Monday, January 3rd, 7 p.m. – Teaching Rhythm, The First “R” with Dr. Ran Whitley
All music teachers share a common goal: teaching students to understand and love music. Music reading skills are a fundamental building block for young musicians. Most challenges may be traced to problems understanding and reading rhythms. Ran will present proven, classroom-tested techniques for getting your young students to become great rhythm readers, develop music reading skills and achieve rhythmic independence. When young students develop strong music reading skills, they have more fun, more success and are more likely to continue their musical studies.
Monday, January 10th, 7 p.m. – Top 10 Recorder Challenges with Anita Edwards
There are certain universal challenges that all recorder teachers face such as keeping the left hand on top, avoiding overblowing and finding affordable, effective curriculum materials and recorders. This session addresses these challenges in the form of a focused Top Ten list. Topics and solutions will be presented. Participants will be able to ask questions about their own challenges, share suggestions and exchange ideas.
Monday, January 17th, 7 p.m. – Flipgrid: Easily Exchanging Videos with your Students with Rina Sklar
While many fewer teachers are currently teaching remotely, many continue to be limited or in some cases even prohibited from singing or playing recorder in class. The importance of using the best, most effective online platforms to stay connected to our students remains at a premium.
Rina will demonstrate Flipgrid, a free platform that will enable you to easily create and exchange videos with your students. She will cover the changes which have recently been implemented with the platform so that you may make any necessary adjustments. Rina will use the Be A Recorder Star Curriculum to demonstrate materials that may be exchanged such as Rhythm Charts, Music Theory Pages and Tooltips for suggested listening and composer and historical background.
Monday, January 24th, 7 p.m. – Yoga as a Tool for Musicianship: Building Self-Confidence for your Young Recorder Stars with Roxana Han
Sport your best yoga outfit and join us for a session on how yoga connects with every aspect of recorder playing. Get tips and tricks that you can use in the classroom tomorrow to promote practice, posture, breath work, health, singing, confidence, and team building. Take your Young Recorder Stars from B, A & G to the next level. This session will also focus on MBE and SEL.
Monday, January 31st, 7 p.m. – Boomwhacker Fun in the General Music Classroom with Dr. Ran Whitley
Boomwhackers are more than toy plastic tubes. They are marvelous instruments that can be used to teach melody, rhythm, harmony, notation, form, expression and many other concepts. This session presents activities and ideas to teach these concepts in the general music classroom using fun games and children’s books (K-8). Boomwhackers can provide an especially valuable option if you are restricted from singing or playing in class. Budget friendly options that include making your own bass boomwhackers will also be discussed. Bring a tube with you if you can!
Monday, February 7th, 7 p.m. – Keys to a Piano Lab that Works – Putting your Keyboards to Work with Lenna Harris
The piano keyboard is a central learning experience for the development of young musicians and provides a wonderful foundation. Especially if singing and playing instruments in class being sometimes limited, it is important to look at other options. Lenna will discuss teaching techniques for the piano lab setting suitable for a variety of age ranges (grades 4-9) and will present Keys to Successful Piano Performance, a piano method ideal for piano lab. Keys utilizes a unique teaching approach based upon years of experience gained through piano instruction and a careful analysis of how students learn best. The “all-in-one” approach of the series incorporates theory and technique so that there is only one book for each level. Participants will receive free review copies. If you have a keyboard or piano available, please make sure you have access.
Tuesday, February 15th, 7 p.m. – ESL in the Recorder Classroom with Dr. Ran Whitley
Music is a universal language meant to be enjoyed by all. Are you teaching students whose primary language is Spanish or teaching ESL or Dual Language classes? Are you looking for ways to make these students comfortable and smoothly integrate them into your music class? Using music to bridge the gap can be fun and helpful for all of your students. You don’t have to be fluent in Spanish to be effective, but you do need to be functional. Using the context of the recorder class, Ran will provide basic vocabulary and practical suggestions for lessons and exercises that are easy and fun. He will include ideas for incorporating parental support into the learning process.
