On January 26, 2018, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the Illinois Music Educator’s Conference to attend different music education workshops, as well as present a session entitled “Tinkering with Music through Technology” with four other sophomore music education majors (Cassie Coss, Sarah Dodge, Julia Picchiottino, and Erica Unroe) and our professor, Jesse Rathgeber. This was our second run of the presentation (the first being at VMEA), so I was less nervous about presenting. After receiving feedback from our presentation at VMEA, we tweaked it a little bit to include a time of reflection and question asking at the end. The room we presented in was much bigger, so there was more room to design projects. My favorite part was working with a teacher at the end and seeing his excitement to learn how to use Makey-Makey and Scratch. Initially, I was trying to tell him how to use it the way I would have, but then I was struck by the realization that we were tinkering! He was fully capable of engaging with the technologies himself and I could just provide support when he asked for help.
It was eye opening to attend a music education conference in a different state because different topics were highlighted. I also appreciated the fact that there were more presenters of different ethnic backgrounds; as an Asian-American, I truly appreciate seeing people like me who are thriving in the music world and using their backgrounds to shape their teaching philosophies. The workshops I attended were related to teaching music in urban settings, music and social justice issues, and even using yoga in the music classroom! I have been so thankful for these experiences to present at these many different conferences. I am also so blessed by my growing friendships with the other music education students in my class; they have many great ideas and passions and I absolutely love gaining more insight from them! |
Davina MiawHere I will share experiences of my engagement in community. Archives
December 2019
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