We just finished a very successful professional development conference in Montgomery and we are looking forward to a fabulous 2017!
For those who attended the conference, I hope you were all inspired by the clinicians and their sessions. I appreciate all our out-of-state clinicians who presented sessions including Andrea and Joey Coleman, Roger Sams, Dr. David Frego, and Dr. Georgia Newlin. I also appreciate our Alabama teachers/clinicians including Dr. Patricia Corbin from JSU, Dr. Susanne Burgess from Samford University, Dr. Rob Lyda from Auburn City Schools, Mrs. Lea Hoppe from Randolph School, Mrs. Deanna Bell from Vestavia Hills City Schools, and Kristi Howze from UMS-Wright. We also had two wonderful performances from The Montgomery Academy 5th and 6th Grade Chorus led by Ms. Meg Griffin and the Ogletree Singers led by Mr. Phil Wilson. It was a great time of professional growth.
During the general business meeting at the conference we elected our new 2017-2019 Executive Board for the Elementary Division:
- President – Phil Wilson
- President-Elect – Kelly Hollingsworth
- Hospitality – Kristi Howze
- Treasurer – Lori Zachary
- Secretary – Rob Lyda
- Past-President – Cliff Huckabee
I encourage everyone to start planning for the 2018 conference in Birmingham at the BJCC. It will be held January 18-20 and it will be an exciting time as we move to a new location. I encourage our music teachers to consider doing two things for our next conference. First, I encourage you to submit a proposal for a session. I love to see our own music teachers sharing their ideas and passions during the conference. We learn so much from each other, so think about a topic that you feel you could share and submit. Second, I encourage those that have performing groups to submit a performance application. We are one of the largest divisions in AMEA yet we have the smallest number of performance applications each year. Let’s change that! It is a rewarding experience not only for you and your students but also for our division. It inspires and motivates us all to see quality performances from our own teachers. So, I strongly encourage our division to step up and submit proposals and performance applications for 2018! You can do both on the AMEA website: www.myamea.org.
Our 11th Annual Elementary Music Festival will be held on Friday, October 6th at Samford University. We are still in the planning stages and hope to have our two clinicians secured soon. It will also be followed by our AMEA/AOSA Joint Workshop on Saturday, October 7th. We will send out more information soon via our email list.
I also wanted to update you on other upcoming events around our state:
AOSA Spring Workshop with Artie Almeida – March 4, 2017 – Samford University
Kodaly Workshop presented by SHAKE – April 22, 2017 – Vestavia Hills Elementary East
ACDA Young Voices Festival April 28-29, 2017 at University of Alabama
Orff Certification, Samford University: Level 1; June 19-June 30, 2017
Kodaly Certification, University of Montevallo – Levels 1, 2, & 3 – July 10-21, 2017
East Alabama General Music Workshop – Saturday, August 26, 2017
Lastly, if you are not receiving emails from the Elementary Division, please send us an email at:
We would love to add you to our email list to keep you informed of upcoming news and events for our division. I wish everyone a great 2nd semester and do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance to you.
Respectfully Submitted,
Cliff Huckabee, President
Elementary/General Division
