null curriculum and how to create a curriculum and lessons that are culturally responsive and build bridges.

Strand: Special Learners
9:00am
The Neurodiverse Music Classroom: Using Strengths of Special Learners and All Students in Various Learning Environments
Presenter: Brian Wagner-Yeung
Neurodiversity is a fairly new trend focusing on incorporating strength-based learning in the classroom and celebrating students’ different brain levels. This session will focus on creating a neurodiverse classroom setting by incorporating positive niche construction in musical environments. Such examples include strength awareness, universal design for learning, and creating environmental modifications. This session will cover elementary to secondary settings, in addition to classroom music to performance ensembles.

Strand: Special Learners / Strings

10:00am
Making Musical Connections: String Orchestra for Special Learners
Presenter: Brian Wagner-Yeung
String orchestra is a vital part of a solid music education experience. All students, including students with special needs, should have the opportunity to participate in a string orchestra. Nevertheless, special adaptations and modifications are needed to provide a structured and meaningful experience for students with special needs. In this session, you will see basic accommodations for students and instruments, adaptations to literacy using color- coding and visual manipulations, and how language development/social skills can be enhanced through music- making.

Strand: Strings
9:00am
Beginning Strings? Secrets to Success
Presenter: Kristina Caruso
This session is all about setting up a program that flourishes with young musicians. Whether you struggle in getting a confident viola player or have issues managing your cello player we have all been there. We all make mistakes early on or we have an instrument that we are weaker with so let's talk about how to strengthen your beginners and get them off on the right note!

Strand: Strings / Special Learners

10:00am
Making Musical Connections: String Orchestra for Special Learners
Presenter: Brian Wagner-Yeung
String orchestra is a vital part of a solid music education experience. All students, including students with special needs, should have the opportunity to participate in a string orchestra. Nevertheless, special adaptations and modifications are needed to provide a structured and meaningful experience for students with special needs. In this session, you will see basic accommodations for students and instruments, adaptations to literacy using color- coding and visual manipulations, and how language development/social skills can be enhanced through music- making.

Strand: Strings
12:00pm
Creating Obsessed Students: How to have a 90%+ retention rate
Presenter: Allison Wilkinson
Applied music psychology is a very young field. When Paul Farnsworth published the first book on the social psychology of music in 1954, he probably didn’t imagine it would take until 1997 for this discipline to be truly established as a legitimate line of research. There is a world of new information that simply wasn’t available even 25 years ago, and what we’ve found out in those years is nothing short of revolutionary.
In this session, you’ll learn to bring this incredible new wealth of knowledge to the music classroom, in a way that is easily accessible to busy music teachers. You will be introduced to the basics of the brain, what you need to know to improve your teaching, and how to use your new understanding to create wildly improved student retention and even student obsession.

Strand: Tech
9:00am
Digital Badging in the Music Classroom
Presenter: Stephanie M. Riley
Digital Badging is a system that individuals complete to show competency or achievement in any given area. It could be viewed as a digital portfolio or a digital checklist, but with specific steps to be taken by the student in order to complete the program. Teachers of all grade levels and specialties will explore how digital badging can be implemented in their classrooms and how it can benefit both their students and themselves.

Strand: Tech
12:00pm
Introduction to Scratch Coding
Presenter: Anthony Beatrice
Scratch is a high-level block-based visual programming language and website target primarily at children 8-12 as an educational tool for programming. Participants will learn how to utilize the software with music creation in mind.

Strand: Composition
9:00am
Composer Conversations
Presenters: Joe Pondaco and Jake O’Connor
Composition council chair Joe Pondaco will lead an interview and question and answer session with local area composer Jake O'Connor: A recent graduate of the music composition programs at Ithaca college and Peabody. The discussion will focus on Jake's experiences as a young composer and composition major and ways to help prepare students to pursue undergraduate studies in music composition.

Strand: Composition
1:00pm
Hip Hop in the Music Classroom
Presenters: Meaghan O’Connor-Vince
This session will explore how to effectively use Hip-Hop and MusicFirst software as tools to teach students listening skills, composition, analysis and evaluation of music, sequencing, recording, and basic production techniques. This presentation provides a Hip-Hop composition unit with descriptions of lessons, resources, rubrics, and general student directions intended to produce tangible and authentic assessments of student learning for each project/song.

Strand: Choral
9:00am
Stay Gold: 5 Core Tenets for Building a Choral Program
Presenters: Eric Posado
Inheriting a choral program is challenging. Success can be defined as creating a culture that fits one’s vision, core values, style, and students. No matter the level, it is important to stay true to one’s self while building a program. To achieve this, identify values that will permeate one’s program. Dr. Posada will focus on five core tenets that will build, motivate, and innovate your program.

Strand: Choral
10:00am
A Conversation with James Burton: The Lost Words
Presenters: James Burton, Kendra Nutting-Moderator
Join the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Choral Director and conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus James Burton as he discusses his choral adaptation of the children’s book The Lost Words, written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris. Mr. Burton will share his thoughts on the composition process, writing for and working with children’s voices, connecting literature with music, and the many ways in which The Lost Words provides young singers with meaningful ways to connect with the world around them and to explore their own creativity. The vocal score is published by Edition Peters.

Strand: Choral
12:00pm
Making the Weather: Cultivating a Thriving Choral Community
Presenters: Lauren Ramey
Singers in our ensembles thrive when there is a shared sense of purpose, belonging, and connection. Haim Ginott states that it is us, the teacher-conductor, who “makes the weather.” The climate of the ensemble and the investment of its members are intrinsically shaped by the relationships that directors create with their singers. In this session, we will explore how to build trusting relationships that serve our students/singers and use them as a basis for relentlessly pursuing musical excellence and creating a thriving musical community. Teachers will begin to see the effects immediately and will plant the seeds for growth in the choral ensemble for years to come.

Strand: Choral
1:00pm
Please Don’t Stop the Music: Creating a Space for Pop Music in Choir
Presenters: Eric Rubenstein
“Popular” and vernacular musics sometimes carry a negative connotation among choral directors, and some may be insistent on separating “student music” from “school music.” Research not only supports the musical and social impact of popular music in the classroom, but its pervasive connection to a child’s humanity. This session will not only discuss trends in student engagement, but will also discuss avenues of curriculum reform, philosophy, and materials, while equipping teachers with the information (and updated perspective) necessary to include commercial music in their choral ensembles.

Strand: Band and Jazz Band
9:00am
Basic Woodwind and Brass Repair for the Music Educator
Presenters: Mike Leonard
This session will address everyday and emergency repairs for woodwind and brass instruments. It will guide educators in how to troubleshoot issues, perform basic pad replacement, spring adjustment, valve issues, what tools and supplies to have on hand, etc. It will also address "what not to do" so as to not worsen the issue.

Strand: Band and Jazz Band
10:00am
Recruiting, Retention and Rebuilding in Band
Presenters: Rebecca Makara and Dave Daquil
This session will address best practices for recruiting new elementary and middle school band players and retaining the ones you currently have. They will also share tips on innovative teaching ideas during covid that have helped their program thrive.

Strand: Band and Jazz Band
12:00pm
Jazz Piano Comping Tips for the Developing Jazz Pianist
Presenters: Jamie Saltman
This session will address how to encourage and develop your middle school and high school jazz pianists. Topics covered will include: Basic jazz chord voicings, the art of comping over chord progressions, making the transition from a trained classical pianist into the jazz idiom, basic jazz improv and pedagogy, interpreting typical jazz band charts, and various resources.

Strand: Band and Jazz Band
1:00pm
Jazz Drum Set Tips for Developing the Jazz Drummer
Presenters: Kevin Fortuna
This session will address how to develop your middle school and high school jazz drummers. Topics covered will include basic jazz drumming patterns for Swing, Latin, Funk, Rock, and Brushwork. He will also address tips for fills, left/right hand independence, appropriate jazz drum kit set-up, making the transition from being a concert band drummer to a set player, and various resources. He will also address advanced and contemporary jazz drum set concepts.

Strand: Administration and Higher Education
9:00am
Mentoring From the Inside Out. Supporting the Needs of Today’s Teachers
Presenters: Dr. Erin Zaffini
Mentoring from the inside-out: Supporting the needs of today's teachers. This interactive session will focus on the mentorship of novice teachers by providing training for mentors within the field. Using research-based practices, participants will be trained in mentoring tools and strategies that will help them cultivate positive mentor-mentee partnerships. Participants will learn the following:
(1) different observation and feedback models for pre-service teachers,
(2) the differences between mentoring pre-service and in-service teachers,
(3) mentoring through digital means, and
(4) various ways in which mentors can promote reflection and action within their mentees. Participants will also share their own mentor experiences in hopes of revealing additional hidden practices with each other.

Strand: Administration and Higher Education
10:00am
A Pedagogy of Love. Transforming Teaching Learning in Music Education
Presenters: Dr. Ruth Debrot and Dr. Kinh Vu
The purpose of this Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project was to examine teaching and learning in the undergraduate music education program at Boston University. By working collaboratively, with students, we will seek to determine if the undergraduate curriculum meets the pedagogical, social, and emotional needs of pre service students. Our work will be guided by Freire’s (1998) dialogic conception of the teacher/mentor as co learner and we will use a humanizing, problem-posing approach grounded in love, action and understanding (Nhat Hanh, 2007). We intend that student researchers will be able to position themselves as educators, lifelong learners, and producers of knowledge.

Strand: Administration and Higher Education
1:00pm
Administration Round Table
Presenters: Anthony Beatrice, Moderator
Mentoring from the inside-out: Join administrators from across the state to thought-share our most pressing issues: teacher shortages, concert audience restrictions, accessing ESSER funds, recruitment, etc.