Sessions at the Iowa Music Education Association Fall Conference (2023)

I haven’t mentioned this on the blog or social media, but I am in Ames, Iowa (Campus of Iowa State University) presenting a couple of presentations for the IMEA Fall Music Education Conference.

Today (Friday) I am presenting on the iPad in Music Education (looking at the device in 2023). Tomorrow (Saturday), I will be presenting a session about ukulele.

PDFs of the presentations are posted; the iPad Session is available on this page (on the “Past Presentations” page), and the notes from the ukulele session are on my ukulele blog.

I am grateful for the opportunity to present, and if you are coming to the sessions, or attended the sessions, thank you!

If you go to music education conferences and would like me to present on topics on technology in music education or ukulele, please feel free to have your state (or local) conference contact me. My availability is somewhat restricted as I am a teacher and have to use personal days to present, but in the 2023-2024 school year, I am only currently using one day to present.

And once again, many thanks to the IMEA for having me this year!

2020 Illinois Music Education Conference

I just returned home from a quick trip to Illinois to present a couple of sessions. Thank you to everyone who attended the iPad session. It is difficult to present a session on the iPad these days as it is no longer a “hot topic” in education—and the most important developments have been in the operating system rather than the incremental changes in apps and accessories. Ultimately, the best apps keep getting better, the mediocre and bad apps fade out of view, and it is really hard for new apps to find success.

The three areas I would encourage most music educators to examine with the iPad are these:

First, take time to explore those “big” apps and make sure that you know all of the features of those apps. For example, forScore is a PDF music reader. So it is an inch wide, but a mile deep with many features for musicians and music educators.

Second, start using video in your work—for assessment and instruction. It is how kids are learning today away from school, and we need to tap into that.

And finally, if you have a favorite app, and need it to do something else, please write the company. While some companies are larger, many apps are created by a team of one or two people.

Thank you for coming! A PDF of the keynote appears below!

2020 IMEC What’s New with the iPad and Music Education?Download

At the 2019 Wisconsin State Music Convention

Hello! I will be at the Wisconsin State Music Convention on Thursday and Friday of this week. My topics, for once, will be all ukulele related (sessions on Thursday and Friday), but if anyone wants to find me to talk about technology in music education, please let me know! I will have some free time on my hands between/after my sessions, but I am also looking forward to seeing some of the other great sessions offered at the convention.

At TMEA this week!

I will be at TMEA this week, from Thursday through Saturday. I have a session on forScore on Saturday morning at 8AM in Grand Hyatt Crockett CD. Please feel free to contact me if you are going to be there—I’d love to say, “Hello.” I will be spending a lot of time in the vendor area, where I get chance to see what is new and talk to some of the key players in the industry of music education and technology.

I used to attend up to five conferences a year, something I have not done for a couple of years. I wanted to explain why.

Several years ago, my school/district stopped supporting my efforts to present at music education conferences, which is one of my very favorite things to do. I never asked the school/district to pay for travel, lodging, or meals—I just asked them to pick up the cost of a substitute teacher. When I attend a conference these days, presenter or participant, I have to use my contractual personal time. If I have any other plans during a school year that involve my use of personal days for other things (which was the case this year), I need to save those days (we get up to four personal days a year).

I don’t have any plans for the 2019-2020 convention schedule at this time, so if you would like to have me present at your conference, feel free to propose session topics (you can see the many different sessions I have presented about here), or to contact me with your ideas. Most states have a way for members to request presenters for their conference.

That’s all for now—I look forward to meeting some of you at TMEA this next week!

TMEA 2018

I have been busy with school, the musical, and using technology to create materials for my mid-year ukulele efforts with my choirs.  With new administration in our building, I took a step back from presenting this year and only applied for TMEA (Texas), and was thrilled to be asked to present a session when someone else declined.  I love San Antonio, and if I lived here, I would be on the Riverwalk every day.  Is there a San Antonio school or college that needs a band/choir/music technology/ukulele teacher? 🙂

On Saturday (February 17), I am presenting a session using my choral conductor skills, on the topic of Dale Duncan’s excellent S-Cubed sight singing method.  No…I am not compensated by Dale in any way…just a teacher who uses the method, modifying it where I need to modify it for my needs, and then wanting to share it with others.

If you are at the session on Saturday, you can find the session “slides” here: S-Cubed for TMEA