Scholar Jean Piaget once said, “The goal of education is not to increase the amount of the knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things.” During the 2018 AMEA Professional Development Conference, we hope you gained possibilities to take back to your students for them to invent and discover new music making opportunities. This year we discovered unique music opportunities with Valerie Diaz Leroy and Quaver, drummed on buckets with Viktoria Truesdail, learned about the magic of stories and traveled around the world with recorders courtesy of Darla Meek. We discovered more stories that sing with Jeanette Shorey, learned about more modern ways to compose with our students with Adriana van Rensburg and learned how to utilize the Chord Buddy apparatus with Deanna Bell, her students and Chord Buddy. Lorelei Batisalong taught us wonderful new ways to use our ukuleles, Steve Campbell lead us in drumming and Roger Sams inspired us to sing, play and dance with our students. We also heard an outstanding performance by the Mitchell Elementary Honor Chorus directed by Doris Day. This spectacular event occurred in the midst of an uncommon Southern snow storm, which did not stop or deter us.
Thank you elementary division for your positive enthusiasm as we charted new territory at the BJCC. A very special thank you to Garry Taylor and the elementary board for your hard work in making this conference a success! We will be back at the BJCC next year and look forward to new opportunities to bring learning to our students. If you have further suggestions to improve our experiences, please let us know.
There are great things happening in your classrooms every day that need to be shared with the division. Please consider applying for the 2019 conference to share those ideas. Also, consider applying for your choirs to perform at next year’s conference. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us at elementaryAMEA@gmail.com. Remember to follow and post pictures and videos of things you are doing in your classrooms to our AMEA Elementary Facebook group page.
Respectfully Submitted,
Phil Wilson, Elementary/General President
Upcoming Events
Alabama Chapter of AOSA
Spring Workshop, Jim Solomon, Clinician
March 10, 2018, Samford University 9-3
Band Room
Sweet Home Alabama Kodály Educators (SHAKE)
Free Spring Workshop
Jeremy Howard, “Happy Endings and New Beginnings”
April 14, 2018, Vestavia Hills Elementary East, 9-3
2018 Young Voices Festival
April 27-28, 2018
University of Alabama
Kodály Levels 1 and 2
University of Montevallo
July 9-20, 2018
See the SHAKE Facebook page for updated information
Orff Levels I and II
Samford University
July 18-29
See the Alabama Chapter of AOSA’s Facebook page for more information
East Alabama Music Workshop
Grace United Methodist Church, Auburn
August 25, 2018
Music Festival
Friday, October 12, 2018
Samford University
Joint Fall Workshop
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Time and place to be determined
