#MusicEdLove Podcast

Music educator and consultant, Ashley Cuthbertson, discusses the importance of culturally responsive teaching, building relationships with students through get-to-know-you activities, the empowering effect of vocabulary, using one song for multiple connections in music education, and promoting equity and rigor in music education.

You. All… I cannot wait for you to hear this latest episode with Dr. Alice Hammel! Alice has been a huge inspiration for me and a role model from afar for a long time. It was so great to finally sit down and talk with her about how she has carved this unique mom-researcher-educator-GURU path out for herself. Alice’s story is so very inspiring and I can’t wait for you to hear more from her! My apologies for the poor audio quality of this one. I was traveling at the time of the recording and my audio was not the best… Dr. Alice M. Hammel, Virginia Music Educator Association Outstanding Educator (2018) and current President of the Virginia Music Educators Association, is a widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse. She is a member of the faculty of James Madison University, and has many years of experience teaching instrumental and choral music in public and private schools. Dr. Hammel has put these varied experiences to great use while compiling a large body of scholarly work. She is a co-author for four texts: Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-free Approach, Teaching Music to Students with Autism, Winding It Back: Teaching to Individual Differences in Music Classroom and Ensemble Settings, and Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Practical Resource. Dr. Hammel is Past-President of the Council for Exceptional Children—Divison for Visual and Performing Arts Education.  If you haven’t yet left a review, please follow the steps below to be entered into our giveaway for March! MTGEELL Contest: Write review of #MusicEdLove Subscribe to my mailing list at angelaammerman.com  I will email the winner in March and then I will send out the winner’s very own copy of The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners!

Join us as we hear from Teaching Artist and Violinist: Claire Allen as she discusses creative and engaging methods for finding and building diverse repertoire from the very beginning! Claire is such a joy to speak with and I just know you will find a wealth of helpful information and actual resources from this episode! Claire Allen Claire Allen is a performer and a Teaching Artist of Violin and Strings Coordinator at Mason Community Arts Academy. Since joining the string faculty at MCAA in 2013, she has taught a studio of violinists ages four to adult, created and collaborated on the development of the Violin Beginnings and Violin Adventures classes, and is a co-creator and director of Summer Violin Bootcamp and Summer Violin Academy. In 2019, she was selected as the Outstanding String Teacher of the Year by the Virginia chapter of the American String Teachers Association.Ms. Allen’s teaching style combines elements from both Suzuki and traditional methods, and includes a focus on developing a healthy and holistic violin technique. She is always on the lookout for works by new composers to introduce to her students so that recital performances feature a mix of new and standard violin repertoire, and is passionate about creating a more diverse and integrated student repertoire that reflects the world her students live in. In 2022, she was a featured presenter at the ASTA National Conference on the topic “Creating A Diverse Repertoire for Elementary Level Violinists.”Her students perform in four solo recitals a year, both hosted through MCAA and at other community venues and participate in monthly studio classes. They have successfully competed in competitions including the biannual Mason Community Arts Academy Competition, the Feder Memorial String Competition, and the American Protege Competition, and have received passing marks on their American String Teachers Association Certificate Advancement Program exams and superior ratings at Solo & Ensemble festival. Many participate in their school orchestra levels in the top ensembles and have been accepted into honor orchestras including Junior and Senior District Orchestras, Senior Regional Orchestra, and multiple orchestras in the AYPO and TCSYO organizations. Ms. Allen has completed extensive teacher training which includes Suzuki registered training for Books 1-4, Rebecca Henry’s pedagogy course at Peabody Conservatory, Mimi Zweig’s Violin/Viola Teacher Retreat, the 2019 Starling DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at The Juilliard School, and the ABME course “What Every Musician Needs To Know About The Body.” She has been interviewed on the Suzuki podcasts “Beyond the Music Lesson” and “Time to Practice” with Suzuki teacher and violinist Christine Goodner.  In addition to her work at Mason Community Arts Academy, Ms. Allen teaches violin sectionals for Fairfax County Public Schools, serves as an examiner for American String Teacher Association Certificate Advancement Program exams, and is on the advisory board of Violinist.com, for which she writes articles on violin pedagogy and other musical topics.  As a performing violinist, Ms. Allen has performed as a chamber musician in the MCAA Faculty String Quartet, was in the first violin section of the Tysons-McLean Orchestra from 2015 – 2020, and is the first violinist in the Haase Quartet. She also performs recitals as a soloist and as a chamber musician with pianist colleagues at venues around the Northern Virginia area. Ms. Allen holds a Master of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Baldwin-Wallace College. Her primary teachers include Rebecca Henry, Keng-Yuen Tseng, Burton Kaplan, Julian Ross, Lisa Cridge, Gene Pohl, and Estelle Roth. She performs on a modern violin made by Tetsuo Matsuda and a bow by Eugidius Dörfler. https://www.claireallenviolin.com Claire Allen Claire Allen Claire Allen

In this episode, we welcome homeschool music teacher, Amy Shirk, onto the podcast! Just a few weeks ago, I shared with you all how wonderful our first “pre-lesson” on piano was and Amy is that very teacher! I was so impressed with the pre-lesson and wanted to bring her on to share her experiences and wisdom with you! Amy will share some of the best activities to do with your children to get them involved in music from an early age. She will discuss the importance of focus and the ability to follow directions before you sign your child up for private lessons. I also wanted to bring Amy onto the show to chat a bit about her experiences as a home school music teacher! For anyone considering homeschooling and concerned about the quality of music education from home, you will be blown away by all that Amy has done and continues to do for homeschool students in Fredericksburg! I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!!! P.S. – We have another giveaway happening right now for my new book: “The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners!” Simply leave a review for #MusicEdLove wherever you listen to your podcasts, and subscribe to www.angelaammerman.com by the end of September to be entered! Homeschool Music Ed in the Burg with Amy Brill Shirk

As many of you know, I now have an AMAZING toddler here at home with me and I have been doing ALLLL the musical things I could possibly do with him. But… I have been very aware that there is a right time for everything with music. And so while we are very active, musically, we are still waiting for formal private lessons as well as a few other things. Take a listen to this episode to learn about 5 considerations for your toddler musician. Toddlers and Music: 5 Considerations for Your Toddler Musician Helpful Links: ArtTime4Kids StringRise Box Violins www.angelaammerman.com  The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners My Toddler Page! Did you know we have a new book out? Here is how you can be entered for an AUTOGRAPHED giveaway of The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners: Write review of #MusicEdLove wherever you get your podcasts!Subscribe to my mailing list at www.angelaammerman.com I will email the winner the first week of July and then I will send you your very own autographed copy of The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners!

Does anyone else DREAD evaluation season??? Whether you are a school teacher dealing with teacher evaluations from your administrator or a college professor who receives evals from your students, (yep… it’s a thing…) this episode will be so great for you!  My very own husband: Dr. David Allen Ammerman, delves into pacing, building rapport, differentiation, gamification, repetition, and so much more!  Dr. Ammerman is Assistant Teaching Professor of Finance and Director of Academic Operations for the Master of Science in Finance (MSF) Program. Prior to his appointment at Georgetown University, Dr. Ammerman was a faculty member at West Texas A&M University where he taught courses in corporate finance and valuation. Additionally, Dr. Ammerman has over 10 years of financial management experience working in the for-profit, non-profit, and governmental sectors. Dr. Ammerman’s research is focused on issues at the intersection of household finance and family economics. Dr. Ammerman has presented research at several national conferences, and his work has been published in the core financial planning journals, including the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning and the Journal of Financial Therapy. Dr. Ammerman has been recognized for his innovative approach to researching household finance, specifically in treating the household as a firm and adapting/applying the principles of corporate finance to household financial behavior. Awards include the 2018 Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE) Outstanding Research Journal Article of the Year, and the CFP Board Financial Planning Paper Award at the 2017 meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI). Did you know we have a new book out? Here is how you can be entered for an AUTOGRAPHED giveaway of The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners: Write review of #MusicEdLove wherever you get your podcasts!Subscribe to my mailing list at www.angelaammerman.com I will email the winner the first week of July and then I will send you your very own autographed copy of The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners! Products: How to Teach so Students Remember – by Marilee Sprenger

This episode is SO inspiring! Listen as orchestra director: Annie Ray shares about her chance meeting with the “CAT-B” students at Annandale High School and how she started a program specifically for them! Annie discusses simple accommodations for students with significant or severe disabilities, many of whom are non verbal or have limited verbal communication skills. She shares how more than anything, they have changed her life. You do NOT want to miss this one! Be on the lookout for Annie’s Ted Talk: “The Sounds of Success” to learn more! Did you know we have a new book out? Here is how you can be entered for an AUTOGRAPHED giveaway of The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners: Write review of #MusicEdLove wherever you get your podcasts!Subscribe to my mailing list at www.angelaammerman.com I will email the winner the first week of June and then I will send you your very own copy of The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners! Annie Ray hails from a family of musical performers and educators in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and began playing piano at the age of three and harp at the age of five. A graduate of the University of North Texas in 2017, Annie holds Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Harp Performance. She currently serves as both the Orchestra Director and Leadership teacher at Annandale High School in the Fairfax County Public School system. Annie is an advocate for providing universal access to quality music education and is known for founding and developing creative opportunities to make music accessible to students of all demographics. Her creation of the FCPS Parent Orchestra helps over 150 parents learn to play their child’s instrument each year and has been featured in the County School news several times. In addition, the program also partners with local music colleges to provide hands-on teaching opportunities for future music educators before and during their student teaching. Annie’s collective efforts both in and out of the classroom have received multiple accolades including being declared “Beginning Teacher of the Year” in 2019 and “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” in 2021. This past year, Annie also created a CAT B Orchestra program to bring the joy of Orchestra to special needs High School students with severe developmental or intellectual disabilities. In January 2022, this program was featured and acclaimed on the cover of the Metro section in The Washington Post. TEDx reached out and asked Annie to give a TEDx talk in April 2022, The Sounds of Success, based on this work. She is an active presenter and has been heard at Texas Orchestra Director Association conference with her presentation Harpe Diem: harp in your everyday classroom, Fairfax Arts Coalition for Education on recruitment and retention, upcoming at the 2022 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and as the keynote speaker for Sam Houston State University’s Art of Teaching seminar. She currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Irving, their baby girl Eloise, and her two favorite four-legged hiking buddies: dogs Baymax and Roo. She is an adventurer at heart, and her biggest bucket list item is to one day run The Amazing Race.

You All! I just loved working on this podcast episode with my good friends Kathryn Finch and Theresa Hoover. On this episode, they chat a bit about intrinsic motivation, recorder pen pals (!!!!), sentence stems, empowering students, and SO much more! Check out more by listening and check out Theresa’s FREE professional development HERE! Full STEAM Ahead: Lessons to shift instruction, empower students, and transform your music classroom Everyone Loves a Story: Bringing Books to Life Through Music @Singingfinch1Pass the Baton Book Blog: Off the Beaten Path Book: Pass the Baton: Empowering All Music Students Course: Empowering Music Students Twitter & Instagram: @MusicalTheresa  Passing the Baton: Empowering ALL Students with Theresa Hoover and Kathryn Finch

Join us for this SO needed episode all about navigating the ins and outs of finance and “adulting” in general! In this episode, Nick Averwater, author of Did I Miss This Class?, discusses tracking our expenses and the many streams of income that come with a musicians lifestyle. He shares advice for paying off debt, and hacks for building your credit! Take a bit of time to listen to this episode today and Make Your Money Work for You! Did I Miss This Class? Making Your Money Work for You with Nick Averwater

Nicole is a visionary innovator, groundbreaking string educator, clinician, composer, researcher, speaker, and performing violinist. She created StringRise so that students and educators far and wide can be impacted by the transformational power of innovative string methodology, curriculum, workshops, and products. She believes beginning strings is the key to the thriving, growing, and equitable future of string education. Nicole is an expert in beginning string pedagogy, an innovative composer, engaging speaker, and visionary product developer working to catalyze equity in music education through the StringRise Fellowship and Scholars program. I have been following Nicole and the work she has done for some time now and I have been amazed at the doors she is opening for children all over the world! If you love hearing from Nicole, check out stringrise.com and use MUSICEDLOVE at checkout to earn 10% off of your entire order AND to contribute to paying the conference fee for a future music educator to attend the American String Teachers Association Conference in Georgia! How the First Few Years Might Be Everything with Stringrise Founder: Nicole Melrose Stringrise Box Instruments!!! My little son playing his box violin!