Texas Music Educators Association has served band, orchestra, vocal, elementary, and college musicians since 1920. I joined TMEA in 2017 and it has been the absolute best musical professional development available in the southern region. Every year they host a humongous convention in San Antonio TX. During the three days, there’s so many clinics and resources it isn’t possible to touch everything! I usually start by highlighting every session that’s in my field that year. So this year, elementary music/ choir. Primarily I am an instrumental trained director and I play the saxophone, so I will check out some of the band and woodwind seminars. There are also various instruments to test out and purchase, along with opportunity to purchase sheet music, records, musical items, classroom additions, clothes and much more. In an ideal situation, the money in the campus budget (and unpenalized absence) is allotted to the music teacher to be able to attend the convention during the week. I’m anticipating that Covid-19 will prevent the physical convention of 2021, however over time we have learned how to operate with the virus so I’m interested to see if it will occur. Due to the size and magnitude of the convention, and it requires travel and hotel for most, I don’t think it would be on the safer side, but I would hope at least TMEA will host a virtual convention and webinars will be available They also post Texas music open positions.
I joined ATPE my senior year in college. This is a great resource for Texas educators in many ways. They offer free membership for college students and offer Legal assistance to members. There are opportunities for collaboration and professional development. ATPE played a major role in my transition from student teaching through my first year teaching from lesson planning to my job search.
Quaver is a mega platform in the world of digital music. Not only is Quaver a very big part of my classroom, it will be a huge resource for remote learning. There are music games, activities, and assignments. It's set up for music educators at all levels and has the necessities for grouping, attendance, grading, assessment, and other class management resources. I used the free trial, and the Regional Officer reached out to me personally. She gave me access to an extended free trial all last year, so I got with the music teachers is my district to agree to switch to the full version to access the thousands of features and songs. The videos are high energy and fast tempo to keep kids interested, and the activities promote deeper learning by challenging the students to apply their learning. They also provide opportunities for student choice. One of the best rhythm activities in my opinion has different animals that perform different rhythmic patterns that occupy a beat. I allow students to choose four animals, and we practice performing the rhythm that was created. I will usually expand on this activity by making four stations. Each station has an animal assigned to it, and the rotation allows for the students to practice all 4 rhythms and collaborate with each other to know what beat to perform their rhythm. There are over 6,000 members, so there is opportunity for collaboration in the events and webinar pages. Check out Quaver Music Innovative Technology
Music play is what I was a member of before Quaver. I would recommend Music Play for Pre-K and Kinder music, and also to people who find themselves teaching music without a vocal degree or vocal background. It does a great job of explaining basic music concepts to the point where any adult should understand how to deliver the content. First time music students will definitely benefit from Music Play, and it probably best suits young beginning musicians anyway. It provided the free resources I needed as a new teacher (like lesson planning and short activities), but I grew out of it quickly, as so my students. In a world of digital access, I believe the main reason for this is because the games are extremely easy and repetitive, so the answers can easily be memorized, even by my first graders. Rote learning is acceptable at times, but I wished they challenged the students' thinking more and really made them apply their learning. However, it was great to use as supplemental material and introducing digital music to the classroom. My favorite parts of this platform is the vocal warmups, the kids find it fun and it serves the purpose. Vocal warmups are very intricate for novice singers, so it is important for a supplemental tool to possess the necessary components for human ear training.
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