PMEA 2011

Welcome to the PMEA 2011 State Conference Live-Blog Landing page. Here you will find many resources to help manage the information stream at PMEA 2011 whether you will be at the conference or not! The 2011 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Annual Conference will be held at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey, PA.
The Awakening
At PMEA 2011, I had the opportunity to participate in many awesome events. The singing of “The Awakening” was certainly one of them. As I’m sure you all are aware, budget cuts in PA are hitting music education hard and with the proposed budget for next year it will get even worse. As past, present and future musicians, PMEA 2011 attendees gathered to sing “The Awakening” to advocate for music education in our schools. Please share this wherever you can!
PMEA Schedule
Many conference attendees tweeting about their experiences at PMEA 2011. Whether the tweets are session notes or simply something found at the exhibits, many pearls of wisdom can be found here. If you’re at PMEA 2011, we’d love to talk with you (both in person AND through Twitter)! If you are tweeting, be sure to include #PMEA11 in all of your tweets This will allow everybody else to follow along. Below are some things currently being said about PMEA 2011! Not familiar with Twitter? Find some information about it here!
For all of you Twitter users out there, be sure to follow @PMEA11 on Twitter to see all of the live-blog updates in your Twitter feed!
PMEA 2011 Live-Blogs
FutureMusicEducators.Net is proud to provide a live-blog of many of the sessions at the PMEA 2011 State Conference. This will not only give conference attendees access to session notes for sessions they attended, but will also give them access to sessions they weren’t able to attend. In addition, this allows music educators unable to attend the state conference to benefit from the sessions offered as well. We would like to give a huge shout-out to Dr. Joeseph Pisano and Grove City College and Grove City college for helping to co-ordinate, provide leadership, and sponsor our efforts by providing financial support for the endeavor. This year we have taken a new format for live-blogging. There are five separate live-blogs happening at a time, each blogging a different session. This will provide for an uninterrupted stream for each of the sessions which will be beneficial for anyone following along or referring back to the notes. To find the live-blog of the session you are attending or are interested in, simply click on the name of the session in the list below. This will take you to the page that contains the live-blog . Don’t forget about the live-blogs! Enter your e-mail address below to receive a reminder in your inbox the day before the live-blogs launch!
Follow and Participate
The PMEA 2011 live-blog team would love for you to participate in our live-blogs. There are two easy ways in which you can contribute to the live-blogs. If you’re a twitter user, simply go to the live-blog that you will be following and find the specific Twitter hashtag for that blog (located directly above the live-blog). If you include that hashtag in your tweets, your tweet will be pulled into the live-blog! Also, if you have a Twitter or Facebook account, you can login and comment directly on the live-blog. After your comment is approved by the live-blog moderator, it will be pulled into the live-blog feed as well. Web 2.0 technology has made it easy for us to collaborate on many different projects, so please feel free to add your thoughts to any of the live-blogs!
We will also be making all of our live-blog updates available through Twitter. In order to receive all of the updates to all of the live-blogs in your Twitter feed, follow @PMEA11!
PMEA Live-Blog Session Schedule
All of the sessions that we will be live-blogging at PMEA 2011 are listed below. Simply click on the session title to be taken directly to that live-blog. If you just want to browse the different live-blogs, use the buttons below!
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Thursday (4/14)
9:30-10:30
- Advocacy in Action: Winning Tomorrow’s Battles Today,
- Conducting Technique for Music Educator,
- The Power of Performance. . . It’s Showtime,
- Selecting a Music Theory Textbook: A Guide for High School Teachers
11:00 – 12:00
- All Aboard! Techniques for Anchoring Literacy in the Beginning Choral Rehearsal,
- Performance Practice in the Music Curriculum,
- Teaching Improvisation Using What You Already Know,
- Teaching with Technology in the 21st Century Music Classroom,
- The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Scat Singers
12:30 – 1:30
- Beyond the Book: Making Music Visible,
- Creating Your Own Acoustic Guitar Lab from Scratch,
- Cutting Edge Teaching Strategies: Cool Ideas for a Cool Era,
- How Can We Meet the Complex Learning Needs of Students in a Standards Based Environment
2:00 – 3:00
- Choral Techniques for Young Choirs,
- Jazz Workshop for Music Educators,
- Play! Dance! Sing! Music of the Masters for the Elementary Classroom,
- Raising the E.E.Q. of Your Ensemble
- Using SmartMusic 2011 in Your Music Program
3:30 – 4:30
- A MultiSensory Approach to Teaching Music to MS Students with Autism
- Advocacy through Evidence
- Digital Audio for Beginners: Essential Tips for Teachers and Their Students,
- Listening Journals in Middle School Music,
- Vocal Health 101: Speaking and Singing Voice for Music Educators
Friday (4/15)
8:30 – 9:30
- Classroom and Behavior Management with Children with Special Needs in Inclusion Settings
- Orff Schulwerk: A Winning Way,
- Preparing Your Students for College Auditions and Interviews,
- Vocal Improvisation; and I’m Not Talking Jazz
- Innovative Uses of Technology in the Secondary Strings Rehearsal
9:45 – 10:45
- The Composers Circle: Composition Instruction in Elementary General Music
- Here Comes Treble! What’s New for Two-Part Choirs
- M.U.S.I.C.: Don’t Burn Out
- Transfer of Learning: Students Can Perform the Sforzando Every Time
- You Want Me to do What?!? Creating an Urban General Music Program
11:15 – 12:15
- Advocating for Music Education from the School Board Level
- Bringing the World to an Urban Classroom K-5
- Quality Tried and True: Choral Repertoire for Singers of All Ages
- Sense of Community and Social Intelligence Within Music Classrooms and Ensembles
- Successful Cooperating Teacher Relationships: Student Teacher Perspective
2:45 – 3:45
- How to be a Proactive Advocate for your Music Program
- Inclusion! Rethinking Success in the Music Classroom
- Promethean Boards for the Elementary General Music Classroom
- The Well-Rounded Choir: Something for Everyone
- Utilizing Technology in Percussion Instruction
4:15 – 5:15
- Counting What Really Counts with Performance Assessment
- Going Global: Google Earth as a Tool for Teaching World Music
- Percussion Skills They Don’t Teach You in School
- The Choral Rehearsal: Process to Product
PMEA Live-Bloggers
Listed below are the five students who will be Live-Blogging at the PMEA 2011 State Conference. All Music Education Majors from Grove City College, the Live-Bloggers have experience blogging about music education and are all actively involved in Social Media in Music Education. Just click on the names below to be directed to their live-blog!
Andrew Ritenour
Andrew Ritenour is a junior Music Education major at Grove City College in Grove City, PA. He is actively involved in many performing ensembles including brass quintets, concert bands, marching bands, and choirs. Andy plays Tuba and Euphonium and is the Brass/Marching Instructor for the Somerset Area HS Marching Band. You can find him on twitter at @andrewritenour or at AndrewRitenour.Com!.
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Elizabeth Heist
Elizabeth Heist is a senior music education major at Grove City College Grove City, PA. She is actively involved in many performance ensembles including brass and woodwind quintets, French Horn ensemble, choir, and marching and concert bands. Elizabeth plays the French Horn and is a marching and brass instructor for the Somerset High School Marching Band. You can find her on Twitter (@heistes) or at www.elizabethheist.wordpress.com.
Emily Farrell
Emily Farrell is a junior music education major at Grove City College in Grove City, PA. Her major is percussion with a minor in voice. Emily is involved with several performance ensembles including percussion ensemble, concert and marching band, and several choirs. You can follow her on Twitter at @emilyrfarrell or at her blog, http://waitingforastory.wordpress.com! …………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Brittany Bell
Brittany Bell is a junior Music Education (voice) major at Grove City College. She as been involved with chapel choir, pops choir, opera workshop, jazz ensembles, marching and concert band, and orchestra, and has also done technical theater work. You can find her on Twitter at @brittany_bell, at her blog site, http://adventuresinmusicland.wordpress.com, or MusicPLN.org. .
Ryan Dore
Ryan Dore is a junior Music Education major at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa. He is currently studying applied trumpet with Drew Fennell and is actively involved in the Grove City Jazz Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Concert and Marching Band as well as several small choral and instrumental ensembles. You can follow Ryan on Twitter at @britishbuegler, on the MusicPLN.org (Dorerj15), or at his blog – http://ryanjdore.wordpress.com.





I just found this site and think it is incredible what you are doing. I was unable to go to the conference this year, and love that you have been blogging notes about the sessions. How do I access transcripts of your blogs? I can’t find them anywhere.
Thanks!
Hi Jon!
Thanks so much for following along! The transcripts for our notes of the sessions are on the live-blogs themselves. To get to the live-blogs, just click on the session title under “Live-Blog Schedule” above. That will take you to the page where the session will be live-blogged. If the session you’re looking for has already happened, the notes will be on the live-blog – all you have to do is scroll up! When the events are ended you will still be able to scroll through session notes. I hope this helps!