April 21-24 marks the 2010 PMEA Annual In-Service Conference, held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. This year’s conference promises many great sessions and performances.
Schedule of Events
The conference will officially start Thursday morning with a mini-concert by the IUP Saxophone Ensemble, followed by a General Opening Session at 9:00 am. The conference offers an exhibit preview on Wednesday night from 7:00-9:00 pm, with the Exhibit Grand Opening occurring at 10:00 am Thursday morning.
Sessions of the Conference run from Thursday morning through Saturday morning. Opportunities for teachers and future music educators at the PMEA 2010 State Conference are endless! The sessions at the conference offer a huge variety, with topics ranging from use of music technology, to improving the sound of your jazz band. These sessions include all aspects of teaching music including elementary methods, instrumental tips, and advocacy advice. The conference offers many performances from multiple colleges and universities and many exemplary high school and middle school groups. Check out the complete list of events here!
Why Should I be there?
With multiple performances and a wide variety of sessions, the PMEA State Conference is sure to offer both students and teachers a beneficial learning experience. Regardless of your concentration,the PMEA State Conference is sure to have sessions relevant to you. This event is not to be missed by future music educators. Not only will it allow you to network with local professionals, but it will serve as an extremely educational event allowing you to attend the sessions that music educators are attending as well.
Collaborate!
The PMEA 2010 State Conference will be highly attended by many music teachers, professors, and students from across the state. With so many musicians in one conference, there are sure to be many great thoughts and discussions happening. There are a couple of different ways that you can collaborate with some of these individuals. Thomas J. West is hosting a Cover it Live blog at thomasjwestmusic.com. Contact him through this site, or message him on Twitter (@thomasjwest) to contribute to the blog. Also, you can join the discussion on Twitter by following and tweeting the hashtag #pmea10! If you are not familiar with Twitter, follow the directions below:
- Sign-up! – If you do not already have an account, go to Twitter and sign-up! It is an easy and painless process.
- Follow #pmea10 - Once you sign in to your new (or existing) Twitter account, go to your homepage. It should automatically bring you to this page when you sign in, but if it doesn’t, click the Home link at the top right of your screen. On your homepage, there will be a search box on the right panel of the screen. In this box, type in #pmea10, and hit enter. This will bring the #pmea10 feed into the main panel on the page.
- Contribute – Now that you can see what others are saying about PMEA 2010, join in the discussion! Just make sure all of your tweets include the hashtag #pmea10 so that it shows up in the feed!
PMEA 2010 is sure to be a beneficial event for all who attend. Hope to see you there!
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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. 