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Board Reports for October 2007
President Report - October 2007
* On September 26th I had the opportunity to meet with Jim Rier,
Department Of Education coordinator for Essential Programs And Services
(EPS) with other members of the Arts Are Basic Coalition (ABC)
which was really great and very informative (RGVI). I would urge the
entire MMEA membership to review their own school districts budgets to
see what has or has not been placed under this heading; my Presidents
message in the Fall Bulletin will address this issue further, but in
essence, EPS is in place to hep protect funding for Visual and
Performing Arts, not to squeeze it out. Go to the link on the MMEA web
page for more information and how it applies to Visual and performing
Arts.
* I was invited to attend a day long Education Summit held by
Commissioner Gendron on September 27th. This too was RGVI... It
outlined the Department of Educations agenda for the next couple of
years. It basically will require Schools (with a particular emphasis on
High Schools) to redesign the way they teach curriculum. The good news
is that Visual and Performing Arts are recognized as a primary
component of curriculum. The bad news is that it dictated that the
assessment required for graduation would only occur in just one of the
four VPA disciplines, thereby opening the door for public High Schools
to focus their attention on the VPA discipline of their choosing and
downgrading or eliminating the other three. As a result of that
presentation, representatives from the ABC bantered around other
alternatives for assessment requirements and are now proposing that the
graduation requirement read more than one.
* I only attended Saturday of the Arts Conference on October 6th but
concur with everyone else who attended that it was a landmark event.
Argy Nestor has moved us miles forward as a result of her first year at
the Department of Education and this magnificent Conference was a
testament to her conviction and our belief that we still have miles to
go. The most significant occurrence that day was a morning session that
asked the 300 educators present to evaluate the new more than one
assessment proposal for VPA. Argy has collected that feedback and will
be keeping us closely posted.
* The revised Maine Learning Results may go into law within weeks at
this point, another significant move forward for Maine music educators
everywhere. I will be proposing a radical next step related to this
becoming law at our Board meeting on the 21st: I would like to see MMEA
devote a component of its web page to the Learning results with links
off of every indicator articulating specific, individual lesson plans.
This would be accessible for every music teacher in the state and would
serve as a warehouse of everyones implementation ideas. Instead of
everyone reinventing the wheel for their own districts they can use
actual plans already in place in other districts or modify them for
their own use.
* Lobbyist update: we (ABC) received letters of interest from some very
impressive, highly qualified candidates. We will begin interviews
within a few weeks in time to hire someone as the next legislative
session begins.
* Below is the state report that I submitted to MENC last month, if you
wish to see what I wrote.
Rob Westerberg
MMEA is off to a great school year...
We held a two day, Executive Board Retreat in August and addressed many
issues impacting our membership. Due to our new Executive Board
alignment and topic driven meeting agendas, we have had the good
problem of having more topics to attend to than time to address them.
This retreat effectively helped to pick up the slack in a meaningful
way for the benefit of our membership. Full minutes will be available
shortly on our web site, mainemmea.org.
The revision of the Maine Learning Results, a document intended to
steer curriculum and assessment for every discipline, is in the final
legs of garnering approval and becoming state law. We are exited about
it in that it lists common threads between the Visual and Performing
Arts as well as specific items unique to Music Education in particular.
This has taken years to develop, and we're not out of the woods yet,
but it appears that the document is going to be passed and will hold
incredible weight as we continue to establish music education as
essential, core curriculum for every student in the state of Maine.
With our newly funded Arts Coordinator now a year in place, the state
Department of Education is sponsoring a state wide Arts Conference the
first weekend in October that promises to be a landmark event on
several fronts. MMEA is proud to be a cosponsor, and we are eagerly
anticipating this event.
MMEA is combining forces with the Maine Alliance for Arts Education as
well as the state Visual Arts Association to hire a lobbyist. At our
all-member meeting last May, the MMEA membership voted unanimously(!)
to allot funds for this valuable resource. The goal is to have an
advocate at the state house in Augusta for the purpose of alerting us
when legislation is on the floor that impacts us as music educators,
and to be there for us when we sponsor legislation that will further
music education in our schools. Interviews are taking place by the end
of September with a lobbyist being selected later this Fall. This is an
overdue and critical addition to our advocacy efforts.
We continue to utilize our web page as an invaluable resource to the
membership, now posting all required forms for all our state activities
online and providing enough information that we are constantly revising
the page to accommodate and organize the increased number of links.
This is again a wonderful problem to have, and we are proud of our
progress on this, another critical piece of the MMEA puzzle.
Rob Westerberg
President, Maine Music Educators Association
President Elect Report
September is a very busy month for everyone. For me,
it meant a trip to Falmouth for the District II
meeting; my own District 3 meeting in Union and the
District IV meeting in Oakland. I would have liked to
attend the others but until transporters become a mode
of travel it will be a bit of a trick to get Downeast
and to The County in a timely manner. All of these
meetings were unique (and had great food including
chocolate) and you can read about this aspect in my
next Bulletin article.
Also in September, I gave testimony at the MLR public
hearing in Augusta. It was a bit disconcerting to
speak in front of legislators without them able to
give feedback. In a very small nutshell, I spoke about
music being a core subject by virtue of NCLB and the
original MEA's and MLR's. Everyone, not just the MMEA
leadership, needs to stay tuned to what is happening
in Augusta.
I had the pleasure of attending the Arts conference at
the Samoset last week. Mike and the other members of
the committee are to be commended for the quality of
the sessions and the speakers. FYI: I noticed in the
latest TEACHING MUSIC that Scott Shuler is running for
MENC President. A name to keep in mind when the time
comes.
The focus of the pre-meeting on Oct. 21st will be job
descriptions and timelines. If you have not sent your
job description and timeline, do it now. We will going
through all and red flagging anything that doesn't
seem quite right or adding, based on experience. This
information is especially important this year given
that it is an election year and potential candidates
for any office will want to know what the expectations
are for any office in which they might have interest.
At Rob's request, I will be leading this meeting.
Anyone interested in attending the MENC National
Conference in Milwaukee may reserve rooms starting
Oct. 12th. This information will be available on the
menc.org website. Midwest Airlines is the "official"
airline for the conference and has nonstop flights out
of Logan at a 12% discount if done at least 90 days in
advance. I have been told that the seats are very
comfortable and they serve great cookies. Again, check
on the menc.org website for more information.
Sam Moore-Young
President Elect
Report of State Director
All this summer and into the fall I have been working on job descriptions. Sometimes, I was able to write a fairly good description;
other times, I was completely lost. Either way, when I had completed what I could, I sent it to that officer for comment,
changes, etc. Sometimes that officer wrote back This isnt what I do at all, heres what I do. And along came a really good
job description. Sometimes, the response was you have it down very well except you forgot Now I have sent all these job
descriptions, including the ones sent by officers that I hadnt reached, to Barb for posting on line. Please read what is
there and make comments. If you have held that position in the past, your comments are extra important. Well be discussing
these at the pre-meeting Oct 21. Many of you have also sent time lines. Those have also been posted. More are needed.
These job description, time lines and the Manual of Procedures are not etched in stone -Constitutional or even By-law level.
They are a starting point but a very valuable starting point. When I became State Solo & Ensemble Chair I was given a notebook
with information gathered by previous chairs. There were previous years programs, a timeline (which I modified a bit), names
and contact information of possible adjudicators, and much other valuable information. That notebook made my task so much
easier. I added to the note book and passed it on to my successor. It is my hope that the information we are currently gathering
will be of value to the officers now and in the future.
Two proposed by law changes have also resulted:
Proposed By-law changes from Doug Owens - MENC Student Chapter Chair:
- MENC calls this position the "Collegiate Chair," or sometimes the "Collegiate Chapter Chair." Should this be changed
to align with their terminology? Just cheking to avoid any possible confusion when communicating with national.
- Scholarship: change the committee from 7 members to 3 members
My other tasks have been the usual. I read emails from the different district chairs. Once in a while Ill send something
to the other districts. Right now District III is having a flurry of folks sending good, usable web sites. As I write this
I wonder if we should add to the District chairs job descriptions add the other District Chairs to the email list. It would
mean would mean they would receive a lot of immaterial email to delete but once in a while they receive something worth sending
out. What are your thoughts?
See you in a couple of weeks.
Faith Varney, MMEA State Director and Membership Chair
Report from In the Past President!
Time to start thinking about elections!!!!!!! Send me names! Think about being on the nominating committee!
Joan
Treasurer's Report as of 10-12-07
Checking $60500
Savings $13050
CD $5000
I have met with the accountant and our tax year ended on 9-30-07. I MUST be sent the tax id numbers for
districts 2,3, and 6.
Please do not assume someone else will get them to me. If you know the treasurer or checkbook holder for your district, contact
them and ask them to send me the numbers ASAP. No more MR. NICE GUY!! I have been asking for a year!!
Mark Ranger.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Ranger
All State Festival Chair Report
As I sit down to write this and look back at the 2007 festival, I cannot help thinking about the dozens of people that contributed
to bring All State to a successful end. My job as coordinator for the festival would be impossible to deal with if it were
not for the many skilled, caring educators that volunteer their time to create a meaningful experience for our student musicians.
I look forward to working with all of you again this year.
So far so good.we have our conductors lined up and are waiting for programs, audition sites are gearing up and Tony Maiello
will be conducting the directors band. Scott Burditt is the contact person for anyone interested in taking part.
A few points to consider for the upcoming festival:
1) Registration All student registration for All State will be on-line. No paper forms will be accepted. The upside to
this is that the signature page will be one page, making things a bit easier to deal with.
2) Registration deadline This will be an absolutethe web site will be turned off on the appointed day with no further opportunity
to register, and students will be replaced with the next highest scoring student. PLEASE start early and register your students
well before the deadline, especially if you have a large number of students to register. If you have trouble registering
your students on-line, let me know and I will help you through the process, but do not wait until the last minute. All students
that were in All State last year will have their information retained, so you should be able to quickly edit their info for
any changes and they will be done.
3) Payment deadline Im still working on an appropriate date for payments to be remitted and will have that ready soon. As
above, PLEASE start early and get your payments in before the deadline. Where possible, please remit one large check instead
of many smaller ones. DO NOT SEND CASH. If I open an envelope and find cash, I will immediately reseal it and send it back.
4) Home schooled students A reminder that if you allow a home schooled student to audition under your school name, you are
agreeing to oversee them during the festival.
5) Dorm chaperones We were short five female chaperones last year, which meant extra effort for the five that were there.
Please consider taking this duty, as it is very important for the safety of the students. We also provide you with meals
and pay your conference registration!
6) Any questions concerning All State should be sent to me at: allstate@sad46.org
I hope everyone is having a great fall and I look forward to another spectacular All State in May. Take care.
Ted Nokes
MMEA All State Festival Chair
State Editors Report
Transition into the the position has been quite the journey! A huge learning curve is required. Several areas that will
be important to share with anyone considering this position:
1. Advertisers--they are needed and are hard to convince. Plan on answering lots of questions that you really don't know
the answer to. Some examples: bleeding is when we accept ads that go to the very edge of the page--for now, only for ads
on the cover do we except bleeds.
2. Apple Pages--just read the manual. This is not a program you can simply open and start using. You need to read the manual
cover to cover, practice, and then start the publication.
3. Printers--they say they need 2 weeks but budget for 3 weeks. Bulk mailing will require a half day or a full day off from
school to get to Windham.
4. Budget your time--the August edition took (honestly) about 80 hours of work. That is a huge chuck of summer vacation.
Try to do only a section in one sitting.
After getting bids from several area printers, the decision was made to go with Park Street Press in South Paris. As evident
from the quality of the August edition, they have done a great job. I plan on using them for the remainder of the year and
would suggest to contact me or Park Street Press directly with any other MMEA related printing jobs. Other companies considered
in the search were Spectrum Printing & Graphics, Pip Printing, and two out-of-state drop ship centers.
A meeting was held with several other Maine music educators to discuss the "future of the Bulletin." This meeting produced
several great ideas. Bullet Points (refer to editor's article in the August edition) and Department Articles were set as
a priority for each issue. Several other ideas were tossed about and hopefully can be presented at the next board meeting
for further discussion.
The following email was sent to board members in hopes of streamlining responsibilities and to improve the quality of the
publication:
-----------
Hello Everyone-
Thanks to all of you who sent in such kind words about the August Bulletin. As a reminder, the next edition is only a month
away and submission deadline for any materials (ads, articles, pictures, Bullet Points, etc.) is October 1st! I have come
up with a plan which I hope we can all embrace and abide by. I list everything based on Job Titles:
District Chairs:
Bullet Points: What I envision as being one of the best "communication" tools of what people are doing and/or experiencing
around the state. Please email your district and encourage your teachers to submit something (see The Editor's Desk in the
current edition). In addition, can you please let your districts know that they should expect to see the Bulletin in the
mail by the 15th of the month in the month that it comes out ( i.e. November 15, February 15, and May 15). Submission Deadlines:
October 1st, January 1st, and April 1st. Email to editor@mainemmea.org with "Bullet Point" in the Subject line.
President, President Elect, Editor, MMEA Visual & Performing Arts Consultant:
From the Presidents collection of Disjointed Thoughts, From the Editor's Desk, and Thoughts form the President Elect, MMEA
Update, respectively. Submission Deadlines: October 1st, January 1st, and April 1st. Email to editor@mainemmea.org with
the title of your article in the Subject line.
General Music K-5 VP, General Music 6-12 VP, Orchestra VP, Chorus VP, Jazz VP, Band VP, Technology Chair, Research Chair:
Department Articles: I hope that this will actually be quite easy. Please do ONE of the following before the submission deadlines:
1. Email me an article that you have written or have collected or let me know who you've made arrangements with to submit
an article. Pictures are a good thing if you can send them.
2. Email me an article that you have read and would like to get permission to reprint from another publication--this process
take a little longer, so please do so in a timely manner before the submission deadline. This is actually easy to do--I just
need the publication title, volume number, month or edition, article title, and author's name. Be prepared if permission
is not granted however.
3. Email to say that you want me to find something. For obvious reasons, I would like to avoid this all together, but an
email to say that you need to to find something would be great. Please email and ask me to do this rather then avoiding contact
all together!
Submission Deadlines: October 1st, January 1st, and April 1st. Email to editor@mainemmea.org with "Department Article" and
your specific department in the Subject line.
Everyone Else:
Special Interest Articles: Any time you find an article that you think should be included, first email a Department VP, Technology
Chair, or the Research Chair for them to review OR submit directly to me and I will go over the material and consult as needed.
I will do my very best to include that what you find important and valid to share with the membership. Submission Deadlines:
October 1st, January 1st, and April 1st. Email to editor@mainemmea.org with "Special Interest Article" in the Subject line.
As a back up, you are welcome to use my personal email ( esfuller@gmail.com) as a back up if the editor's account isn't working
(like right now!). Please however, do refrain from sending email's to my school address ( scot.fuller@gouldacademy.org) since
I am trying to not use that for MMEA communications--to many email accounts to keep track of! As for pictures--the higher
the quality, the better they look--high resolution. Any pictures that are of low quality will not be printed.
Any questions? Shoot them to me.
Thanks,
Scot
The decision has been made by myself and Rob that the Bulletin will be mailed by the 15th of the months they are suppose to
come out in (August, November, February, and May). My hope is to have the edition in the printers hands by the 15th of the
month previous. This does create a time crunch of only two weeks to put the publication together between the submission deadline
(1st of the month prior to the edition month). Everyone is encouraged to view the deadline as just that--a deadline not a
day-to-wait-to-submit date.
Good feed back has been received by the membership on the formate, cover, and print quality. Several complaints were made
about the lateness (mailed mid-September rather then mid-August) and that the new Rules Common to All MMEA Sponsored Events
where not highlighted in the By-Laws. Rules Common to All MMEA Sponsored Events will be reprinted in the November edition
at the President-Elects request.
More advertisers are needed to keep the publication in the green. If you have any leads, please contact me or Jon Carsley
( businessmanager@mainemmea.org) and one of us get in contact with the potential advertisers. Although the publication should
run a deficit, it should not be a great one! With no additional advertisers, we will reach that point by the end of the February
edition. USM and Plymouth State have both signed on after receiving complementary copies of the August edition.
As of October 1st, about 50% of people responsible for turning in articles or leads on articles had done so. Three articles
have been submitted related to "performance anxiety" so the November edition will have a special focus on that. As of Oct.
1st the publication is expected to be in the members hands by Nov. 15th.
I think that is all, but I am sure I am missing a ton!
Thanks,
Scot
Jazz Activities
October brings the busy time of All-State Jazz Auditions.
A big thank you to all who are helping to make auditions
run smoothly. A big special thank you to the faculty and
staff at U-Maine Augusta. Somehow, our host for auditions
fell through in September, and the folks at UMA were
gracious enough to step in and make it work for us! Thank
you UMA!
Here are three folks instrumental (sorry) in making
auditions work for our student musicians.
* Instrumental Jazz Chair, Shianne Wheeler of Old Town
Schools
* Vocal Jazz Chair, C. Brent Lacasce of Fryeburg Academy
* Auditions Chair, Craig Skeffington of South Portland
Schools
We will have over 300 students audition for All-State Jazz
this year.
Results will be made available to all directors and
students during the week of October 15th.
Brad Ciechomski of Yarmouth schools, has made our
All-State Jazz recordings in his recording studio once
again, and did a fabulous job. 2007 marks the second year
of our new vocal audition, which is very similar to the
new vocal audition for regular All-State. So far, all
reaction seems positive to the new format. We had a record
number of vocalists sign up to audition this year, which
is one positive indicator for sure.
Next up on the Jazz calendar....All-State Jazz in January
and District jazz festivals.....
Chris Humphrey
VP for Jazz Activities, MMEA
humphrey@cheverus.org
"Notes" from the PK-5 General Music VP, Michael Davis
Imagine this scenario: Being 5,412 miles away in a third world country; not being able to speak the language; traveling solo;
average daily temperatures exceeding 102 degrees while drumming and dancing for 6 hours per day; sleeping on the ground outside
on a mat; eating rice for every meal; living with a family of musicians: Sound fun?? Well I need to tell you that this was
the time of my life!! I was very fortunate to have been a recipient of a Maine Arts Teacher Fellowship awarded by the Maine
Arts Commission and Maine Alliance for Arts Education. This afforded me the opportunity to spend 27 days in the West African
country of Mali studying African drumming, dance and djembe carving. Aside from enduring what we would consider harsh living
conditions I was able to live with and learn from the beautiful people of Bamako, Mali. The reason for bringing this up is,
not to brag but to tell people..DONT PASS UP OPPORTUNITIES!!! We need to SEEK and SEIZE these OPPORTUNITIES!!!! There are
many organizations and people that are looking to support our work with kids, but we just need to take the time to seek them
out. As a matter of fact, the Maine Arts Teacher Fellowship program is currently taking inquiries into possible fellowship
ideas. The Maine Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (MATF) is a fellowship opportunity for Maine's K-12 arts teachers (dance,
creative writing, theater, music, visual art) to design a program that provides them with the opportunity to interact with
professional artists and to enhance their understanding of current techniques, activity, and thinking in their primary artistic
medium. GO FOR IT!!! Login to www.maineartseducation.org for more information about how you can enhance your own music
making! For pictures from my MATF fellowship check out www.auburnschl.edu/Users/mdavis
and click on the Africa Trip link (Be sure the letter U in Users in capitalized).
At the Creative Center: The Arts in Maine Schools was a very successful conference. The 2-day conference was bustling with
activity, performances, speakers, and presenters right up until the close of the conference at 5:00 on Saturday. With over
300 people registered and over 200 people turned away we are certainly feeding a need for professional development across
the arts. One thing that can be learned from the process of organizing this conference is that people need to watch deadlines.
We are all very sorry to have turned people away from this conference but in an effort of not diminishing the quality of the
conference for those attending we needed to keep within the capacity set forth by the facility. We certainly were shocked
by the incredible response and registration numbers. We hope you understand and that you participate in future OPPORTUNITIES
by registering early. Those of us on the planning committee will be meeting very soon for a follow-up and reflection on the
whole process. Emails are already being sent to us about how well people enjoyed the conference, conference location, and
concept of bring ALL ARTS together for 2 days. Could this be the way for us to get our ALL STATE FESTIVAL/CONFERENCE in
the fall????? Lets begin thinking outside of the box as I feel this has great potential.
If you are not already, make sure that you are all on Argy Nestors (Department of Education VPA Consultant) Arts Newsletter
in order to keep up to date with Arts Happenings; Grant OPPORTUNITIES; Legislative Events regarding the arts; job openings;
updates on Maine Learning Results; Celebrations, Updates on the effects of school consolidations and much much more including
Argys WOOO HOO! Email Argy Nestor to subscribe: argy.nestor@maine.gov District Chairs should pass this email address on
to membership.
Plans are in motion to bring some fantastic clinicians to our Spring In-Service. If you would like to suggest any topic or
specific presenter please email me with your idea. SEE YOU IN ORONO, May 15,16, & 17, 2008!
Musically,
Michael Davis
General Music VP PK-5
UMaine MENC Collegiate Chapter #175:
Several members of the UMaine MENC Collegiate Chapter #175 attended the All State Festival and In-service Conference at the
USM campus in May. Our current president, Whitney Thurston served as a presider at the conference. Plans are underway for
the
2007-2008 academic year. These plans include hosting an event in conjunction with the UMaine Chapter of SEAM (Student Education
Association of Maine), and offering an Orff festival for local elementary students in February. Our chapter will also
be compiling the program for this year's All State Festival.
Our officers for 2007-2008 are: Whitney Thurston, President; Ashley Drew, Vice-President; Justin Davis, Treasurer; and Charity
Harmon, Secretary.
- submitted by Dr. Laura Artesani, advisor
USM MENC Collegiate Chapter:
Sixteen USM music students assisted with the MMEA In-service conference and All State Music Festival at the USM campus in
May.
USM MENC has welcomed the new school year with increased focus on recruiting new members. Thirty-two students have submitted
membership dues to MENC to date.
Chapter officer elections for 2008 will be held in November for the positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary, and
Treasurer. USM MENC typically has elections at this time. The current officers are Tammy Dillon, President; Danielle Ripa,
Vice President; Erica Rice, treasurer and Nathaniel Menifield, secretary.
Plans are being made for chapter attendance at the MENC 61st National Biennial In-Service Conference, to be held in Milwaukee,
WI. Preliminary details were discussed at the 10/5 general membership meeting.
Respectfully Submitted,
Doug Owens, Collegiate Chapter Chair
Webmaster Report - October 2007
The website will be undergoing a major overhaul this month. Format changes and increased content changes will make it more
user friendly and less cluttered. Rob and I have been collaborating to make things more easily accessible. The new site will
include an RSS feed (instantaneous updates right from your bookmark list!)
The new site will provide an opportunity for easier updating for me, and greater control over what we have on the site. Target
upload date will be November 1.
Over the last week we had a total of:
- 708 page views. (Daily average of 101 views)
- Unique: 516 (Daily Average of 73)
- First Time: 339 (Daily Average of 48)
- Returning: 177 (Daily Average of 25)
Realize that some of those hits are spammers attempting to get information from the pages. However, it still shows a lot of
use if approximately 100 people are visiting the site daily.
Please remember that you must be clear in your directions for posting things on the website. Also, file names must contain
lowercase letters and clearly show the ending identifier (.doc, .pdf) when sent as an attachment.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Packales
District 2
We are off and running on another great year. Our fall meeting was well attended at Falmouth High School. Thanks to Sam
Moore-Young for attending our meeting and fielding questions. Auditions for our Middle and High School Honors Festivals are
coming up on Monday, October 15 at Greely Middle School. This year the Middle School instrumental festival has been expanded
to two days. We are looking for new people for several positions for next year, including Treasurer and Chairperson. We
are looking forward to another busy and exciting year!
Jim Horwich
D2 Chair
District III-
October 21, 2007 Exec Board Report
Our Fall Meeting was held Tuesday Sept. 18th, at the
Masonic Hall in Union Maine. We thank Aaron Clark and
Sybil Wentworth for organizing this! The meeting
included vital information to get the fall events off
to a good start with a presentation by Allison Lakin,
Director of Education for Bay Chamber Concerts.
Following Allison, Argy Nestor, our VPA rep to the DOE
presented a briefing on the status of the school
consolidation as well as an update on the new fall
arts conference. Finally our special guest was Larry
Hudson, a clinician, conductor and retired music
educator from the west coast, who presented an
inspiring address. We awarded the Outstanding Service
Award to Barbara Larson for her outstanding service
to the district and MMEA. Congratulations Barbara !
Our Senior High Honors Festival auditions will be
held October 22 at Wiscasset HS. A big thanks goes to
Vickie Kennedy for managing and Molly Winchenbach for
hosting the high school auditions.
The Elementary Festival will be held November 3 at
Lincolnville School, and is hosted by Emily Widdoes.
This is a really fun festival for grades 3 through 5
and includes Orff Instruments and movement.
Junior High auditions will be held on November 8 at
Hall-Dale and is hosted by Julie Gilbert. Margie
Landis will be our new auditions manager this year.
Registrations are on line again this year. District
III is trying to eliminate paperwork by doing more
registrations and paperwork on line. Again kudos goes
to Allen Graffam for setting up a very nice separate
web site just for District III auditions. If you
would like to check it out, go to www.d3auditions.com
. Thank you Allen!
Respectfully submitted,
Roger Whitney, chair
District IV Report
We have had our primary meeting for the year and everything seems to be in
order. We had a large turnout at the meeting which is great to see
because of how large our district is. With our new web page communication
seems to run much smoother within the district now.
Our festivals are lined up as they should and we're all forward to another
year.
Dan Labonte
Mountain Valley Middle School
dlabonte@msad43.org
District VI Chairperson Report - 10-07-07
Dear Friends,
What a busy start to the school year it has been! Between my coursework
for my Masters degree, the usual chaos at school, and everyone elses
hectic lives, it has been difficult to get together as a district. We
postponed our first meeting to try to allow for greater attendance, and I
was ill on the rescheduled date and had to cancel the meeting. Were going
to try a two meeting format for the next time around one meeting in the
northern part of the district and one further south to try to give
everyone a better chance at participating.
Despite the lack of a face to face meeting, weve all been very busy
arranging for our various events and communicating through the grace of
technology. Alison Brennan has put together a wonderful Middle School
Honors Festival, which she will host at Calais MS/HS on November 3. The
festival will feature guest conductors Paul LaPoint and Vicki King.
Through our combined efforts and the wonderful work of Dale Perkins, music
will reach students well in advance of the event and will allow for even
better student preparation. Congratulations to Alison on her outstanding
efforts!
Preparation is also underway for our other two major festivals. The MDI
Music Boosters have already met with Dan Granholm to sketch out plans and
delegate responsibilities for the Jazz Festival to be held on February 29.
A snow date of March 1 should be of great help in case of inclement
weather. Christel Kendzia has also done an outstanding job of preparing
for the HS Honors Festival on March 21 at Deer Isle-Stonington HS. Thank
you to Steve Orlofsky and Robert Frazier, who have offered to assist her
in this task. We are all looking forward to enjoying these events!
Musically yours,
Jessica Hartman
District 6 Chairperson
General Music 6-12 Report
The 6-12 General Music position has existed for a little more than a year at this point. And being all about change, I suggest
that we think about the implications of the title a bit to see what else our organization might offer to teachers and students
pursuing music study outside of the traditional ensemble-based model.
"General music" is a term meant to describe a broad introductory curriculum that occurs in PreK-5 settings introducing students
to all of the direct engagements of music (singing, playing, composing, improvising, listening, moving). However, by grade
5 or 6 the world of music changes from GENERAL to SPECIFIC. We see guitar or keyboard classes, American Popular Music classes,
World Music classes, music technology courses, music theory, etc, etc, etc. We no longer offer a broad spectrum of study
within a single course, but rather find a detailed examination of a particular area of music. Our music offerings change
in ways akin to elementary science becoming Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Given this view of our curricular offerings, what kind of action plan can we create that will allow us to inform not only
our professional body about the changing face of music education, but also administrators and the public on a larger scale?
While chorus, orchestra and band are certainly the historical corner stones of American music education practice, as a profession
we are now moving toward offering many more opportunities for many more students. In the coming year I hope to find ways
to enhance the professional development opportunities for teachers who have created new pathways for music students which
parallel our performance-based offerings. Further, I'd like to find a way to bring together students who are studying music
in areas of guitar, keyboard, theory, technology, etc., for specialized programs similar to those we offer for students excelling
in performance. It is time that we acknowledge the full breadth and depth of what we offer students in specialized music
education.
Respectfully submitted,
Michele
Music Teacher Education Report
October 8, 2007
Collaborative Action for Change, a symposium sponsored by the Society for Music Teacher Education, was held at the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro on September 13-15. Although I was not able to attend due to other obligations, from all
accounts the symposium was a very productive and worthwhile event. The keynote speakers were Dr. Marilyn Cochran-Smith of
Boston College and Dr. Don Gibson, Dean of the College of Music at Florida State University. Sessions were presented on a
wide variety of topics, including a session by Dr. Michele Kaschub and Dr. Janice Smith titled Composing Together: Developing
New Dimensions of Professional Identities.
A conference which brought together Maine educators involved in the visual arts, dance, theatre and music was held at the
Samoset Resort in Rockport on October 5 and 6. This conference, titled At the Creative Center: The Arts in Maine Schools
was
attended by approximately 300 arts educators from our state. Spearheaded by Argy Nestor, Visual and Performing Arts Specialist
from the Maine Department of Education, and Carol Trimble, Executive Director of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education,
planning committee members representing MMEA were Mike Davis and myself. Feedback from the conference indicates that arts
educators from our state appreciated and were energized by this opportunity to interact with each other. A plenary session
on
the revised Maine Learning Results was presented on the second day of the conference; kudos to our president, Rob Westerberg,
for all of his efforts in this huge undertaking.
Respectfully submitted,
Laura Artesani
Music Teacher Education
Advocacy Report:
Nothing new to report at this time, other than a reminder to District
Chairs to let their membership know that if they have any advocacy
questions or issues to please go to the advocacy section of MMEA's
website for contact information. Thanks!!
MIOSM Report:
The only news at this time is that the World's Largest Concert is
making a comeback for March, 2008. It will not be broadcast, however
it will be available as a DVD that you can show to your students. If
you have any footage from previous WLCs that you would like MENC to
consider using, please visit the MIOSM section of their website for
more information.
Respectfully Submitted,
-Jess Newton
Advocacy/MIOSM Chair
Tri-M Report
Greetings,
At this time I do not have a listing of active Tri-M
chapters for this year. This is usually sent to me in
early December. I will update the listing at that
time.
If you have a chapter in your school, I would
encourage you to send me any news from your chapter,
so I can include in on our website. It's always a
great way to get new ideas and share the good work of
your students.
New this year, we will be recognizing the Tri-M
members who are participating in the Jazz All-State.
They will receive ribbons to wear at the performance
in the same fashion that our band, chorus and
orchestra students have been doing at All-State in the
spring.
Please send me your Tri-M news and let me know how I
can help you with your chapters. I can be reached at
acbsnow@yahoo.com or my cell # 460-5306.
Alice Sullivan
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