Performing Arts workshops are held at:
Billerica High School, 35 River St., Billerica, MA
8:30-10:00 Compassionate Music Teaching
Dr. Karin Hendricks
How do music teachers create environments that foster the highest levels of musical accomplishment, while also teaching students to respect and support one another? In this session, Dr. Karin Hendricks of Boston University and author of Compassionate Music Teaching will discuss ideas for motivating, engaging, and inspiring students through six research-supported qualities of compassion (trust, empathy, patience, inclusion, community, and authentic connection), illustrated through portraits of compassionate and high-achieving music teachers. We will blend discussion and reflection with interactive and embodied activities. Appropriate for K-12 music educators.
8:30-10:00 Choral Reading Session: Advanced
Irene Idicheria, Robbie Jacobs, Trey Pratt
Representatives from Boston Children’s Choir will be leading the Choral Reading Session
8:30-10:00 Jazz Reading Session
Matthew Sexauer
Reading session for (new, not “last rites”) Jazz Ensemble repertoire
Matt Sexauer is the Director of Bands at Chelmsford High School. His ensembles include Marching Band, Symphony Band, Jazz Ensemble, Pit Orchestra, and various chamber ensembles. Matt is a graduate of UMass Amherst (B Mus Ed./Saxophone Performance) and the American Band College of Sam Houston State University at Ashland, Oregon (M. Music in Instrumental Conducting). Matt freelances throughout New England on woodwind instruments and is also a recreational cellist.
8:30-10:00 Maintenance Mondays – Empowering Students in the care and maintenance of band instruments.
Eric Linsner
This session is designed to give band director some ideas on how to incorporate basic, age appropriate, instrument maintenance into their curriculum. Topics covered would include identifying common repair issues, teaching students how to perform basic maintenance on their instruments, sharing of handouts for maintenance and a list of basic repair/maintenance supplies. This clinic is not a repair workshop, but rather a discussion of incorporating basic maintenance into a band class.
For the past 20 years Eric Linsner has worked as a Band Director in the Chelmsford Public Schools in Chelmsford Massachusetts. He has worked as the Director of Bands and the Assistant Band Director at Chelmsford High School, the Assistant Band Director at the McCarthy & Parker Middle Schools. Mr. Linsner currently works as the Band Director at the Parker Middle School.
8:30-10:00 Parachute Day
Lynn Rubin
Conjure in your mind the unadulterated joy of “Parachute Day”. What would life be like if every day could be filled with that sense of wonder and excitement? The parachute may be one of the most iconic memories of the American elementary school experience, and it has lots of uses in the general music classroom! Together we will explore techniques to engage students in vocal exploration, movement with the beat/meter, and moving expressively to visualize and physically feel the form, text, or other expressive qualities of music. I’ve got lots of ideas to share and welcome learning from yours, as well!
Lynn Rubin is an enthusiastic and organized music educator of all ages and abilities. She has been teaching elementary classroom music in the public schools since 2006, and is incredibly passionate about developing a new generation of thoughtful music appreciators as well as cultivating a community of music participants. Her teaching is most strongly influenced by the work of John Feierabend and by Orff-Schulwerk training. Having a preference for general/classroom music (as opposed to performance music), she received her BM in Music Education from UMass Amherst in 2006 and her MAT in General Music from Bridgewater State University in 2010. She is very interested in new teacher development and frequently mentors student teachers. She has also been leading professional development workshops for other music educators since 2010. In her spare time, she practices yoga and tends to her garden.
8:30-10:00 Barbizon Technical Theater Session
Lighting with Color 101
Description: This session will explore some of the basics of how to use color media and gobos for your show.
8:30-10:00 It’s Okay to Say “They”: Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Students in Schools
Christy Whittlesey
Transgender and non-binary students are at extremely high risk for experiencing a wide range of academic, social, and health problems as they attempt to navigate educational systems that were not created with them in mind. Within this context, educators may want to support these students in their classrooms, but are unsure of how to do so effectively. This session will empower participants to create supportive environments for transgender and non-binary students in K-12 schools by providing educators with an understanding of issues that their transgender and non-binary students face, giving them practical tools with which to support a safe and supportive environment for all students, regardless of gender, and addressing ways that they can implement these tools in their classrooms immediately.
10:15-11:45 Overview: The 2019 Arts Curriculum Framework
Dawn Benski
This workshop provides overarching information and increased clarity for arts educators as they transition to the newly approved Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework. Participants will find that the arts standards are user-friendly and represent current philosophies about the arts in education. During this interactive presentation, staff members from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) guide participants through an overview of major shifts in the Framework, including the concepts of artistic literacy, artistic intent and other re-imagined guiding principles. Participants examine and unpack the artistic practices and content standards to learn to align their curriculum and put the new art standards into action with their students.
Dawn Benski is the Arts Content Support Lead at the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). She came to the role with a decade’s worth of leadership experience in arts education, including coordinating PreK-12 arts programs in the greater Boston area, leading curriculum development, and moonlighting in higher education teacher preparation programs. Dawn’s leadership expertise is squarely rooted in her almost two decades as a practicing art teacher. She served as the NAEA’s Co-Coordinator of the 2019 Convention in Boston. Dawn’s artistic background is in oil painting, but her recent work focuses on food styling and food photography inspired by her love for cooking. Dawn is also an avid gardener, reader, and beach lover.
11:45-12:45 Lunch
12:45-2:15 Band Reading Session
Sean Wright
Bring an instrument and enjoy a morning of sight-reading some new charts with your colleagues.
***Participants should bring an instrument to play.
12:45-2:15 Choral Reading Session: Beginning
Irene Idicheria, Robbie Jacobs, Trey Pratt
Representatives from Boston Children’s Choir will be leading the Choral Reading Session
12:45-2:15 Barbizon Technical Theater Session
Lighting with LEDs
Description: We will explore some of the basic and more advanced LED console and controller uses to either add or enhance your future use of LED lighting.
12:45-2:15 I Didn’t Know I was Learning! Songs & Activities for the General Music Class
Carol Forward
This workshop will focus on songs and activities for the PreK-6 general music class that focus on preparation of musicianship and singing skills. These will be fun activities in which the students don’t even realize that they are learning, but will build the foundation for future musical concepts. Examples of presentation of concepts through these pieces will also be demonstrated. Chants, songs, games, and activities will be shared that can be used the next morning in your classroom. Be prepared to move, sing, play games, and have fun during this workshop!
Carol Forward has been a clinician, general music and choral music educator for twenty-five years, teaching students at all levels from pre-school through post-graduate since 1996. She received two Bachelor’s Degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in Vocal Music Education and Vocal Music Performance, and her Master’s Degree in Education and Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership from the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. She received her Kodaly training at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA, and spent a summer of study at the Kodaly Pedagogical Institute in Kecskemet, Hungary.
Mrs. Forward has served the East Longmeadow, MA Public School District since 1998, both at Meadow Brook Elementary School and currently as choral director at East Longmeadow High School. In addition, she is the Co-Director of the Kodaly Music Institute of Massachusetts.
Carol’s main goal in her career is to help her students find a love and appreciation of music that is as strong as hers, and continue to love music not just when they are in her classes, but for the rest of their lives.
12:45-2:15 Middle/High School Job-Alike Working Session
This session will offer you a place to gather and discuss relevant successes and challenges you are currently experiencing; bring your toolbox of ideas and lessons that are successful, along with a few wonderings/challenges you might be having. Come prepared to engage and discuss!
12:45-2:15 String Reading Session
Dr. Carolyn Cardella
Bring an instrument and enjoy a morning of sight-reading some new charts with your colleagues.
***Participants should bring an instrument to play.
12:45-2:15 BREAKOUT SESSION: 2019 Arts Frameworks
Dawn Benski
This interactive workshop provides an opportunity for arts educators to apply the newly approved Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework to practice. Participants will find that the arts standards are user-friendly and represent current philosophies about the arts in education. Staff members from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) guide participants through authentic activities that demonstrate the major shifts in the Framework, including the concepts of artistic literacy, artistic intent and other re-imagined guiding principles. Participants examine and unpack the artistic practices and content standards to learn to align their curriculum and put the new art standards into action with their students.
12:45-2:15 Strategies for Teaching Practice
Sharon Phipps
