2016 - 2017 Professional Development Workshop Series

**All workshops take place on Saturday mornings from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted**
September 10, 2016 - Katie Traxler
"Creative Learning Centers for the Music Classroom"
Katie has been using learning centers with all grades for 3 years - on average of 6-8 lessons per year. Some center activities and games were developed for assessment purposes whereas others are great for review and practice of musical concepts. This workshop introduces how to use creative learning centers in the music classroom. Learn how to introduce centers and help students develop appropriate small group behavior in order to implement center routines into your music class. Experience how small group center rotation can benefit your students by allowing you to get in some occasional one on one time with your students. Most of the games that Katie created were developed with her particular students in mind. We will brainstorm additional center activities to meet the needs of workshop participants.

Katie Traxler teaches elementary music at PS51 Elias Howe, a public school in Manhattan, NY. In addition to daily music classes, she leads two after school choruses, two recorder ensembles, an Orff ensemble, and guitar and ukulele classes. Committed to collaboration among the arts, Katie works closely with visual arts teacher Shani Perez to maintain an arts rich curriculum integrating music, movement, drama, and visual art across all grade levels.
October 15, 2016 - Debby Szajnberg
"Keep it Moving: Traditional World Dances and Rhythm Games"
​Build a repertoire of traditional games, dances, and play parties to connect children across cultures throughout their musical play. Debby will include children's rhythm games she has been collecting in her travels, as well as classroom tested favorite dances and singing games.

Debby Szajnberg has extensive training in world dance and music, especially Balkan and Eastern European folk traditions. She has taught movement for Orff Levels, and presented at regional and national workshops. A former classroom teacher, she leads family dances, plays violin, sings, and drums in several international folk groups.
November 19, 2016 - AOSA Conference Sharing
Highlights from the 2016-17 AOSA Professional Development Conference (November 2-5, 2016 in Atlantic City, NJ).
January 28, 2017 (Snow date February 4) - Chapter Sharing
Join us on Saturday, January 28, 2017 for a Chapter Sharing Workshop featuring teacher tested and kid approved lessons presented by our membership. In the case of inclement weather, the workshop will be held on the following weekend (February 4, 2017).

 
March 11, 2017 - Roger Sams
"Playing With Possibilities: The Power of Choice in the Orff Schulwerk Classroom"
At any given moment in the Orff Schulwerk classroom there are multiple directions that good teaching process can take you. With any piece of literature there are any number of concepts and skills that you can teach or practice. With any concept or skill there are any number of pathways to support student learning. How do you manage all of these possibilities?  
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In the active workshop we not only experience lessons that guarantee success on the daily level, but we elevate our vantage point and look at some of the big ideas. What do you value most in your classroom? Are you using your teaching time in a way that truly reflects your values? Are your choices in learning activities and concepts covered reflective of what you say you value most? We may not come up with answers to all the big questions, but we will spend a day courageously swimming in the possibilities and gaining clarity and direction for the future. Bring your soprano recorder.

Roger Sams retired from the music classroom in 2013 after 31 years of teaching music in public and private schools. He has served as adjunct faculty, teaching methods courses, and supervising student teachers at Cleveland State University and has been on the faculty in teacher education programs at the University of St. Thomas, Cleveland State University, Akron University, University of Montana, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and other venues throughout the US. Roger is a regular presenter at state, regional, and national conferences, has served on the AOSA National Board of Trustees, and has worked with teachers in Canada, China, Indonesia, and India. He currently serves as Director of Publications and Music Education Consultant at Music Is Elementary (www.MusicIsElementary.com). Trained in Gestalt therapy, Roger is interested in the power of choice in the artistic process, teaching, and life. He is the co-author of "Purposeful Pathways: Possibilities for the Elementary Music Classroom" with Beth Ann Hepburn. He has published works for children's choirs in the "Crooked River Choral Project" series and a collection of rounds and partner songs entitled, "A Round My Heart."
April 8, 2017 - Dr. Martina Vasil
"'OMG! That's My Song!': Integrating Popular Music With Orff Schulwerk"
Being a well-informed music educator means understanding current music and how it can affect students (Rideout, 2005). Teachers who tap into the knowledge that students have of popular music and culture are exercising culturally relevant teaching, “a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (Ladson-Billings, 1994). Culturally relevant practices are an integral part of the Schulwerk approach, as Orff recommended that teachers bring content from students’ cultures into the classroom. This workshop will involve participants in a variety of lessons that fuse popular music with the Orff approach. Participants will consider ways to bring students’ preferred music into the their Orff-Schulwerk classrooms and the positive ways that culturally relevant pedagogy can influence their students’ learning.

Dr. Martina Vasil is Assistant Professor of Music Education and Director of the Orff Schulwerk and Dalcroze Summer Institute at the University of Kentucky. She teaches a graduate course, "Popular Music in Music Education and Music Therapy" and two undergraduate general music methods courses, where she covers ways to bring popular music and informal learning into K-12 general music. Her interest in using popular music in music education arose from her own difficulties teaching middle school general music in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Martina's research interests include integrating popular music and culture across disciplines, investigating ways that teachers integrate popular music and informal music learning practices into traditional K-12 music programs, and determining how to better prepare preservice music teachers to perform, create, and teach popular music in authentic ways.