Every year, around mid- to late-July, I always tend to convince myself that this will be the year everything is finally perfectly organized. A fresh new planner ready to be color-coded, a newly organized drawer (…or 5), updated bulletin boards, instruments repaired, and everything in its proper place.
Contrast that with the sobering reality that schools are messy because people are messy, and that’s okay. Of all places in a school, our music classrooms, especially, are living, breathing places. Maybe success isn’t having everything in place on Day One. Maybe it’s remaining flexible enough to welcome whoever walks through your classroom door with open arms. Maybe it’s the messy, imperfect parts that make teaching feel alive and authentic and continually remind me why I chose this profession.
As a music teacher, the best moments are rarely picture-perfect. They happen in the split-second when that 2nd grader finally engages in a singing game for the first time since kindergarten. Or when getting a recorder is the most exciting part of a 4th grader’s week. Or the unintentionally hilarious thing a kindergartener said. Or those extra 3 seconds of silence after a particularly great run-through of a concert piece. For non-music teachers, these moments may seem ordinary or unimportant, and they can be easy to miss if we forget to look for them, but they’re often the moments that stay with us long after all hope is lost with the color-coded planner and when the August bulletin board decorations have faded in April.
This year, I challenge us all to look for the joy-filled messy parts, however small and fleeting they may be. Jot them down on a Post-it or start a note on your phone. Then the important part: go back and read them. There will certainly be times when we need these little reminders after our students arrive in August.
Your Elem/Gen Board met this summer to plan and talk about the details of several exciting upcoming Elementary AMEA events. We also discussed updating our Division Bylaws. These have not been updated for a while and need to be amended to reflect how our division has evolved over the past 10 or so years. While we don’t anticipate any dramatic changes, we are working on these as a Board and will have an updated document to present to you at our next division meeting on October 24 at the Fall Workshop. Please plan to attend and share your feedback.
The AMEA Elementary Music Festival is always a fun-filled day for students and teachers alike. The festival will be on Friday, October 23, at Samford University. We are looking forward to having Andrea Coleman and Dr. BethAnn Hepburn as clinicians for our choirs. Remember, if you committed in the spring to participate, your school is still responsible for the school fee even if you cannot attend. Be on the lookout for more details from our Festival Director, Andrea Marsh.
After taking a poll at our division meeting at the conference in January, the results were overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to have a fall workshop every even-numbered year. BethAnn Hepburn will be our clinician for our AMEA Elementary Fall Workshop on Saturday, October 24, at Samford. Registration info will be sent soon. We would love a good turnout, so please make plans to attend and bring a friend, a new teacher, or a college student in your area!
As an Elementary Board, we’ve had a few discussions on ways to encourage membership and involvement in our division. We’ve tossed around the idea of having district-level workshops or “share sessions” in odd-numbered years (with the fall workshop in even-numbered years). Please let us know what you think and send us any ideas you have. We want our division to support what you truly need. The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas, so send them to us!
Plans for another great state in-service conference are already underway. I can already tell from the amazing number of session proposals that we are in for some truly outstanding professional development in January! Stay tuned for more info about the conference in the next issue of the Ala Breve.
Announcements:
Remember to renew your NAfME/AMEA membership. All memberships expire on June 30 each year. Make sure you are up to date so your students can participate in the Music Festival! Click here to renew.
Be sure to add @elementaryamea on Instagram and Facebook. We also have a private Facebook group for questions and discussions.
Please reach out to me (elementaryamea@gmail.com) or any of your Elem/Gen Board members if you have ideas about ways we can nudge our division forward or if there’s anything we can do to help you.
Elementary Executive Board Members (2025-2027):
President: Jason Jackson
President-Elect: Devin Lacy
Secretary: Jessi White
Treasurer: Katie Green
Past President/All-State Director: Alicia Luttrell
Festival Director: Andrea Marsh
Hospitality Coordinator: Rachel Harbin
Social Media Representative: Brooke Gray
Elementary District Chairs:
(See district map on our website)
District 1: Lea Hoppe & Victoria Truesdail
District 2: Karen Morgan
District 3: Trudye Confessore & Kris Lindley
District 4: Lisa Gillespie
District 5: Katie Manning
District 6: Erica Lutz
District 7: Kristen MacQueen
District 8: Christy Clark & Andrea Marsh