September 2018 Southwestern Musician by Texas Music Educators Association

SEPTEMBER 2018

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Contents VO LU M E 87 ɵ I S S U E 2 ɵ S E P T E M B E R 2018

Features The Heart of the Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 As you face a multitude of challenges to capture students’ interest and attention, consider this input from several music teachers in urban schools. [D I N A H M E N G ER]

Cultivating Confident Sightreaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Sightreading is a critical part of becoming a great musician, so music educators must work to develop these skills on a consistent basis from day one. [K R I S T I N H A M E S & K AT I E L E W I S]

Successful Grant Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 You don’t have to be an expert grant writer to get the funding you need to support important projects that foster your students’ development. [M EL I N DA BROU & N AO M I S EI D M A N]

Achieving the Balance We Need. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 It’s time to create a more balanced life, one that will support a more sustainable career in music education. [N AT H A N L A N G F I T T, L P C]

Columns President’s Notes . . . . . . . . . 5 [R O B ER T

H OR TO N]

Executive Director’s Notes . .10 [R O B ER T

Updates

F LOY D]

Band Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 [J O H N

CA R R O L L]

Renew Your Membership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Orchestra Notes . . . . . . . . . 30 2019 TMEA Clinic/Convention: The Best Place to Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

[B R I A N

C O AT N E Y]

Be a Music Education Advocate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Vocal Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 [DER R ICK

B R O O K I N S]

Honor Bands and Finalists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Elementary Notes. . . . . . . . 46 Honor Orchestras and Finalists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

[CA S E Y

M ED L I N]

College Notes . . . . . . . . . . . 50

on the cover

[V I C K I Tanya Jagan, a ninth grader at Tompkins HS, performs with the Seven Lakes JH Varsity Treble Choir (Katy ISD) at the 2018 TMEA Clinic/Convention. Photo by Paul Denman.

BAKER]

Southwestern Musician | September 2018

Editor-in-Chief: Robert Floyd UĂ R\G@tmea.org 512-452-0710, ext. 101

Managing Editor: Karen Cross

kcross@tmea.org 512-452-0710, ext. 107

Renew Your Membership!

TMEA Executive Board

All TMEA 2017â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2018 memberships expired June 30.

President: Robert Horton

2017â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2018 liability insurance policies expired August 20.

rhorton@conroeisd.net :HVW 'DYLV 6WUHHW &RQURH Â˛ 7KH :RRGODQGV +6

President-Elect: Joe MuĂąoz 0XQR]M#SHDUODQGLVG RUJ 3775 South Main Street, Pearland, 77581 281-997-3219 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Pearland HS

Past-President: Andy Sealy sealya@lisd.net 4207 Plano Parkway, Carrollton, 75010 469-948-3011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hebron HS

Band Vice-President: John Carroll John.Carroll@ectorcountyisd.org 1800 East 42nd Street, Odessa, 79762 432-456-2285 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Permian HS

Renew now to ensure you receive the benefits of your TMEA membership for the entire year.

Plan to enter students to an audition? Your membership must be active to do so. Thank you for being a TMEA member! The strength of music programs in our schools is rooted in the dedication of teachers like you, all united in a mission to provide the best music education for all Texas schoolchildren.

Orchestra Vice-President: Brian Coatney brian.coatney@pisd.edu 1313 Mossvine Drive, Plano, 75023 469-752-9396 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Plano Senior HS

Vocal Vice-President: Derrick Brookins PDMRUVFDOH #JPDLO FRP :LPEOHGRQ 'ULYH $OOHQ 214-450-7464

Elementary Vice-President: Casey Medlin casey.medlin@fortbendisd.com 6DQG\ 6HD 5RDG 5RVHQEHUJ Â˛ %UD]RV %HQG (OHPHQWDU\

College Vice-President: Vicki Baker 9%DNHU#WZX HGX 3 2 %R[ 'HQWRQ Â˛ 7H[DV :RPDQÂˇV 8QLYHUVLW\

TMEA Staff Executive Director: 5REHUW )OR\G | UĂ R\G@tmea.org Deputy Director: )UDQN &RDFKPDQ | fcoachman@tmea.org Administrative Director: Kay Vanlandingham | kvanlandingham@tmea.org Advertising/Exhibits Manager: Tesa Harding | tesa@tmea.org Membership Manager: Susan Daugherty | susand@tmea.org

RENEW ONLINE TODAY

Just click Renew from www.tmea.org Membership â&#x20AC;˘ Renew Existing Membership â&#x20AC;˘ Become a New TMEA Member â&#x20AC;˘ Reset My Password â&#x20AC;˘ Update Member Information

Communications Manager: Karen Cross | kcross@tmea.org Financial Manager: &ULVWLQ *DIIQH\ | cgaffney@tmea.org Information Technologist: Andrew Denman | adenman@tmea.org Administrative Assistant: 5LWD (OOLQJHU | rellinger@tmea.org

70($ 2IĂ&#x20AC;FH Mailing Address: 3 2 %R[ $XVWLQ Physical Address: 7900 Centre Park Drive, Austin, 78754 Phone: 512-452-0710 | Toll-Free: 888-318-TMEA | Fax: 512-451-9213 Website: www.tmea.org 2IĂ&#x20AC;FH +RXUV 0RQGD\Â˛)ULGD\ A.M.â&#x20AC;&#x201C;4:30 P.M.

Verify and update your email and mailing addresses. Your receipt and membership card are sent to your email address.

Renew now, and remind your colleagues to do the same!

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Southwestern Musician | September 2018

B Y

R O B E R T

H O R T O N

PRESIDENT’S NOTES

From the heart

September—Renew your membership and register for the convention. October 1, 6 a.m. CT—Convention housing reservation system opens for members. November 1—TMEA scholarship application deadline. December 31—TMEA mail/fax convention preregistration deadline. January 24—TMEA convention online early registration deadline. February 13–16—TMEA Clinic/ Convention in San Antonio.

colleague recently asked me how I prepared for speaking to a large group of people. If you know me well, you know that I am rarely at a loss for words. However, being a preacher’s son and now having served as a church choir director for almost 30 years, I’ve heard lots of speaking, and it hasn’t always been inspirational or motivational. Actually, I have heard many speakers miss great opportunities to stop! I’ve also been privileged to hear great speakers and observe and learn from master teachers. I have also had the opportunity to teach music for 25 years and work in fine arts administration for the past three years. Beginning my 29th year in education, I firmly believe that communication skills must be developed throughout our careers, because these skills impact our teaching and our interactions with colleagues, administrators, and parents. As this school year begins to really get busy, and you are in the formative stages with your students, I would like to propose an acronym that may help guide your work with them. These elements may not be present in every class, but they can be a guide in many situations. The letters of the acronym HEART provide a framework to view our teaching, communication, and interactions with others: Humor, Engagement, Authenticity, Resources, and Takeaways. Over the past several years, scientists and learning experts have confirmed what many in education have long known: humor is a wonderful tool for communication. It can ease tension and make others more receptive to your message. Emotion has been associated with storing and accessing long-term

Focus on communicating using humor, engagement, authenticity, resources, and takeaways. Southwestern Musician | September 2018

memory, and humor is a wonderful tool to stir emotion. Humor as a communication tool can also positively shape your environment. Additionally, if you have taught, you know there are great opportunities for humor everywhere. Give yourself permission to see the humor in situations. If things seem especially bad, don’t forget that a crisis plus time equals humor! Engagement is another essential aspect of great communicating. Whether you are speaking to a full auditorium or a small classroom, engaging your audience is essential. Engagement is a critical part of

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communicating, because audience members become active participants rather than passive listeners. Myriad strategies exist to increase engagement. Some involve active participation, chunking information, and associating new learning with prior knowledge. I am often amused when people who aren’t music educators espouse these types of strategies, because they are essential parts of high-quality music education. A great strategy to increase engagement is to build relationships with people in a variety of contexts. Authenticity is one of the most critical elements of effective communication. The adage “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” has become a truism in education. Students often attach the importance of their learning to how much they think their teacher believes in them. Not surprisingly, adults behave similarly. Explore ways to develop relationships in your daily life so that communication can happen on a deeper level. Be convinced of what you believe and be bold about communicating those beliefs. Consistently look for ways to communicate your sincerely held beliefs. Another way to ensure authenticity is to model being inclusive of all students. Insist on this culture in your interactions, so that everyone knows they matter to you. Resources are essential to support and sustain learning. In music education, we have great resources in our colleagues. Some of my greatest learning has come from observing other music teachers and attempting to emulate their success. Consider the resources you have in your life. I truly believe that great educators want to help others, and they look for opportunities to share their expertise. Of course, as teachers, we often overlook parents as a resource. Who can know and better advocate than a parent for their child? One of our greatest resources for professional development is the annual TMEA Clinic/Convention. The most frequent complaint I have heard about the conven-

tion is that there are too many great offerings to fit into one’s schedule! And while we do try to consider all input, we take this “complaint” as a compliment. The TMEA staff and Executive Board want our convention to offer you more than you can ever expect to attend. Each year’s goal is for you to read through your December convention preview issue, and if you haven’t already registered, realize that you can’t afford to miss this convention. And the resources offered at the convention aren’t just in the form of clinics, concerts, and the exhibit hall. One of the most valuable reasons to attend is that you will be surrounded by thousands of people who share your passion and who work daily to improve their instruction to offer the best music education possible to all schoolchildren—that’s quite a resource! Finally, do you begin every opportunity to communicate by considering the takeaways you want for your audience? Regardless of the size or age of your audience, I urge you to consider the essential message you want them to remember. According to a 2014 report in Learning Solutions magazine, research shows that, on average, students forget 70% of what we teach within 24 hours of a training experience. Sounds promising, right? However, one recommended strategy to improve retention involves having the learner recall and use their newly acquired information. That sounds like our pedagogical process of music education to me! High-quality music education also promotes persistence, effort, and deeper learning. In addition to knowledge, these are wonderful skills we teach through music. As we move into the fall, I encourage you to focus on communicating using Humor, Engagement, Authenticity, Resources, and Takeaways. Actively infusing these elements can improve your communication with all of your constituents. Keep looking for ways to improve! It’s a matter of HEART!

TMEA Memberships Expired June 30 Renew Today and Register for the Convention!

www.tmea.org/renew 6

Southwestern Musician | September 2018

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2019 TMEA Clinic/Convention The Best Place to Learn

IMPORTANT DATES October 1, 6 a.m. CT Convention Housing Opens December 31 Fax/Mail Registration Ends January 24 Online Early Registration Ends

Southwestern Musician | September 2018

www.tmea.org/clinicpreview for a list of topics and clinicians

Februar y 13â&#x20AC;&#x201C;16 San Antonio, Texas

TMEA.ORG/CONVENTION

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S NOTES

% < 5 2 % ( 5 7 ) / 2 < '

The importance of advocacy

s part of my brief TMEA updates for the TBA, TCDA, and TODA convention general sessions and our TMEA officer trainings, I shared how during the upcoming 86th legislative session, education legislation will be driven primarily by the shortage of money, school finance, school safety, and the new A–F accountability system. The State Commission on Public School Finance has been meeting since the last session, and numerous committees at the capitol have been holding hearings on the school safety issue (highlighted in my column last month). Regional workforce training through Career and Technical certifications is also receiving much discussion and emphasis as our state accepts the reality that we won’t meet the goal of having 60% of adults ages 25–34 attain a post-secondary degree by the year 2030 (the “60 × 30 Goal”). According to a Commission white paper draft, based on current growth trends (even ignoring anticipated demographic changes that will likely further those trends), Texas

Never before has advocacy been more important in your community, your district, and on your campus. 10 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

will miss that critical goal by over two decades. Based on that projection, the white paper lays out recommended goals for public education funding and accountability that could drive education funding and policy change when the legislature convenes early in January. You may read the report at www.tmea.org/educationwhitepaper. Such recommendations must be adopted by the full commission, distributed to the members of the legislature in December, and then be drafted into an omnibus bill that will begin the long and arduous process of becoming law, ultimately hitting the governor’s desk likely next June. Our concern is that recommendations included in the white paper could potentially deny opportunities for students pursuing a well-rounded education that includes the arts, as called for in both the Texas Education Code and federal legislation, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). I say all this to underscore that never before has advocacy been more important in your community, in your district, and on your campus. While I don’t want to create a sky-isfalling scenario, I do want to emphasize that TMEA’s efforts at the capitol, together with members’ local efforts to build a valued educational experience in Texas classrooms, have kept us ahead of the curve through the years, and that must continue to be our priority. On page 12 is a one-page brief on how to organize local advocacy efforts. It begins first with making the commitment to become an active advocate for your program. Get to know the abilities and connections you may have through the parents of your students with civic and community groups, media, board of education members, school officials, and other decision makers. Secondly, establish your priorities in your messaging and define

a message that will resonate with your parents and community. Your message must be constant throughout the school year. Have you ever asked your students why they continue to be a part of your program throughout their school career? Their responses may form the cornerstone of your message. Thirdly, create your advocacy approach. You must have a plan of action. And while perhaps no one else can equal your strong passion and love for teaching music, sometimes the value of rigorous music study resonates better when coming from a member of the community. Certainly distributing meaningful advocacy materials to parents, students, and administrators is important. The materials referenced on page 12 and many others are available at www.tmea.org/advocacymaterials. For the appropriate audience, such as future music educators, a booster club meeting, or even a PTA gathering, the edited videos of Dan Pink, Carl St. Clair, and others share the message of the importance of music in all our lives. You might be thinking this is yet another Floyd advocacy lecture, and you would be right. However, I cannot write such a column without stating once again that the greatest advocacy tool we have is a program valued by students, parents, administration, and community. But even more important is why your program is valued. It’s not about the trophies on the wall or the number of UIL Sweepstakes earned—it’s how through music we touch students’ lives in a way that can’t be accomplished through words or experiences in any other classroom. We must continue to anchor our beliefs and rationale for existence in the curriculum on that message.

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REGIONAL AUDITIONS JANUARY 19, 2019 Dallas, TX JANUARY 20, 2019 Boston, MA and Los Angeles, CA JANUARY 21, 2019 Chicago, IL Application Deadline: DECEMBER 1 ithaca.edu/music

music@ithaca.edu

2018 OPEN HOUSES OCTOBER 8 and NOVEMBER 12 Register at my.ithaca.edu and click on the events tab to sign up.

Southwestern Musician | September 2018 11

Be a Music Education Advocate An important aspect of every music educator’s job is being an active advocate for music education. Statewide support and success happens only when individuals like you mobilize to speak out and demonstrate why music education in your school district is important.

Get Organized Your students’ parents are likely the group with whom you should begin working. They witness the positive effects of music in the curriculum and realize what it means to their children to receive a quality music education. They also have connections. And connections will make a difference. If you don’t already work with a parent booster group, contact your students’ parents to begin organizing one.

Assess Your Connections Get to know the abilities and connections within your support group: • Who has access to civic and community groups? • Who has access to the media? • Who can best make connections with school officials; who can do this diplomatically to the best advantage of the effort? • Who can most easily identify, monitor, and call on legislators, school board members, or other decision makers for your school system? • Who is interested in monitoring the school budget, giving your music education advocacy group guidance and input that can augment your actions?

Establish Your Priorities Priorities may vary across districts. Whatever they are, document your priorities to ensure that every communication you make in some way supports those priorities.

Define Your Message With a clearly defined message, you can evaluate every action or communication in your plan to ensure that it supports this message in some way. While your communication methods may vary, the core message itself should be constant.

Create Your Advocacy Approach Create a timeline for executing your advocacy strategy. Use a variety of media to support your priorities (emails, social media, letters, meetings, and more). Always focus communication on how music education benefits every student. When possible, get parents and community leaders to champion the cause. You must be visible in your support of music education; however, it will be more effective for members of the community to speak out on its importance. The following are a few ideas for advocates of music education. When you meet, think of other ways that will be effective in your district. • Invite administrators and school board members to observe rehearsals/classroom. • Include administrators in your next program (e.g., perform a piece with narration to include them). • Ask administrators to present awards to students during your awards ceremony. • Communicate your message consistently through local media. Anytime there is an event or success to share, submit a story to your local media. • Parents/community members submit letters to the editor supporting music education in the schools. • Include advocacy material in your concert program, on your program’s website, social media platforms, and within any regular communications you have with parents. • Parents send letters to school board members explaining why they should support music education in the schools. • Parents attend school board meetings and speak to the importance of music education for all students. 12 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

Advocacy Materials These materials and many more are available on the TMEA website. Download print- and Web-ready materials to support your local efforts.

tmea.org/advocacymaterials

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The Heart of the Art Reaching the Unreachable Student

By Dinah Menger

or those of us who have been in the educational trenches for a while, knowing how to capture a child’s interest, attention, and devotion comes more naturally. For a new teacher, this can be a daunting task. If the assignment is elementary music, challenges are even greater. Why? Most of our students in secondary school music programs have chosen to continue enrolling in these music classes and want to work to succeed. However, elementary music educators teach every student in the school every week! These teachers serve as the igniter for secondary elective choices. With this in mind, finding solutions and support for the rapid increase in music teacher burnout and providing ways to identify and deal with the multitude of challenges faced by new educators today must be a priority. Imagine this scene: Your first-grade music class leaves late (because their classroom teacher wasn’t there on schedule). The next class of third graders is outside waiting to enter the music room. This alone can spark behavior issues, but you know your lesson plan is foolproof and well-crafted. You have worked to set up an engaging Kodály-based music game with a brilliant transition to a great Orff application. The Orff instruments and mallets are set up and ready and so are you. As the class enters, singing a “Hello” song, several students begin to run around the room and won’t follow the directions even though entering procedures have been reviewed and practiced several times. Another student tries to help you by reminding their friends to follow rules. This starts a fight. As you attempt to calm this squabble, another student tugs 14 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

at your shirt to tell you they feel sick. You notice that this student is disheveled and pale. You let them sit in the Comfort Zone, which encourages two other students to tell you they feel sick and want to sit there as well. You have a decision to make: do you take them all back outside and once again practice the entering procedure, or do you try to start the lesson knowing you will see them only once a week for a quick 50-minute period. You decide to forge ahead with those who are listening and following instructions, despite the distraction from the initial group who are still exhibiting behavior issues. This scenario is quite typical for many of our teachers, even seasoned and successful ones, and it is especially so for those in an urban/poverty-driven classroom. There are so many basic issues to take care of before a single music concept can be taught that many of our finest get disheartened and lose their confidence and desire to remain in these challenging situations. One of the goals of TMEA’s focus on urban music education is to give a voice to, empower, and offer support and successful practices to those who teach music to students who bring with them much emotional baggage cultivated in poverty, neglect, language barriers, and cultural gaps. At the Urban Music Roundtables at the TMEA convention, many of the topics focused on observed prevalent behaviors of today’s challenging students. After compiling information from the elementary and secondary participants, the general consensus is that students today come to us with fewer coping/social skills (known as a low emotional IQ). Some of the traits of a student with a low emotional IQ are as follows:

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• “Skin-starved,” longing for attention This list of increasing and concerning behaviors is real and must be recognized and fearlessly embraced in order to achieve change. Since elementary music educators teach all students, they play an integral role not only in lighting the initial music fire but also in observing and monitoring

student maturity/social growth, serving as a constant presence, creating and maintaining a safe space during the school day, identifying differentiated learning styles, and encouraging each student in personal gains and successes. This role is quite different from a homeroom teacher who has a different set of students each year. Building a lasting relationship with these students over several years is the key to any sort of gain. This holds true of every teacher in every kind of scenario, but for those teaching in poverty-driven settings, this is a most important goal. There are many excellent training programs available that address and support teachers in creating positive relationships with their students. One of those programs gaining ground among educators is called “Restorative Discipline Practices.” If introduced and implemented correctly, this focus on classroom culture and nonpunitive discipline can be a game-changer, especially with younger children. Featured at TMEA’S 2018 Urban Music sessions, speaker and educational consultant Rufus Lott and Fort Worth ISD music teacher Cara Craggett shared their stories of its transformational aspects. (You can learn

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think. perform. explore. 16 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

June 2014, the Trinity University Music Department was recognized as an ALL-STEINWAY SCHOOL by Steinway and Sons, for its commitment to excellence and purchase of 32 Steinway pianos.

TEXAS LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

SCHOLARSHIP AUDITIONS Scholarships are available for both music and non-music majors. These awards are intended to provide recognition for scholarship and talent in the study of music. For speciﬁc qualiﬁcations for each award, visit

www.tlu.edu/music-scholarships. SCHOLARSHIP AUDITION DATES: Sunday, November 11, 2018 TLU Performing Arts Scholarship Invitational

Sunday, February 10, 2019 | 1-3 p.m.

SCHOOL OF MUSIC DEPARTMENT HEADS

Wei Chen Bruce Lin

Douglas R. Boyer

Deborah Mayes

Director, School of Music and Director of Choral Activities dboyer@tlu.edu 830-372-6869 or 800-771-8521

Choral Accompanist

Beth Bronk

Asst. Professor, Collaborative Pianist

Director of Bands bbronk@tlu.edu

Shaaron Conoly Director of Vocal Studies sconoly@tlu.edu

Eric Daub Director of Piano Studies edaub@tlu.edu

Eliza Jeffords Director of Strings ejeffords@tlu.edu

Asst. Professor, Piano

Scott McDonald Instructor, Saxophone & Jazz Band

Carla McElhaney

David Milburn Instructor, Double Bass

Kurt Moede Instructor, Horn

Keith Robinson Instructor, Tuba & Music Education

Jill Rodriguez Instructor, General Music

Robert Mark Rogers

FACULTY

Asst. Professor, Bassoon

Mark Ackerman Instructor, Oboe

Evan Sankey

Saturday, March 23, 2019 | 1-3 p.m.

Adam Bedell

Asst. Professor, Trombone & Euphonium

Instructor, Percussion

Shaunna Shandro

Saturday, April 13, 2019 | 1-3 p.m.

Carol Chambers

Asst. Professor, Voice

Instructor, Music Education

Eric Siu

Paula Corley

Asst. Professor, Violin

Instructor, Clarinet

Sophie Verhaeghe

Jeanne Gnecco

Instructor, Violin

Instructor, Flute

Robert Warren

Chad Ibison

Asst. Professor, Piano, General Music & Music History

Sunday, May 19, 2019 | 1-3 p.m. Individual audition dates may be requested if necessary.

Asst. Professor, Guitar

Monica Kang-Sasaki Asst. Professor, Piano; Collaborative Pianist

Lance Witty Asst. Professor, Trumpet

Elizabeth Lee Asst. Professor, Cello

BACHELOR OF MUSIC IN ALL-LEVEL MUSIC EDUCATION | BACHELOR OF MUSIC IN PERFORMANCE | BACHELOR OF ARTS IN MUSIC

www.tlu.edu/music

Some Books That Help Me Daily: Budge, K., Parrett, W. (2018). Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Curwin, R., Mendler, A., Mendler, B. (2018). Discipline with Dignity: How to Build Responsibility, Relationships, and Respect in Your Classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Delpit, L. (1995). Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. Elias, M., Zins, J., Weissberg, R., Frey, K., Greenberg, M., Haynes, N., Kessler, R., Schwab-Stone, M., Shriver, T. (1997). Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Epley, N. (2015). Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Fitzpatrick-Harnish, K. (2015). Urban Music Education: A Practical Guide for Teachers. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Hoerr,T. (2017). The Formative Five: Fostering Grit, Empathy, and Other Success Skills Every Student Needs. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Howard, G. (2006). We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Jenson, E. (2009). Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can Do About It. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Lang, G., Bailey, D., Curtis, K., Rico, R., Patton, S., Karydas, J., Martinez, D., Sepeda, E., (2016). Restorative Discipline Practices: A Journey in Implementation By a Community of Texas Educators. Austin, TX: Park Place Publications, L. P. Nesloney, T., Welcome, A. (2016). Kids Deserve It: Pushing Boundaries and Challenging Conventional Thinking. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. Rawlinson, R. (2011). A Mind Shaped by Poverty: 10 Things Educators Should Know. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. Robinson, K. (2015). Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. New York, NY: Viking. Rosenberg, M. (2003). Life-enriching Education: Nonviolent Communication Helps Schools Improve Performance, Reduce Conflict, and Enhance Relationships. Encinitas, CA: Puddledancer Press. Tatum, B. (1997). Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race. New York, NY: Basic Books.

more about Cara’s experience in her story published in the February 2018 issue of Southwestern Musician, available online at www.tmea.org/emagazine.) Using circles, inclusion rather than exclusion, and student-led respect agreements/ social contracts, teachers are seeing differences in attitudes, behaviors, and engagement among their students. Although it initially takes instructional time away, the benefits for overall learning throughout the year are profound. As you think about the benefits of an overall discipline program, also consider what your colleagues from around the state offered during the 18 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

2018 Urban Music Education Roundtable discussions: • Mix the student population during enrichment classes to de-escalate personality/behavior clashes. • Choose the important battles and let go of the smaller issues. • Find as many commonalities as possible with your students. • Embrace and showcase cultural practices with all students to develop acceptance and empathy. • Find ways for one-on-one time.

• In escalating situations, keep face and tone of voice calm. • Use “take a break” time rather than “timeout” approach. • Teach social decorum such as courtesy, acceptable responses, and appropriate reactions to classroom situations. • Address feelings and how to handle them when playing games and interacting with fellow students. • Partner challenging students with calm students. • Examine your own beliefs and attitudes as they pertain to your students. • Be genuine—students will know if you are the real deal. • Be collaborators, not competitors. • Don’t compare students; focus on personal growth. • Don’t lower your expectations but provide sequential steps for success. • Set realistic classroom rules and procedures and stick to these. • Be organized and establish boundaries—students are comforted by this. • Teach cues and procedures for class and activity transitions. It is up to each of us to encourage and support our colleagues in their roles as music educators. May we not get too comfortable in our own situation and lose sight of those who may be struggling. We should seek to appreciate those who teach different age levels and disciplines from ours. Every secondary director should thank the elementary music teacher who loved and instilled a passion for continued training in their students. Elementary music teachers should continue to support and follow the artistic paths of their older students. We should all strive to comfort our colleagues when they grow weary or discouraged and lift them up if they fall. This world is not getting any easier and, unfortunately, children seem to bear the brunt of it. If we aren’t in their corner, who will be? Dinah Menger is Director of Choral & (OHPHQWDU\ 0XVLF IRU )RUW :RUWK ,6' DQG is a TMEA Past-President. Menger has VHUYHG DV D OHDGHU LQ 70($·V XUEDQ PXVLF education focus for the past three years.

BAND NOTES

B Y

J O H N

C A R R O L L

Part of the band family

y now, you should be in the swing of things for the school year. I realized a long time ago that each year is unique regarding the students we are privileged to teach. The band I took to UIL Concert & Sightreading Evaluation last April no longer exists. Another band with the same name will get evaluated next April, but it won’t be the same band as a few months ago. The marching band you presented last fall no longer exists. It won’t have that same special combination of students you taught last year. It will comprise a different chemistry of students, personalities, levels of talent, and degrees of work ethic. When I realized this many years ago, I also realized my job is to teach who I have. I do my best not to bemoan a section, or even an entire ensemble, that might not be as good as its predecessors. Every year, I try to remember that my job is to build on a foundation already laid to help this year’s group improve. I will no longer regret what no longer exists; I will enjoy what I have in the present because I will never have this special blend again. I don’t want to look so far into the future that I fail to appreciate and enjoy the students I am blessed to be teaching today. We are in such an incredible profession, fortunate to work with children and blessed to help them develop skills and a lifelong love of making music. I

When I realized that what really matters today is this year’s students, I believe I became a better teacher, more considerate to the individual needs of all students. 20 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

September—Renew your membership and register for the convention. September 1—Deadline to submit All-State etude errata to the Band Division Chair. September 15–October 20— (corrected dates) All-State Jazz auditions. October 1, 6 a.m. CT—Convention housing reservation system opens for members. October 23—(corrected date) Deadline to upload All-State Jazz recordings. November 1—TMEA scholarship online application deadline. November 10–11—All-State Jazz judging. December 31—TMEA mail/fax convention preregistration deadline. January 12—Area Band and Vocal auditions. January 24—TMEA convention online early registration deadline. February 13–16—TMEA Clinic/ Convention in San Antonio.

also am cognizant of working in a profession where I get to interact with a diverse group of colleagues. This includes retired directors who set wonderful examples of how to teach for younger directors; seasoned teachers who are still active, still contributing, still enjoying the daily rigors and joys of the classroom; directors who never want to stop learning, whether they be veterans or less experienced; and new teachers who can’t wait to make a difference in students who are eager to learn and those who are seemingly indifferent, yet who might be just one teacher away from embracing life more fully. As the newness of the year begins wearing away from some of our students and even perhaps from ourselves a bit, I encourage each of us to remind ourselves about the joys and blessings that come with teaching the band family in our schools. Our schools offer many opportunities for student participation. I expect that like me, many of you can’t imagine leading students in anything other than music education and forming your band family. There’s so much to enjoy—the music, the teamwork, the satisfaction of a job welldone, and the heartwarming experience

of watching someone mature into a better player, a better student, and, most importantly, a better person. I almost get overwhelmed when I think of the thousands of students whom I’ve been blessed to teach. I was more successful with some than others. Some of the ensembles were more successful than others. However, when I realized that what really matters today is this year’s students, I believe I became a better teacher, more considerate to the individual needs of all students.

money and time in February by completing your convention registration online now. When you register, also buy your Wednesday President’s Concert tickets. The Piano Guys have added a concert at our convention to their limited tour schedule, and they are excited to honor Texas music educators with their performance! TMEA is offering this concert, exclusive to convention attendees, for only $20/ticket. Compared to their public performance ticket prices, this is an incredible discount for a concert you won’t want to miss!

TMEA Clinic/Convention Update It’s never too early to start planning for your attendance at the TMEA Clinic/ Convention in San Antonio next February. Beginning on Monday, October 1, at 6 a.m., you can make your housing reservation online. As many of you know, many of our convention hotel blocks are fully reserved very quickly (within hours), so don’t hesitate to make your reservation. I encourage you to register for the convention when you renew your membership. If you have already renewed but didn’t register, go back to your member record to complete your registration (www.tmea.org/register). You could save

Southwestern Musician | September 2018 21

We Need Your Help Please consider volunteering to work at the convention. You may go to www.tmea.org/bandvolunteer to sign up. There are many positions in which we need your help. Two of the positions that we could especially use help with are Workshop Presider and Performing Group Host. The fact is the convention cannot operate without hundreds of volunteers. Please realize this is a very special plea. Volunteering does not take up all of your convention by any means, and it would contribute tremendously. We are indeed fortunate to have Craig Kirchhoff as our 2019 Band Division Featured Clinician. He is well-respected throughout the band world and is no stranger to TMEA. During our convention, he will present a series of four outstanding clinics about conducting, score study, rehearsal technique, and the why behind what we do. Learn more about Kirchhoff here and be sure to attend his clinics in February.

2 0 1 8 2 0 1 9

music Auditions november 3rd january 26th february 23rd march 2nd march 23rd UNIVERSITY OF

MARY HARDIN-BAYLOR DE PARTM E NT OF M U S IC

umhb.edu/music 22 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

Craig Kirchhoff Featured Clinician Craig Kirchhoff is Professor of Conducting and Director Emeritus of University Bands at the University of Minnesota, where he conducted the University Wind Ensemble and guest-conducted in the University

Opera Program. Kirchhoff is pastpresident of the College Band Directors National Association, is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the National Band Association, and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and served as the founding editor and principal advisor of the College Band Directors National Association Journal. Kirchhoff has appeared as guest conductor, clinician, and lecturer throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and Scandinavia. He enjoyed a long association with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra during Frederick Fennellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tenure as Music Director. Kirchhoff serves as a Yamaha Master Educator. Honor Band Congratulations to the students and directors of the TMEA Honor Bands and finalists in Class 1C, 1A/2A, 4A, and 6A. Thanks go to the adjudicators and the playback operators of the recordings at the finals held at the TBA Convention/Clinic. We cannot have this process without the high professionalism demonstrated by these people. See page 24 for a list of Honor Bands and finalists and look to future issues of Southwestern Musician for details on each group. Be sure to attend their performances during our convention.

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Congratulations, Honor Bands and Finalists Join TMEA in congratulating the directors and students of the following outstanding programs!

Class 6A

Class 4A

Rank School/ISD ........................................................ Directors

Rank School/ISD .......................................................Directors

1 2

Vandegrift HS/Leander ISD ............................. Mike Howard Flower Mound HS/Lewisville ISD .................... Brent Biskup, Jana Harvey Duncanville HS/Duncanville ISD .................David Brandon Johnson HS/North East ISD .... Jarrett Lipman, Alan Sharps Coppell HS/Coppell ISD.................................... Gerard Miller Wylie HS/Wylie ISD ..............................................Todd Dixon College Park HS/Conroe ISD.......................... Jeffrey Gorring Keller Central HS/Keller ISD .........................Kevin McNulty Clements HS/Fort Bend ISD .........................Daniel Galloway Hanna HS/Brownsville ISD .............................. Dennis Ewing Cy-Fair HS/Cypress-Fairbanks ISD ................Mark Veenstra Coronado HS/El Paso ISD .................................... Mark Saenz McNeil HS/Round Rock ISD............................ Jason Dimiceli James E. Taylor HS/Katy ISD ...................................Mike Ary Judson HS/Judson ISD......................................... Jeffrey Keyes Frenship HS/Frenship ISD ...................................Tom SoRelle

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Class 1C

Class 1A/2A Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

School/ISD ........................................................ Directors Carlisle HS/Carlisle ISD .......................... Christopher Clifton Somerville HS/Somerville ISD ........................... Carl Idlebird Shelbyville HS/Shelbyville ISD...............Deshmond Johnson Union Grove HS/Union Grove ISD ...........Brandon Garmon Valley Mills HS/Valley Mills ISD ........................ Jon Schriver Irion HS/Irion County ISD ...............................Brian Tillman Honey Grove HS/Honey Grove ISD .............. James Edwards Munday HS/Munday CISD ............................. Trey Singleton Panhandle HS/Panhandle ISD ............. Nicholas Stephenson Holland HS/Holland ISD ........................... Elizabeth Kriczky Forsan HS/Forsan ISD............................................Jim Rhodes

North Lamar HS/North Lamar ISD ..................Randy Jones Lebanon Trail HS/Frisco ISD ........................... Kelly Wykoff Little Cypress Mauriceville HS/LCM CISD .......Jose Ochoa Bridge City HS/Bridge City ISD ............................Tami Goss Alvarado HS/Alvarado ISD .............................. Patrick Dietz Port Isabel HS/Point Isabel ISD ...................Scott Hartsfield Krum HS/Krum ISD.........................................Brandon Huff Churchill Fulshear HS/Lamar CISD.................Andrew Lee Grulla HS/Rio Grande City CISD ............... Oscar Gonzalez Robinson HS/Robinson ISD ................................ Wylie Gore Glenn HS/Leander ISD ...........................Kim Shuttlesworth Brazosport HS/Brazosport ISD ...................Dennis Boucher Brownwood HS/Brownwood ISD .................David Lambert Navarro HS/Navarro ISD ..................................Patrick Todd Big Spring HS/Big Spring ISD ..........................Rocky Harris Midlothian Heritage HS/Midlothian ISD .........Keith Davis

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

School/ISD .......................................................Directors Atlanta MS/Atlanta ISD .......................... Kristen Thompson Union Grove JH/Union Grove ISD ............Andy Thompson Mauriceville MS/LCM CISD............................... Kathy Smith Brewster MS/Edinburg CISD ........................ Joseph Sanchez Crane MS/Crane ISD .................................................Sara Hill Eastland MS/Eastland ISD ..............................Jett Lowrance McGregor JH/McGregor ISD ........................... Rebecca Reed Poe MS/San Antonio ISD ............................George Hinojosa Florence MS/Florence ISD ...................................Trent Shipp Randolph MS/Randolph Field ISD ........Stephen Giovanoni Rockdale JH/Rockdale ISD ........................... Marco Estrada

Thanks go to the TMEA members who served as Honor Band Adjudicators and Playback Operators for ensuring a successful process. To view these and previous yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; results online, go to: www.tmea.org/honorbandhistory 24 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

TRUTH IN GREAT MUSIC Learn more about auditions, programs, and scholarships at music.byu.edu or 801-422-2660.

BY KRISTIN HAMES AND K ATIE LEWIS

t some point, every band director has wished upon a star for their students to be better music readers. But as much as we might hope it could be wished into existence, we realize we must teach it. Directors often list other important concepts they want their students to master, but then, almost as an afterthought, they say, “Oh yeah, and there’s that sightreading thing.” Sightreading is a critical part of becoming a great musician, so we must work to develop these skills on a consistent basis. Cultivating confident sightreaders should be at the forefront of daily classroom teaching and assessments to support successful musicians.

its and behaviors for daily practice in the band hall and in their individual practice time. Students will not view sightreading as scary or tricky if we don’t present it that way. They only know what they are taught, so let’s teach them it’s fun and essential! When students love a subject, it’s often because their teacher is truly skilled in and passionate about it. Given that, we must model and instill this from the beginning to inspire our students to love sightreading. Just like turning the pages of an exciting book, lead your students to wonder where this adventure will lead them and what this song will sound like. Help guide them to choose their own adventure—the sightreading adventure!

The Mountain of Music Many directors view sightreading as a daunting skill to tackle, one that we may even struggle with ourselves. However, it is simply another objective that we must implement in our curriculum throughout the year. This all starts in the beginner year when students are forming hab-

Learning the Alphabet Cultivating the skills students need to become successful sightreaders starts with music literacy. Introduce the musical alphabet on the very first day of instruction. Teach the students to use their voice confidently, as this will directly transfer to playing their instrument. You can even

26 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

teach them to hum and sing steps and skips which will help them develop the necessary aural skills for becoming a proficient sightreader. Teach band as a fine art and use academic vocabulary from the beginning, such as steps, intervals, octaves, scales, ascending, descending. When teaching sightreading skills, incorporate games— friendly competition and incentives generate excitement on this basic but necessary fundamental skill. We all want our students to go home on the first day of school excited to tell their families how much they loved band class. Races, Chants, and Games—Oh My! Once students have a solid understanding of how the musical alphabet works, take it to the staff. Many incoming students and their parents express concerns that they will not be able to read music. No problem! That’s what we’re doing during the first few days of class before we ever open our cases.

Set attainable music literacy goals. For example, require all students to recite their alphabet chant at an assigned tempo or name their first five notes on flash cards with no mistakes within a designated number of seconds before allowing them to open their cases. You’re also teaching students that in band, grades are often out loud rather than on paper or online. Learning notes in the staff is like making new friends—introduce them slowly and gain familiarity with small groups of notes before meeting new ones. Teach notes in relation to each other so students can build stronger connections with what they already know from chanting note names. For example, “If the note A lives here, what is the note immediately higher or lower?” All learning is based on prior learning and can be fun if framed in the right manner. Teaching staff chants or acronyms (Every Good Boy Does Fine, FACE in the Space, etc.) can be great, but most music moves stepwise at first, and memorizing the acronym doesn’t necessarily create a connection to reading notes on the staff. The Magical Hand Staff Did you know you can practice your musical alphabet anywhere? Your hand staff is always with you! Using the hand staff or something tactile when teaching music literacy captures the three types of learners: aural, visual, and kinesthetic. You will reach more students and your administrators will love that you are teaching to all types of learners! Teach lines and spaces from the bottom to the top, starting with the pinky for line 1 and ending with the thumb for line 5. The hand staff is best utilized by placing your hand right in front of your body, palm toward chest with fingers and thumb straight. Use your left-hand index finger to point to line 1, space 2, etc. When practicing with the hand staff, students should sit up tall with their feet on the ground as if they were playing (another great opportunity to strengthen that concept before ever playing an instrument). It’s most effective if all students use their right hand so that you can assess the room more efficiently; when students are pointing to certain lines or spaces, you’ll be able to see it and so will they. Once students have mastered this, begin associating note names with notes and placement on the staff. “Point to line note G; show me space note F.”

Many students are tactile learners, and playing an instrument is a tactile skill. Many recent studies have suggested that we develop some skills more quickly when using pencil and paper. These are skills we want our young musicians to learn, so have students write something down at least once per class. Assign short note naming drills as homework. Make it a goal that they get to play as soon as every student can label their first few notes in the staff without errors. Students love timed drills, so make it a game! Have students record their times each day so that they can see

their progress. These types of activities train students that they need a pencil in class each day and that band homework (practicing) is just like other homework— but more fun! The Sightreading Surprise Teaching students to identify patterns in the music will help them progress as sightreaders. Teach them to understand what steps and skips look and sound like and help them find rhythmic patterns that are familiar. Nothing is more exciting to a beginner than asking them to look at

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line 31 and figure out the song. Students can use prior skills to sing through the song in their head and take great pride in being able to call out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!” You’ve tricked them to love processing and analyzing a song before they even perform it! Don’t forget to use the metronome from the beginning as it teaches them to have a steady internal pulse. Playing with the metronome is not a talent, it’s a skill that must be developed. 100 bpm is a great place to start as it is closer to their normal speaking and walking pace, and there are many popular

songs in this ballpark tempo. Students love learning to play songs from the radio! Enchanted Evaluations To ensure continued growth in your young sightreaders, you must assess them often. Of course, it’s difficult to find time when you just really need to do that scale one more time, but in the beginner year especially, you must hear every student every day. It can be as easy as going down the row and hearing one measure from each student in a line from your book. As students get older, you can assess

them in sectionals with your performing groups; they can play a phrase from a new piece or an exercise from a sightreading text. Consider having packets of sightreading materials available to evaluate every sectional and to encourage this skill throughout the entire year—not just two weeks before UIL Concert & Sightreading Evaluation. You can provide binders that stay in the front of the room for students to collect as they enter or have students purchase sightreading texts. When you evaluate your students consistently, you will see where they need the most help (e.g., rhythm, note reading, pulse) and you can then tailor your individual lesson planning to address those areas. Plus, students will view sightreading as a normal part of the routine and be more likely to feel that much more confident in evaluations. Taking the time to raise competent sightreaders makes our lives so much easier! As students gain the tools necessary to be successful readers, they also build confidence. This allows you to spend more time on other more advanced musical concepts. Every time you distribute a new piece or learn a new section, they will conquer the adventure like a pro. Help your students be the heroes and heroines they deserve to be in the music classroom! Katie Lewis is the Head Band Director at Maus MS in Frisco ISD and Kristin Hames is the Head Band Director at Hill Country MS in Eanes ISD.

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For Beginners: • Musical Mastery for Band, Burk, DeSoto, Johnson, Meredith, Talanca; MRNS Publishing (contains music theory pages, rhythm exercises and individual instrument exercises). For Advanced Bands: • Sight-Reading Drills for Band, Marty Nelson (downloadable method for band, designed as a 10-week method to prepare students for levels I–III UIL Sightreading pieces). • 10 More Days of Sightreading for Full Band, Marty Nelson (intended for use with more advanced bands in preparation for UIL Level IV Sightreading).

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If music is your passion, TCU is your school. SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE FOR YOU At TCU, you can receive both music and academic scholarships that make attendance more affordable. NORDAN SCHOLARSHIP The NORDAN Scholarship* is an exclusive award, open to entering freshmen vocalists, instrumentalists, and composers of superior talent, who have chosen to major in music. NORDAN winners receive a four-year, FULL TUITION AWARD. NORDAN Live Auditions are held on January 19, 2019 by special invitation. More information is available online at www.music.tcu.edu. AUDITION DATES FOR SPRING 2019 February 9, 2019, February 23, 2019, and March 2, 2019 Application Deadline for early action consideration - November 1, 2018. GRADUATE PROGRAMS AVAILABLE FOR YOU TCU offers Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in different disciplines. Graduate Assistantships are available.

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ORCHESTRA NOTES

Make everything click

ne of my favorite podcasts is NPR’s Hidden Brain hosted by Shankar Vedantam. This podcast uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape choices, and direct relationships. I recently listened to a podcast entitled “When Everything Clicks” and it made me think about the way I teach and correct physical habits. The podcast description reads: There can be a lot of psychological noise involved in teaching. But what if we replaced all that mental chit chat . . . with a click? This week, we explore an innovative idea about how we learn. It will take us from a dolphin exhibit in Hawaii to a top teaching hospital in New York. It’s about a method to quiet the noise. The sort of clutter that can turn learning into a minefield of misery. The podcast dives into the idea of taking emotion out of giving students feedback. All too often, students focus on their relationship with the teacher and the emotions they feel when someone is correcting them. Students then become anxious and disgruntled rather than focused on learning the topic at hand or correcting technique in order to achieve success. We have all experienced students who consistently exhibit incorrect technique and it seems impossible

The wonderful thing about mirrors is that they can’t tell the person that they are dumb for not being able to put their hand in the right position. They simply inform the person their hand is in the wrong position. 30 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

B Y

B R I A N

C O A T N E Y

September—Renew your membership and register for the convention. September 1—Deadline to submit AllState etude errata to the Orchestra Division Chair. September 15—HS String Honor Orchestra Part A online submission deadline. October 1, 6 a.m. CT—Convention housing reservation system opens for members. October 15—Deadline to upload HS String Honor Orchestra recordings and postmark deadline for Parts B and C. October 20–21—HS String Honor Orchestra judging. October 27—Protected All-State String recording date. November 1—TMEA scholarship online application deadline. November 3–4—All-State String judging. December 31—TMEA mail/fax convention preregistration deadline. January 24—TMEA convention online early registration deadline. February 13–16—TMEA Clinic/ Convention in San Antonio.

ing the order of operations, the student walked away believing he was bad at math and that his teacher had a bad impression of him. I can recall this scenario playing out in my classroom regularly. I would attempt teaching or refining a concept and then express my frustration to the students when they did not grasp the concept as quickly as I expected. I am scared to think about what those students thought or felt walking away from those rehearsals. The podcast then moves to the story of Karen Pryor, a biologist who discov-

ered how to effectively train dolphins. She read a manual that explained how to train dolphins by following rules based on the teachings of behavioral psychologists Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. Pryor learned about “operant conditioning,” in which the learner is the operator. The learner is consciously and deliberately doing a behavior that will pay off for them. Rather than punish the dolphins for wrong behavior, she would reward them for correct behavior. She did this by giving them food every time they did something correct. Using Pavlov’s theory, she instituted a whistle so that the dolphins would do the correct behavior on a whistle knowing that they would get food for the behavior. This type of animal training, which eventually became known as “clicker training,” became revolutionary and soon transferred into training several species of animals, most often in training dogs. The podcast then tells about Martin Levy, a doctor whose hobby is dog training. While training his dog, Levy realized he first needed to learn how to properly throw a frisbee. He sought help from several people but did not improve. He set up a mirror and focused on how he positioned his hand to correctly throw the frisbee. He wouldn’t throw the frisbee until his hand was in the perfect position. Levy discovered he was using operant conditioning. He was consciously and deliberately putting his hand in a specific position so that he could be rewarded with a properly thrown frisbee. After Levy mastered this technique, he began teaching other dog trainers how to properly throw a frisbee and soon realized that his verbal feedback of either praise or criticism was interfering with the training.

FEBRUARY 13–16, 2019

32 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

SAVE THE DATE

to motivate them to change their habits. I believe that the teaching method described in the podcast could be a solution to help those students correct their bad habits and give them ownership to make the changes necessary to improve their technique. The podcast begins with Vedantam telling a story of his father trying to teach him the math concept order of operations. Both the teacher (father) and the student (host) got frustrated when the student didn’t understand the concept as easily as the teacher predicted. Rather than learn-

He discovered that praise and criticism were causing the students to focus on the praise and criticism rather than learning and perfecting the technique of throwing a frisbee. He started using his clicker to tell his students if their hand was in the correct position—Levy became these students’ mirror. The wonderful thing about mirrors is that they can’t tell the person that they are dumb for not being able to put their hand in the right position. They simply inform the person their hand is in the wrong position. Levy transferred this into his teaching at the hospital. He realized that if he constantly verbalized what his students were doing incorrectly, the students no longer focused on using perfect technique, but rather on the emotions his verbal interactions were creating. It became less about what the students were doing and more about pleasing the teacher or disgruntlement toward the teacher. Levy discovered that giving his students key checkpoints and taking verbal feedback out of the mix was significantly more effective. An example of this is how Levy teaches his students a difficult and complex stitch used in surgery. He shows a student how to do the stitch with checkpoints which Levy “marks” with a click to make sure their hands are in the correct place. At those checkpoints, he will click (or mark) to tell the student they are right or wrong. If there is no click, then the student knows they must do it again focusing on correct hand technique. This takes the emotion out of it and allows the student to purely focus on what their hands are doing rather than receiving praise or criticism from the teacher. The students also develop a greater sense of accomplishment because they are focused on mastering a skill rather than receiving praise from the teacher. We can apply these learning concepts in our profession. I plan to no longer remind students to adjust their posture or hand positions by pointing out what they’re doing wrong. Instead, I am going to show them the correct posture or hand position and use a catch phrase or perhaps even a clicker to indicate to them when they are right or wrong. Then, before we start playing, I will do a visual check and say “good” when everything looks correct. If it’s not, I will look at the student with expectation that they will focus on making their own correction. They will need to take ownership of the change. My hope is that stu-

Honor Orchestras and Finalists High School Full

Rank School/ISD ....................................................................................... Directors 1 Martin HS/Arlington ISD ........................................... Jamie Ovalle, Brad McCann, Sammy Branch, Caitlin Ravkind 2 Liberty HS/Frisco ISD ..............................................Julie Blackstock, Jamie Weaver 3 Westwood HS/Round Rock ISD .............................. Joshua Thompson, Jack Green 4 Klein HS/Klein ISD ............................................Creston Herron, Chris Lambrecht 5 Klein Oak HS/Klein ISD.............. Tanner Ledford, Chris Rapacki, Lacey Thwing 6 Allen HS/Allen ISD ................................David DeVoto, Matt Cross, Philip Obado

Middle School/Junior High Full

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6

School/ISD......................................................................................... Directors Doerre IS/Klein ISD.............................................. Rowina Torres McKee, Matt Fehl Curtis MS/Allen ISD...................................................... Amanda Su, Linda Orrantia Rice MS/Plano ISD ............................................................Barbara Fox, Jason Tucker Williams MS/Rockwall ISD ..........................................Shari Allison, Bethany Jones Kealing MS/Austin ISD ............................................................................David Jarrott Schimelpfenig MS/Plano ISD .........................................Jennifer Guffey, Bob Straka

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

School/ISD......................................................................................... Directors Beckendorff JH/Katy ISD ............................................................................ Karel Butz Sartartia MS/Fort Bend ISD ....................................................................Sophia Hsieh Canyon Vista MS/Round Rock ISD ....................................................Ragan Whatley Fowler MS/Frisco ISD...........................................................................Karina Lindsey Faubion MS/McKinney ISD ..................................................................... Kari Zamora McMeans JH/Katy ISD ......................................................................... Amy Williams Spillane MS/Cypress-Fairbanks ISD......................Jeannine Adams, Joanna Schess Curtis MS/Allen ISD................................................................................... Amanda Su

Middle School/Junior High String

The High School String Honor Orchestra finalists and winners will be included in the January issue.

dents will start exhibiting operant conditioning in which they are consciously and deliberately changing their technique to play their instrument better. Honor Orchestra Congratulations to the students and their directors who submitted entries in the Honor Orchestra competitions. The level of performance was truly extraordinary and inspirational to the judging panels. We greatly appreciate the judges, playback operators, and hosts who helped with this competition. Their time and energy are greatly appreciated! I know everyone will be inspired in February when we hear these Honor Orchestras perform. See the list of finalists and our Honor Orchestras above. The High School String Honor Orchestra will be selected in October and

announced in the January issue. TMEA Clinic/Convention Update I hope you are making plans to attend our convention and that you’ve made room on your calendar to attend for the full event, February 13–16, 2019, in San Antonio. In just a month (on October 1), our convention housing for members will be available, so be sure you’re ready to make a reservation. If you haven’t already renewed your membership, you can register when you do that. Otherwise, you can go to www.tmea.org/register to complete your convention registration. When you register, be sure you also purchase tickets to Wednesday’s President’s Concert featuring a performance by The Piano Guys. They will be dedicating their extraordinary performance to Texas music educators, and with ticket prices Southwestern Musician | September 2018 33

Vast opportunities.

Your musical future is wide open. At the Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts School of Music, we’ll help you turn your passion and raw talent into a professional career as a performer, educator, scholar, and innovator. Broaden your horizons across 26 major ensembles and countless chamber ensembles. There’s no limit to where your creativity and commitment will take you.

Vastly different.

Texas Tech University’s J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts welcomes Kim Walker as the new Director of the School of Music.

Visit us at music.ttu.edu

TTUSchoolofMusic

that typically range from $50 to $180, TMEA is proud to offer this concert to its members for only $20. I am excited to introduce the Orchestra Division 2019 Featured Clinician, Dr. Rebecca MacLeod. I had the privilege of meeting her at the ASTA Conference and was immediately inspired by her knowledge and expertise. She will be presenting four fantastic clinics on topics including vibrato, beginning string instruction, effective rehearsals, and motivating students to learn. These are clinics you will not want to miss! Rebecca MacLeod Featured Clinician Rebecca MacLeod is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she directs the string education program and conducts the UNCG Sinfonia. Prior to joining the UNCG faculty, she was the assistant artistic director and conductor of the Tallahassee Symphony Youth Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra in Tallahassee.

A native of Pennsylvania, she taught elementary, middle, and high school orchestra in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, and was orchestra director and chair of music activities in Beaver, Pennsylvania. MacLeod is published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, String Research Journal, Psychology of Music, The Strad, The American String Teachers Journal, and various state music education journals. She currently serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Research in Music Education. She has served on the American String Teachers Association National Board and is past-president of the

North Carolina ASTA chapter. Her research on working with underserved populations, vibrato technique, music teacher education, and music perception has been presented at the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition, Music Educators National Conference, National Association for Music Education National Conference, American String Teachers National Conference, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, Society for Music Teacher Education, and several music educators state conferences. MacLeod received her undergraduate degree from Duquesne University and her MME and PhD from Florida State University. She is a frequent guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States.

2019 dates: April 12 April 26 May 3

2020 dates: April 3 April 7 April 24

Visit www.SMMFestival.com or call 1-855-766-3008

Southwestern Musician | September 2018 35

Successful Grant Writing You don’t have to be an expert.

Performance in Kingsville ISD of grant-funded chamber music commission “The Need to See.”

hen you begin working toward submitting a grant funding proposal, it can quickly become overwhelming. Having navigated the process multiple times and gained funding for several projects, we want to offer information to help reduce the intimidation factor and empower you to pursue funding for projects that will serve the artistic needs of your programs. While we aren’t professional grant writers, we are two avid educators and performers who have lots of ideas for projects and need ways to fund them. Through grant writing, we have been able to supplement our programs with over $130,000 in funding toward commissioning new compositions, creation of a summer camp, performing outreach concerts, purchasing equipment, bringing in guest artists, and more. As you begin to explore the world of grants, consider what types of needs your school or community has that extra funding support could meet. Resources for Finding Funding When searching for grant opportunities, two of the best resources are Inside Philanthropy and the Foundation Center. While both require you to pay for subscriptions, many public libraries and universities already have them. Contact your local university or public library to see if they have a subscription and whether you can access the sites through them. In most cases, you will need to go to a campus or library to take advantage of that access. In Texas, there are also 22 Funding Information Networks of the Foundation Center. These locations provide free resources and information to the public through partnerships with libraries, community foundations, universities, and other nonprofit

By Melinda Brou and Naomi Seidman resource centers, and many offer grant workshops for low or no cost. Grants available for the arts often require an arts education aspect. This means that those of us in music education already have a huge advantage! There are also numerous other ways to tie education into your project if you aren’t associated with a school. Possibilities include supplementing your performances with preand post-concert talks, outreach performances, educational handouts, and teacher education prior to performances. Some foundations will fund only 501(c)(3) organizations, so if you don’t work for one, you aren’t eligible to apply. Don’t worry— consider partnering with local symphonies, choruses, operas, and other nonprofit organizations to meet this requirement. Grant funding is often designed to help underserved populations. The National Endowment for the Arts describes such populations as those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. One way to identify a possible niche for funding is to look at your community’s breakdown to determine if you meet any of these categories. If your program is located in an arts-rich area, is there a possibility you could take your program on an outreach tour to underserved areas or fund bringing them to you? You can find your community’s breakdown by looking at the United States census site, www.census.gov. Note that this site provides information only for populations exceeding 5,000. Enter your city’s name into the search facility. Depending on the location, you may need to include “city” or “county” following the location name for the correct results to show (e.g., Fort Worth city, TX). Basic information will be listed under Quick Facts. More detailed information can be found through the American Fact Finder, Southwestern Musician | September 2018 37

part of the American Community Survey, by the Census Bureau (www.factfinder .census.gov). The American Fact Finder site supplies information for all population sizes. Budget As the majority of all grant applications are requests for funding, it is critical for the budget to be as well-planned as the project you are hoping to get funded. Inadequate justification of the funds requested is one of the most common reasons why grants

What A Cajon Aspires To Be...

are not awarded. Remember that your reputation is at risk every time you list a budget item. Be realistic and accurate with how much it will cost to see your project succeed. It is common for proposals to underestimate how much something will cost, and a grant agency wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fund a project that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be successfully completed. On the contrary, over-estimating the costs suggests you arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t accurate enough in your proposal. A wrinkle that often forms in the grant application process is a requirement that

you identify matching funds to support your proposal. Depending on the parameters of the grant, these matching funds can be in monetary form or as in-kind donations (goods or services donated by organizations in support of a project to be put up in support of the grant). As you begin to draft your proposal, research organizations that could be strong partners for your project. Acronyms and Terminology When we began writing grant proposals, one of the most bewildering aspects was the abundance of acronyms. Below are a few basic terms and acronyms to give you a jump start as you consider writing grant proposals. â&#x20AC;˘ PIâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Principal Investigator: This is the project director. â&#x20AC;˘ Co-PIâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Co-Principal Investigator: shares the project directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responsibilities.

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38 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

â&#x20AC;˘ RFPâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Request for Proposals: This is the document through which the grant-conferring organization announces the availability of a grant and outlines all of the requirements associated with it. This will become your bible. Read and reread this document before you begin to apply for the grant. You do not want to be caught at 3 p.m. on the day the grant is due, realizing you need additional data, signatures, recordings, letters, etc. â&#x20AC;˘ POâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Program Officer: Many foundations have personnel who facilitate the grant process and who read the applications and make recommendations to the board of directors. A good working relationship with this person is necessary. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t waste their time with obvious questions, but do utilize themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they are there for you! â&#x20AC;˘ IRBâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Institutional Review Board: If your grant uses any kind of human or animal testing (this includes audience surveys), you will likely have to submit your proposal to your institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s IRB. This body will check all of your research methodologies to ensure that they meet national safety and ethical standards.

Writing Style Points In several grant-writing workshops we’ve attended, we had the opportunity to read successful and unsuccessful grants. This process was extraordinarily enlightening. Well-written grant proposals jump off the page. The writing is clear and to the point. Every piece of information the evaluators could want is included, and they don’t have to work to find it. Poorly written grant proposals are disorganized, have typos, lack critical information requested in the RFP, use acronyms or abbreviations that aren’t common or explained, and assume the reader has knowledge they may lack. Grant evaluators should have a clear idea of your project within the first paragraph or two. It won’t matter how good your idea is if you can’t explain it to those who are reading it; your odds of being funded will be slim. Many grant websites include examples of previously funded proposals. You can also request examples of funded proposals from the program officer if you don’t find them readily available. Our best advice is to be clear, factual, and organized. Do’s and Don’ts: Top Tips for Successful Proposals Reflecting on what has worked for us, we believe the following are some of the most important points for grant writing success: • Attend grant writing workshops. After attending a two-day grant-writing workshop, we completely rewrote our first major external grant. With the knowledge gained, we turned what was a mediocre proposal into a strong one that was ultimately funded. These workshops are frequently held at universities and community organizations. If a workshop isn’t available in your area, see if your school or your district will sponsor one. • Read through examples of prior funded projects listed on foundation and grant websites. It is a good idea to have your project match some basic stylistic characteristics of funded projects. This will help you see what sort of projects the organization tends to fund, where their interests seem to lie, and what types of budgets they are used to supporting. • When you have questions, don’t hesi-

A Success Story One of our favorite grant collaborations focused on a major problem in our local school district in Kingsville, where state budget cuts had greatly affected the K–12 music programs. One result of these cuts was the elimination of elementary music programs in the district. Facing that change, we submitted a grant proposal, ultimately funded for $10,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts, to establish a collaboration between Kingsville ISD, Texas A&M University–Kingsville, author Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez, and composer Dan Welcher. This grant funded a music commission for the students of Kingsville to celebrate the culture of South Texas, and it helped bring music back into the community’s elementary schools. Entitled “The Need to See,” the work is a theater piece for children, featuring a narrator/ singer and five instrumentalists. Designed to show children (ages 8–10) a fable about acceptance and diversity, it also exposes them to live musicians in a highly portable, suitable-for-classroom theater piece. The composition is in English and Spanish, with narration, song, and constant music. It encourages children in the audience to participate as singers and as spectators to a tale that has relevance and contemporary meaning. In addition, our grant funding also made it possible for us to place music books, puppets, and CDs in the school libraries to encourage teachers and students to do further study.

Sites to Search for Grants • Foundation Center: www.foundationcenter.org • Inside Philanthropy: www.insidephilanthropy.com/find-a-grant • State of Texas: www.texasonline.state.tx.us/tolapp/egrants/search.htm For even more resources and the locations of the Funding Information Network locations in Texas mentioned in this article, go to www.tmea.org/grantresources.

tate to call the grant office. They are there to help you.

and ensures the project is appropriately highlighted.

• Consider your project’s impact. The more tailored to your community, the better the project will be viewed by the review committee. Keep track of this impact and the specific outcomes so you can include them in your final report and for future grant funding.

• When you receive a grant, read through your awarded grant proposal at least once each month to ensure you are fulfilling your commitments in the agreed-upon timetable.

• Collaborate on this project! While we encourage you to pursue grant funding, we admit the process is an intensive one. Therefore, we suggest working with a team of people to share the workload. Our team of two has worked for us, but larger groups are effective as well. With today’s technology, your collaborators don’t even have to be in the same city. • Approach administrators, community leaders, or colleagues for letters of support. We have found it helpful to offer them a first draft for them to customize. This lessens their workload

As you get into the swing of this school year and begin looking forward to what your students can accomplish, consider the worthy projects that could benefit from external funding and apply! You can never receive grant funding if you don’t take the opportunity to apply. Just take a deep breath, start, and don’t forget to ask for help along the way. Melinda Brou is an Associate Professor of Voice and Opera at Texas A&M Kingsville and Naomi Seidman is Associate Professor of Flute at The Pennsylvania State University.

Southwestern Musician | September 2018 39

VOCAL NOTES

B Y

D E R R I C K

B R O O K I N S

Stay thirsty

s we welcome the days of September, I hope everyone has had a great start to the new school year! With parent and booster club meetings, choir handbooks, uniform distribution, and planning for the first choir social event, we’re well into our routines now. As you start to give of yourself to your students, try to remember to also take care of yourself. As I have stated many times, a concentrated more focused and centered you is much better for your students and the music than an overwhelmed and thinly-spread you. (With that in mind, be sure to read “Achieving the Balance We Need” on page 42.) As we delve into the semester, I’d like to encourage you to stay thirsty. Become a lifelong learner within our profession, and in life. Lifelong learning as a choral educator is critical for growth not only as a teacher but also as a human being. Anytime I have been privileged to interview or speak with a young director just starting in the field, I always ask, “What choral groups are you currently listening to?” The answer tells me a lot about an individual. It tells me whether they are taking progressive steps in their personal musical growth; this will transfer to the music classroom. Side note: As we are all in constant pursuit of developing the perfect choral tone, the choral ensembles and singers we listen to (and thus have in our heads) greatly affect the tone we insist upon from our choirs. I must admit, I’m shocked at the number of choral directors who don’t

Your students will be better tomorrow because of your investment in yourself today. 40 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

September—Renew your membership and register for the convention. October 1, 6 a.m. CT—Convention housing reservation system opens for members. November 1—TMEA scholarship online application deadline. December 31—TMEA mail/fax convention preregistration deadline. January 12—Area Vocal and Band auditions. January 24—TMEA convention online early registration deadline. February 13–16—TMEA Clinic/ Convention in San Antonio.

attend choral music performances outside a convention. We owe it to ourselves to feed our passion and to get inspired to greater achievement with our ensembles by attending live performances. Stay thirsty, my friends. I implore you to seek choral activities outside your classroom, becoming a lifelong participant in the choral arts. I believe that as we develop as choral musicians, so do our students. In the words of Maya Angelou, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Try learning something new! According to Dr. Art Costa, emeritus professor of education at California State University: The vicissitudes of day-to-day classroom life and the culture of the school provide fertile arenas of meaning making and knowledge formation for teachers. This rich environment provides numerous opportunities for learning and professional development when we can take the time for reflection and dialogue with others. Research shows how important it is for us to become lifelong learners. Learning something new could be the best resolution you can make. By keeping it, you can continue to use the knowledge you gain and continue your learning to master this wonderful and beautiful art of teaching choral music. On a personal note, one of the best examples I could give of this theory is my own career. I can tell you that my time spent singing with a professional choral ensemble greatly affected how I conducted and approached my ensembles. It influenced my rehearsal expectations, professional learning environment, choral literature selection, and my approach to supporting a free, functional choral tone. You can do it! It’s September, and before you know it, you will find yourself in the traditional groove of your program. I encourage you to take note now and find ways to expand your horizons and broaden your scope of choral music. Your students will be better tomorrow because of your investment in yourself today. 2019 Clinic/Convention Update I hope you’re already looking forward to another amazing convention experience in February. It’s not too early to make plans and register for the event! Go to www.tmea.org/register or register when you renew your membership. Our

convention offers hundreds of hours of professional development opportunities by renowned clinicians from Texas and beyond. When you register, be sure to purchase tickets to the President’s Concert. This year, we can all anticipate an incredible performance by The Piano Guys. They added our convention to their very limited tour schedule and are excited to perform at our convention and are focused on honoring Texas music educators. If you don’t know much about The Piano Guys, go check out their extraordinary videos online at www.thepianoguys.com! At only $20/ticket, this concert is a bargain compared to their typical concert prices of $50–$150. As you block February 13–16 on your calendar for our annual convention, you can look forward to learning much from Joe Miller, our Vocal Division Featured Clinician. He will offer sessions on voice placement and arrangement of singers, reaching the modern audience, and more. Be sure you take time to attend his incredible sessions! Next month, I’ll share information about each of our All-State conductors.

Joe Miller Featured Clinician Joe Miller is conductor of two of America’s most renowned choral ensembles: the Westminster Choir and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. He is also director of choral activities at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. In addition to his responsibilities at Westminster, Miller is artistic director for choral activities for the renowned Spoleto Festival USA and director of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir. His 2017–2018 season with the Westminster Choir included a concert tour of the Midwest, performances and broadcasts at its home in Princeton, its annual residency at the Spoleto Festival USA, and the release of a new recording. The choir’s 2016–2017 season included performances of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning Anthracite Fields at the historic Roebling Wire Works as part of Westminster’s Transforming Space project, as well as concerts at the World Symposium on Choral Music in Barcelona.

TEXAS LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

YOUTH CHOIR

FESTIVAL FOR TREBLE VOICES, GRADES 4-12

featuring BOB CHILCOTT 2019 Festival Conductor SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2019 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM JACKSON AUDITORIUM For more information, contact Laurie Jenschke at ljenschke@tlu.edu or 830.456.3016. PHOTO BY JOHN BELLARS

To register online, go to www.tlu.edu/cma and click on the Youth Choir Festival link.

Southwestern Musician | September 2018 41

BY NATHAN LANGFITT, LPC

n what now feels like another lifetime, I was a middle school band director in Texas. I worked the long days, I cared deeply about the progress of my students, and I spent every free moment advocating to people who didn’t understand why music education was so important. On many days, it felt like the entire system was destined for failure. There weren’t enough hours in the day, and like most music educators I know, I put all of the responsibility on myself when things didn’t go well. The stress and burnout I experienced and that I witnessed in others led me to leave my teaching career and return to school to become a therapist. I wanted to do something to help the profession I had loved so much. I continued to see too many incredible music educators spreading themselves too thin, prioritizing their programs over their personal health and wellness, and then, unsurprisingly, burning out. Improving the mental health and well-being of musicians and music educators became my life’s passion. I strongly believe there are shifts to our routines and to our thinking that can help us be more balanced individuals and, as a result, forge more sustainable careers in music education.

Emotional exhaustion is a natural byproduct of the intense amount of effort, energy, and passion we put into teaching. The first cars in the school parking lot each morning and the last to leave each evening often belong to music teachers. Pair this with the amount of enthusiasm and energy required to teach large groups of students (who often respond less than enthusiastically) and our emotions grow weary and exhausted. This can lead us to become less responsive in our relationships outside teaching. Depersonalization happens when we feel like all we do at work is push and pull the proverbial buttons and levers of our job. This could look like going through the motions, being overly immersed in routines, or becoming rigid and inflexible in decision-making. When we become disconnected from the music and from the real essence of why we are music educators, it can be easy to feel like more of a bureaucrat, or just a person who operates a metronome and responds to emails all day. Reduced personal accomplishment takes over when we no longer believe we are making an impact. This is where the adversity and barriers around us seem insurmountable—as if we have lost the control we need to be successful. I think of many of my peers who sink into a deep rut and even reconsider their career choice based on a less than favorable rating at UIL. When our self-worth becomes entangled with the music our students make, we are setting ourselves up for burnout and other issues.

When our self-worth becomes entangled with the music our students make, we are setting ourselves up for burnout and other issues.

Burnout and Music Education Burnout has been defined as a combination of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that leads to a decreased effectiveness at work, as well as harm to an individual’s mental health. Some recent research has shown that the effects of burnout are on a similar level to the symptoms of depression. As we look at each of the previously mentioned elements, it becomes clear how teaching—especially teaching music—can lead to burnout. 42 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

Strategies to Reduce Burnout When music educators think about ways to improve their mental health, the strategies I recommend are a mix of tangible exercises and tools, as well as broader, more systemic ways of shifting

our thinking about our role and life as a teacher. Any of these interventions may be helpful, but I want to preface that changing the way we think about taking care of ourselves is a marathon, not a sprint. There is very seldom a day when we are “fixed,” because taking better care of ourselves is a long-term investment in our well-being. Some music educators tell me they feel hopeless, because they believe they are already so burned out there is no turning back. If these exercises seem impossible in your current lifestyle, simply increasing your awareness can be a huge start. I like to prescribe the three following daily exercises of pause and notice: 1. Pause and notice your breathing. 2. Pause and notice what is working and what is not with a non-judgmental tone. 3. Pause and notice how you take care of yourself, and how you talk with yourself about this. Any efforts to reduce burnout and improve mental health start with increasing our self-awareness. Perhaps starting with these will help you move to a place where you begin to see that you deserve to take care of yourself. Creating a Self-Care Plan Learning to take better care of ourselves is often an exercise in noticing healthful things we already do, and then doing them with more deliberate intention. Many music educators have hobbies away from music, enjoy physical activity, or find it relaxing to read a book or do something creative. Some of us do these activities already, but do we pause and acknowledge that we do them because we deserve to take care of ourselves? A self-care plan is a deliberate and daily practice that can increase well-being almost instantly. To start, I encourage my clients to pick two or three things they can commit to doing daily. These can be activities that take anywhere from five minutes to half a day, based on available time. The key to an effective self-care plan is being flexible yet structured at the same time, because the goal is to commit to our plan not just on easy days, but on the difficult ones as well. Here is a sample self-care plan: 1. Read or write for 10 minutes (about a topic unrelated to teaching music). 2. Do something good for the body. 3. Remind yourself of something that is going well. Based on how busy a day is, this self-care plan could be elaborate, or it could be fairly simple. The goal is not the amount of time spent in self-care, it is rather to be consistent and do it every day. Let’s take the second point: do something good for the body. On a busy day that could be eating a healthy lunch. On a day with more free time, that could look like a long bicycle ride. This is an example of a plan having structure yet allowing for flexibility. We are much more likely to commit to self-care when our plan is written down. I encourage many of my clients to put their plan on a card and keep it in their wallet or purse. Even better, they can create accountability by telling a friend or colleague about their plan and encouraging them to make one of their own. I realize this may seem far-fetched in the hustle and rigors of a school day, but can you imagine a world where you tell one of your colleagues that you need to step away for just 10 minutes to work on self-care? I would argue that shifting the workplace culture is as important

What if some of the effort we spend on improving the lives of our students were turned inward, even just for a moment each day? for the success of a self-care plan as is the activity itself. We all deserve to take care of ourselves, even on the most stressful days of the school year. What if some of the effort we spend on improving the lives of our students were turned inward, even just for a moment each day? Creating Boundaries and Balance The nature of music educators’ work can seem almost designed to knock down boundaries between professional and personal. When you spend over 10 hours a day working at school and more on weekends, it can be easy to lose yourself. Being an effective teacher involves a high level of emotional engagement and passion. To show students musical concepts, showing vulnerability can often be a valuable and necessary technique. Letting our guard down in this way can also blur our boundaries. Developing more deliberate boundaries is an essential step to increasing well-being and reducing stress, but for many it can be challenging. It is challenging at first because many music educators think that being in teacher mode all the time is simply part of the job. This can be even harder to recognize as deleterious when colleagues exhibit similar behavior. It can be most difficult to set boundaries in the moments when you come to and go from school. I suggest establishing entering and exiting rituals: something you commit to doing every time you travel between your work space and home life. Picture this as the moment you take off your superhero costume for the night. Maybe it is a specific music playlist in the car, or a mantra you recite to yourself as you take off your ID badge for the day. You are creating a ritual to remind yourself that work has ceased, and it is now time to connect with loved ones and take care of yourself. Little tools like this can hold us accountable and keep us from sliding into a habit of perpetually being in teacher mode. Identity and Self-worth Most of us decided that music was going to be our life’s work at a much younger age than our friends did in their other professions. For many, joining band, orchestra, or choir was the activity that gave us a sense of identity for the first time. This passion manifests into an all-in culture in college: most of our friends are music majors and it is completely normal to practice into the early hours of the morning. In music school, it becomes common to sacrifice our well-being; instead of spending those years developing an independent identity, we spend them developing a uniquely musical identity. Southwestern Musician | September 2018 43

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When our musical identity and personal identity bleed into one another, our musical successes and failures in the professional world often become our personal successes and failures. For example, imagine a performance that went poorly. Maybe the musician cracked some notes or had intonation issues that had never happened before. Instead of thinking, â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was

In 2016, TMEA surveyed its active members to better understand how music teachers perceive their work load and its effects. Those results included strategies from teachers about healthy eating, exercise, and achieving balance in your work and personal life. Learn from them at www.tmea.org/balanceresults.

terrible,â&#x20AC;? he thinks, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am terrible.â&#x20AC;? Selfworth and musical ability have become interwoven in a way that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allow us to process failure in a healthy way. This becomes even more problematic for music educators, as, every year, we essentially place our self-worth into the hands of a group of children. It is easy to believe the only way to improve and grow as a musician is to be hard on ourselves. As teachers we are trained to dole out just the right amount of tough love, but when we do this for ourselves it is mostly tough with hardly any love. Simply noticing and attempting to shift our self-talk is a first step toward taking the sting off of harsh self-criticism. Caring for Ourselves and Our Profession Any of the exercises or shifts in thinking Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve suggested are just the start of looking inward and taking better care of yourself. Once we decide we deserve self-care and that we deserve to live a life free from needless suffering, the amount of personal growth can be astounding. I often catch clients off-guard when I tell them they

donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to do anything to deserve happiness, kindness, and self-care. We deserve all these things simply because we are alive, not because of how hard we work or how much we teach. It may also be helpful to work through these topics with a therapist in your community. Working with a therapist can add a trained and objective voice and can help you identify individual hurdles preventing you from focusing inward and taking better care of yourself. With the Affordable Care Actâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mandate that therapy be covered by health insurance, working with a licensed therapist has become more accessible. I often think about how it might only take a handful of educators to begin to shift the culture on mental health within the profession. Many educators believe the only way to be effective is to neglect their own needs. Once this is addressed, and once we remove the stigma around these conversations, I believe every music educator can live a healthier and happier life. 1DWKDQ /DQJĂ&#x20AC;WW /3& LV D &RXQVHORU LQ $FDGHPLF 5HVLGHQFH %XWOHU 6FKRRO RI 0XVLF 8QLYHUVLW\ RI 7H[DV DW $XVWLQ

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ELEMENTARY NOTES

B Y

C A S E Y

M E D L I N

How can they keep from singing?

uring networking events, teachers often ask what techniques other teachers are using to get kids singing. I’ve heard responding teachers go into a step-by-step guide on establishing rules and assigning consequences for not participating. I’ve heard other teachers respond that they simply lower a student’s grade when they don’t participate. While each may be effective in the short-term, forcing a child to sing is likely to cause more problems than it solves. I believe the key to motivating students to sing comes from how the students feel while they are in music class. If a child worries they might be teased for participating or for making a mistake, that child will withdraw to preserve herself. To this student, no grade or consequence will ever outweigh the risk of embarrassment. Instead of fostering this situation, you have both the opportunity and responsibility to create a safe place where students can be confident to experiment and make mistakes. Remind your students that no one is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes. When I make a mistake, I point it out as an example so my students can see me as relatable. Additionally, I explain that the singing voice is simply a muscle, and those who claim they can’t sing just

You have the opportunity and responsibility to create a safe place where students can be confident to experiment and make mistakes. 46 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

September—Renew your membership and register for the convention. October 1, 6 a.m. CT—Convention housing reservation system opens for members. November 1—TMEA scholarship online application deadline. December 31—TMEA mail/fax convention preregistration deadline. January 24—TMEA convention online early registration deadline. February 13–16—TMEA Clinic/ Convention in San Antonio.

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haven’t figured out how to make that muscle work yet. I’ve found that boys especially tend to perk up and pay attention when I relate training the voice muscle to training for sports. And, while encouraging music-making by all students means you must be that positive, encouraging person, inevitably, one of your students will test you. Have a plan in place that will work for your school. I give one warning, followed by a call home for a second infraction, and an office referral for a third. If you are consistent with your encouragement and consequences, your classroom will become one where students can flourish! TMEA Clinic/Convention Update Make plans now to attend and get the most out of the TMEA Clinic/Convention in San Antonio February 13–16. If you don’t yet have approval to attend, share this video with your administrator to communicate the value of our convention specifically for elementary music teachers: www.tmea.org/conventions/ elementary-teachers. You can register to attend at www.tmea.org/register, or if you haven’t renewed yet, you can register at that time at www.tmea.org/renew. The online housing system opens October 1 at 6 a.m. CT. I am so excited to announce one of our two 2019 Elementary Division Featured Clinicians, Tracy King. Look to next month’s column to learn more about our second clinician. Both have made amazing contributions to music education, and I can’t wait to attend their clinics with you! Tracy King Featured Clinician Tracy King is in her 23rd year of sharing her love of music with students and colleagues. Currently she teaches elementary music and choir at Fredericktown Intermediate in Missouri. In her career, she has had experience teaching all grade levels, band and choir. In addition to her work in her district, King has presented workshops at the Missouri State Teachers Association state convention and to future teachers at College of the Ozarks on incorporating music into regular classrooms using children’s literature. She has also traveled to several state music conferences to speak about using workstations in the music 48 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

classroom. She served on the committee that created the Missouri Music Grade Level Expectations and has been featured in Teaching Music magazine as well as MSTA’s School and Community magazine. King is the author of the website www.musicbulletinboards.net. Her work can also be found on Teachers Pay Teachers under “The Bulletin Board Lady.” Her popular blog Mrs. King’s Music Class provides a way for her to share her teaching ideas and inspire others. Her professional affiliations include MMEA, NAfME, AOSA, and MSTA. Currently she resides in Fredericktown with her son, Joey, and her daughter, Sophie. Enjoy learning more about King by reading her responses to the following questions: Is there anything you wish you’d known when you first got into the profession? When I first started teaching, I really wish I had known that I would have to be a strong advocate for my program and music education in general. I just assumed that my subject would be as valuable to administrators as it was my students and me. That was a big surprise! I also wish I had known more strategies for getting to work individually with students. For many years, this seemed like an impossible task. How do I hear, coach, and practice individually with students I see for only a few minutes a week? I’ve learned from some great mentors and now believe I have a good grip on this, but it has taken me a long time! When and how did you become The Bulletin Board Lady? Sometime back in the day, when the Internet was young and America Online

was cool, I went online to search for music bulletin board ideas for my classroom. I couldn’t find any! I started to take pictures of the ones I created and posting them online and then made some free downloads to share with teachers on Plank Road Publishing’s Music K–8 discussion list. One day, a teacher asked me to create something specifically for her and offered to pay me. I remember thinking to myself: Someone would pay me to do this? Twentyone years later, and the rest is history. I really love being able to make teachers’ lives easier. What is your favorite thing about teaching? My favorite thing about teaching is getting to be an ambassador of joy every single day! What advice would you give to someone new to the profession? My advice to new teachers: (1) Make your room beautiful. They are judging you. I know they shouldn’t and I know new teachers don’t need one more thing to stress over, but I also know that it is true. (2) Make immediate friends with the secretaries, maintenance staff, and cafeteria staff. (3) You’ll make mistakes. It will feel awful. It is not the end of the world. Pick up your maracas and keep shakin’! (4) Get a mentor: online, in person, or however you can. Get a mentor. (5) In some districts, scheduling concerts can be a nightmare. Try to get your dates on the master calendar during the first few weeks of school. Any parting thoughts? Music teachers have one of the best jobs in the world. I am blessed to be able to help students find their voice in my classes every year.

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COLLEGE NOTES

B Y

V I C K I

B A K E R

Character education

usic education majors are required to go through a rigorous course of study to earn both a degree and teacher certification. Successful completion of their coursework and requisite exams is closely tied to their strength, determination, persistence, attitude, and temperament. It is a true test of their character.

Cowboy Ethics Everyone needs a code—a creed to live by. At our university, music education majors are required to take an introductory course during their first semester of enrollment. I include a unit on character development to better equip students to persist in their university education. The content of the unit is based on the book Cowboy Ethics: What It Takes to Win at Life by James Owen. The purpose of Owen’s book is to highlight “the character qualities that enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things.” Why cowboys? Owen explained: The iconic cowboy represents the best of America—the courage, optimism, and plain hard work. Cowboys are heroic not only because they do a dangerous job but also because they stand for something—the simple, basic values that lie at the heart of the cowboy way. Even though their way of life has changed over the last 150 years, cowboys still honor and live by their code. They are an abiding source of inspiration to do better and be better than we are.

The iconic cowboy represents the best of America—the courage, optimism, and plain hard work. 50 Southwestern Musician | September 2018

September—Renew your membership and register for the convention. September 1—Collegiate Music Educator Award nominations open for fall graduates. October 1, 6 a.m. CT—Convention housing reservation system opens for members. October 12—College Division Fall Conference in Austin. October 15—College Division Call for Papers online submission deadline. November 1—Deadline for Collegiate Music Educator Award nominations. November 1—TMEA scholarship online application deadline. December 31—TMEA mail/fax convention preregistration deadline. January 24—TMEA convention online early registration deadline. February 13–16—TMEA Clinic/ Convention in San Antonio.

I was initially drawn to Owen’s book because of my early immersion in cowboy culture, both as a native Texan and as a cowgirl, working on my family’s ranch throughout my childhood and adolescence. However, as I read the book, I began to realize its connection to music students, from preschool to 12th grade, and also to students entering college. Owen’s Code of the West includes 10 principles. I ask students to explain how they can apply each principle to their life and to the lives of their future students. The assignment promotes self-reflection and examination of the core values that guide behavior and decisions. The following are Owen’s 10 principles:

Judy Bowers Featured Clinician Judy Bowers currently holds the Emy-Lou Biedenharn Endowed Chair in Music Education at the University of Louisiana Monroe, a position she accepted after retiring from 27 years of teaching choral music education undergraduate/graduate courses at Florida State University. Bowers’s teaching and scholarship responsibilities are frequently paired through creation of learning partnerships

that focus on teacher preparation goals for university students while enriching community and school learning opportunities for students. One recent partnership paired university glee club singers with women in the Gadsden Correctional Facility (MTC Glee, a Prison Choir) for shared rehearsals and a concert each semester. Bowers frequently presents workshops and clinics for teachers, primarily focusing on developmental teaching methods that allow for students with varying abilities to successfully learn and perform music together. She is an active conductor of all-state

1. Live each day with courage. 2. Take pride in your work. 3. Always finish what you start. 4. Do what has to be done. 5. Be tough, but fair. 6. When you make a promise, keep it. 7. Ride for the brand. 8. Talk less and say more. 9. Remember that some things aren’t for sale. 10. Know where to draw the line. For more information go to the Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership website (www.cowboyethics.org). TMEA Clinic/Convention Update I hope you’ve already made plans to attend our annual clinic/convention. You can register when you renew your membership, or if you already have renewed, go to www.tmea.org/register. Starting on October 1, 6 a.m. CT, you can make a convention hotel reservation at www.tmea.org/housing. I’m thrilled to introduce our 2019 College Division Featured Clinicians who will present eight clinics during our convention. When you read more about them, I’m sure you’ll want to include their sessions in your convention schedule. Judy Bowers will present a fourpart series on Addressing Underserved Populations in School and Community Settings. She will be joined by Nicole Robinson, Professor of Music Education and Associate Vice-President for Equity and Diversity at the University of Utah.

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southwestern.edu/music-scholarship Southwestern Musician | September 2018 51

and honor choirs across the United States and Canada. Bowers received multiple Excellence in Teaching awards at FSU and has been awarded the Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Service Award from the state ACDA Chapter of Florida. In June 2014, she was named a Lowell Mason National Music Education Fellow and was inducted into this society by the National Association for Music Education in Washington D.C. William E. Fredrickson Featured Clinician William E. Fredrickson will present two sessions centered on teaching pedagogy and one session on facilitating the inclusion of special needs students in the music classroom, from the perspective of a parent and teacher. His fourth session, focused on developing relationships with building and district administrators, draws on his public school teaching experience and his current position as associate dean. A professor of music education, Fredrickson joined the Florida State University College of Music faculty in 2006, having previously held positions in the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Fredrickson received degrees from the State University College of New York

at Fredonia, Syracuse University, and Florida State University where he completed the PhD in music education. As a public school music teacher in upstate New York he taught instrumental music at all levels. A founding member of the Aeolian Saxophone Quartet, Fredrickson performed and recorded with that group for 12 years. Fredrickson regularly makes research presentations at state, regional, national, and international meetings and is published in various peer-reviewed research journals, including the Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, and the Journal of Band Research. Fredrickson served a term as editor of the Journal of Music Teacher Education, is a past editor of the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, and is a member of the editorial committee of the Journal of Research in Music Education. College Division Fall Conference The annual College Division Fall Conference will be held on Friday, October 12, at the TMEA office in Austin. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. and will end around 3 p.m. Lunch will be provided. The agenda for the meeting includes important legislative updates and reports from the Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas Board for Educator Certification, and the Texas Education

Agency. During breakout sessions, committees will meet and small groups will be formed to discuss issues facing higher education. If you have a specific topic you would like to be included in the group discussion, please email your request as soon as possible to collegevp@tmea.org. This is a unique opportunity to interact with colleagues from across the state from various sizes of institutions in an informal setting. Every time I have attended the Fall Conference, I have learned information that applied to my teaching responsibilities, met some colleagues for the first time, and received helpful suggestions about challenges I faced in my teaching. I hope you will be able to join us. If you plan to attend the Fall Conference, please make your reservation as soon as possible by emailing collegevp@tmea.org. If you have any dietary restrictions, include them in the email. Call for Research Poster Proposals As of September 1, you can upload a summary of your original research project to be considered for inclusion at the annual Research Poster Session during the 2019 TMEA Clinic/Convention. Go to www.tmea.org/papers to submit your proposal. The deadline for submission is October 15. You must be a current member of TMEA to access the submission portal, so renew your membership well in advance of the deadline. For further information, contact Amy Simmons at asimmons@austin.utexas.edu. TMEA Collegiate Music Educator Award If you have outstanding undergraduate music education majors who graduate this December, go to www.tmea.org/ collegiateaward to see if they qualify for the Collegiate Music Educator Award. The online nomination period is September 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C; November 1. Award recipients represent the finest and most dedicated future music educators in the state. The designation of TMEA Collegiate Music Educator provides the honorees with strong credentials for future employment.

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