Professional Development Day
PMEA District 7
Join us! Monday, October 8 at Manheim Central Middle School
PMEA and/or PADESTA Members $40
Non-Members $75
Collegiate Members $15
Schedule at a Glance
8 - 8:15 am - Welcome
8:15 - 9 am - Opening with Mansfield University Wind Ensemble
9 - 12:10 pm - Morning Sessions
12:10- 1 pm - Lunch -provided in cafeteria
1 - 3:30 pm - Afternoon sessions
Featuring:
Ryan Kelly - West Chester University
Adam Brennan - Mansfield University
Steve Selfridge - Garnet Valley School District
Beth Lavendar - Hempfield School District
*Act 48 credit will be available
*Bring your instrument for sessions - see descriptions
Sponsors: PADESTA, Menchey Music, J. W. Pepper, Hall Leonard, and Losers Music Store
Register online here..................Deadline September 30
Session Tracks
Special Performance by the Mansfield University Wind Ensemble
Dr. Adam Brennan
Join Dr. Brennan for tips on improving your non-verbal communication from the podium. Hands on experience with players serving as your ensemble. Please bring an instrument.
High School Band Reading Session
Join us with your instrument and sit in with the MU Wind Ensemble to read some new repertoire for band!
Special Needs Primer: Focus on ASD and Students in Ensembles
Dr. Brennan will share ideas about integrating special needs children into ensembles. Adaptive techniques, parental involvement, school resources and more will be shared.
Dr. Stephen Selfridge
Do you wish you had more time with your students? Technology has made this more possible than ever before. The use of video instruction in the “blended learning” approach has become a quickly growing movement in education. In this session, we will explore how you can use teaching videos to boost student engagement in and out of the classroom, and help students be more effective in their practicing. In just a few easy steps, you can create your own teaching videos and empower your students to learn anywhere, anytime. You can become, in effect, a 24-7 teacher!
Making Jazz Improvisation Accessible
Jazz improv doesn't have to be hard to be hip! In this session, we will learn proven techniques for teaching jazz to students of all levels, including how to SWING, adapting
jazz tunes for younger players, and the building blocks of jazz improvisation.
Beth Lavender
Participants in this session will be shown examples of common technique issues in young cellists, along with correction strategies that can be easily implemented within the context of a lesson setting.
Performance Solutions for First Year Strings
Performing in public is perhaps the most motivating element of music education for students, but also the most challenging for teachers of beginning strings. This session will provide titles and demonstrations (bring instruments to play along) of some tried and true pieces that will make you proud to put your beginners on stage!
Dr. Ryan Kelly - Choral Headliner
Effective and Artistic Conducting: Gestures that Communicate and Elicit Musicianship
Well-intentioned conductors often confuse singers and inhibit expressive singing with gestures that are generic and less artistic than they could be. Kelly will identify specific, functional conducting gestures that elicit more artistic singing from singers. Just as singers should emphasize beats, syllables, and words differently in beautifully sung phrases, so conductors should weight their conducting beats differently to influence them more effectively. This hands-on session invites participants to conduct, sing, and volunteer as everyone experiments with the effects of active and passive conducting gestures. Musical examples will be provided to help conductors master gestures that reflect the types of phrasing, articulation, metric accentuation, and text stress in each musical score. Famous conductors need not be the only ones to achieve great artistry with choirs; everyone can master effective and artistic conducting gestures to transform their singers' ability to perform with extraordinary sensitivity.
High School Choral Reading Session
A reading session of outstanding choral repertoire for high school singers. Music will be appropriate for beginning through advanced ensembles, and include recently published works, classical works, Jewish, Hawaiian, Gospel, movie music, and more!
Capstone Works with Your Choir
Masterworks are wonderful opportunities for growth and enrichment for both singers and conductors. Many choirs cannot perform a two-hour long work requiring a full orchestra, however. Instead, they need a capstone work that will enable them to build confidence and experience rich choral repertoire as they mature and prepare for future performances of larger masterworks. Kelly will identify works between 10 to 60-minutes long by historic composers that can be effectively and authentically performed by high school and community choirs. He will also discuss how to adapt some longer dramatic works through excerpted scenes and abridgements. Many works available in the public domain will be highlighted, as well as modern works. Attendees will look at score samples, hear sample recordings, and leave with an annotated list of recommended repertoire.
Lisa Sempsey
This session is geared towards music educators that work with 2nd-6th grade students and will touch on ideas such as movement, singing with self-accompaniment on tuned and untuned instruments, body percussion, and student composition.
Elementary Choral Reading Session
Come to peruse and sing many beautiful choral pieces for beginning choirs. Repertoire will be appropriate for unchanged voices.
Kate Bright
This session is geared towards music educators that work with 2nd-6th grade students and will touch on ideas such as movement, singing with self-accompaniment on tuned and untuned instruments, body percussion, and student composition.
Steps to Prep the Recorder
Kate Bright will demonstrate ways to prepare your students to play the recorder, as well as activities to make your students successful the very first time they play the recorder.
Rebecca Achenbach
Teachers rely on clear, healthy voices when presenting as well as demonstrating in their classes. There is not one cookie cutter approach or one common recipe to alleviate vocal fatigue. The menu of this session is designed to offer ideas for personal success. Based on science behind a healthy voice as well as practical daily exercises, session will offer exercises from expert teachers I have had the privilege to work with in the past 50 years. It will include the 'why' for practical application.
Practical Application of Vocal Exercises
Following the Practical Approach to Vocal Health, this session is a hands on approach using songs for analysis and use of exercises. It will allow those present to sing exercises with application towards fulfilling lesson goals. Q & A will allow exploration of exercises and their application to an individual vs. group setting.
Shaun Thompson
During this session, teachers will have the opportunity to preview elementary band literature that has been highly successful in the presenter's band program. Please bring a band instrument!
David Knott
Goal/overview: Intended for the non-percussionist, this seminar will use score analysis and practical performance technique understanding to elevate timpani education from the podium. Conductors will gain the skills to facilitate best practices in drum tuning, note placement / assignment, and proper mallet selection for their timpanist. Using major orchestral repertoire as the basis of approach, the techniques of mallet selection and performance practice will then be applied to three significant middle school and high school band compositions.
Jim Finnerty
This presentation will consist of information relevant to starting new bassoon players. By the end of the session, I hope you will feel more comfortable with how to transition students to playing bassoon, including performance fundamentals to focus on, successful exercises to use, and even reed adjustment tips!
Rae Bromirski
Review of reasoning for decline in fine motor skills; tips to incorporate and maximize fine motor skills into instrumental/music education. Learn strategies directly from an OT specialist.
Zachary Levi
This session involves the benefits, challenges, and implementation of a chamber music unit in a high school instrumental music program
Jay Althouse
Participants will have the opportunity to sight read and explore choral repertoire that will engage the singers and leave an lasting impression on your audience
PCMEA Sessions
Dr. Jim Colonna
A presentation on how one teaches students, parents and a community to build strong support for our school music programs.
Dr. Kevin Shorner-Johnson
PCMEA members will explore rapidly growing trends in anxiety, as well as examining the neuroscience behind different forms of anxiety. This reflective session will allow us to explore the different types of anxiety that we all experience (including performance anxiety) and understand how we can support ourselves and others as future educators.
Dr. Rachel Cornacchio
A guide for those searching for their first job in music education will be provided by someone who oversees the process and one who has been through it. This is an interactive session that will provide commentary on the search, the application, the interview and the follow-up conversations that lead to that first job.
Strings
Joseph Conyers
An no-nonsense, straight forward philosophy on how to approach the double bass. No bells. No whistles. Just a forum on how to make beautiful music via this distinguished grandfather (often times neglected member) of the string family.
Melody Cliff
Searching for some fresh repertoire to offer your students? Wary of purchasing new titles without previewing them first? Come and sight-read recently published pieces for string orchestra to experience the music for yourself! Bring your instrument - we will have a blast!
Ryan Joseph
Topics discussed will include teaching the national standards through fiddling, improvisation, fiddling techniques and repertoire, and an introduction to the Nashville number system.
Middle School General Music
Adam Search
No More Games! Using iPads to teach composing and arranging in Middle School General Music