September 13, 2025 

9AM - 1PM 

Balinese Children's Songs & Games and Ethical Song Choices

with Dr. Brent Talbot

Acclaimed music educator, Dr. Brent C. Talbot, has traveled the world researching how people learn and teach music in various cultural spaces across the globe. In this workshop, Dr. Talbot will share the lessons he has learned from various indigenous populations and will challenge music teachers to consider ethical ways for preparing, presenting, and performing music from cultures outside their own. Join us for a four-hour workshop on September 13th and walk away with a collection of materials and resources from Dr. Talbot’s extensive research in Bali, Indonesia. 

November 15, 2025

9AM - 1PM 

Integrating Orff Instruments into a Kodály Inspired Classroom with Nichole Witman

Orff instruments are often a staple in the general music classroom, but as a Kodály inspired teacher, are you making the most of them?  Explore ways to sequence and scaffold experiences for beginners of all ages with a focus on basic technique, as well as connections to music literacy, improvisation and the joy of making music together.  You will leave this session with practical ideas that you can immediately apply to your lessons and inspiration to integrate the Orff instruments into your regular routine.

Our favorite Things

January 10, 2026 

10AM - 12PM 

followed by social 

Music educators gather together to share their favorite things from their teaching and learning.  Bring a beloved song, singing game, or musical experience from your classroom.  Together, we will share stories, reflect, and creatively expand upon each presentation in order to deepen our own classroom practice.  We will also invite participants to show and tell their favorite interactive manipulative teaching tool/visual music literacy activity to inspire new ideas for hands-on activities that enrich children’s emerging musical intelligence.  For some mid-year inspiration, we simply remember a few of our favorite things.

Sunday, May 3, 2026

12-4PM 

Kinesthetic Strategies through Creative Movement

Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities

with Dr. Alice Hammel 

We will spend our first hour engaging in a sequenced creative movement set for ages Pre-K-8. This presentation helps us learn ways students can let us know their understanding of concepts without verbal communications. After our creative movement beginning, we will focus on how to create adaptations and modifications (winding backward and forward) for students in our classes. We will learn how and why adaptations are for every student; and winding is used for students, either not ready for our neurotypical objective (need concepts wound back in the sequence) or for students who are beyond our neurotypical objectives and need concepts further along in our sequence as we wind forward for them. Both presentations will be active and fun. Please wear active and fun attire!