Amused

This week We toss around our experience with end of he year concerts, auditions, graduation and the like.

We bring on our friend Brittany to discuss teaching music in a secular private school, her experiences teaching general music, and how her primary instrument (Harp) has influenced her teaching.

We continue our discussion on technology in the music classroom.

This week we talk about how each of us use technology in the classroom and some of the tools we've seen used to great effect.

We recorded the podcast on Easter Sunday, and so thought to bend the topic towards the discussion of Sacred and Secular Music in the classroom.

This week we continue our discussion on Student Motivation

For Episode 30 (!) we discuss the value of festivals to our programs and to us as young teachers.

This week we talk about what exactly motivates our students and our own experiences in ensembles as students and how they compare.

This week we dig into the benefits and costs of teaching mixed classes as beginners and the prioritization of teaching technique over ensemble skills.

We invite our friend Heather on to talk about her experiences moving into a band program after playing cello and teaching strings her entire life. It's a bit interesting to note the change in our group dynamic from recording on Sunday Morning to Friday evening.

We discuss how each of us recruit and grow our programs as well as the unique challeges that each of us face based on our specific schools and student deomgraphics.

We sit down with our friends Kevin Diggins and Amanda Poon, both of whom attended Holy Names to earn a Masters of Music in Music Education with a Kodaly emphasis. They discuss how they fold the Kodaly method into their teaching in general music and elementary and middle school choir and band.

No guest this week as we check in on Olin's favorite topic to debate: which is more important in Music education, the process or its product.

This week we re-visit general music, this time with a 3rd year teacher from the Washoe County School district in Nevada.

We sit down with Bethany Moslen, the Assistant Director of the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh to talk about teaching special populations. Bethany has a M.Ed. in Special Education and our conversation leans towards how that affects her teaching practices as a music educator.

We invite our friend Shane on to talk about his first year teaching general music and elementary band.

We met up with Dr. Seggelke in McCormick place, so there's a bit of background noise in this episode. Dr. Seggelke is the director of bands at Illinois State University and currently serves as the artistic director and conductor of the San Francisco Wind Symphony. His bio can be found here: http://www.seggelke.info/wordpress/?page_id=2  

We arranged an interview with Dr. Chapman while we were in Chicago. Dr. Chapman is the director of bands at Oregon State, where Olin got to study under him for two years. His bio can be found on their website http://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/users/christopher-chapman

In which we discuss our experiences at Midwest. All of the materials and handouts from the midwest clinic that we reference will be available on the Midwest Clinic's website: Midwestclinic.org

This week we tackle some stocking-stuffer sized topics regarding the end of the semester. Midwest recap is coming next week, followed by our interviews.