2025-2026 Workshops

When:  October 18th, 2025

9am - 1pm 

Where: Mansfield University

Workshop Description: 

Elevate your teaching and power up your pedagogy through the joyful lens of elemental music and movement! In this hands-on workshop, you'll explore the creative potential of mindful movement, rhythm and melody creation, improvisation storytelling, drawing and more.

With Orff instruments, recorders, and ukuleles in the mix, you'll experience artistically rich, Monday-ready lessons that are immediately usable in your classroom. Bring your hand drum, soprano recorder, ukulele (if you have one), and your sense of adventure. Come ready to make music, make memories, and leave with a treasure trove of ideas to inspire both you and your students!

Drue Bullington teaches elemental music and movement at Brownstown and J.E. Fritz Elementary Schools at Conestoga Valley School District in Lancaster, PA. Drue has a rich and varied background in choral music as a conductor of children’s choral music, private studio instructor and professional choral singer. He is twice a graduate of West Chester University of Pennsylvania having received a B.S. in Music Education and a M.M. in Music Education with a certification in Orff Schulwerk. Nearing completion, his second masters degree is in Online Teaching and Learning from Wilkes University.

He has done extensive post graduate study as well through masterclasses and an apprenticeship program at George Mason University.

Drue serves on the executive board in the office of Secretary for the American Center for Elemental Music and Movement (www.acemm.us)

Drue has taught in several Orff Schulwerk Certification programs around the U.S. and offers numerous professional development and workshop sessions on elemental music and movement through the Orff Schulwerk approach incorporating technology, online teaching and learning strategies and integrating the soprano ukulele into the K-12 music classroom.

When: February 7th, 2026

9am-1pm

Where: Mansfield University

Workshop Description: 

Bring your favorite lesson plan, class activity, or favorite teacher hacks to share with our members!

When: March 28th, 2026

9am-1pm

Where: Mansfield University

Workshop Description: 

Our jobs as general music educators can be complex-typically teaching five or six different grade levels during the course of a week, each with its own content and skills. But with this challenge comes the opportunity to teach students multiple years in a row where we can build on their skills and sequence our instruction.

Here's where I invite you to consider doing MORE with LESS-how can one song or experience apply to multiple areas of learning? How can a piece grow from a song and game in first grade into an arrangement of barred instruments and recorder improvisation in third or fourth grade? Experience several activities that can work with multiple grade levels depending on the focus YOU want to have in your instruction!

Christine Ballenger currently teaches general music and chorus (1-6) in Washington D.C. at Georgetown Day School. She holds degrees in music education and clarinet performance from the University of New Mexico (M.M.) and the University of Puget Sound (B.M. in Music Education), and received her Orff Schulwerk certification from George Mason University. Christine is on the American Orff-Schulwerk Association list of approved instructors for Basic Pedagogy Level I-II, Movement (Levels I-III), and Recorder (Level I), and recently completed two terms on editorial board of The Orff Echo. Additionally, she has taught courses in music for elementary education majors at Bismarck State College and Dickinson State University. Christine has also received training in Kodaly and World Music Drumming, and completed the “International Summer Course” in 2018 at the Orff Institute, in Salzburg, Austria.