Kim (Cowell) Warger
Elementary/Early Childhood Vice-preident The Language of Music
As I sit here on a beautiful fall day writing this article, I am wondering where the first quarter of the school year has gone? The first grading period of the year is upon many of us. We have been sure to learn the new students’ names, collect data and prepare for our first performances. In all that chaos, have you remembered to block out the 2017 MMEA Conference on your calendar? Don’t miss out on some of the best professional development you will find this year in the state of Missouri.
MMEA is excited to welcome Gretchen Wahlberg and Sandy Lantz to their first MMEA conference. They come to us from Fort Myers, Florida where they have over 50-years of experience teaching music to young children. I first experienced their master teaching, creative ideas and witty sense of humor at a national Orff conference. They will be presenting three sessions on Thursday and Friday that are sure to be insightful, innovative and just plain fun!
“Kids with Autism CAN!” will be the first session Gretchen and Sandy present on Thursday morning as they demonstrate strategies, techniques and ideas that have been successful with children of varying exceptionalities in the elementary music classroom. For several years they have been presenting sessions on children’s literature and have recently co-published Creative Bits with Children’s Lit. Their session, “Children’s Literature,” also will be presented on Thursday morning. Selecting literature, assessment ideas and connecting to the standards will be addressed in this session. Their final session on Thursday afternoon, “Drumming for the Little Ones” will offer hands-on, “kid-tested” lessons that incorporate drumming for all grades. We look forward to having Gretchen and Sandy wow us with their creative ideas.
Denise Gagné returns to MMEA this year to offer us some of her new material. My first experience with Denise was at an MMEA conference several years ago. As a result, my recorder units with third and fourth grade students were forever changed for the better. This year she will come back to us to present two sessions on Saturday morning. “Reading Music is Easy” will focus on games and activities that will help our students learn to read notation using manipulatives, apps and digital resources. If you are wanting more ideas for those colored tubes so many of us have in our classrooms theses day, come and play with the boomwhackers as Denise takes us through a sequential process helping students in grades 2 through 5 learn to read rhythms, melodies and chords.
Each conference brings with it many wonderful performing groups. This year we are pleased to have two elementary performing groups joining us. These groups must go through an audition process in order to be invited to participate in our conference and are therefore to be commended on their selection. We welcome the Immanuel Lutheran 5th Academy 6th
- and 6th - Grade Chorus, under the direction of Pamela Loesel and the Reed - Grade Select Singers, under the direction of Taylor Shaeffer.
Although most members will participate in activities beginning on Thursday and running through Saturday, if you are looking for that extra afternoon of professional development, be sure to join us on Wednesday,
See WARGER, pg. 19 18 MISSOURI SCHOOL MUSIC | Volume 71, Number 2
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
