Plenary session on Popular Music Pedagogy. 

Rathgeber, J., Hein, E., Bell, A. P., Egolf, E., O’Leary, J., & Bledsoe, R. (2014, August). Panel on Popular Music Pedagogies. Plenary panel presented at the The First Interactive Multimedia Performing Arts Collaborative Technology (IMPACT) Conference, New York, NY.

Illinois Music Educators Association Summer Learning Series 2014

Click here for the interactive handout/companion website
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Description: Do you struggle with composing in your classroom and don’t seem to know where to start? Do you love composing and need some new ideas? If either is true, this session is for you. In this session, you will be introduced to numerous compositional frameworks and projects to get your students (and yourself) engaging and playing with sound in new and deeply meaningful ways. From tech-based tools to composing with children’s literature, from mapping and soundscapes to musical storytelling, in this session, you will explore the joys (and struggles) of composing with your students while also discussing topics like conflict management and assessment. You will walk away with some ready-made projects to try, some pieces that you’ve composed, and plenty of your own creative compositional idea

Illinois Music Educators Association Summer Learning Series 2014
Click here for the interactive handout/companion website
Description: Having a quality website that can help you extend the reach of your teaching is easier than ever! In this session, you will explore some of the tips and tools for creating a powerful website that will act as a hub of learning in your classroom. While you create or work on your own class website, you will be introduced to concepts of Blended/Flipped learning, TPACK, and other techie buzz words that can really open up learning in new ways for your students. You will learn how to select and create tutorial/lesson videos, how to assess student learning using tech tools, and explore ways of making your class website into a high-traffic learning space that students will clamor to explore in class and on their own. You will walk away with either a brand new website shell or a new and improved learning space, as well as a slew of tips and tricks for integrating technology into your classroom in easy and useful ways. Please bring a Wifi ready computer.

Illinois Music Educators Association Summer Learning Series 2014

We Did That! – Rathgeber handout
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Description: Packaged musicals are cute, but is there more to putting on a musical than being cute? What if you could engage your student (even the very young ones) in creating their own shows, asking them to make all the creative discussions, and opening up the world of musical possibilities to them all while preparing for a concert? In this session, you will explore, experience, and discuss how to put on a student-created performance/concert. You will discover some ways to lead your students in creating their own concert, including dealing with repertoire selection, “casting” and selecting parts, developing instrumental parts and choreography, and the logistics of working with a bit of uncertainty. You will walk away with lots of ideas, resources, and a sketch of a possible student-created performance that you could start with your students as soon as school resumes.

Arizona Music Educators Association Conference

AMEA2014- Book-Based Composition handout
AMEA2014- Book-Based Composition keynote
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The overlaps of music composition and literacy instruction provide rich ways for music educators to help their students think in and play with sound through musical narrative.

Downloadable Files (Lesson Shells):
– Read the Pictures- Soundscape Composition
– Read the Words- Poem-Based Composition
– Retell the Story- Character Theme and Variations
– Retell the Story- Plot Form

Illinois Music Educators Association Conference, Peoria, IL

Handout: ILMEC2014-TheMindfulEar

Musical listening is an intimate interaction with sound in which students take in sonic events, process them through mind-body interactions, and draw meaning out of what they hear. Music is pervasive in our society and students regularly “listen” to music on their own media players. However, one may ask if they are actually listening. Add to this, many music teachers can be at a loss for ways to engage their students in meaningful and active listening experiences.

In this session, music educators will be exposed to different ways to craft creative and captivating listening experiences that allow their students to develop their listening skills. Educators will be introduced to an approach to listening instruction that posits multiple means of engagement: movement, journaling activities, listening guides/puzzle pieces, creative mapping, and group discussion. Concepts like repertoire selection, guided listening, independent listening, and listening as a mode of assessment for musical understanding will be addressed. The session will feature interactive research and anecdotally supported listening activities designed to help music educators foster sophisticated, creative, and critical listening skills that will not only enhance their leisurely listening, but also help them become more nuanced performers, improvisers, composers, and musical consumers.

Downloadable Files:
Rubrics: 

• Class Moving Rubric
• Single or Small Group Moving Rubric
• Discussion Rubric; 
• Journaling Rubric
  
  

Listening Logs/Journaling: 

• Drawing Journal
• Plot Mountain Journal
• 1st Grade LL 
• 2nd Grade LL
• 3rd Grade LL
• 4th Grade LL
• 5th Grade LL

Listening Guides: 

• Der Erlkonig Analysis Guide; 
  
• Der Erlkonig Listening Guide(Kids)

Puzzles: 

• ​Yellow Sub icons; 
  
• “Each of Us is a Flower” Puzzle

Listening Maps:

• Check out D. Blair’s website
  
• ​read J. Kerchner’s book “Music Across the Senses”

Illinois Music Education Association Conference, Peoria, IL

Presentation Companion Website (filled with at lot of helpful tools)
Have you heard of “Flipped” or “Blended” educational technology and wondered what such pedagogy could do for you and your students? Do you want to increase technology’s presence in your music classroom but don’t want to invest hours upon hours searching for tools and sites? Do you want to find new ways to reach each of your students’ specific needs in exciting ways? If so, then this session is for you.

During this session, music educators will experience first-hand how they can make use of “Flipped” classroom techniques for use in a music classroom where technology and traditional styles of teaching are blended together. In such “Blended” classrooms, teachers can provide specific and clear instruction with a high level of differentiation for their students. The session will cover ideas of website organization for use during class time and at home, Web 2.0 collaborative resources, webcasts/lesson videos, online video assessments, and classroom pedagogy for integrating these tools in an actual music classroom. This session builds upon concepts introduced at 2013’s “Just Flip It and Get It Out There” (however, no previous experience with “Flipped” or “Blended” technology pedagogy is necessary).
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Music educators are highly encouraged to bring their computers so they can experience tech tips firsthand. Also, techno babble will be kept to a minimum, as to decrease techno fear and anxieties.

Universal Design for Learning fits perfectly in general music classrooms. This session will include an overview of UDL and examples from both an elementary and a secondary general music teacher of successful UDL lessons.

McCord, K., Gruben, A., & Rathgeber, J. (2011, May). General music for all: Universal
design for learning. Plenary session presented at Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teachers
of General Music Methods, Mountain Lake, VA.