wisconsin music educators association president
Wisconsin: MusicStrong! Lynn Seidl, WMEA President
As I begin my two- year term as WMEA president, I would like to thank Ley- la Sanyer and Jim Scheuer for their guidance, mentor- ing, friendship and advice during my two years as pres-
ident-elect. We refer to the structure in the leadership as the “presidential trio,” meaning the triumvirate of past president, current president and president-elect. Our presidential trio functions much like a musical trio with good balance, blend and contrasting dynamics. It has been a blessing to work with these strong and in- telligent educators and fortunately they are not gone from the leadership landscape, as Jim continues as the WMEA past president and Leyla as the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) North Central Division president. I would also like to acknowledge Kati Seiter as our WMEA president-elect. I am particularly excited about this because Kati is a young educa-
tor who has displayed leadership abilities that will continue to make our organization strong. Also deserving to be recognized is the WMEA Board and Council. The summer retreat was held in July and it is hard to find a more energetic and forward- thinking group. The work that they do for Wisconsin music education makes WMEA a strong and crucial professional organization. Finally, I think it is impor- tant to include Tim Schaid, our executive director in this paragraph. His vision and leadership has moved WMEA forward and taken us out of some tight squeezes, particularly in the financial area, an area in which we have gained strength. The staff at the Wisconsin Center for Music Education, with Tim at the helm, is an outstanding group of people, working for the good of music education in the state of Wisconsin.
Our 2016 conference theme is “Wiscon- sin: MusicStrong.” Themes are debated and chosen over one year in advance and when discussing the theme for 2016, there was a concerted push to include the word
Experience WSM Online! Your Fully Digitized Version
Did you know, Wisconsin School Musician is also digitally published with many additional features?
Bonus content to the print version • Multimedia, such as video, audio and flash • Hyperlinks to web and email sources • Highlighting, bookmarking, customized viewing, noting, instant page printing and “send to a friend” options • Viewable on and offline • Archival search
Check out the digital version today! Password: musicstrong
www.WSMmagazine.org 6
Go to
nafme.org – Take Action – Everything ESSA for great resources!
“strong.” Now, one year later, this seems very appropriate. An extremely important event happened on December 9, 2015 – the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law. This act replaces the preceding Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the unpopular No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), known for high stakes testing, “one size fits all” education and punitive action for failing schools. The act passed with overwhelm- ing bipartisan support, with all Wisconsin legislators voting in favor of it. In ESSA the familiar list of “core academic sub- jects” from NCLB has been replaced by a comprehensive list of subjects for a “well- rounded education,” with music now in- cluded on that list alongside mathematics and language arts. This inclusion of that one word – music – is the fruition of much work done for many years by music educa- tors and our parent organization, NAfME in Reston, VA. This recognition of music is incredibly important to us, as music educators, as our subject has received the attention it deserved from legislators and is now placed on the same level as math, science and reading.
WMEA, and in particular its advocacy committee, Wisconsin Advocates for Music Education (WAME), has been working to educate and inform our state legislators about the changes and how music education is an integral part of the ESSA language. WAME’s Days of Ac- tion training has been given to over 50 advocates for music education across the state who are participating in meetings with their state senators and representa- tives to discuss the impact and opportuni- ties provided by ESSA. Days of Action is an ongoing project spearheaded by our WMEA government relations chair,
September 2016
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
