Day 2 of the TMEA/TI:ME conference proved to be as good as the first day. There were so many sessions to choose from, that I was strolling in and out of many during the morning hour. In addition, the exhibit hall opened and if you have never been to TMEA’s exhibit hall, it takes about two days to explore it all.
As an elementary music educator, it was great to begin the day yesterday in the Ballroom C rooms. They had numerous elementary music sessions. First, I participated in a movement activity from the session titled, “Click-Clang-Bonk: Exploring Unpitched Percussion (Grades 3-5).” Deborah Imiolo was teaching about percussion instruments, how to play them, and activities for them. I walked into the Ballroom seeing many engaged music educators. It was great to see. I then ventured over briefly to listen to a session titled, “Lessons from a New Grandparent About the Innate Musical Needs of Young Children.” I only caught this session briefly, but it was great to see the Silver Burdett materials being used in early childhood as well as elementary. Finally, I ventured over to Cherie Herring’s session titled, “Not Your Momma’s Music Class.” Cherie showed a plethora of activities from an interactive listening map made with the Explain Everything app, to SMART Board files that she has on her website and on TpT, to a talking Bach. There were so many great ideas from that session that every elementary music educator could walk away from that session with at least one new idea to try. For me, it was using explain everything as an interactive listening map. This could be done with one iPad projected onto a screen, or in groups with a few iPads and each student working together to follow the listening example well, or in a 1:1 classroom with each student following along on his/her iPad.
After this, I attended the TI:ME Business Meeting, which was open to anyone who wanted to attend. In the meeting, Floyd Richmond, TI:ME’s President, spoke of the mission of TI:ME, introduced many of TI:ME’s members that were present, and discussed the direction of TI:ME. TI:ME is the Technology for Music Education whose mission is to further music educators in utilizing technology in their classrooms. It is TI:ME’s 20th anniversary and it was wonderful to see how far this organization has come. They also awarded their first-ever TI:ME Administrator of the Year award to Michael Vetter, the Technology Specialist for Performing Arts in the Pinellas County School District in Clearwater, Fl. It is great to see that TI:ME is recognizing those who are supporting the integration of technology in the arts.
I then attended Barb Freedman’s session titled ” Basics of Audio Recording for the Music Educator.” Barb did a nice job explaining microphones from how to hold them, to what to buy, to where to place them. She did an excellent job explaining what happens when files are turned into mp3. The sound difference is large and it makes you cringe to hear an mp3 when compared to the original audio file. She brought in John Mlynczak from PreSonus Audio and who is also the President-Elect of TI:ME, to show examples of audio files and recording equipment. Barb answered many basic questions about audio recording. This session was wonderful to a beginner and a great refresher for those who might have already had experience with audio recording.
I then traveled into the exhibits. I visited many booths and was curious to see how the music series sessions in the Exhibit Hall A were going. I finished my day by walking through those sessions. Though it is great that the music series can have sessions running all day long in their own hall, each series was separated by a small curtain and you could hear the neighboring sessions. I was thrilled to see Silver Burdett presenting about their Interactive Online Learning Exchange, where I author lessons.
Finally, we ended the day by celebrating the 2015 Mike Kovin’s TI:ME Teacher of the Year, Will Kuhn! He will be honored today with the award at TI:ME’s keynote address.
TI:ME continues in rooms 201-204 throughout the conference with more great technology sessions. There are also wonderful sessions celebrating the 20th anniversary of TI:ME such as:
- “Music Technology: The Effect on Performance and Education,” Dr. Henry Panion, presenter; 2/13/2015; 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM; CC 204 (and honoring Will Kuhn as The 2015 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year)
- “TI:ME Teachers of the Year: How Technology Has Changed,” chaired by Amy Burns; Friday, 2/13/15 4:00-5:00 PM; CC 204
SATURDAY
- “How MIDI Revolutionized Music Education (1983 to present).” Don Muro, presenter; Saturday, 2/14/2015; 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM; CC 204
- “TI:ME Certification Meeting,” 2/14/2015; 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM; CC 201
