Are you a lifelong learner? I have been thinking about this lately as I began the new adventure of violin lessons this past summer. As an organist, pianist, and choir director, I can tell you it has been a humbling experience. I can now play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.” Yikes! As tempting as it is, I refuse to give up. If I expect my students to welcome new learning, I must be willing to challenge myself as well. Have you considered what you can do to continue to be a lifelong learner?
I think we can all agree we are not teaching elementary music to create the next generation of professional musicians. We simply want our students to grow up to become educated consumers and creators of music throughout their lives. We want them to be lifelong learners.
I believe that for our students to receive a high-quality music education, we must continue our own high-quality music education. One way you can do this is by attending our elementary music workshop in October as well as the AMEA conference in Birmingham in January.
On October 26, at the fall workshop, we will welcome Dr. Erika Knapp to discover how to creatively leverage limited time and materials to foster continuous growth and engagement in our music programs. We will meet at Vestavia Hills Elementary Liberty Park for this exciting time of learning and growing. You do not want to miss it!
You can register at:
Then, at the annual conference on January 23-25, we will have many learning opportunities for our elementary music educators including everything from taiko drumming to choral warmups. On Thursday evening we will have a session “Ukulele and Pop Music in the General Music Classroom.” Sounds like fun to me. Get yourself registered now, and do not forget to bring your ukulele. If you can, bring an extra one or two you can loan to someone else.
Music teachers, I implore you to commit yourselves to a life of learning. Renew your membership with NAfME. Register for the fall workshop and annual conference. Remember, there is no finish line, and we as educators are in the best position to be lifelong learners ourselves.