At the 2022 NAfME National Conference President Scott R. Sheehan introduced the new NAfME Strategic Plan which will guide the direction of the association into the future. “After two years of conversation, soul-searching, and deep introspection, NAfME has a new Strategic Plan that is unlike anything our association has created in its 115-year history,” states Sheehan. “This new plan not only sets our direction for the future, but it also serves as a conceptual framework that outlines who we (NAfME members) are and why NAfME exists.”
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FG Trade
The NAfME Learning Center is NAfME’s new online learning management system for supporting the ongoing professional learning needs of music educators. It supports diverse and robust types of current and potential future professional learning programs. As part of the new NAfME Learning Center, NAfME Academy® is now free for current NAfME members.
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NAfME is looking for short quotes from a variety of teachers nationwide for a section of the January issue of Teaching Music magazine. Here is the key question: How do you balance expectations (from administrators, parents, or yourself) with the need to meet students where they are? What strategies/approaches do you use to meet students where they are? If you are interested in having your quote considered for publication, please send your quote by November 18 along with the following to John Donaldson at johnd@nafme.org: your name, email, a high-resolution photo. Also, please provide a very short paragraph that explains the context of your teaching, including what level(s) and area(s) you teach, the name of your school, and the city and state where you work.
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SPONSORED CONTENT
Read this on the Yamaha Educator Suite
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NAMM FOUNDATION AND NAfME
NAfME is collaborating with the NAMM Foundation, the Educational Theatre Association, the National Dance Education Organization, and the National Art Education Association to collect data about the use of federal funds to support music and the arts (dance, theatre, and visual arts) in K–12 education. Your stories are a vital part of our advocacy efforts, and we encourage you to participate in this important survey by December 2.
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Students in elementary school, secondary school, college, and graduate school submitted their works to the competition. Selected works were featured during the 2022 NAfME National Conference on November 4. Listen to the works of the selected composers.
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This third annual competition provided students in grades K-collegiate the opportunity to submit original songs. Selected songwriters receive cash awards, and all entrants receive written evaluations of their works. Selected works were featured during the 2022 NAfME National Conference on November 4.
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Listen to these outstanding compositions. This competition highlights the effectiveness of music technology in the school curriculum. Entries are judged based on their aesthetic quality, use of electronic media, and the power of the composition.
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The newest Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources curriculum unit is now available: “Responding for Creative Performance, Choral—Proficient Level.” This unit includes four lessons, handouts, resources from the Library, and more.
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SWEET ADELINES INTERNATIONAL AND NAfME
Sarah Clay Lindvall, Director of Chorus and Theatre at West Forsyth High School in Cumming, Georgia, has been named the 2022 Sweet Adelines/NAfME Award recipient. As noted in her nomination letter, Lindvall is a “music educator dedicated to helping others grow artistically and personally through meaningful connection, growth-mindset, joy, authenticity, and curiosity.”
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SPONSORED CONTENT
Discover pedagogical strategies and digital tools to inspire a new generation of students in the University of Florida’s online Master of Music in Music Education program.
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THE RECORDING ACADEMYTM AND GRAMMY MUSEUM®
NAfME is pleased to announce that 12 of the 25 GRAMMY semifinalists are active NAfME members. NAfME congratulates all of the inspiring, dedicated, and noteworthy music educators selected as semifinalists.
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As a member you have access to all the online archives for five peer-reviewed journals. Learn how you can write for these publications.
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LOWELL MASON HOUSE
During the autumn of 2022, participants will be asked to reinterpret a piece of music of their choice (classical, jazz, musical theater, or popular/folk music) and adapt it in a creative way so that it may be the centerpiece of an innovative 21st century classroom lesson, presentation, or public performance. Deadline to register (intent to apply) is November 15; deadline to submit your entry is November 28.
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NAfME PROFESSIONAL LEARNING WEBINARS
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On November 14, 7:00 PM ET, join Dr. Roosevelt Griffin, Dr. Lenora Helm Hammonds, and Ms. Bethany Robinson of the NAfME Council for Jazz Education as they discuss ways to build jazz programs from 5th–12th grade and university perspective—including instrumental and vocals programs! Bring your questions to collaborate with our presenters during the second half of the Town Hall.
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Hear from and converse with a panel of experts from opposite ends of the United States representing many facets of the Educational Orchestra and Strings Landscape who will share stories, thoughts, and hopes and dreams centered on fostering understanding about the diversity within the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, and moving music education forward by creating learning and learning spaces that are reflective of and uplifting to the communities that are present. All are welcome. Participants will come away with new knowledge and ideas for building culturally inclusive curricula and programming. Panelists include: Randy Wong; Alice Tsui; Duane Padilla; Elizabeth Fortune; and LaSaundra Booth.
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Submit your idea for a webinar topic to the NAfME Professional Learning and Partnerships Committee (PLPC). Webinar proposals are reviewed by the PLPC.
SUBMIT PROPOSAL
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DANIEL J. KEOWN
As music education continues to strive for engaging music learning experiences for all grades K–12 children, the study of film music should be considered a contributing factor in meeting this need as a way of facilitating innovative and diverse student engagement opportunities in music. (2022 NAfME National Conference presenter)
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ABIGAIL VAN KLOMPENBERG
Through trauma-informed practices, music educators can support students affected by trauma. Here are five trauma-informed practices that can be easily implemented in music classrooms. (2022 NAfME National Conference presenter)
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DR. ABBY GAIL MEANS
As the United States population continues to grow in cultural and linguistic diversity, elementary general music teachers (EGMTs) who teach diverse populations of students struggle with creating meaningful music-making and social experiences for students whose language practices vary from their own. (2022 NAfME National Conference presenter)
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BRANDON ROEDER AND EVE SNYDER
Building relationships with your neurodiverse students is as easy as learning what is important to, and important for them: What kind of supports do they need? What genres of music do they respond to? What are their musical strengths? (2022 NAfME National Conference presenters)
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MICHAEL KORN
Physical action is like a “wheel” on which we wrap a thread of our thoughts, feelings, and imagination. The essence of physical action is, so to speak, to draw a connection between the life of the body and the life of the spirit.
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MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 2022
“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes referred to as the Black National Anthem, has been sung everywhere from protests to concert halls in the United States for well over a century. The song’s origins, however, come directly from the mind of an educator, James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), and the needs of his school community. (Member login required.)
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JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN MUSIC EDUCATION, OCTOBER 2022
Studies in musical improvisation show that musicians and even children are able to communicate intended emotions to listeners at will. To understand emotional expressivity in music as an art form, communicative success needs to be related to improvisers’ thought processes and listeners’ aesthetic judgments. In the present study, Erkki Huovinen and Aaro Keipi used retrospective verbal protocols to address college music students’ strategies in improvisations based on emotion terms. (Member login required.)
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JOURNAL OF MUSIC TEACHER EDUCATION, OCTOBER 2022
The purpose of this phenomenological study by Jennifer C. Hutton was to explore four K–12 public school music educators’ lived experiences with teacher–student relationships. Research questions were the following: (a) How do music educators describe teacher–student relationships in their classrooms? (b) What strategies do music educators use to encourage positive, caring relationships with their students? and (c) What benefits and challenges exist for educators in relationship-focused classrooms? (Member login required.)
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SPONSORED BY ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Based on the book Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees, this Digital Tiny Tunes program invites students into the world of Gerald the Giraffe as he overcomes adversity, discovers his talents, finds music that inspires him, and ultimately, learns to dance.
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Photo: Bob O'Lary
DANIEL LYTLE
I interviewed three orchestra teachers from my school district who I knew excelled in assessment strategies. The teaching experience of the teachers ranged from eight to 32 years. I learned that along with common problems of assessment, many teachers had common goals of maximizing class time, keeping accurate records of students’ progress, informing future teaching, and fostering lifelong music learners.
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MICHAELA JOHNSON
My journey to becoming a violin teacher started when Dr. Angela Ammerman encouraged my classmates and me to accept an opportunity to teach strings if we came across an unfilled position. My string journey continued when an opportunity finally presented itself: teaching at the Hope House Children’s Home in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where Dr. Ammerman had recently started a string program.
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MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL, MARCH 2019
This article by Leo Park focuses on two exercises—drone improvisation and circle stringing—that can be easily integrated into the orchestra curriculum and adapted to the learning needs of the individual student, small-ensemble, and large-ensemble settings. Of critical importance is fostering an environment of musical discovery and exploration that reaches beyond the purview of traditional ensemble-based classroom experiences. (Member login required.)
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DR. CHARLES T. MENGHINI, SPONSORED BY HAL LEONARD
Dr. Charlie Menghini, President Emeritus of VanderCook College of Music in Chicago and co-author of the Essential Elements Method for Band, shares ten tips to help you get the most out of your band or orchestra method.
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UPDATE: APPLICATIONS OF RESEARCH IN MUSIC EDUCATION, ONLINEFIRST
The purpose of this narrative action research study was to tell Marcus Voght’s story as an ensemble director learning how to teach composition in his middle school orchestra program. Marcus collaborated with Samuel Tsugawa, a university professor, and designed a study to examine his teaching in his 49-member advanced orchestra class. As time passed, the focus of the study shifted from examining the specific elements of Marcus’s curriculum to the inclusion of changes in the creative culture of his program. (Member login required.)
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NAfME Notes will be on hiatus for the rest of November. The next issue will be sent December 1.
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