Session Descriptions

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Crafting Our Story
Daytime Performances

ETT – Educating Teachers of Teachers
IT – Instrumental Track
Making Space for All Stories
New Stories
SCT – Secondary Choral Track
Sharing Our Story

Storytellers From Past to Present
The “Whole” Story

Crafting Our Story

Sandy Knudson
Break it Down! Fostering Musical Independence
Participants will experience the magic of kinesthetic involvement as we explore how to break it down, helping our students to engage in all the little steps needed to achieve musical mastery. As I observe young teachers in the classroom, this is the most difficult concept to grasp. What happens if an activity doesn’t flow? Most of the time, we have left out a step. How can we artfully craft the sequence to make music with joy each day? We can by expanding our concept of breaking it down. The clinician will demonstrate a rhythmic sequence, an improvisation/melodic sequence, and a part-work sequence. Come experience and brainstorm your favorite ways to “break it down”.

Alyson Moore
Creative Storytelling through Dynamic Concert Programming
Planning concerts can be frustrating, causing many directors to repeat repertoire, rotating favorites year after year and landing in a programmatic rut. Choir concerts are often bogged down by the logistics of moving choirs on and off the risers, causing the audience to lose focus and interest. Transform your concerts into immersive audience experiences by learning creative ways to program thematic concerts that are storytelling masterpieces. Consider interesting techniques that help with challenging stage logistics, and keep the audience engaged even when singers are on the move. Come away with creative planning ideas that promote deepened musicianship for both director and students. Discover how thematic concert planning inspires creative programming that increases the level of engagement for singers and envelops the audience in meaningful concert experiences.

John Crever
Elevate Expressive Storytelling in the Classroom
Listening to stories is an incredible way to broaden our understanding of ourselves and others. By incorporating a story with an attached song, John Feierabend’s “First Steps in Music” 8-part musical workout gives students a “cool down” time while the teacher models expressive singing and storytelling for the students. Want to enhance your musical storytelling? Join teacher trainer John Crever and learn powerful musical techniques to take your expressive storytelling skills to the next level.

Niké St. Clair
Great Diction for Great Music-Making: Languages Are Fun!
As today’s choral educators may increasingly select for and focus on programming contemporary choral repertoire sung in English, music composed by older masters using other languages may become forgotten. Yet, their music has so much to offer for the developing young musician! In this session, we will be focusing on how diction, pronouncing and singing on different languages, may influence the conductor’s interpretational choices of choral music from earlier centuries to recent decades: vowel colors, consonant strengths, articulation, phrasing, shaping a musical line. You will experience first-hand the variety of ways your articulators execute a language. I will include the use of symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and help attendees sharpen their diction skills in Latin, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Ladino, and even English. We will examine select repertoire by Francesca Caccini, L. Viadana, Monteverdi, R. Schumann, Delibes, V. Chavarria, W. Holborne, Morley, Joshua Jacobson, Iris Levine, and arrangements by others. Diction and interpretational elements gleaned from this session may easily be applied to other repertoire in the contemporary elementary and high school choral canon.

Judy Bond, Jason Jones, Victor Lozada, Herbert Marshall 
Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
Before reading and writing is in place, how do we build the experiential foundation for music and movement learning? Three well-known approaches, inspired by Dalcroze, Gordon, and Orff, provide varied blueprints for starting our youngest music and movement learners. Experience informal, experiential learning from three pedagogues with expertise in these approaches. The session will be participatory and will include time for discussion and questions about the role of college and university methods teachers, undergraduate students, practicing teachers, and caregivers in providing music and movement opportunities for primary and Pre-K learners.

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Daytime Performances

Jill Trinka
Song-Stories in Aural Tradition: A Mini-Concert
Performance of English-language “story songs” and lyrics songs in the aural tradition, addressing categories of life themes and experiences such as hunting, love and courtship, marriage, humor, and death.

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ETT – Educating Teachers of Teachers

Michele Paynter Paise, Becky Halliday
ETT: Andragogy vs. Pedagogy: Update Regarding Kodály Certification Programs
At the 2024 OAKE conference in Chicago, instructors in Kodály programs across the United States met to discuss the delicate balance of teaching adults (andragogy) and how to teach children (pedagogy). As a result of the conversation, we developed a questionnaire to find out more about our adult students enrolled in teacher training programs. In this session, we will discuss the answers to topics discussed in the 2024 session, including motivation, experience levels of participants, types of support adult learners need, opportunities for agency in teacher training programs, updates regarding the balance of andragogy and pedagogy, and other factors.

Megan Ankuda, Paul Hunt
ETT: Centering Black Music Aesthetics in the Kodály-Inspired Classroom
Indiana University Professor Emerita Portia Maultsby defined three distinct areas of Black aesthetics in music: Sound quality, mechanics and delivery, and style of delivery. We will identify and describe these Black musical traits with primary source listening examples for K-12 classroom settings that extend across boundaries of style, genre, and historical period. Then, inspired by and rooted within Kodály music education practices, we will demonstrate pedagogical activites that develop students’ musicianship while centering Black musical traits. As a participant, you will leave with pedagogical resources, inspiration, and ideas ready to try in your classroom!

Rebecca Lakes, Jana Martin, Gabriela Montoya-Stier 
ETT: Repertoire and Equity: Beginning Conversations in your Levels Program
Training program teachers and administrators will be given the opportunity to learn, collaborate, and reflect on repertoire concerning equity and culturally responsive teaching. Teachers will be given the tools to walk away feeling empowered to facilitate conversations in their classrooms. Practical resources and guidelines for creating materials will be shared during the session.

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IT – Instrumental Track

Bobby Castro
IT: A Wind Ensemble Rehearsal Using the Kodály Method
Mr. Bobby Castro is from Laredo, Texas. His session will have a hands on experience on using the Kodály Method in a High School Band Rehearsal using band literature. Explanations on how the Kodály Method can enhance a rehearsal to a total musical experience.

Cynthia V Richards
IT: Diary of a Violin Class: Applications for the Private Studio
The four-year journey of a beginning violin class created in a private studio will be shown and documented through power point and video. Kodály principles and sequences of singing musicianship transferred to the instrument will be emphasized. The developmental pathway, including the use of children’s songs, folk songs, duets, ensemble playing, leading into the specific violin literature will be demonstrated. Even though the violin class will be the focus, the same principles can be used in the string class with mixed instruments. All learning leads toward competent solo and ensemble playing, where aural literacy (hearing in your head what you see on the page) serves as the gateway for accessing and understanding all other string music.

Carol Swinchoski, Jessica Pietrosanti 
IT: Folk Songs for Instrumental Settings: Building Literacy and Artistry
Explore folk songs in beginning instrumental settings. Musicians use aural skills, solfège, and rhythm syllables to “sing” through their instruments helping them to become independent, artful performers. Participants will explore techniques to develop beautiful tone, expression, and ensemble skills.

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Making Space for All Stories

Crystal Henricks
A Conversation with Culture Bearers
Rich cultural diversity brings a potential wealth of repertoire to the school community and an affirmation of students within our schools. It is important for us to understand and refine our skills in partnering with community members. Come join a panel conversation with members of my Chicago school community. This panel will include parents and educators representing multiple cultures and languages. We will have an open conversation exploring best practices for those seeking to partner with community members, including the importance of relationships, how to engage in musical experience with non-musicians, and how to help families feel seen in your community. Participants will receive a list of practical suggestions for initial engagement in conversations, strategies for collecting songs, a few sample songs I have collected, and ideas for implementation of those songs into your curriculum.

Julissa Chapa
Canciones for the Little Ones
Join Mrs. Chapa as she presents folk songs from Latin America designed to foster tuneful singing and steady beat among early primary students. Expand your repertoire with lullabies, action songs, fingerplays, and vocal exploration activities in Spanish which help lay a strong musical foundation for students in their native language. Drawing inspiration from the Kodály approach, Mrs. Chapa will provide a curricular framework designed to nurture musical fluency and joyful music-making while creating an inclusive and vibrant musical environment for young emergent bilinguals.

Melanie Kang
Chinese Folk Songs and Dances in the Creative Music Classroom
Learning multicultural songs can be challenging, but it can also be fun and exciting. In my many years teaching Chinese folk songs and dances to my American students, I have found that these activities not only motivate students to learn more about Chinese culture, but also assist students in exploring musical concepts, improving their musical expression, and deepening their understanding of different music forms. In this interactive session, participants will get to explore Chinese culture through traditional folk songs, children’s games, and dances. Fans and ribbons, significant symbols in Chinese culture, will be used creatively during these activities. The dance movements involving fans will be combined with Curwen hand signs to enhance singing and movement coordination. Meanwhile, participants will not only learn traditional Chinese ribbon dance movements, but will use ribbons as an innovative tool for exploring head voices, melodic lines, and other musical concepts. In addition to the movements, participants will play body percussion and learn Orff arrangements of songs.

Jasmine Fripp
It Takes Two! Teaching Choral Musicianship through Hip Hop
In this session, music educators will learn how to use culturally-responsive teaching strategies to build a bridge between the prior knowledge of hip hop enthusiasts and their newfound content knowledge within choral music. This high-energy, interactive session will engage teachers and explore rhythms through hip hop body warm-ups. Educators will also explore activities and exercises that promote healthy vocal technique, music literacy, efficient rehearsal structure, and culture-building through the implementation of hip hop in choral classrooms. Finally, this session will dissect implicit and explicit biases surrounding the use of hip hop in the choral classroom, as well as empower teachers to dismantle systemic racism and create safe spaces for students who love and value genres outside of the Western European art canon.

Miriam Capellan
Let Women Do their Work: Voices of Women in Kodály-Inspired Classrooms
How many of these names ring a bell: Florence Price, Caterina Assandra, Clara Wieck-Schumann, Zenobia Powell Perry, Tania León? What about Ella Jenkins, Katalin Forrai, or Erzsébet Szőny? Women and gender-expansive musicians have shaped the history of music and music education for thousands of years. Written out of our collective history, it is our responsibility (and great pleasure!) to seek out the stories of these unsung music-makers and center them in our classrooms and professional lives. This session will explore fascinating stories behind creators and educators not often found in concert spaces and textbooks. Engage in hands-on activities designed to build musicality while celebrating the work of trailblazing women in music. Come ready to move and sing as we improvise with Ethiopian composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, create rhythm pieces inspired by Caterina Assandra, and learn why Fanny Mendelssohn wrote her own wedding music. This session will spark curiosity and motivate you to pursue your own research into the lives and works of underrepresented music-makers.

Kay Piña
Music and Movement: Supporting Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action
Come explore identity, diversity, justice, and action, the four domains of the Social Justice Standards, through a variety of music and movement activities for the general music classroom. Discussion includes critical practices in the music classroom, the importance of including and implementing social justice standards in general music, and how culturally responsive teaching can be supported in this process. Resources for further exploration provided.

Cori Patterson
Stories from Japan: Singing, Creating, Performing, やった! (Hooray!)
Bring the stories of Japan to life in your Kodály classroom! Learn to share the Japanese culture, ideas, and stories through folk songs, singing games, fingerplays, rounds, echo songs, picture books, and more, while seamlessly integrating them into your Kodály music literacy sequence. Using Orff Schulwerk techniques, create a soundscape with Japanese picture books, including student-created ostinatos developed from your students’ current music literacy skills. Explore Japanese folk tales such as Momotaro through picture books and the accompanying folk songs. Learn about traditional Japanese instruments and create a taiko drumming ensemble utilizing classroom instruments. Connect the music in your classroom to new Japanese stories that students are exploring including manga, J-Pop, anime, and well-known cross-cultural characters! This interactive session will provide you with songs and stories of Japan to bring back to your students!

Rebecca Buck, Qorsho Hassan 
The Rhythm of Somalia: A Collection of Songs, Stories, and Traditions
This session will help participants understand the importance and need for global music education by connecting to students and their lived experiences. Participants will learn about Somali culture, practices, and values, and discuss the importance of a culturally relevant approach to trauma-informed teaching. We will have opportunities for active music-making as participants learn new Somali repertoire directly from “The Rhythm of Somalia,” and how to use with their students.

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New Stories

Lauren Bain
Creating New Stories for Old Classics
See Saw, Snail Snail, We Are Dancing in the Forest – these “bread and butter” folk songs for early childhood concepts are short and easily accessible, with clearly defined concepts. However, the simplistic nature of their framework can become tiresome and dull if we struggle to find any inspiration. But don’t give up on these songs just because you’re tired of them! They have many more uses than a song-and-game progression. Learn how to get more mileage from and be invigorated with a fresh perspective on these staple songs. This session hopes to inspire you by experiencing the “standards” through new eyes, games, stories, and some connecting literacy activities.

Alicia Brown
Cultivating Curiosity: Implementing Project Based Learning
Are you a Kodály teacher in a project-based learning school? Are you interested in incorporating more projects in your Kodály classroom, but aren’t sure where to begin? Join us in exploring what project-based learning can look like in the elementary music classroom. In this session, participants will actively participate in classroom-tested projects ranging from early childhood to sixth grade. We’ll also discuss planning considerations and how to use the scaffolding of the Kodály approach to your advantage while planning your projects throughout the year.

Colleen Casey-Nelson
Follow the Child: Students as Musical Storytellers
Explore the creative intersection of Kodály, Montessori, and World Music approaches from a child’s perspective. This session is a global journey of storytelling through music as shared by children from diverse cultural backgrounds in a Montessori setting. Going beyond the music itself, we will look at how children share, connect, experiment, and problem solve as they immerse themselves in musical storytelling. Inspired by global music cultures, we will follow students’ creative process as they explored ways to artistically share stories from Sápmi (Sami people), Ukraine, and Latvia. Both Kodály and Montessori value imagination and nurture creativity. Global and Peace education are inherent in Montessori and naturally complement a Kodály music education. Examine strategies from a Montessori approach as applied in a music classroom. We can learn from the children. Open Ears, Open Minds, Open Hands, Open Hearts. “Play is the work of the child” (Montessori)

Alicia Brown
Formative Assessments in the Kodály Classroom
Are you looking for formative assessment ideas? Do you struggle to assess, track, and utilize data from all your different class sections? In this session, we will explore a range of formative assessments appropriate for all stages of Kodály learning. We will take these assessments a step further and discuss tracking and utilizing formative assessment data to facilitate lesson planning without feeling overwhelmed. Learn how to communicate clearly with your students about their learning and involve them in the assessment process as well.

Melissa Fuller Flores
Our Classrooms Are Poppin’: Teaching Strategies with a Pop Tune Twist
Incorporating pop music into elementary music classrooms can be a valuable tool for fostering musical literacy, cultural awareness, creativity, and joy among students. Let’s join together for an electrifying exploration, where we’ll discover ways to seamlessly integrate the pop music your students love with essential musical concepts. You’ll be equipped with practical lessons and activities tailored to support the preparation, presentation, and practice of the musical concepts for your K-6th grade students. Let’s create dynamic and meaningful musical experiences that empower students to see themselves reflected in our classrooms as they learn.

Megan Ankuda
Short-Form Videos: The New Musical Mother Tongue
Kodály-inspired practitioners continuously seek materials that are relevant to their students. In recent years, short-form social media formats such as those found on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts have brought diverse musical practices to large audiences, inspired a revival of folk traditions, and invited users to engage creatively with music in abstract, multidisciplinary, meaning-making endeavors. The music that is passed, varied, danced to and re-mixed on short form videos has already been, for quite some time, the central mode of musical consumption for adolescents and some children, and could reasonably be called a primary heritage practice for our students. In this interactive pedagogical workshop, we will identify prominent categories of short-form videos and demonstrate how to embrace them in aural skills, creativity, and notation-based practice activities.

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SCT – Secondary Choral Track

Andrea Solya
SCT: “Folk Songs” of Today: Staying Relevant without Compromising Quality
During my nearly 20 years of experience teaching musicianship/aural skills/sight-singing in rehearsals, I have come to realize that so much learning and teaching can be done effectively as a passive activity. Teaching/learning how to hear and how to read music are essential to music learning outcomes, no matter the environment or musical style. It is crucial to look at the research on how the human brain processes sound. Connecting to the how, we will examine how and why the “sound before sight” concept works and how skills through that concept can be extremely useful. A diverse selection of tunes will be used either from popular western literature or from popular music/musical theater including, but not limited to, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Exercises and the repertoire used are variable and can be easily tailored to the needs or backgrounds of your own students, and do not take more than 5 minutes from start to finish. Whether your students are singers, instrumentalists, working on standard ensemble repertoire, jazz or hip-hop, these exercises will help them become more aware of their musical surroundings.

Terion Cooper
SCT: Black Feminism and Music Education: “Sonic Sour” to Lemonade
“Sonic Sour” relates to the continued racialized timbre of the Black voice. The Black voice is often subjugated to assimilate to the Eurocentric or Western sound in the name of blending. Black sounds are expressions of oral histories. As musical aural-oral histories, these stories represent rich literate traditions rooted in Africa’s past and reverberate throughout the diaspora. Because the Black aural-oral tradition of music learning, which affirms Black culture and Black identity, is neither taught nor given place in typical music education, Black voices feel devalued and less-than as their way of musiking has little to no representation. This session will explore Black feminism in music by illuminating the wisdom of Queen B’s; Beyoncé, Bessie Smith, Bessie Jones, and Brandee Younger, as well as other Hive Queens; Nina Simone, Rhiannon Giddens, Margaret Bonds, and Ysäye Barnwell. How does elevating their voices from Black traditions make space for all voices in music classrooms? What can be learned through their sonic rhetorics? Games, songs, and suggestions for teaching will be presented to help our students go from sour to lemonade.

Stacy Daniels
SCT: Reaching Excellence: Structuring the Rehearsal for Success
Rehearsal is a crucial part of any performing ensemble’s success. It also builds and supports functional musicianship. With any ensemble, rehearsal is where we spend the majority of our time before the performance. We must maximize this time effectively so that the ensemble is being conditioned to adapt to one another while maintaining necessary rehearsal skills to reach full success. As conductors, we are tasked with structuring, implementing, and adjusting (as needed) the rehearsal process to reach the ensemble’s goals. This session will explore many aspects of a quality rehearsal such as planning, sequencing, determining expectations, procedures, engagement, time management/pacing, similarities and differences among varied ensemble rehearsals, and much more! Conductors will feel inspired to enhance their current rehearsal practices and implement new ones!

Brent Talbot
SCT: Secondary Choral Track Session

Samantha Mastrian Leali
SCT: Sight-Singing Success: Kodály for the Secondary Choral Classroom
Many secondary choral programs inherit students with no prior musical experience. This workshop equips educators with engaging strategies to introduce sight-reading and the Kodály Method to these older singers. Through interactive exercises and practical tried and true application, participants will learn to: develop a sequential approach to sight-reading instruction for beginners, utilize Kodály solfège techniques to enhance aural skills and sight-singing fluency, and foster a positive and inclusive learning environment for students of all ages. Participants will leave with: ready-to-use Kodály-based sight-reading exercises, strategies for fostering aural skills development in older singers, and the confidence to create a successful sight-reading program for their choir.

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Sharing Our Story

Lillie Feierabend
Beyond the Classroom: Bridges to the Community
“Often a single experience will open the young soul to music for a whole lifetime. This experience cannot be left to chance. It is the duty of the school to provide it.” (Zoltán Kodály, Children’s Choruses, 1929). Music Educators plant seeds for a lifetime of music-making but teachable moments do not always happen in the classroom. By providing opportunities outside of the music classroom, we also make them available to our families, faculty, school, and community. When invited to participate, they become invested in not only the child’s development, but the growth of the music program, as well. It is our job to create opportunities for all members of our community to become involved with music on a continuous and consistent basis throughout the day, the month, and the year. This session will share a dozen ways to enrich the musical growth and development of your students, your school and your community, help create bonds and foster relationships, and provide opportunities that just may capture the soul of the young child for a lifetime.

Mary Ellen Junda
Broadside Ballads: Social Consciousness in Song
In the age of social media where every person has a story to tell, this session will focus on telling stories through song for the “greater good.” The template for these cultural expeditions is the broadside ballad, a 15th century British folksong tradition that shared “the news” through song. This Kodály-inspired project introduces students of all ages to the power of song as a vehicle for responding to events or conditions that are infused with strong feelings and opinions. We will explore the intricate relationship between social consciousness and song composition, drawn from events that reflect the effects of social, political and cultural change. The pedagogical sequence includes preparatory activities through the completion of the broadsides, with assignments, rubrics, and student reflections. This song-writing experience helps students to understand the value of collaboration to achieve artistic goals, the role of music to express social consciousness, and the power of song as voices are united with a common purpose. By creating broadsides, students will add their voices to those from the past, thus continuing the tradition for another generation.

Larena Code Boyle
Demonstration: Building Cultural Empathy in a Kodály Setting
“How do I diversify my repertoire while still reaching my music literacy goals?” Kodály-inspired teachers have tools we can lean on to center our students’ musical learning as well as their empathy for other cultures. Come see second graders demonstrate a class full of literacy-based activities, cross-cultural reflections, and play-based music-making, all within the familiar structure of a Kodály-inspired lesson plan. The Kodály approach emphasizes the importance of teaching in such a way that is natural to the child. I will share how I used this pedagogy to balance multi-faceted representation in a way that is child-like, familiar, and open-minded. We will use our “tried and true” folk songs to reflect on socio-cultural topics as well as play with the music literacy of songs from the non-western world. Students will also share their experience learning songs in multiple languages, celebrating differences, and strengthening their musical skills. And of course, since this will be rooted in Kodály-inspired pedagogy, there will be lots of singing and lots of joy!

Melissa Fuller Flores, Melissa Stouffer 
Harmony in the Hyphen: Embracing Filipino-American Heritage through Music
Through the unique perspective of the presenters’ Filipino-American experiences, you will discover innovative methods for incorporating traditional Filipino music and dance into your classroom, promoting diversity, and nurturing cultural empathy. We’ll explore strategies for infusing these traditions with modern twists, fostering a dynamic and inclusive learning environment that welcomes our students to reclaim cultural heritage (regardless of their background) and build connections in the classroom and beyond. Let us unite in empowering our students to embark on a voyage of self-discovery, to embrace their roots with pride, and to craft a future enriched by the diverse tapestry of our shared human experience. Join us as we collectively shape a tomorrow where every voice is celebrated and every heritage cherished.

Anne Mileski
Improvise Now: Cultivating Early Independent Musicianship
Improvising early on could help to promote students’ understanding of musical concepts while increasing their independent musicianship and confidence. By creating opportunities for students to play with rhythmic and melodic elements, both in the preparation phase and throughout a concept sequence, teachers may help further develop students’ musical understanding prior to notational literacy. In this session, participants will be guided through practical ways to incorporate group and individual improvisation practices for students to showcase their creativity early on in a Kodály-inspired “prepare, present, practice” sequence. Drawing inspiration from multiple pedagogical approaches, this session uses tried and true processes infused with new ideas for reigniting student curiosity and possibility. Often improvisation and composition takes place when students show they can match formal notation to musical concepts. But we can start now! Don’t wait until the end of a concept sequence for students to improvise, compose, and create.

Darla Meek
Leave the Passport, Take the Recorder!
In the elementary music classroom, teaching soprano recorder can be seamlessly integrated into a holistic music education approach that aims to cultivate empathy and global awareness among students. By embedding recorder playing as a core component of the music curriculum, students not only acquire musical proficiency but also engage in cultural exploration through the study of diverse music and dance traditions. Participants will leave with new resources for engaging children in playing recorder and barred instruments, listening, moving, singing, and reading notation. The completed lessons are suitable for performing on a program.

Michelle Braun
Musical Opposites: Fresh Ideas for Kodály in Kindergarten
Is it time to freshen up your kindergarten curriculum? Keep your classic songs while adding new activities to sing, play, move, and listen. This session will include new ideas for fast and slow, loud and soft, along with high and low, both speaking and singing. We will get hands on with tennis balls, scarves, puppets, toys, instruments, and a parachute. Come and play! It’s the kindergarten way!

Anne Mileski
Sequencing Singing Games with Self-Determination Theory in Mind
Have you ever come across music activities that you feel might be too challenging for your students? In this session, participants will consider strategies for adapting and teaching singing games that meet the needs of every learner, including students or classes who may not be ready for the more complex versions. Drawing from Self-Determination Theory, we’ll explore effective approaches to scaffold song repertoire and gameplay, fostering student agency and boosting engagement. Let’s shift our perspective from “my kids can’t do that” to “they can’t do that yet”, or “they can do that, but in their own way.” Discover practical techniques for making well-loved and perhaps a few new singing games accessible and enjoyable for all students.

Megan Sheridan
Sing My Story: Songwriting for Children
Storytelling and expressing oneself through music has been documented in musical cultures for hundreds of years and in musical genres ranging from folk to classical to popular music. Many of the folk songs commonly used in Kódaly-based classrooms originated in people’s desires to express themselves or document an experience in their lives. These early examples of songwriting offer us models for developing opportunities for children to create new music that tells their own stories while expressing musical knowledge and skills. In this interactive session we will experience techniques for encouraging children to create and write their own music while applying music literacy concepts typically learned in Kodály-based classrooms. Techniques for writing lyrics, rhythms, melodies, and accompaniments will be shared and applied.

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Storytellers From Past to Present

Robin Giebelhausen
Doing Better: Sourcing the Works of “Traditional” Songs
There is a prevalence of “traditional” songs in published textbooks. Because of this realization, Dr. Giebelhausen asked questions like: Whose traditions? Traditional to whom? How and when did these songs reach “traditional” status? Informed by the work of folk song collectors and ethnomusicologists, this session explores the richness of musical genealogy behind a “traditional” song. In this session, Giebelhausen models one way to approach sourcing a “traditional” tune while actively recognizing her positionalities and social identities.

Erin Flynn, Tim Ferrin
Guide Me: Sharing the Story of Ella Jenkins
Chicago childrens performer and teacher, Erin Flynn, will join documentary director Tim Ferrin to share rare film clips, stories, favorite songs, and insights about their friend Ella Jenkins and the making of the Ella Jenkins documentary. Through story and song, Erin and Tim will demonstrate the possibilities of a classroom, a musical life, rooted in Ella Jenkins music, and a true love for Ella; one that guides young children to feel a deep pride as they learn from a legacy musician; one that invites children to shape their artful identity within a history and a folk tradition that is their own; and one that strives to teach and live by Ella’s ever humble curiosity and centering of the child’s voice.

Gabriela Montoya-Stier
Historias y Canciones de Nuevo México
The first Spanish explorers arrived in what is now New Mexico in the early 1540s. The capital of New Mexico, Santa Fe, was established in 1610. For many centuries, the Spanish families of New Mexico, including Crypto Jews, were isolated and developed their own unique culture. Gaby Montoya-Stier will discuss the history of New Mexican Spanish heritage and how it impacted the folklore of the state of New Mexico. She will discuss several folk song resources including online resources and printed media. Participants will explore New Mexican Spanish folk song repertoire and participate in playing traditional singing games from this state.

Julissa Chapa
Rondas Infantiles: The Tradition of Circle Games in Latin America
Travel into the heart of Latin American culture as Mrs. Chapa delves into the rich repertoire of circle games known as “rondas.” Drawing from extensive research and personal experience as a culture bearer, Mrs. Chapa will discuss the historical significance, cultural importance, and pedagogical benefits of rondas as a genre. Learn some of the cherished song games that have delighted generations of Latin American children.

Gemma Arguelles, Kelly Foster Griffin
Teacher, Storyteller, Composer: The Legacy of Mark A. Williams
Mark A. Williams, founding member and past president of OAKE, was internationally known as a Kodály music educator and clinician as well as a composer and a choir conductor. He taught in several music institutions in the US and abroad and shared his love of music and teaching through workshops and clinics he conducted throughout the US and around the world. As a composer and choir conductor, he wrote arrangements for his own choirs and published “Bicinia Americana”, a collection of arranged American folk songs modeled after the works of Zoltán Kodály. This session will feature the clinicians’ recollection of how Mark Williams presented children’s songs through storytelling, as well as some of his arrangements and works in “Bicinia Americana” that children have enjoyed singing in the classroom. Participants will sing through selected pieces from Williams’ work and actively participate in the activities and games associated with the music.

Mary A Epstein, Mary Ellen Junda, Judith Kramer Koret, Anne Patterson, Jill Trinka
U.S. in Crisis: The Story of the New Haven Kodály Group
1969 was a critical year in the history of the United States with the Vietnam war raging and civil rights issues at the forefront. During this tumultuous time, a small group of music teachers made an impact that would ultimately have national implications by starting a new singing-based music program in the elementary schools in New Haven CT. Under the aegis of Dr. Alexander Ringer, Isaac Stern, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The New Haven Foundation, this Kodály-inspired music program provided a foundation for the spread of the Kodály concept throughout the United States. During this presentation you will meet some of the teachers who participated in this program as they share the history of the New Haven Kodály Group, including the requisite year-long study in Hungary (then under Communist control), their efforts to create an American music curriculum based on Kodály’s ideals, and their quest to create a daily music program suited to the diverse inner-city New Haven school population. Historic film clips of this unique program will be shared along with the members’ contributions to the founding and growth of the Organization of American Kodály Educators.

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The “Whole” Story

Susan Brumfield
Mix it Up! Brain Breaks and Balance in Your Lessons
Whether singing, playing instruments, reading and writing notation, creating or listening intently, the skill-based activities in music classes often require intense concentration and focus. Incorporating musical and extramusical “brain breaks” throughout your lessons can provide students with much-needed opportunities to rest, recharge and refocus their minds and bodies, enhancing their overall experience and enjoyment. These informal activities can foster social interaction, reduce stress, provide opportunities for sharing musical ideas, build rapport and camaraderie, and create an atmosphere of belonging and community within the classroom. In this session, we will actively explore repertoire, focusing on musical and extramusical benefits and opportunities for extensions. We’ll learn name games, “mixers” and other songs and games, along with fun activities designed to get students moving, singing, and playing, while cultivating a joyful, playful and relaxed environment for learning.

Jess Walls
Supporting Neurodiversity and Mental Health in Music Classes
Music educators have a unique opportunity to support students who may feel out of place in school, as if they do not belong or cannot contribute. Students with the unique challenges of neurodivergence such as autism and ADHD, along with students who struggle with mental illness such as depression or anxiety, often experience school as an unfriendly or even hostile environment. In many cases, the music classroom is a place of hope, joy, and creative expression for these students who struggle in their other classes. As a music educator who is neurodivergent and has experienced significant mental health challenges, Walls has conducted research on supporting students with similar challenges. In this session she will share both her personal experiences and her research-based practices that can help educators at all levels show all of our students how being a part of a musical community can give them a “home” at school, and support them through the challenges of navigating not only school, but also their entire lives.

Sarah Tullock
The Curiosity Connection: Mindfulness and Trauma-Informed Teaching in Music
Zoltán Kodály believed music to be central to the well-being of the human person. He wrote and spoke about this belief a great deal, even saying, “No other subject can serve the child’s welfare – physical and spiritual – as well as music.” During this session, we will explore the connection between our art form, mindfulness, and trauma-informed teaching practices. Taking into account both positive and adverse childhood experiences, and the many opportunities for healthy human connection offered through group singing, we will share strategies for community care in the music class setting. All participants will leave with a list of free resources to further support understanding of Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences in the lives of our students as well as ideas for connection during music class, and of course, a few new songs and canons.

Kexin Xu
We Are Our Instruments: Strategies to Protect Teachers’ Vocal Health
Music teachers are professional voice users who depend primarily on voice use for their occupations. Research studies revealed that music teachers were at greater risks of experiencing vocal issues due to their substantial amount of voice use than teachers who taught other subjects. A unique challenge that music teachers who engage Kodály-Inspired teaching encounter is the frequent switch between using the singing voice for modeling and the speaking voice for providing instructions. Aiming to help music teachers maximize their vocal longevity, the purpose of this session is to demonstrate strategies and tools to help prevent vocal problems that music teachers encounter. I begin by discussing various vocal issues that music teachers experience. After that, I will demonstrate research-informed vocal exercises including the Resonant Voice Exercise (Cooper, 1973; Lessac, 1997), Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercises such as the straw phonation (Titze, 2006), and the Vocal Function Exercises (Stemple, 1984). Finally, this session will facilitate dialogues pertaining to maintain good vocal hygiene, assessment, and treatments for common vocal pathologies seen among music educators.

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