What are effective methods of assessment in a performance-based class?

Be sure to hop on Twitter at 8pm EST tonight (Monday, March 1), using the hash-tag #musedchat, and join in the conversation! As always, you can view the very latest information on #MusEdChat at the #MusEdChat Page, right here at MusicEdMajor.net!

Happy Tweeting!

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Before you start wondering how I came to that outlandish comment, allow me to explain. If you’re like me and haven’t been to the circus since you were 5, hopefully the picture above should refresh your memory and give you a better idea of what I’m referring to: JUGGLERS! Jugglers are responsible for keeping multiple objects airborne, while at the same time reacting to the object currently closest to crashing to the earth so they can adjust, catch the object, and throw it back into the air. This isn’t so different from what most music education majors experience on a daily basis.

But I Don’t Want to Work at a Circus!

Not to worry! Your future as a music educator is safe. Let’s look at the act of juggling in terms of studying music at the collegiate level:

Jugglers: are responsible for many objects
Music Ed Majors: have many academic and extracurricular obligations
Jugglers: throw these objects in the air each night
Music Ed Majors: throw all their obligations onto their ‘plate’ at the beginning of each semester
Jugglers: react to the object closest to falling, adapt, and throw it back into the air so they can catch the next object
Music Ed Majors: figure out what their most pressing obligation is at a given time, take care of it, and move it aside so they can deal with something else

As you can see, music ed majors really do have a lot in common with jugglers! However, jugglers at circuses are very relaxed about the way they go about their job. Do you think you would be as calm the first time you tried juggling? Not likely. These jugglers are so relaxed because they are extremely prepared and organized in the way they go about their task. Let’s look at some ways we can keep ourselves relaxed as we juggle our different responsibilities as music education students:

Calendar

Your calendar is one of the resources you will use the most over the course of your time in college, and over your life in general. The first step, of course, to having an organized calendar is to keep a calendar! So many students still “wing it” with their schedule, and undoubtedly find themselves missing deadlines and forgetting appointments. Once you have your calendar set up, here are a few tips for keeping it organized:

1. Put EVERYTHING in it! Do you have routine times during the day where you practice? Study? Put them in your calendar! These times are imperative to your success, and you are much more likely to adhere to them if they’re set in stone in your calendar
2. Categorize – However you do it, separate and categorize your responsibilities. Some electronic calendars allow you to color-code each event, while others use separate color-coded calendars overlayed on each other. If you use a pen/paper planner, using colored highlighters or pens is helpful. Regardless, categorizing helps you see what basic activities (class, field experience/teaching, meetings, rehearsals) you’ll be taking part in at a glance.
3. Plan in Advance – Before the semester begins, put your classes into your calendar for the entire semester. As soon as you find out you have a commitment somewhere, write it down. This way, if you’re approached about an event far in the future (a gig or a trip, for example), you know right away if you’re available.

For more tips on keeping organized and productive using a calendar, check out “Part 2-Keep a Calendar“ from my 3-part seres on productivity (also see Part 1-Set Goals and Part 3-Stay Focused).

E-Mail

E-Mail is becoming an increasingly popular means of communication in the era of technology. Many people send/receive dozens ore more e-mails in a given day, and unsorted or unanswered e-mail can pile up quickly if care isn’t taken. Here are a few suggestions for ways to keep your email organized, so you never fall behind:

1. Use Folders – I cannot even count the number of people who I have seen that have over 2,000 emails in their inbox. While search features will help you locate what you’re looking for, keeping emails organized in folders by topic allows you to easily view multiple emails that are related at once. It doesn’t take much time to sort an email once you receive it-take the time and put it in a folder!
2. Keep Your Inbox Clean – Once you have folders, keep your inbox clean by using them! There are a few ways to do this. Some people (myself included) use the Inbox only as a “to-do” list. Anything still in the inbox needs to be replied to/dealt with, and then promptly sorted. Others choose to not use the inbox for anything except unread email. Once they read an email, they move it into one of three folders (Follow-Up, Archive, Hold), as described by LifeHacker. From there, they can deal with it when they have time.
3. Save Everything – Some people disagree on this point, but I have a few reasons for suggesting you save every email you send/receive. Firstly, in the technology era, many professors ask assignments to be emailed to them. If you’re like me and your computer crashes and you didn’t have a back-up, saving these emails can be a great way to recover important school work that you may want to refer to later. Also, any time you receive an email, especially one regarding a project or event, it’s good to have saved in case you need to refer back to it later for some reason. Most email providers offer enough storage space that this isn’t a problem.

Assignments

What’s the best way to deal with the large number of different assignments being thrown at you? Here are some ideas for staying organized about your school work:

1. Write it Down!! I cannot stress this enough. The mind only has the ability to store so much information, and with the number of stimuli your brain processes in a day, you simply will not remember all your assignments if they are not written down. In addition, make sure you write them down as soon as they are assigned! Waiting until later is also risky-there’s no telling what could come up “later” that would cause you to forget to write the assignment down.
2. Keep Your Planner With You – Some people put their homework assignments on their planner/calendar. Others have separate places where they store homework. However you track your school work, it needs to be with you at all times. This way, if you come up with a thought about a project, or need reference what work you have to do, you have it. I use the iHomework app on my iPod Touch to store my assignments. It also lets you track your grades on the assignments you enter.
3. Break it Down – If you’re assigned a large project, don’t just write the due date down in your planner and be done with it. That evening, take some time to separate the project into a list of tasks you need to complete, in order, to finish the project. Then, assign a due date for each task! This way, you won’t wind up looking in your planner at your week on Sunday and realizing that you have an assignment due the next day that was assigned three weeks ago. Be sure to stick to your schedule and complete each task on the due date you assigned yourself!

Feeling More Relaxed?

Hopefully these tips should let you “juggle” your responsibilities more easily, while staying more relaxed. Sometimes, though, it’s important to take a step back, and rest! One evening (or even a few hours) of rest and relaxation before getting back to work can leave you re-energized and less stressed when you return. Hey, maybe you could go see a circus!

How do you stay organized? Does one of my tips work well for you? Do you do something different? Do you secretly have the dream to be a circus performer? Whatever your thoughts are, leave them in the comments so we can continue the conversation!

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• The topic of discussion will be decided by a vote each week. You can vote on which topic you would like to discuss in the poll below or by visiting the TwtPoll page.
• When it’s time for the chat (8pm EST on Monday March 1), simply sign on to Twitter using your favorite client, and start searching for what people are saying using the tag #musedchat. Feel free to add whatever thoughts you have on the topic to our conversation by sending your own tweet which includes #musedchat.
• Some suggested clients for managing the flow of information:
  • TweetChat
  • TweetGrid
  • TweetDeck
  • Seesmic

That’s it! It’s that simple! Don’t forget to check out the #MusEdChat Landing Page, which will be full of information on each week’s chat, and will contain the archive if you can’t make it. Also, don’t forget to vote for the topic you want to discuss:

See you on Monday night! Happy Tweeting!

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In the meantime, however, I was inspired to start a new project that should hopefully be more beneficial and enjoyable all-around. The project is based around Twitter, and is called #MusEdChat.

Background

I have been on Twitter since August of 2008, and in the past year and a half, it has helped me make connections with hundreds of fantastic individuals based upon our common hobbies (read more about my thoughts on Twitter here). Recently, I have started following more educators (not just music teachers, but “normal” classroom teachers as well), and have noticed a fantastic project that has been underway for a while now. The project, called #EdChat, gathers all interested educators, parents, students, and others together for a concentrated discussion on a specific topic in education. There is a different topic each week, and the roughly 2-hour long discussion is moderated by a few of the founders (namely @web20classroom). All participants need to do is tweet using the hashtag #EdChat, and follow the discussion around that tag. Transcripts and additional discussions are posted on the EdChat Wiki.

EdChat has turned into a huge discussion, with hundreds of educators, parents, administrators, and even students participating. This is a fantastic situation, because it allows more voices to be heard, but it can also create a discussion that can be hard to follow, with comments pouring in by the second. There are many applications that help take in all the information (TweetDeck, TweetChat, etc.), and transcripts are always posted to help with this. Still, however, it can be daunting trying to intake all the information that comes out of one weekly #edchat session. While this is a fantastic resource for discussion on topics that pertain to education in general, all music educators can agree that there are many topics worth discussing that pertain specifically to music education. So, without further adieu…

Announcing #MusEdChat!

After some discussion with other #musiced folks on Twitter, and with some of the brains behind #edchat, I’m pleased to announce that we are getting ready to start a weekly Twitter chat geared specifically towards Music Educators! The hashtag will be #musedchat (#musicedchat seemed to be a bit too long for Twitter’s 140-character limit), and each week, we will discuss a different topic of importance to music educators worldwide. Here are a few other bits of information regarding #musedchat:

• Chats will occur on a weeknight, around 8 pm EST. The day of the week is currently up to vote, so be sure to vote for what day works best for you in the poll!
• If you have a topic suggestion, fill out the Topic Submission Form to submit your idea
• Each week, a few days before the discussion, a TwtPoll will be started with up to five possible topics for discussion. Whichever topic has the most votes after a few days will be the topic of discussion for that week.
• Topics that are not selected in a given week will be put up for vote again in the following weeks
• When the chat starts, all you have to do is post your thoughts/reactions/questions using the hashtag #musedchat!
• If you see a comment from someone else that you find interesting, it is encouraged that you “Re-Tweet” that comment to YOUR followers!
• Stay tuned for a post detailing ways to follow the chat!

It’s that simple! If you have other questions, check out the new #MusEdChat page here on MusicEdMajor.net. It will be updated with links to chat transcripts, polls, and other pertinent information! Also, don’t forget to vote for your preferred day/time in our poll!

Can I Help?

While #MusEdChat is still in its infancy, I hope that it will grow to be a well-attended and enjoyable event for everyone. As such, it may require more administration than I am able to do on a weekly basis. If you are interested in helping moderate #MusEdChat, please contact me and let me know; I am looking for one or two co-collaborators to help moderate the chat on a weekly basis.

Happy Tweeting!

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Those words, spoken to me by my applied clarinet teacher during my sophomore year as an undergraduate music ed student at Penn State, were a slap in the face – and I totally deserved them. He made this statement during one of our many sessions that semester when it was obvious to both of us that I had not made much progress on the assigned material from the week before. I didn’t respond to him then, but I’m sure it was obvious to him by my reaction that his words had stung. “I’ll show him!” I thought, and then started practicing.

Like many music majors, I sat first chair in my high school’s concert band. I attended all the honors band festivals and successfully did seating auditions. I successfully auditioned into the Penn State Marching Blue Band and the School of Music. I did it all with a minimal amount of practicing – riding primarily on my natural abilities. My music teachers never taught me how to practice effectively. Even the private teacher I had in high school, a sweet old man who was a reed doubler and a friend of my band director’s dad, didn’t teach me anything about practicing.

About a month later, after spending an hour in the practice room a couple of times a week, I played the assigned material again for the professor. He gave me a wry smile and asked, “Why did you think you didn’t have to practice?” I told him that, as a music education major, I didn’t really see a connection between being a performer on clarinet and teaching music to students on other instruments besides clarinet. He shook his head in a manner suggesting the phrase “you’ll find out.” He was right – I did.

Disproving an Old Adage

“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” The old adage is meant to demean teachers, who do not have enough skill to make a living doing what they teach to others. One of the great truths of being a teacher is that you can only teach to a student that which you yourself have directly learned, experienced, and mastered. You can’t teach a student advanced concepts in instrumental performance if you have not reached that level of performance on at least one instrument yourself.

Once you have developed to an advanced level of proficiency on one instrument, you can apply that experience to instruction on any other instrument, making it possible for you to instruct students from a beginning to intermediate level of skill. The basic concepts of performance (tone production, tonal literacy, rhythmic literacy, technical development) are similar no matter what the instrument is. Learning the idiosyncrasies of each instrument is just a matter of time and experience once you have a firm foundation in one instrument.

Have a “Raison d’Etre” (Reason to Be) in the Practice Room

The human ego has an important job – it exists to protect the organism from harm and seek out pleasurable experiences. It tends to do its job entirely too well, which keeps us mired in patterns of behavior that prevents us from taking risks and avoiding unpleasant situations that push us outside our comfort zone. People in general are not willing to extend an effort to an end if the perceived result is not “worth it.”

For me as an undergrad, there was little motivation to practice because I could get by without it, and I didn’t understand the value of having a more advanced level of proficiency on the instrument. Once I understood the benefits of being more advanced on my instrument, I had a reason to practice. The first step as an undergrad is to find your own personal reason to invest the time and effort in practicing. It needs to be something that will motivate you when the drudgery of practicing is upon you.

Develop an Efficient and Consistent Routine

Once you have your raison d’etre, the next step is to develop a practice routine and stick to it. Developing a successful practice routine begins with scheduling. How often will you get in the practice room? How long will you spend there when you do? A few things to keep in mind when scheduling practice time:

• Shorter sessions on a more regular basis have a stronger long-term effect than longer sessions with less frequency. Two short sessions per day tends to yield excellent results.
• Scheduled times should be as consistent as possible, as in the same time every day or every other day. Develop a routine that flows with your class schedule, meals, ensemble rehearsals, and meetings.
• Have the same regimen in every practice session. In a basic half-hour practice regimen, I recommend 10 minutes of scales/arpeggios, 15 minutes of repertoire work, and 5 minutes of sight-reading or improvising. Touching on every aspect of your performance (technique work, literature, and musicianship) will keep you improving steadily on everything.
• Cycle through different items in each phase of the practice. For example, you may cycle through major scales in sharp keys one session, flat keys the next, then save day 5 of a weekday cycle for a review of all 12. In repertoire, you will have to break down etudes and sonatas into smaller sections. It is quite easy to spend an entire practice session drilling a technical passage. Alternate between sight reading and improvisation. You don’t have to be a jazz player to improvise a melody. Just pick a scale and try creating a melodic line.
• Depending on the timing during the semester, shift the balance of your practice session to focus on repertoire as needed. When approaching concerts or juries, more time will obviously need to be spent on the material for those performances. Sacrificing time on scales or sight reading during these “crunch time” periods is acceptable.

A Few Other Suggestions

• Know when to quit. The Law of Diminishing Returns states that as fatigue and frustration increase, the amount of productive progress you will make for the effort you put in decreases. Sometimes quitting early and adding the lost time to the next session is a good move. Practicing for hours on end does little to help you improve if it is unfocused and disorganized. It also contributes to overuse injuries.
• Make staying focused and on task a part of your practice. See if you can go 10 to 15 minutes or longer of straight repetitions before taking a break. Focus is the key to success in just about any endeavor.
• Sometimes taking a five minute break yields great results when you return.
• Consider keeping a written practice journal to keep track of what you worked on and how it is progressing. You can detect trends in your routine that are effective or less than effective.
• Occasionally record a performance of an excerpt. Recordings are very unforgiving and point out the smallest of flaws. Listen to them with a grain of salt – human perception is focused, not general like the recorder, so your audience does not hear all of that, either.

Effective practicing is about being consistent and developing a routine that you will stick with. As Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” Developing a successful practice routine can be akin to developing a healthier diet – it is a long-term change in habits. But then, what would undergraduates know about healthy eating habits? I certainly didn’t have them.

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Front Page Photo Credit: FreeFoto.com

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This is a recap of a session that was presented at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, IL on December 17, 2009. The session was live-blogged on MusicEdMajor.net, and you can view a replay of the live-blog by visiting the Midwest landing page

As music education students, we spend a large number of hours of our life practicing our instruments. However, we also recognize that this will likely not be the case for our future students, may of whom will not be planning on pursuing music as a career. This, however, does not mean that their practice habits should be ignored; these students are just as capable of performing great music as those who want to pursue music as a career. This presentation focused on strategies for increasing the productivity of student practice time.

Goal-Based Practice

One of the important principles that the presenters stressed was the need for goal-based practice. Setting goals for practice allows students to have benchmarks that are tangible and clear, which creates a significantly easier practicing environment than just sitting down with no plan. In addition, having students set goals for themselves allows them to experience self-evaluation, another extremely important skill.

What Can We Do?

As educators/directors, there are tons of ways we can help establish effective practice habits in our students. Here are just a few ways teachers can go about instilling productive practice habits in their students:

• Be clear in our instruction-84% of teachers say that they instruct their students on how to practice, but only 60% of students say they receive instruction. The point is not getting across!
• Alternate between slow and fast rehearsal tempos, rather than starting slow and gradually increasing speed. Research shows alternation in rehearsal tempo leads to a more rapid increase in performance tempo.
• Record and evaluate! This doesn’t just mean recording your rehearsals and listening to them later on your own (although this is a great strategy). Play the recordings for the students, and allow them to self-evaluate. Sometimes hearing yourself play can motivate you to fix errors that you hear.
• Use aural models where possible (singing what you want to hear, playing recordings, etc.). Research proves it is more effective. If you can, establish a “lending library” so students can check out CD’s to listen to on their own.
• Model your rehearsal around a practice session. If you find a passage that needs work, use practice strategies such as simplification, mental rehearsal, and varying tempo with the full ensemble. Be sure to point out that these techniques are just as effective in individual practice.

Two Types of Practice Strategies

The presenters highlighted the fact that there are two types of practice strategies, each vital to the success of a performer:

1. Playing Strategies-These are practice techniques that are utilized through performance. Playing strategies include simplification, mapping, and varying tempo.
2. Non-Playing Strategies-These techniques can be utilized without an instrument, and are sometimes more effective than spending time repeating the same passage over and over on the instrument. These techniques, including score study, mental practice, and using a notebook to track progress, can usually be used anywhere, and can foster greater music-making upon return to the instrument.

This session was extremely informative, and highlighted many research-based strategies for improving the productivity of student practice time. Thank you very much to Bill Bauer, Stacey Kolthammer, and Matthew Schattt from Case Western Reserve University, for sharing their thoughts on the topic!

—————————————

Photo Credits: Front Page Image – Gil Searcy, Student – Cehwiedel

Disclaimer: This post is a summarization of the thoughts/ideas presented by those leading the session. All thoughts/ideas are the intellectual property of the credited clinicians, and are in no way intended to represent original content developed by MusicEdMajor.net.

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You can find the live-stream at the special Midwest landing page that I created here on the site. If you have any comments/questions, feel free to post them, as well; I’ll do my best to bring you answers!

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As Music Education Majors, one way we can help prepare for the teaching world during our studies is by networking. Meeting the people who will eventually be our colleagues and administrators will help prepare us for the job search, increase our knowledge in the field, and leave us better-equipped to find the job we’re looking for. This 3-part series looks at three different ways we can use networking to our advantage.

Before diving into this very broad topic, think about these questions:

• How many hours do you spend on the computer?
• Of those hours, how many of them are on Facebook?
• When you’re on the computer, how would you rank the ways in which you use it? (think: schoolwork, talking to friends, listening to music)

The term social networking is one that tends to scare a lot of people. In reality, many of us already engage in social networking on a daily basis! We just network with our firends and family, instead of professionals in our field. Regardless of how we go about it (this post will outline just a few of your many options), any means of meeting current music educators online can be considered social networking, and will help you create relationships that will help you as you prepare for your job search.

What Are The Benefits of These Relationships?

There are many benefits to establishing relationships with other people (current and future professionals) in your field. Here are a few ways you can gain from having other Music Education students, as well as current teachers or administrators, as a part of your social networks:

1. Mentorship – When you begin teaching, it will be extremely helpful having experienced teachers in your network to talk to. These people can act as mentors to you, helping you through the potentially difficult situations you may encounter in your first year teaching.
2. Collaboration – As a whole, the Music Education curriculum does not vary very much from one college/university to another. All students will take certain courses, and having other Music Education majors in your social network can give you the opportunity to bounce ideas off of like-minded peers. Additionally, this can give you the opportunity to discuss certain ideas that may not have been discussed in a course at your school, but were brought up in a similar class at a school one of your peers attends.
3. Job Hunt – When it comes time to look for jobs, it will be to your benefit to have name recognition in the area you want to teach. One way to do this is to establish relationships with professionals in the field.

What Kind of Relationships?

One reason many college students shy away from the idea of social networking on a professional level is that they worry about needing to have professionally-oriented discussions all times. This is actually not the case, and in fact, developing a more informal relationship with a current teacher/administrator has the potential to be almost more of a help than a formal, exclusively professional relationship. What does this mean? Don’t feel like you have to discuss business ALL the time! There’s nothing wrong with taking some time to talk sports, fashion, or whatever else interests you both. This will help you stand out among other future teachers in some people’s eyes; it’s good for people to see that you’re human!

That being said, there are a few considerations to take place any time you are discussing with someone who has the potential to become an employer, colleague, or student in the future. Here are some things to think about to that end:

• Don’t have public pictures of yourself engaging in illegal or otherwise dangerous activities (underage drinking, drugs, excessive drinking, etc.). If you wouldn’t be comfortable with your grandmother seeing it, don’t make it public!
• Use proper grammar and punctuation. Show people that you are a mature, educated person by refraining from using common short-hand communication like “thx, lol, u.” Use proper capitalization and punctuation (think capital “I’s” and apostrophe’s in “don’t, can’t, etc.). Even if the topic of conversation is informal, showing that you’re well educated will make a good first impression.
• Be thoughtful. Show that you’re thinking about what is being said, and are taking into consideration the ideas that are being brought up to you. Nothing turns someone away more than feeling as though the person they’re talking to isn’t listening to them.

Where Do I Start?

Here’s the best part-you probably already have! Here are a few social networking services you may want to be involved in, as well as a short explanation of it’s advantages. Also included are resources for finding professionals in the field of Music Education on these networks.

1. Facebook

Believe it or not, this social network that almost everybody is on already can be beneficial for more than just connecting with friends. If you start to connect with current educators, this connection can bring even more connections! Consider becoming a fan of the Band Director Facebook Page to find discussion on issues involving instrumental music education. Also, if you haven’t already, check out the new Music Education Major Facebook Page!

2. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a less popular (but by no means less useful) network that is more professionally oriented. It allows users to keep a record of their professional experience and connect with other users to see their ‘resumes.’ When you connect with someone, you are asked to explain how know that person (coworker, employer, employee, collaborated, etc.). You can even specify the job during which you met this person from the list of positions you told LinkedIn you have held. LinkedIn also provides the opportunity for someone you worked with to recommend you, discussing positive contributions that you brought to the project. It allows other users considering whether or not to work with you the opportunity to see how you have contributed to other projects you participated in.

LinkedIn is a great way to network on a professional level with other teachers, future teachers, and administrators. It also is extremely helpful in allowing you to keep track of your experiences and qualifications. If you, like many others, don’t update your resume often, LinkedIn is a fantastic way to keep track of what you’ve been up to, and a great point of reference once it is time to update it!

3. Twitter

Twitter is a “micro-blogging” service that allows users to post their status (in a similar way to Facebook) with updates that can’t exceed 140 characters. One of the great parts of this service is that it forces you to be concise in what you say. The other great aspect of Twitter is the fact that it can connect you to tons of people you may have never otherwise expected to meet. Twitter is extremely user-friendly, and there is almost no learning curve.

There are also tons of services that you can use to locate Music Educators on Twitter. Here are just a few:

• Twitter Lists (like Dr. J. Pisano’s)
• WeFollow
• Twellow
• Search for #musiced or “Music Education” on Twitter to see who’s talking about it

4. Blogging

People tend to have this idea that you need to be an expert on a certain topic to blog about it. I urge you to take a step back, however, and think about what the word “blog” actually means; it is just a shortened way of saying “web log.” In other words, a blog is nothing more than a public online journal. Blogs are great places for gathering information and learning from a wide variety of people in a wide variety of areas and disciplines, as well as a fantastic way to make connections to other Music Educators blogging (believe it or not, there are tons; check out J. Pisano’s 100 ME Bloggers!).

There are plenty of blogging platforms that are all extremely easy to pick up. My personal favorite is WordPress (self-hosted, free), and many others prefer Blogger. For more short-form blogs that serve as an intermediate ground between full blogs and micro-blogs like Twitter, check out Posterous and Tumblr.

What Are You Waiting For?

One of the most intimidating parts of getting into social networking is just getting started. It can be intimidating at first, joining a website/network and not having any “friends” on it yet, but hopefully the list of resources above will help you get started. My biggest piece of advice is don’t wait one more minute: get started NOW! These services are great ways to meet other music educators to have questions answered, and establish relationships that could help you down the road. There is a wealth of information and opportunities out there for the taking.

[Begin Shameless Plug]
You can definitely have at least one contact on each of these services: me! Here’s all my information for the services I’ve mentioned above:

Facebook: Andy Zweibel
LinkedIn: Andrew Zweibel
Twitter: @Zweibz7
Blogs: This one! And http://andyzweibel.com
[End Shameless Plug]

Has social networking helped you out as much as it’s helped me? Share your story in the comments, and help continue the conversation! Also, stay tuned for part 2 of this series: networking at conferences.

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Photo Credits: Front Page – 10ch via Flickr, Logos – mandymaarten via Flickr

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That’s right, with a few major Music Educator’s conferences coming up in the next month or so, I am back to bring you all the information I possibly can (which may not be much, depending on my ability to get a wireless signal in the conference centers!). I will be attending the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic from December 17th through the 19th in Chicago, and the Florida Music Educators’ Association (FMEA) conference from January 6th-9th in Tampa. Both of these events look to be great experiences, and I look forward to sharing the wealth of information I come across with all of you!

I have created special landing pages here on the website for Midwest and FMEA, where I will have a live-blog going. For now, the live-blogs are both open and live, and are pulling in data from the Twitter hashtags associated with the events. Comments are moderated, but I’ll check back frequently to publish anything you have to add, and I will be checking by the minute once the events begin!

Additinally, stay tuned for updates on the collegiate component of MENC’s Anaheim Conference in March; more details on this should be available in the near future!

It’s an exciting time of year! Will you be attending Midwest or FMEA? Leave a comment in this post or in the appropriate live-blog, and we can organize a meet-up!

Front Page Photo Credit: JoshC

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Anybody who has been around the arts (and especially those who have or will have a carreer in them) knows that arts education needs as much support as possible nowadays. One organization that has done a fantastic job of supporting the arts (specifically music) education is MENC: The National Association for Music Education. MENC stives constantly to increase support for music in our schools, and I am proud to be a collegiate member of such an organization.

Another group that is doing wonders for causes around the globe is the Case Foundation. This month, the Case Foundation is organizing an event called “America’s Giving Challenge.” This challenge encourages people to use their online networks to build support over a specific cause or nonprofit. The challenge also congratulates the cause receiving the most donations over the 30-day period with a $50,000 reward. In addition, each day of the challenge comes with it’s own 24-hour challenge; the cause to receive the most donations over 24 hours (3 pm to 3 pm EST) receives an additional $1,000 prize!

MENC has taken charge in the need for music education advocacy, and has created a few causes to which people can donate for this challenge. Furthermore, MENC is making a push to win the daily award for today (October 19-20).

How Can I Help?

The cause that MENC is pushing for the next 24 hours is called “Advance Music Education.” You can donate through their Facebook page (note: you do NOT need a Facebook account in order to donate!). Any amount that you can contribute-even just $10-will not only help the cause, but will also help MENC try to win more reward money to go towards the cause!

Outside of this 24 hours, the other cause you can donate to on behalf of MENC is “Save School Music.”

If you have any other questions about this challenge, or would like more information on how you can help, check out the “Donate” page of MENC’s website!

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