Selecting and buying sheet music for your beginning ensembles can be an intimidating and expensive process. Choosing poorly can waste your precious budget and turn students off of learning and improving, while choosing well encourages students to work harder and grow quickly. This session will help you to understand what to look for when choosing music for beginning concert band and jazz band that will hook students on performing and take their skills to the next level.

Presented: Interlude 2017, Opus 100 2019, Elevate 2022, UWOMESA 2019, TVDSB 2019

We all have ideas about how to teach composition, but how many of these actually encourage students to be creative? Are students creating music or just regurgitating what we learn in class? This research-informed workshop presents strategies to help students create music individually and in groups, including lesson plans and resources for improving students' creative expression.

Presented: TVDSB 2019, Elevate Music Conference 2022

The connections between music and literacy are often ignored, but they share so many common traits and practices that we ignore them at our disadvantage. By comparing the creativity, comprehension, processes and materials of both language and music we can gain a greater understanding of both, and encourage our students to do the same.

Presented: TVDSB LitCon 2016

Band C.A.M.P. (Colleagues Assisting in Musical Pursuits) is a program designed to help instrumental music teachers learn and improve the specialized skills needed to teach instrumental music at the middle school level. Topics covered include classroom setup, choosing music, instrument repair, how to teach complex ideas, and more.

Presented: iInspire 2015

The Ontario Curriculum tasked teachers with creating a musical with their grade 8 students, which at the time seemed completely unfeasible. This workshop shows how students can overcome this daunting task and create a show they can be proud of.

Presented: UWOMESA Conference 2004

Jazz is an engaging and intelligent genre to teach at the elementary level, incorporating creativity, performing, and music history. This workshop introduces elementary music teachers to teaching jazz to their students, including resources and practical lessons they can use with their classes immediately.