Maryland United Specialists in Kodály is very excited to announce several new board members are joining the team! As we grow, our chapter continues to take pride in providing Maryland educators with top notch professional development. Our newest leaders will continue to ensure that our workshops meet the educational needs of our members, and most importantly, the needs of the children we educate. Please join us in welcoming our incoming Vice President, Amy DeLoriea from Montgomery County Public Schools, our Secretary, Rachel Tanenblatt, creator of Music with Mrs. Tanenblatt, and Member-at-Large, Stephanie Lichtenberger, from Frederick County Public Schools. Welcome aboard!
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The 2017-18 workshop year is off to a vivacious start here in Maryland! We began our workshop series with Culturally Responsive Kodály, led by Lauren McDougle. Nearly 70 teachers were in attendance, and we are grateful for the complimentary breakfast provided by Loyola University Maryland and the American Kodály Institute. All attendees were provided with information, directions, and notation for forty songs, games, and dances from across the globe! We sang in multiple languages, learned about a variety of cultures and traditions, and discovered new and exciting activities that engage and nurture growing musicians. In the picture below, you can see attendees are "linked up" to play Sei, Sei, Sei, a Japanese Rock, Paper, Scissors song and game.
Lastly, don’t forget to register for our May 5, 2018 workshop, Wrap It Up: Great End of the Year Ideas. We’ve got a great day planned, filled with tried and true activities to help you and your students end the year on a high note, pun intended! Have a great school year, Kodály friends!
It was a truly busy year for our board and members, and filled with wonderful moments and memories. Here’s the review of what has happened since our last update.
What an excellent start to the year for music teachers in Maryland! On October 8th, our first workshop, Music Matters, featured presenters JoAnn Cain and Andrew Blumhardt. JoAnn shared a session titled Engaging Older Beginners and attendees left with nearly two dozen tried and true activities for upper elementary and middle school students. Andrew Blumhardt, a faculty member of the American Kodály Institute, got everyone moving with Laban Techniques for the Elementary Classroom. Special thanks goes to the American Kodály Institute for providing complimentary tuning forks for all those in attendance.
In case you missed the news, this summer, MUSIK fondly bid farewell to Laura Miller, our Member-At-Large, as she took on new and exciting life adventures, including being a wonderful grandmother! We are pleased to welcome two new board members joining us this year. Christopher Dean, a banjo aficionado and fine arts director for a DC charter school, is our new President-elect. We are also glad to have Lucia Shaefer joining as Treasurer, and she hails from Prince George's County Public Schools and is a frequent clinician and presenter throughout the region. She's presenting at the NAfME National In-Service in a few days, so be sure to check out her session if you're attending! And last but not least in news and updates, the Music for Everyone workshop will be held January 28th at Loyola University Maryland from 8:30a.m. to 4:00p.m. MUSIK is excited to have Dr. James Bowyer from Indiana University South Bend flying in for a three hour session on choral pedagogy and repertoire. In the afternoon, Jill Beck, Haley Holden, and Carrie Marsh, all students from the American Kodály Institute, will share their favorite tips, tricks, and activities for the classroom. We’re grateful to Loyola University Maryland for hosting this winter workshop and providing a complimentary breakfast and lunch to attendees. If you’re in the area, we’d love to have you join us! On January 30, eighty teachers attended the Kodály Connections workshop, which was cohosted by the American Kodály Institute on the beautiful Loyola University Maryland campus. The workshop reflected the principles of the Kodály philosophy and encouraged creative musicianship and collaboration. In the morning, attendees were provided with lesson planning strategies and sample lessons by clinician Lauren McDougle. Plan Your Year Before It’s Here emphasized the importance of using pedocentric practices while maintaining clear pedagogical goals in your planning. Then, François Suhr encouraged teachers to practice Solfa on your Sofa to improve one’s personal musicianship, which in turn, will benefit young students. Francois shared a beautifully sequenced handout, outlining exercises and drills that could be done in a short amount time. After returning from a complimentary lunch, three American Kodály Institute graduate students shared their knowledge and materials with us. Stephanie Crawford’s presentation, Singing Games: Playing to Learn, led participants through a dozen tried and true singing games that support teaching a variety of musical concepts. Korey Cunningham expanded upon the idea of creative play in Song to Performance: Multicultural Informance. Korey shared activities and multicultural songs that are accessible and inspire creativity and performance from our students. We ended the day with an invigorating and enlightening dance session led by Christopher Dean. Chris shared his extensive knowledge of old time West Virginia Square Dances and aural tradition in his presentation West Virginia Square Dance: Authentic Teaching and Performance. A special thank you goes to the many graduate student from AKI for assisting during large games and dances and sharing the importance of OAKE membership and continuous professional development. “Only the best is good enough for the child…” and on this Saturday, we absolutely worked towards being our best! Please join us for our final workshop, The Magic in Music on Saturday, April 23 and enjoy the rest of your academic year! As we reflect on this past year, the Maryland United Specialists in Kodály board members and I would like to express our gratitude for all of the special moments we shared that were filled with joy, creativity, and most importantly, beautiful music. We sang, we discussed methodology, we laughed, we played games, and we danced. We’ve welcomed new members and had several represent our chapter at the Organization of American Kodály Educators National Conference in Minneapolis. We hosted twelve talented pedagogues and saw an average of fifty to seventy attendees at each of our Saturday workshops. These sessions encouraged the music teachers in attendance to brainstorm and collaborate by sharing ideas, lessons, concert repertoire, and classroom management techniques. We are incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by so many educators in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore region that are dedicated to honing their craft. It was a wonderfully successful year for MUSIK!
So as we bid farewell to 2015, let it serve as an inspiration for 2016. MUSIK teachers should feel encouraged to continue moving forward in professional development; practice your instrument, learn new repertoire, read new research, but most importantly, keep listening to your young musicians. It is our students that should inspire and drive our educational practices. It is our duty to capture imagination and teach the whole child. We should utilize all learning modalities and make cross-curricular connections to deepen understanding. We must practice equity, kindness, and patience. The music room should be a safe space, promoting creativity and cooperation. We should learn when to let go of control and let the children take over. Which means sometimes, we should spend those five extra minutes on a favorite song or game – it may be exactly what they need that day. In June, I had the wonderful opportunity to study under Berta Hickox, a master teacher and member of the Kodály Educators of Eastern Pennsylvania chapter, and I’d like to leave you with this idea that she shared. “We teach children, not lessons.” Thank you for joining Maryland United Specialists in Kodály in your journey towards excellence. It is such a pleasure to see first-hand that spark that that fuels your pedagogical passions. I can’t wait to see you at our next workshop on Saturday, January 30, 2016. Happy New Year! Fondly, Lauren McDougle MUSIK Chapter President Program Director, American Kodály Institute Education Director, Children’s Chorus of Maryland General Music Instructor, Montgomery County Public Schools Fifty teachers are Back in the Saddle Again, and ready to inspire their students after the October workshop with Maryland United Specialists in Kodály. The over-arching message that rang true in all of the presentations on October 17 was the importance of sequence and pacing when teaching the elements of music. Scope and sequence within a lessons should be developmentally appropriate and based on current educational research to ensure that young musicians reach their fullest potential. The MUSIK presenters shared a plethora of folk songs, games, dances, and activities that provided our attendees with strategies to help guide student learning. The workshop began with a session led by Nicole Broemm. Her session featured strategies for teaching rote songs that engage students, nurture imagination, and encourage play and socialization. And there’s no better way to build a culture of collaboration and cooperation in the classroom than through folk dance. Rebecca Maurer led Progressing through Folk Dance, which featured a selection of dances that were scaffolded, allowing students to develop their knowledge of dance figures and formations in logical manner. After all the singing and dancing, participants took a well-deserved lunch break, and then returned for a presentation titled Cutting-Edge Kodály: Music Methodology for the 21st Century, presented by Amy Branum Huggins. This inspiring lecture was an overview of Zoltán Kodály's pedagogical practices and drew upon Music Learning Theory and 21st century research to explain how, and why, these methodologies work. Ending with this session reiterated the importance selecting high quality repertoire and using a child-friendly scope and sequence in the music classroom.
The workshop and sessions were such a joy to attend – there is nothing better than spending a day with smiling, excited music educators! A special thank you to West Music for providing free promotional door prizes for a workshop raffle. And of course, a thank you goes to Loyola University Maryland and the American Kodály Institute. Due to our partnership with Loyola and AKI, our workshops are free to everyone and a complimentary breakfast and lunch are provided. The next MUSIK workshop, Kodály Connections, will be Saturday, January 30, 2016. If you are in the Baltimore area, we hope you will join us! This July, fourteen fabulous music educators from the United States and Ireland completed the Master of Education in Kodály Music Education at the American Kodály Institute at Loyola University Maryland. and received their Kodály certification. On behalf of the Maryland United Specialists in Kodály, we extend a joyous congratulations to the graduating class of 2015: Megan Achey, Ashley N. Cuthbertson, James E. Dorsey IV, Rebecca L. Foster, Amanda Hollifield, Kristen Jorde, Georgia Katsourides, Angela Kirchner, Erin Kirchner, Allison Jeanne Lewis, Latoya V. Lewis, Fearghal Ó' Conchubhair, François Suhr, and Sorcha Walsh.
The wonderful J.W. Pepper sheet music company is providing the octavos for the choral reading portion of the Maryland United Specialists in Kodaly's workshop on April 11, 2015. We certainly hope you'll check out their easy-to-navigate website (jwpepper.com) when you're looking for that perfect octavo for your students. And we know you're certainly going to register for Practical Pedagogy: Kodaly in Action with Judy DuBose and Carla Wardell. Just send your RSVP to [email protected]. Registered attendees will receive choral octavos courtesy of J.W. Pepper and a complimentary breakfast provided by MUSIK. See you there! |
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