Greetings Elementary Music Educators! I hope you all have had a great year! It has been a busy one for me, and I am looking forward to some rest and relaxation this summer!
This will be my last Ala Breve article as your President. My two-year term is coming to an end and I will be stepping into the role of Past President for two years to help guide our new President, Phil Wilson, as he begins his two-year term. Phil brings a passion for elementary music education and proven leadership experience to the position, and I know you will support him as he begins his term.
It has been my pleasure to serve you as President the past two years and we have seen many great things, such as continued growth in our Elementary Music Festival, two great years of In-Service Conferences, and the addition of a Facebook page. We need to continue our growth to reach more elementary music educators who are not a part of AMEA and increase our performance applications for the annual In-Service Conference.
We do have some exciting things coming up this next school year. First, the 3rd Annual East Alabama Music Workshop will be held in Auburn on August 26th from 9 AM till 1 PM. The guest speaker will be Dr. Becky Halliday from the University of Montevallo and will focus on the new Alabama Course of Study for music. The workshop is free and more information can be obtained from Dr. Rob Lyda at lydarob@me.com.
Second, our 11th Annual AMEA Elementary Music workshop will be held on Friday, October 6th at Samford University. Our clinicians will be Ericka Bridge and Vic Oakes. We have around 400 students from 40 schools committed to participate. We are excited to continue this wonderful event. We will also host a workshop the following day with Ericka Bridge at a local elementary school. More details on the workshop to come.
Lastly, the AMEA Annual Professional Development Conference will be held in Birmingham at the BJCC on January 18-20th 2018. This will be another great opportunity for professional growth and I encourage our elementary teachers to support this event. I also encourage you to submit session proposals to share your teaching ideas with other music educators. I also encourage you to submit a performance application – especially our Birmingham area schools. Information on these opportunities are on the AMEA web site at www.myamea.org.
I hope you will all support Phil and his Executive Board as they begin their new term of service this June. We look forward to serving you!
Respectfully Submitted,
Cliff Huckabee, President AMEA – Elementary Division
