OkCDA Convention Reflections

Earlier this week, I was given the opportunity to present a session on how to create programs from children's literature.  This was the first time our Oklahoma Choral Directors Association has set a day in their annual convention, specifically for elementary music educators!!  (Way to go, Beth Berkenbile!!)  I really thought we had a pretty great turnout.  I think next year, it will just get better and better, continuing to grow each year!

Our day began with Oklahoma's own fabulous composer and teacher, Cristi Cary Miller!  She presented us with many new Hal Leonard products, as well as published programs in her two morning sessions.  She is really a force to be reckoned with - this woman is on FIRE for music education.  She is truly amazing.  (Being that I spent seven weeks in her classroom while student teaching, I may be a little biased, too.)  She brought an assortment of interactive board materials to show in her first session, and we were able to hear a few new programs that were published this year, AS WELL AS hearing some favorites from years past!  What a great way to start the day!!

Once everyone returned from lunch, I was up.  I based my session on how to create your own program - from books, songs,  poems, curriculum units...  (I plan to do a full post on this later this week, so come on back!!).  Overall, I was so excited of how it turned out.  I always get nervous presenting in front of peers and colleagues, but I wanted a certain amount of feedback and sharing to happen in the session - and it absolutely happened!!!  I think many of us that are interested in creating our own programs took at least ONE thing from my session - either from me or each other.  We have such a supportive group of elementary music teachers in our great state.  I love that.

Before the day ended, my good friend Katie Robertson took a HUGE crowd through a whirlwind of technology ideas that could be used in ANY music classroom!  She offered all of her created materials to the teachers that were there for FREE!!!  Now, don't get too sad if you weren't able to be there, she and I have just stared creating a joint Teachers Pay Teachers account that all products will be available!!  (Be looking for Cowgirl Compositions soon!!)  For me, I love being able to bounce ideas off of another set of eyes, and by doing it together, we can keep each other motivated!  We've each added a little man to our families within the past year, so another reason for joining forces will be to lighten the load and keep our family time.  :)

And finally, we were able to sing through this year's Circle the State with Song music.  What a JOY we are bringing to our students and the state this year with these pieces!!!  I love each one and keep thinking "Oh, THIS one is my favorite," but as soon as we sng through the next, I think the same thing!!  I am so blessed to have been a state co-chair for this in the past couple of years, and given the opportunity to collaborate with other past chairs to read through and choose the eight pieces that will be performed in nineteen areas throughout the state of Oklahoma!!  What a great experience!!

And as I hold up my half-full glass of red wine, I say, "May the music made together one day heal mankind!"  (Thank you, Harmonia Mundi lyrics.)  :)

  

Let There Be Light!

Today was my final Monday as a Kodaly student...  Both exciting, yet sad for it to be over already!  The light is shining so brightly at the end of our journey together!

I performed my final conducting project this morning by conducting my colleagues in Andrea Ramsey's "Sing to Me."  It is such a moving piece, and my friends performed it BEAUTIFULLY!!  (Made me look pretty good, too - they deserve a ton of the credit!  I loved it!)

I've learned so much these past three summers from my instructors AND fellow colleagues in class.  I can't believe the end is almost here!  Come Friday, all 21 of us - the LARGEST Level 3 class in OU history, by the way - will perform our final concert, wrapping it up with the beautiful sounds and text of Harmonia Mundi..  "Music made together may one day heal mankind."

Best of luck to the many teachers out there taking classes and/or workshops this summer to better themselves as teachers and musicians!!!  :)

Renewed & Ready!

As it has been many, many moons since my last post, I feel like I need to re-introduce myself again...  Too much to list from the past 2 years, but I will happily post the highlights - both personally and professionally.

Tell us a little something about you...

I'm Lindsey and I teach music in Northwestern Oklahoma!  I live in an historic house in a medium-sized town that is officially100 years old! (I'm LOVING it!)  My hubby and I have been married for close to 5 1/2 years now, and right after the move from Stillwater to Enid, we found the sweetest pug, Wrigley, who is a daily burst of energy. Then about a year and a half later, we adopted her "big brother" Pete, who added just the right amount of personality and love to our growing family.  (Pete and Wrigley look absolutely nothing alike, and are pretty much as close to opposite as I could've gotten with them both being pugs.  I adore them.)

Just this past year, almost exactly a year ago now, we welcomed our first child together!  Baby D has so much personality, and is the favorite part of my day!  I can't believe that he will be a year old next month, but I've enjoyed the new journey of motherhood.  I am absolutely blessed to be, in my opinion, living the best of both worlds - teaching music in one of the best schools around, and coming home to a happy, healthy baby boy everyday.  It made for a FAST year, but wouldn't change a thing about it!

How long have you been teaching?

I just finished my SEVENTH year of teaching elementary music. My first year was the biggest challenge so far, but I know the journey is not over yet!  I taught PreK-12th grade in a very small school, and it was exhausting!  It was also 40-minutes one way from our home, which didn't do much for my car or my marriage. We powered through ("we" the marriage, not the car - she didn't make it), and I was able to find an elementary position in town at Adams. It was a traveling position and I stayed there and LOVED it for two years, but I transferred for my fourth year and it was wonderful to be in one building. I've worked with a handful of GREAT teachers at every school, but the schedule at Glenwood was pretty hard..  Luckily, I had LOTS of friends and paras who were more than willing to help out with those first few minutes of certain classes, as this pregnant girl needed a potty break often!!!  Both years at Glenwood, I taught 60 classes a week between the hours of 8-3:00.  Every day.  We had no time between classes, and there was some consistency, but for the most part, the grade levels weren't always back-to-back with each other (8:00 5th, 8:30 4th, 9:00 5th, 9:30 Kinders, 10:00 3rd... You get the idea).

However, on the North side of Enid (technically, it is its own town called North Enid) is where I hope I've found my home.  Chisholm is a medium-sized public school where T and I have always talked about our children going to since we moved here.  I love the size, and the amount of teachers that stay late, show up early, or are there every weekend are the MAJORITY in the building.  I was really impressed at how much it made me up my expectations of myself in my classroom, too.  (My expectations have always been high - sometimes unattainably high, but it was refreshing to be in a place where that was the "norm.")  The principal saw something special in me, and took a HUGE chance on a young, PREGNANT, music teacher who would be gone the first SIX WEEKS of the school year!  So grateful to her and always will be.  I loved every minute at Chisholm, and worked harder than I ever have before.

You might not know...

Teaching wasn't my initial career choice. Growing up with parents that were both teachers/coaches, I decided that by high school that I didn't want none of that cake.  I saw the long hours, disrespect (by adults and kids alike), and financial burden it took with my siblings and I.  When I got to college, I had full intentions of becoming a wedding planner. Didn't last long. (Not even sure where it came from, and, come to find out, would have been AWFUL for me. Planning my own was an awful experience - which took place during the middle of my first semester teaching ever... Didn't help its cause.)  By the first semester in, I had already talked to the music ed. advisor and gotten enrolled in choir and never looked back.

Also, this coming week will be my final week of Level 3 for my Kodaly Certification!!!!  Come next Friday, I will be a nationally certified teacher in the Kodaly Method from the University of Oklahoma!!  More than ever, I would LOVE to give back and teach this course someday, but I'd also really love to audit other programs in the states.  (Maybe start close to home in Kansas or Texas?) 

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

I'm most looking forward to a fresh start to a FULL year back.  We will need to depend on each other to be positive, as it may be a more difficult year, due to being under construction the entire year - the bond passed for a brand new elementary!!!!  So excited!!!!  That said, I refuse to let anything stand between my happiness (and sanity).  I will choose to make the effort every single day to make this year worthwhile for the students and myself.

What do you need to improve?

There's always something I'm thinking about that I want to improve.  Summertime is usually my time to focus and reflect on what went well and what went poorly.  (And, of course, there were things that I could or should have done better..)  I want to make sure my students know more about the classics. Composers, classical music, everything!  Yes, I realize there are only so many hours that I see them, but I will cram everything I can get them to grasp into their sweet ever-growing brains before the year's up.

I'd also like to be better at choosing my choral repertoire - for both my honor choir AND the newly-founded Enid Community Children's Chorus my colleagues and I are starting!!!  Training with Sandy Knudson these past three summers has been instrumental in both improving my own musicianship, and the way I approach my choir rehearsals and performances.

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

Love my Sharpies.  I seriously cannot do a project without color-coding everything.  Each grade level has its own color that I've continued for the past 6 years. It works, and I'm slightly obsessed with it.

Of course, I keep a healthy stash of Dr. Pepper around at all times. It's a sad, sad addiction that I am slowly giving up.

I cannot live without my office supplies.  Labels, markers, pens, post-its... Everything has it's place!  I'm one of those who is organized to an "obsessive" point, yet my desk always has clutter.  (How does that happen??!) 

My SmartBoard is a-mazing!  Every class will still have a "Musical Moment" or greeting in some way (thank you, Bev Anyan!), and I hope to fit in more - as my classes at Chisholm are 45 minutes each, opposed to the 30 minutes in previous schools. 

Books, books, and more teaching-inspired books!  It's another crazy addiction, and my husband cannot understand it.  I'm doing my best to find him some good ones though.  He claims he's not a reader, but I'm working on him. ;)

Please keep coming back!  My fellow Kodaly buddy, Tony, (and newly elected OKE board member!) at Chronicles of a Music Teacher and I are going to keep each other accountable - the teaching year is BUSY, but we hole to share our stories and ideas with each of you!! 

Happy Summer, friends!!  Hope levels everywhere are inspiring teachers from across the nation!