Official Publication of the Arizona Music Educators Association, Inc.

AMEA WEB SITE: www.azmea.org

FALL 2012

ARIZONAMUSIC

EDUCA

TORS ASSOCIATIO

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Est. 1939

FIRST ON-LINE ISSUE

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1017 North Olive RoadP.O. Box 210004, Tucson, AZ 85721-0004520-621-1655 phone · 520-621-8118 faxwww.music.arizona.edu

AdministrationRex A. Woods, directorBruce Chamberlain, assistant director for academic student servicesEdward Reid, assistant director for advancement and development Distinguished University Outreach ProfessorJohn T. Brobeck, director of graduate studies

Honors ProgramJanet SturmanJohn Milbauer

Critical StudiesJohn T. Brobeck, musicology*Daniel Asia, compositionPamela Decker, theory, compositionStephen Keyl, musicologyBrian Moon, music in general studies, musicologyBoyd Pomeroy, theoryJay Rosenblatt, musicologyJanet Sturman, ethnomusicology, music in general studiesDon Traut, theory (sabbatical spring 2013)Craig Walsh, theory, composition

Ensembles & ConductingElizabeth Schauer, associate director of choral activities*Daniel Asia, contemporary ensembleBruce Chamberlain, director of choral activitiesThomas Cockrell, director of orchestral activities Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair in MusicGregg Hanson, director of bandsJeffrey Haskell, jazz ensemblesMoisés Paiewonsky, jazz ensembles Jay Rees, associate director of bands, director of athletic bandsCharles Roe, director of opera theater Amelia T. Rieman Endowed Chair in OperaGilbert Vélez, mariachi ensembles

Jazz StudiesJeffrey Haskell*Moisés PaiewonskyKeith Pawlak

KeyboardJohn Milbauer, piano*Michael Dauphinais, collaborative pianoPamela Decker, organ, harpsichordPaula Fan, collaborative piano Regents’ ProfessorTannis Gibson, pianoJeffrey Haskell, jazz pianoSuzanne Knosp, dance accompanimentRex Woods, pianoLisa Zdechlik, piano pedagogy, class piano

Music EducationShelly Cooper* (sabbatical fall 2012)Tami DravesDon HamannJeremy ManternachKarin Nolan

StringsMark Rush, violin* (sabbatical fall 2012)Carrol McLaughlin, harp Distinguished ProfessorTom Patterson, guitar Sandy Bolton Endowed Chair in GuitarJason Roederer, bassMark Votapek, celloEmma Votapek, violin, violaHong-Mei Xiao, viola (sabbatical spring 2013)

VoiceCharles Roe*Kristin DauphinaisGrayson HirstFaye Robinson

Wind & PercussionKelly Thomas, tuba, euphonium*William Dietz, bassoonSara Fraker, oboeRobin Horn, percussionDaniel Katzen, hornJerry Kirkbride, clarinetBrian Luce, fluteMoisés Paiewonsky, tromboneEdward Reid, trumpetKelland Thomas, saxophoneKimberly Toscano, percussionNorman Weinberg, percussion

Recording StudioWiley Ross, recording studio coordinator

* area coordinator

Degrees Offered

Bachelor of Music DegreeB.M. Composition, Jazz Studies, Performance,Instrumental Music Education, Vocal Music Education

B.A. Music

Master of Music and Doctoral DegreesM.M. Composition, Conducting, Musicology,Music Education, Music Theory, Performance

D.M.A. Composition, Conducting, Performance

Ph.D. Music Education, Music Theory

Upcoming Auditions

Friday, October 26, 2012 – Voice (in conjunction with the UA Honor Choir Festival)

Thursday, January 10, 2013 - Brass, woodwind, percussion (in conjunction with the Southwest Honor Band)

Saturdays, February 16 & 23, 2013 - All instruments & voice

Sunday, March 3, 2013 - All instruments & voice(in Scottsdale, Arizona)

2012-2013

3 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

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QuaverClassAd_AZ_AMEA_Fall12.pdf 1 9/4/12 2:20 PM

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AMEA Sustaining Members

AMEA appreciates the support given our organization by the following Sustaining Members:

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Q_Testimonial_AZ_AMEA_Fall12.pdf 1 9/4/12 2:26 PM

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Official Publication of the Arizona Music Educators Association, Inc.

Send editorial copy to:Merry Carol Spencere-mail: marcy.spencer@gilbertschools.net

Send advertising copy to:Carol Vogt8455 N La Oesta AveTucson, AZ 85704520-544-0929 e-mail: cvogt@mac.com

Deadlines for submission:Fall 2013–September 1, 2013Winter 2013–November 15, 2012 Spring 2013–February 1, 2013

ISSN: 0519-6129

F A L L 2 0 1 2

Prestige Publications, Publisher

Merry Carol Spencer, Editor

Carol Vogt, Designer

CONTRIBUTORS:

Ryan Bledsoe

Tara Cleveland

Gloria Day

Rob Nichols

Doug Orzolek

Julia Hollis

Laura Scholten

Marshall Stewart

Lynn Tuttle

VOLUME 57 , NUMBER 1

Copyright 2012 by the Arizona Music Educators Association, Inc. All changes of address should be sent directly to David Waggoner6818 E. Kingston Place Tucson, AZ 85710. All articles and photos that are submitted become the property of the Arizona Music Educators Association, Inc.

CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS:

9 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Rob Nichols, AMEA President

11 HELLO AZ CHORAL EDUCATORS! IT’S OFFICIAL Julia Hollis, ACE President

12 TIPS FOR SUBSTITUTE PLANS! SOMETHING WE ALL NEED! Gloria Day, Retired Music Educator

13 HAPPY FALL ACE Tara Cleveland, Arizona Choral Educators (ACE), VP of ES/JHS Activities

16 BACK TO SCHOOL FOR AMEA ELEMENTARY AND JUNIOR HIGH ACTIVITIES Laura Scholten, AMEA Vice President, Elementary and Junior High Activities

18 COMMON CORE IS HERE—DON’T PANIC! Lynn Tuttle, Arts Specialist, Arizona Department of Education

21 RAISING CREATIVITY Ryan Bledsoe, Student in Music Education at ASU

25 YOUR ROLE IN MUSIC TEACHER EVALUATION Doug Orzolek, Chair, Society for Music Teacher Education for NAfME

29 ADJUDICATION CERTIFICATION MAKES A DIFFERENCE . . . ARE YOU CERTIFIED? Marshall Stewart, AMEA Adjudicator Chair

CONTENTSCONTRIBUTORSCONTRIBUTORS

7 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

CONTENTSCONTENTS ContinuedADVERTISERS:

27 Arizona State University, Herberger College of the Arts http://music.asu.edu/admissions/

10 Forum Music Festivals http://www.forummusicfestivals.com

20 Music & Arts http://www.musicarts.com

19 Music Mart http://www.musicmart.com

24 Northern Arizona University http://nau.edu.music.auditions

3 Quaver Music — Class Ad http://www.quavermusic.com/preview/

5 Quaver Music— Testimonial http://www.quavermusic.com/preview

28 Tour West America http://tourwestamerica.com2 University of Arizona School of Music

http://www.music.arizona.edu17 University of Portland

http://www.up.edu/music8 Yamaha Harmony Director

http://www.4wrd.it/hdamn214 Yamaha MIE

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INFORMATIONAL:4 AMEA Sustaining Members15 Ear Candy Charity

Helping Music Teachers Get Instruments for Students

30 Memorial — Janice Greisch

NAfME7 Collegiate NAfME Chapter13 Give a Note26 Ask the Mentors29 My Music Class30 Weekly Professional Development Webinars31 Join NAfME

It shall be the purpose of this organization to: make available to members opportunities for professional development; ac-quaint students with the privileges and responsibilities of the music education profession; provide all members with the op-portunity to become acquainted with leaders in the music ed-ucation profession through participation in programs, demon-strations, discussions, workshops, and performances planned by this chapter, the state music educators association, and the National Association for Music Education;assist the school in various projects throughout the year; and provide the oppor-tunity to have contact with Collegiate members from other schools.• the professional interests of members involved in the lo-cal, state, division, and national levels; the music industry’s role in support of music education; and the knowledge and

practices of the professional music edu-

Start a Chapter Today!

musiced.nafme.org/collegiate

Why Start a Collegiate NAfME Chapter?

•Professional credibility•Network of students and educators•Tools & Resources •Professional development •Leadership opportunities

Membership in the National Association for Music Education provides:

Membership can help your students succeed.

8 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

This comprehensive education tool brings harmony training,rhythm training and ensemble timing together in one convenienteducator resource. It enables music educators to clearly demonstrate for students how to tune individual notes withinchords, so that entire chords may be tuned. The HD-200 HarmonyDirector helps musicians understand how their parts fit into thecomplete harmony of the ensemble.

http://www.4wrd.it/hdamn2

9 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

Forty new high school band

directors have been added

to the teaching ranks in

Arizona. Wow! As I work each

day with two new colleagues at

Dobson High School, I must ad-

mit I’m feeling my age. But this

is so encouraging. Think of the

opportunities! It is time for those

of us with experience to cheer-

fully take on even greater roles of

mentorship to the newest teach-

ers among us. They need our sup-

port now more than ever. When I

hear of budget issues and cuts be-

ing made to education, it is easy

to believe we are “just hanging

on to what we have.” Well folks,

enough! It’s time we stop hoping,

and start creating innovative ways

to improve our delivery of music

education.

Your AMEA board is taking

stock of our programs and sys-

tems, and looking for areas to

strengthen. The board identified

three areas to focus on this year:

1) High School Solo and Ensemble

Festival

2) Growing the AMEA Teachers’

In-Service Conference

3) Bolstering our service to Ari-

zona’s Collegiate Educators

We are working hard to provide

creative solutions in each of these

areas.

In addition, increased costs

have quickened some changes in

two areas for AMEA: 1) the Arizo-

na Music News will be published

online to reduce printing and post-

age costs; and 2) the fee structure

for membership has changed to

cover added operating expenses.

These are necessary changes in

order to improve the quality and

experiences of our members and

their students.

In order to find us easily, book-

mark AMEA (www.azmea.org)

on your search-engine desktop!

Webmaster David Duarte and

AMEA Executive Director David

Waggoner, continue to work hard

to improve this site. It now serves

not only as a top flight website,

but as a valuable content manage-

ment system. I believe you will be

Messagefrom thePresidentby Rob Nichols

very happy as AMEA continues

to make improvements in technol-

ogy and communication.

Finally, make a decision right

now to join us January 30 – Feb-

ruary 2, 2013 for the largest music

teacher in-service in Arizona. This

year we are seeking to be more in-

clusive of all music educators in

the state. We have created an av-

enue for members of other music

teacher organizations to join in the

AMEA In-Service Conference.

They can now attend our confer-

ence at a more affordable rate and

be part of the largest gathering of

AZ music educators and future

educators. We have some amaz-

ing workshops planned. Your job

is to encourage your colleagues

to attend. Find a music educator

younger than you or that teaches

in tough situations, and encour-

age them to be a part of us. We are

stronger when we’re together!

Have a great year and see you

at the conference!

Robert Nichols

President, AMEA

10 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

TOGETHER…ENCOURAGING STUDENT MUSICIANS

2013 FESTIVAL SEASON

• Bands • Orchestras • Choirs and More!

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ONE-DAY PACKAGES Include adjudicated festival, awards ceremony, and theme park admission.

• Flexible payment plan – “only pay for those who play”

• Great venues set the stage for your ensemble to perform with confidence

• Enjoy any theme park or attraction on any festival date. Awards are at the venue, not the park!

MULTI-DAY OVERNIGHT PACKAGES Include adjudicated festival, awards ceremony, lodging, breakfast, and attraction

• Design your trip with our experienced staff. We’re up-to-date on details that make your trip fun, suitable for your age group, and within your budget.

• Comprehensive itinerary makes your trip picture perfect and hassle-free

• Safe, secure lodging at a great value! Breakfast always included. Affordable meal ideas that work for student groups!

• Motor Coach quotes & educational activities of all types can be added!

DATES & DETAILS ON OUR WEBSITE OR REGISTER ONLINE! WWW.FORUMFESTIVALS.COM

To request a Directorʻs Guide or for more information, Call us toll-free. 1-888-76-FORUM (763-6786)

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Through June 2013 in Quality VenuesANAHEIM | SAN FRANCISCO | LOS ANGELES | SAN DIEGO

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FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES IN CONCERT-QUALITY VENUES THROUGHOUT CALIFORNIA

• Constructive, positive feedback from nationally known adjudicators

• Friday or Saturday festivals

• All ages & abilities are welcome: high school, middle school, elementary school

• Motivational awards ceremony at the venue, not at the park

• Student scholarship program for returning schools and directors

Forum Music FestivalsFor 18 years, Forum Music

Festivals has enriched studentsʻ lives through performance!

11 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

It’s official! After a 90% positive response, Cho-DA is now “ACE”- Arizona Choral Educators. Thank you so much for all of the feedback that

we received. We appreciate your response! We are excited for our new name this year and the wonder-ful events that we have coming up.

SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE

Website:

With our new name, we also have a new web ad-dress http://www.azchoraleducators.org. The old web address will redirect you for awhile, but please take a moment to update your bookmarks.

Twitter:

Our webmaster, Tess Birch, has been busy with not only updating our website, but also creating an ACE Twitter account. If you are on Twitter, make sure you follow @AZChoralEd to get all the latest reminders for deadlines and choral events in our state.

https://www.twitter.com/azchoraled

Facebook:

We also have a Facebook page! Join us on Facebook to connect with choral directors from around our state.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/118857554837733/ UPCOMING DEADLINES

Friday, September 29: All State Jazz & Show Auditions at Boulder Creek HS

Friday, Oct. 5 & 6: HS Fall Festival at 2 sites- Tucson and Phoenix

Friday, October 5- Deadline: ES/JH Fall Festival Registration (Festival is on Sat. Nov. 3)

Registration for all ACE events should be done on the AMEA Website or you can click on the event registration link on the ACE website.

http://www.azmea.org

CONFERENCE PERFORMANCES

The ACE board will be meeting in October to choose performing ensembles for the AMEA conference. Please visit our new ACE website for details on how to submit your choir to be considered for performance. We would love to hear from your group!

If your email address has changed, or if you would prefer to receive ACE email blasts to a different email address, please let me know.

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me or any of our ACE board members. All of the board’s email addresses are listed on the ACE website.

Have a wonderful school year! Julia

Julia Hollis Esperero Canyon Middle School

Choir Director President, Arizona Choral Educators (ACE)

Hello AZ Choral Educators!It’s official!

by Julia Hollis, ACE President

12 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

Tips for Substitute Plans!

Something We ALL Need!

by Gloria Day, Retired Music Educator

It is always hard to be away from your class. Sometimes it is easier to teach when you are

sick than to write up specific sub plans. This is not always the best idea! Planning to be absent is a necessary evil, but it will save your health and sanity! Every class and every teacher has specific needs. I will try to present some helpful tips for you to use or adapt.

Sub Notebook

Prepare a notebook or folder with clearly labeled Sub Plans and leave it on your desk or in the of-fice for the sub to pick up. You can prepare this at the beginning of the year and just update any changes. In the notebookm, you should have the following:1. Your detailed schedule, school

map and directions/map if you travel to another school.

2. The names and locations of a teacher or staff member should they have questions.

3. Class rosters and seating charts are very helpful. I used student ID photos on my seating charts. Ask the office for copies or use a digital camera. This took a lot of time initially, but proved to be very worthwhile to myself and substitutes.

4. Identify a student or two in each class that can help the sub.

5. Include emergency plans for fire drills, lock downs, etc.

6. List your class or school rules and consequences.

7. Outline regular classroom proce-dures (restroom, drinks, health office, distributing materials, use of instruments, what students are required to bring to class, what is not allowed, etc.)

Lesson Plans

These are very important if you want any actual teaching and learning accomplished in your absence. Write clear, specific les-son plans including where to find all the materials. Write more things than you really expect so they don’t run out of activities.

Depending on the substitute, you may want to leave a con-tingency plan for someone that is not a musician. For elemen-tary general music, this could include a list of favorite songs with CD’s and books, reading a few children’s books, playing games (with easy directions) or worksheets with easy directions. For elementary or middle school instrumental classes, this could also include a student-choice day

to play favorite songs, or a day when students play solos, play in small groups or become student conductors.

Choosing a Substitute

If you have any choice in a sub-stitute, try to get the same one or two and train them! Give the sub a call the day before (if you can) to establish a connection and convey your concerns. One year I had to be out 2 times a month for school district work. I found a substitute I liked and trained her in my class-room procedures. Sometimes it is better to get a substitute that has good classroom control and can teach, than worrying if they can teach music.

Finally, treat your substitutes well and make them feel appreci-ated. Write a thank you note to them. It is a tough job. Ask them to communicate how the day went with specific feedback on classes and students. Tell your students you will be talking to the sub after your absence. Ask your students how things went while you were gone. I hope these ideas are help-ful. Just like all good teaching, preparation is the key!

Gloria Day, Retired Arizona Music Educator

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I hope the beginning of the year has been a wonderful one! Now that the weather is final-

ly cooling down it’s time to think CHORAL FESTIVALS!

The ES/JH division of ACE needs your assistance. We’re look-ing for venues and adjudicators to hold our Fall Motivational Festi-val on Saturday, November 3rd. This festival is pretty headache free because it’s such an encourag-ing environment. We try to make

Happy Fall ACE

by Tara S. Cleveland, Arizona Choral Educators (ACE),

VP of ES/JHS Activities

this festival non-threatening for our students and easy on the site hosts and adjudicators.

I need two different ven-ues for the festival. One venue needs to be in the greater Tuc-son area and one needs to be in the Phoenix area. Your facility need not be too fancy. We need a stage with risers and a piano, a classroom for warm up (with a keyboard/piano) and a class-room for the clinic (with a pia-no/keyboard). We can also look

This Holiday Season, Give Thanks, Give Gifts, But Most Importantly...Give a Note!Music education is a powerfully positive part of a child’s life! The leaders of NAfME created Give a Note Foundation to connect everyone who cares about music education and empower them to fight for music education in children’s lives. As a music educator, YOU need to be part of this new call to action. As we approach the season of giving, we ask you to “give a note” about a

musical future and make a donation to support Give a Note Foundation.

Please include your donation in the envelope in this magazine or scan the QR code below to go to our giveanote.org donation site. For more information, please visit giveanote.org. Follow us on Twitter @giveanote and ‘like’ us on Facebook Give a Note.

at doing the clinic onstage as well. That can be really fun! There is a $75.00 site host stipend for help-ing us out. I’d like this year to be very laid back with a fun and en-couraging atmosphere!

As for adjudicators, I will po-tentially need three per site. These individuals should preferably teach at the high school level or higher so all the ES/JH directors can be free to bring their groups. Please email me if you are inter-ested.

Let’s get these venues nailed down so the registration can be-gin!

Best to you,

Tara S. Cleveland Director of Choral Music, Vulture Peak Middle School/ Wickenburg High School ACE VP of ES/JH Activities

14 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

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Yamaha Music in Education (MIE) is a technology-based general music

program with a unique and engaging method, a special two-student

keyboard, and now a new iPad app that gives teachers total control of

instruments and learning materials from anywhere in the room. The iPad

also gives teachers instant access to MIE textbooks and other course

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15 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

Helping Music Teachers Get Instruments for StudentsEar Candy Charity is a Tempe,

Arizona based non-profit dedi-cated to providing youth access to music education. Our goal is to equip, empower, and enlighten youth through music, and we know that educators play a critical role in providing our youth the access to an arts education they deserve.

The most impactful way we ac-complish our mission is through Instrument Drives where we give donors an opportunity to give their old instrument new life by getting it out of the closet and into the hands of students. On Sep-tember 17, 2012, we are thrilled to launch our new Online Instru-ment Drive system which will al-low YOU the opportunity to re-quest instruments for your music program and students.

The Online Instrument Drive (http://earcandycharity.org/page/Online-In-strument-Drive.aspx) system is a web-based donation platform hosted on Ear Candy’s website. It con-nects music teachers and their students with instrument and fi-nancial donors in the community. The donation process starts when a music teacher posts an instru-ment request on the website. Once posted, instrument and financial donors can view the request, see pictures of the students, and read about the music program’s needs. In response, instrument and finan-

cial donors are empowered to de-cide which program(s) they want to support, and have the assurance of knowing exactly where their donations are going. They even have the opportunity to add their own personal story to the request about why music education is im-portant to them, and why they chose to support the request they did.

We want to help make music teachers successful, and our goal was to create an easy to use tool for teachers to get the resources (instruments) they need to be the best teachers they can possibly be! From start to finish, the instru-ment donation process is transpar-ent, interactive and engaging for all parties involved. At the same time, it captures and shares the stories of music teachers, students, instrument donors, and financial donors involved in the process.

The official public launch of the Online Instrument Drive sys-tem will take place September 17. Between now and then are we asking driven teachers like YOU to submit requests and tell your fellow teachers! Your requests cre-ate the demand for our services and we in turn will drum up the supply to fill those requests, (pun intended!). You can also help by supporting our Online Giving

Campaign on the popular crowd-funding website, http://www.indiegogo.com/EarCandy. Ear Candy Charity has until September 14 to reach its goal of $25,000. All funds raised will support the Online Instru-ment Drive system. http://earcan-dycharity.org/page/Online-Instrument-Drive.aspx

HOW TO APPLY1. Create an Account: http://www.

earcandycharity.org/Account/register.aspx?Type=Teacher

2. Submit a request with a com-pelling story as to why YOUR students deserve instruments

3. Spread the word to other teach-ers!

SUPPORT EAR CANDY CHARITY

1. Visit http://www.Indiegogo.com/EarCandy

2. Claim any of the 12 unique perks by making a contribution. Perks start at just $5.

3. Use the simple share tools in the campaign to help Ear Candy spread the word to friends and family.

LINKS:

Ear Candy Charity website – http://www.earcandycharity.org

Ear Candy on Indiegogo – http://www.Indiegogo.com/EarCandy

16 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

School is underway and most of us are deep into our teaching strategies and preparing for fall concerts by now! Me, well, I was sup-

posed to be retired, but alas, it was not to happen this fall!! I am in fact teaching my same bands that I have been teaching for the past 31 years, plus the orchestra we added last year. The good part is that I’m done by 10:40am 4 days a week and 11:45 one day a week, and…it’s supposed to be ONLY until Christmas. Shameless plug here for a replacement for me after Christmas. HOWEVER, that is NOT the purpose of this article! I’d like to discuss begin-ning of the year tactics for beginning band classes, especially at the elementary level.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all have “like” in-strument classes for the first year or half of the year if possible? Unfortunately, because of budget cuts, I bet most of us have all the students together MAY-BE twice a week for 30-45 minutes. On top of this, it is generally a pullout and the teachers forget to send the kids or don’t send the kids because they are behind in their schoolwork. SO, how do we teach beginners ANYTHING with the time and schedule restraints?

Talking with veteran teachers, I get lots of differ-ent scenarios. One teacher starts 4th graders on flute, clarinet and trumpet only. Students meet once per week with like instruments and once per week all together. In 5thand 6th grade, other instruments are added and students meet all together twice per week for 40 minutes.

Schools that don’t start band until 6th grade tend to meet with their students all together and most teachers I talked to still only have two 40-45 minute

sessions per week. Another teacher starts all kids in 6th grade and allows them to play any of the “ba-sic” instruments except saxophone (believing that saxophone players excel more if started on clarinet). Those students meet 45 minutes twice per week as well in a whole group setting.

My district is a little different because our 6th grade is part of the Junior High and therefore my band classes are multi-grade level and students are placed in classes based on skill-level instead of grade level.

My Beginning Band class includes 6th, 7th  and 8th graders and they may play any instrument they would like to play. I’ve always been a firm believer that to limit the number of players in a section be-cause of instrumentation may cause a future profes-sional musician to drop out because they did not get the instrument they wanted in the first place and I can tell you for sure that if I had not been able to play the flute in my 5th grade band, I would NOT be teaching music now!

Because I was also teaching the 4th/5th grade gen-eral music classes, I would spend the last two weeks of school introducing all the instruments to the stu-dents and allowing them to try mouthpieces to see which fit them the best. The last day of school, each 4th/5th grade student would receive a letter from me stapled to their final report card letting the parents know which instruments the student might excel on based on the testing completed.

I found that this got the kids AND the parents more excited about band and guided the student toward the instrument that would best fit his/her

Back to School for

AMEA Elementary and

Junior High Activities

By Laura Scholten

Continued on next page

17 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

physical features and that would be enjoyable to play.

In my years of teaching, I have never started 4th graders in band. I started with 6th graders my first several years, but again the 6th grade was part of the junior high so the students had the class every day and progress was tremendous.

I added 5th grade and have taught that band before school, at lunch and during the day as a pullout. It was always a struggle for me to keep students in the program because they didn’t want to miss any recess time or “fun” time in class if the classroom teacher planned an activity for the other students while the band students were in their band class.

I may be truly in the minority, but overall, I have to say because of the make up of our district and the curriculum restraints on the regular classroom teacher, I have become more and more in favor of starting band when the students can have the class as a ‘regular’ class that is part of their school day. I am having great success with my beginners now.

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By 6th grade, they are physically and mentally more ready to play an instrument and succeed.

As I look back over the years, my school has al-ways offered a beginning band at the JH level (even when we were only a 7/8 JH). Some of my best musicians and now band directors began band in 8th grade!

Obviously, the optimum would be for every el-ementary band student to have the opportunity for small group, individual and whole group instruction. Each of us has to adapt to the rest of our school’s constraints in order to reach the students we wish to have in band and we all do the best we can to build great programs and send lots of students on to the junior high and high school levels.

I hope all of you have a successful and fun-filled year of making music!

Laura Scholten AMEA Vice President, Elementary/Jr. High Activities

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The Common Core standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics are driving factors in the educational reforms facing public education today. As an arts educator in the schools, as a teaching artist who provides supplemental instruction with students in and out of school, as a cultural organization working to partner with a school, and/or as an arts education advocate, how can you approach the Common Core standards?

As information swirls around this topic, I am reminded of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, http://earcandycharity.org/page/Online-Instrument-Drive.aspx, and I begin by recommending the first rule of galaxy hitchhiking, or in this case, connecting to the Common Core: DON’T PANIC! Here are the reasons why I believe panic is misguided:

1. The Common Core standards, while they expressly contain literacy references across the curriculum, do not replace content standards in other subject areas. Teaching the arts still means teaching to arts standards. Arts standards are set by your state – visit the State Arts Education Policy Database to find your state’s standards. http://earcandycharity.org/page/Online-Instrument-Drive.aspx

a. You can also remain up to date on the revision of the National Arts Education Standards – the basis for most state standards – at the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards wiki. http://earcandycharity.org/page/Online-Instrument-Drive.aspx

2. The Common Core ELA/Literacy standards are ripe with places of deep connection to the arts. These standards ask for very strong instructional shifts in the teaching of literacy.http://earcandycharity.org/page/Online-Instrument-Drive.aspx. I encourage you to research these instructional shifts – my favorite way to dig into them is watching the NY State videos done by David Coleman, http://earcandycharity.org/page/Online-Instrument-Drive.aspx soon to be head of The College Board http://earcandycharity.org/page/Online-Instrument-Drive.aspx.

State of ArizonaDepartment of Education

Lynn Tuttle, Director of Arts Education and Comprehensive CurriculumStatewide arts assessments

Common Core is Here—Don’t Panic!By Lynn Tuttle; Arts Specialist, Arizona Department of Education

3. Instructional shifts of interest (and relative ease?) to arts educators:

a. Focus on the text in order to answer questions raised in class. Reading and comprehending text is the end goal of these ELA standards. While the-atre certainly includes text reading as part of its discipline, all arts areas include texts within the critique and evaluation parts of our disciplines.

b. IF you use a very broad definition of text to include any primary source material, then you can practice the tools of the ELA Common Core standards by closely “reading” or analyzing a painting, a dance, a musical performance. The work we do in the arts – to engage students in critically approaching artistic works – is an almost natural fit with the Common Core ELA standards.

c. Use your content vocabulary. The arts engage students in content and context-specific vocabu-lary in a wide variety of ways and every day. We are rich with our own terms, and we use them with our students. This reinforces development of rich, domain specific vocabulary for our stu-dents – part of the Common Core ELA standards.

d. Reinforce the development of academic vocab-ulary in our work with students. Academic vocabulary refers to words such as compare, contrast, synthesize, analyze – the words which we expect students to know but don’t often spend time defining for them. As arts educators, we have a wonderful opportunity to make these academic words come alive in our classrooms. By being purposeful in defining them and then using them in an artistic context, we will help students build their confidence and knowledge of these words – the gatekeepers to success in secondary and post-secondary education.

And I leave you with the second rule for hitchhiking around the galaxy, and/or thinking about the Common Core – and that’s: ALWAYS bring a towel. Why a towel? Because, as you work through your

Continued on next page

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relationship as an arts educator with the Common Core standards, there will be moments when I suggest you throw a towel over the Common Core standards, and ignore them. Your work as an arts educator, as a teaching artist, as a cultural organization, is to teach the creative and artistic processes to your students. At times, that means you will not be engaging in Common Core work. And that’s OK.

Focus on your students’ art making, and incorpo-rate appropriate connections to the Common Core when those connections make sense. Be purposeful in your use of vocabulary – whether artistic or aca-demic; be mindful of deeply “reading” works of art; but continue to engage in the creation and perfor-mance/presentation of the arts – this is our purpose in the galaxy, isn’t it?

References in the text:

1. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(novel)

2. State Arts Education Policy Database: http://www.aep-arts.org/research-policy/state-policy-data-base/

3. National Coalition for Core Arts Standards: http://nccas.wikispaces.com/

4. Instructional shifts in the teaching of literacy: http://engageny.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/common-core-shifts.pdf

5. NY State videos done by David Coleman: http://usny.nysed.gov/rttt/resources/bringing-the-common-core-to-life.html

6. The College Board: http://www.collegeboard.org/

20 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

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Raising Creativity

In a class I took a couple of years ago, I was struck by how dif-ficult it was for a group of music educators to agree on what quali-ties a creative person demonstrat-ed. Is a creative person someone with green, pink, or purple hair? Could be. Is a creative person an outcast from society? Not neces-sarily. Are you creative? Many of my classmates said that they did not consider themselves to be creative. What?! I have come to consider myself as being creative in the decade or so since being an undergraduate, but upon hearing their responses to this question, I found myself questioning whether I was in fact creative or just flatter-ing myself.

When it comes down to it, I am creative, so were they, and so are you. Our students are creative, too. Yes, every single one of them. Some of them just require more help to realize their potential or to boost their confidence in them-selves as creative thinkers (musi-cally and otherwise). So the ques-tion is; what is creativity? What makes a person creative? To an-swer these questions I will explore creativity through defining it, dis-cussing how to use it in the class-

Raising Creativity

By Ryan Bledsoe

room, how functional fixedness can get in the way of creativity, how motivation can help or hin-der it, and finally how educators can inspire it through questioning students and providing feedback.

Defining Creativity

According to E. Paul Torrance, creativity is “a natural human pro-cess in which a person becomes aware of a problem, difficulty, or gap in information for which he has no learned response; search-es for possible solutions from his own past experiences and those of others; formulates hypotheses about possible solutions; evalu-ates these possible solutions and tests them; modifies them and re-tests them; and communicates the results to others” (6).

It is important for us to cre-ate situations in our classrooms where students are encouraged to think of their own ideas that they get to try, whether we believe them to be good ideas or not. The ex-perience a student has when they are able to encounter a problem, think of a solution, and try their solution helps to build thinking skills and confidence in their abil-ity to make decisions. Remember-ing that being creative does not necessarily mean changing the course of music is also important. If we encourage students to make

many small decisions about their musical experiences when they are young, then the big decisions later on will come more naturally.

Creativity in the ClassroomVery simply put, classroom cre-

ativity involves student curiosity, choice, and action with respect to problem solving. In the book Teaching for Musical Understand-ing, Jackie Wiggins identifies three areas of focus for problem solving in the music classroom: perform-ing, listening, and creating (which she describes as composing, im-provising, and arranging) (69). Student performance of a written piece does not constitute student creativity, unless, of course, that piece was composed by the stu-dent themselves.

For example, having students create a variation of a particular piece they are learning not only forces them to think of and use the elements of music we strive to teach them, but it also provides them with a better understanding of the music and a closer connec-tion to the music class through de-cision making and ownership. If students are encouraged to work on creative activities in small groups rather than independently, they are able to try ideas that may not have occurred to them and

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22 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

may be above their current abil-ity. Finally, if students are asked to share their work with others, they can learn from the feedback of their peers as well as from the products their peers present to them.

It has been my experience that students want to create and really do not require much direction. In fact, even kindergarteners are able to compose music with minimal instructions (i.e. “choose one in-strument”). It comes so naturally to them that often times we are the ones who inhibit their creativ-ity. This brings me to functional fixedness.

Escaping Functional Fixedness

Karl Duncker was a Gestalt psychologist who described func-tional fixedness as “when a prob-lem solver sees an object as hav-ing a specific function, [which makes it] far more difficult for him to see it as serving any other function” (Hunt 338). This is a problem that experts have. We as music teachers are the experts and how we choose to use that in our classrooms varies from teach-er to teacher. If we choose to be-have like we know the right and wrong ways to be musicians or to simply solve problems, we can easily quash the creative ideas of our students by making them feel wrong.

There are many examples of this in the music classroom, but the most visible one with respect to composing can be demanding the use of notation (both notes and the vocabulary used for ex-pression). Wiggins points out that “requirements to ‘write your piece down’ can limit creativity, even when nonstandard notation

is acceptable and encouraged” (116). A student’s ability to repre-sent visually what they are play-ing lags far behind what they are capable of performing. The rea-son for this is that anytime we ap-ply symbols or words to represent music, we use them metaphori-cally. Depending on the devel-opmental age of a student, this can be very difficult for them to understand, let alone apply to a self-created piece of music. Wig-gins encourages teachers to have students compose without the re-quirement of writing it down so as to not inhibit their ideas.

We give students the idea that they have to know what they are doing and the words or symbols to describe what they are play-ing/experiencing before they can create music. I know this be-cause students create sounds and songs long before they come into the music classroom without ever having to write them down. Notation is not an inherent (or natural) part of making music, as is demonstrated in the many musical traditions that do not use notation.

As experts in the Western clas-sical tradition of music, we are very dependent upon notation for performing and composing. However, requiring that our stu-dents learn this very complicated system before they can compose their own music teaches them that they are not ready to do an activity, which, as I stated in the previous section, they have al-ready engaged in outside of the classroom.

MotivationMotivation is very closely re-

lated to creativity. Without high levels of motivation, students are

less likely to be highly creative. Goal orientation is an important factor within motivation: we are either motivated by performance goals or learning goal. Perfor-mance goals are ego driven and encourage competition with oth-ers. These goals inspire extrinsic motivation and tend not to lead to the recognition of effort as re-lated to the end product. Learn-ing goals are driven by the desire to learn or master a specific task: learning for its own sake. This in-spires intrinsic motivation, which can lead to higher achievement and the recognition of effort. Both types of motivation are helpful in any classroom, depending on the activity and the general interest of the students (McPherson, et al. 213-233).

In the music classroom, we may use performance oriented goals to get students to show more inter-est. We may get more effort out of a group if they know they will re-ceive a prize, grade, or compliment in the end. On the other hand, we might use a learning goal so that students have a more internal rela-tionship with their achievement.

More importantly, music teach-ers need to be aware of their effect on student self-concept and self-efficacy. Austin, Renwick, and McPherson describe self-concept as the student’s view of their abil-ity to achieve success and self-effi-cacy as the student’s view of their ability to perform a specific task. The possibility exists for teachers to express that students’ ideas are wrong or incorrect. In the music classroom (and elsewhere), this is absolutely detrimental to the self-concept of a student. It is our responsibility as educators to be

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23 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

aware of these self perceptions that our students have. If we no-tice a student who has a particu-larly low self-concept in music, we must make situations through which they can build their sense of self-efficacy. If we do not, their chances of realizing their creative potential is very low. When stu-dents have multiple successful ex-periences through problem solving situations where they are able to develop and try their own musical ideas, they not only feel confident in their performance or product, but have also taken a leadership role in the classroom and in their own learning.

Teacher Feedback and Questions

When it comes to conducting creative activities within the mu-sic classroom, it is important not to impose that there is one correct way to complete the assignment. Students see this scenario within other classroom settings and have to some extent been trained to ex-pect you to tell them exactly what you want and what exactly they should do. In my own classroom

I can recall an experience with sixth graders where they wanted me to just tell them what I want-ed. In an anticipatory activity for theme and variation form, I asked the students to draw a picture of something, anything. I told them that they were going to have to draw four variations of this pic-ture, so to draw something with detail. This made so many stu-dents uncomfortable. I kept telling them to draw anything and they just wanted me to tell them what to draw or to confirm that what they were drawing was what I was looking for.

Once students are comfort-able with self-expression for the sake of expressing their ideas and not trying to guess what the teacher wants in the classroom, we can begin to think more close-ly about how what we say affects their work and motivation to a certain extent. My kindergarten students do not have the same problem that my sixth graders had in the previous example. When asked to draw something or create a sound they are less concerned with what I want and more interested in showing ev-eryone what they have created.

I experimented with asking these young students questions about what they were producing and I found that when I asked them questions that required them to analyze their own creative pro-cess (i.e. “Why did you decide to draw a horse?” or “Why did you choose the drum to play?”), they continued to work on it and wanted to perfect their product. In cases where I complimented them on their work (i.e. “I like the colors you used in your drawing” or “You used my favorite instru-ment”) students tended to consider that the job was done. By earning my approval, they had completed the assignment, which served no larger purpose than pleasing me, the teacher.

We can have a very positive effect on our students’ creativity by helping them to believe in the choices that they make and giving them many opportunities to ex-press their own ideas in a musical setting.

ClosingIn this day and age when high

stakes testing is so prevalent in

our education system and teach-ers are being so closely evaluated it is easy to forget that music is a creative process that is not best assessed in this way.

It is my opinion that as mu-sic educators we need to chal-lenge ourselves to use creativity in as many ways as we can in our classrooms so that students grow as creative beings instead of learning to fit (or not fit) into a prescribed box that has been outlined for them.

I think we struggle to define what traits a creative person has because there are no inher-ent traits for creative people: it is something we can all achieve with practice and support.

Works Cited

1. Hunt, Morton. The Story of Psychology. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2007. Print.

2. McPherson, Gary E. (Ed.). The Child as Musician: A Handbook of Musical Development.

3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.

4. Torrance, E. P., & Torrance, J. P. Is Creativity Teachable? Bloom-ington, ID: Phi Delta

5. Kappa Educational Founda-tion, 1973. Print.

6. Wiggins, Jackie. Teaching for Musical Understanding. Roches-ter, MI: Oakland University, 2009. Print.

Ryan Bledsoe. PhD student in music education at ASU,

General Music teacher at Santan Elementary in the

Chandler Unified School District ryan.bledsoe@asu.edu

24 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

See website for more information

NotesFor full scholarship consideration, studentsmust audition on or before March 2, 2013.

The following dates have been scheduled for auditionsto be accepted for the 2013–2014 academic year.

Saturday, November 3, 2012(coincides with the NAU Orchestra Festival) Strings

Saturday, January 19, 2013Brass, Percussion, Piano, Voice, Woodwinds

Friday and Saturday, February 8-9, 2013(coincides with the Jazz/Madrigal Festival)Strings (Fri only), Voice

Friday and Saturday, February 22-23, 2013(coincides with the Jazz Festival) Brass, Guitar, Percussion, Piano, Woodwinds

Saturday, March 2, 2013(main audition day) Brass, Guitar, Percussion, Piano, Strings, Voice, Woodwinds

Saturday, March 30, 2013Brass, Guitar, Percussion, Piano, Strings, Woodwinds

Graduate

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AUDITION DATES

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25 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

Continued on Page 26

Doug Orzolek is chair of the Society for Music Teacher Education of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and an associate professor of music education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He can be reached at dcorzolek@stthomas.edu. This article, © 2012, is printed with permission of the author.

Many of the issues we face in the today’s educational systems are a direct result of the call for account-ability in the United States. That call is the direct result of a cry of concern about the integrity of peo-ple in our governments, businesses, sports, religious entities, and even nonprofit organizations. While we cannot easily compare the educa-tion of children to the practices of a lending institution, there are some interesting similarities.

Generally, there are three parts to any basic model of accountability:• adescriptionof theideals,goals,

aims or objectives of the entity• listof resourcesneededtoact

on or develop those ideals, and• an explanation of any conse-

quences or outcomes related to any actions taken.Clear and concise communi-

cation of each phase is critical to success.

The good news is that as a professional community, music educators have considerable expe-

rience in every stage of account-ability as described in this model. We have learned to describe our goals and objectives through na-tional, state, and local standards, and we are able to adapt them for application in our classrooms. We are skilled at using technology and other tools as resources to im-prove our work in various settings. Over the past decade, our profes-sion has developed and learned to implement myriad assessment tools that allow us to evaluate our students’ work and improve our own. In spite of this, we have not yet established a suitable means of reporting the learning that hap-pens in our classrooms.

Look at What Students are Learning

Why is this sharing of what our students learn so important? As Scott Shuler notes, “Across Amer-ica, policymakers are turning to the results of student assessments as a means of measuring and improving teacher performance. The best of emerging teacher evaluation initia-tives push us to do better what we should have been doing all along.”1 I could not agree more with his assertions, and I believe that one of our profession’s largest goals should be establishing archetypes that present evidence of student learning in our music classrooms. Ultimately, I would much prefer to

Your Role in Music Teacher Evaluation

by Doug Orzolek

have stakeholders gauge my work on what students are learning rath-er than any other factor. But that means I will need to spend some time figuring out how to expound upon the amazing learning in mu-sic and related areas that’s hap-pening on an ongoing basis in my classroom and community.

You might wonder about the extent to which someone at a high-er education institution should be ruminating about any of these things. But the truth is that the accountability movement is also alive and well at the college/uni-versity level, and the result is that professors are being asked two questions: What do students learn in your classes? and How do you know they have learned it? Many discus-sions and seminars are being held on my own campus to help pro-fessors heed this call and, for the most part, we are working togeth-er to find solutions and sharing our results with one another.

Articulate a Clear Position So where do we go from here?

How do we help one another with this issue? If, like me, you believe that our best work starts in the classroom, then it falls on each of us to consider the implications of this crusade. First, we should each be able to articulate a clear and

26 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

concise position on how we would like to be evaluated and how we should share those ideas with one another as well as those who will be judging us. Since each of us would want to be evaluated by the good work happening in our classrooms, we should be able to describe what high-quality learning looks like. We all need to develop and use carefully-designed assessments that allow us to report on our suc-cess in helping students meet stan-dards and objectives. And since this call might require us to articu-late how/what we might change in our teaching, we must all learn to reflect deeply and communicate how we will improve our work. Finally, we need models on how to report on all these things. For example, take a look at the model I developed in the late 1990s and described in the November 2004 is-sue of Teaching Music.2 It’s not per-fect, but it might help you to start thinking about how you could do something similar in your school.

These are things that most of us already do and do well. The new part is that we must find ways to articulate and report these things to our leadership and stakehold-ers. But if we hope to improve the entire profession, we must be will-ing to share our individual work in these areas with one another. We might start by focusing on one of the previously listed ideas (for example, our home-grown assess-ment tools) and dispensing them to our music-educator colleagues in our school district for discus-sion and analysis. We could each share our personal positions on teacher evaluation via a blog on a state MEA website or discussion board. We could ask our colle-giate colleagues to help find and implement models that might be

applicable in our settings. We should also monitor the work of NAfME to stay on top of nation-al initiatives that might be useful in our settings.

Get Involved!I view the call for accountabil-

ity as a very complex, multi-facet-ed issue. This campaign has far-reaching effects on curriculum, instruction, assessment, teacher evaluation, professional develop-ment, policy and the preparation of future music teachers. With that in mind, the Society for Mu-sic Teacher Education (SMTE) is engaged with research, discus-sions, analysis, and a variety of projects that not only address the concerns related to teacher evalu-ation, but also those of preparing music educators to work in this educational climate. I encour-age you to visit SMTE’s website (http://smte.us), where you will find links to our teacher evalua-tion portal as well as updates on the tremendous work being done by our Areas of Strategic Plan-ning and Action (ASPAs). You will find that we are directly ad-dressing many of the issues fac-ing our profession. Please feel free to contact any of SMTE’s state or national leaders if you have thoughts or ideas about what you find there—your input and your comments are always welcome!

I am hopeful that each of you will take the time to share your experiences and thoughts with one another. We all know that the call to accountability in edu-cation is here to stay. With that in mind, I suggest that we each become more proactive in this movement and bring our best ideas together to share with the profession. Not only will it en-

sure that music teacher evaluation will be fair, it will demonstrate our profession’s dedication to improv-ing our work.

Notes1. Scott C. Shuler, “Music Educa-

tion for Life: Music Assessment, Part 2—Instructional Improve-ment and Teacher Evaluation,” Music Educators Journal 98, no. 3 (March 2012): 7–10.

2. Doug Orzolek, “Creating a Voluntary Accountabil i ty Report,” Teaching Music 12, no. 3 (November 2004), 34–38.

Douglas C. Orzolek, Ph.D. University of St. Thomas -

Department of Music 2115 Summit Ave. BEC9

St. Paul, MN 55105 651.962.5878

dcorzolek@stthomas.edu

NAfME offers this exciting free benefit to members throughout the

school year. NAfME members visiting the band, orchestra,

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Collegiate networks can get expert advice in answer to their questions.

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27 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

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29 A M N F A L L 2 0 1 2

At this time of year, those of us who are re-

sponsible for hiring adjudicators for Solo & Ensemble festivals as well as Regional/Area

auditions are busy contacting potential adjudicators. We always want our student performers to be heard by the most qualified adjudicators available. AMEA has established a certified adjudicator list and we are constantly looking to add new names to the list.

To be certified, adjudicators are required to have a degree with a major or minor in music, be mem-bers of NAfME and have attended an AMEA cer-tification workshop. We will provisionally certify individuals who meet most of the qualifications, but attend our workshop. One really important reason to be a certified adjudicator is that it takes some of the workload away from our leadership group. Each non-certified adjudicator hired requires our leader-ship group to obtain my approval by submitting ex-tensive information about the potential adjudicator.

The workshop is intended to help adjudicators with the techniques and strategies for judging so we can provide solid, educational information to our young performers. Emphasis is placed more on the techniques of adjudication than on assigning a rat-ing. Ratings are discussed and the intent is that the rating is the result of the comments written on the form. The workshops last two hours.

In addition, poten-tial adjudicators discuss the differences between adjudicating Solo & En-semble festival and audi-tion performances. Dur-ing the workshop, video performances are used to

facilitate actual judging practice. After each perfor-mance, we discuss the critical elements and correc-tions to be made that would help students become better performers.

We encourage our elementary and middle school music educators to become certified. This is a great way to earn a little extra money, and many of our high school teachers are busy with their students on these festival days. Your involvement in adjudica-tion could be rewarding and would provide a great service to music education.

Since the high school Solo & Ensemble festival and Regional auditions occur prior to the AMEA In-Service Conference, we are in the process of scheduling workshops around the state prior to the end of January. By the time you get this magazine, our fall workshops should be listed elsewhere in the magazine as well as on the AMEA web site at www.azmea.org. We will still offer our traditional workshop on Thursday evening at the AMEA In-Service Con-ference.

If you would like more information about be-coming an AMEA certified adjudicator, please contact me at Marshall_Stewart@q.com or by phone at 520-297-6832.

Adjudication Certification

Makes a Difference….

Are You Certified?

By Marshall Stewart, AMEA Adjudicator Chair

Here are some examples:

• Designing Effective Rehearsals• Creating a Student Handbook• Developing a Relationship with Administration• Your First Day of Class

Teaching Tips Featured on NAfME’s My Music Class!

Visit nafme.org/lessons to browse tips and add your own.

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Weekly Professional Development Webinars

A Touching Memorial and a Fond Remembrance of

Janice Greisch

Long-time Page music educator Jan-ice Greisch passed away last January, 2012. She lived, worked and served in the Page com-munity since 1973. Jan was born in Rockhampton, Queensland Austra-

lia in 1946. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Pacific Univer-sity in Oregon and followed that with a masters of arts degree in music from Wisconsin University. Jan taught middle school music in

Page for 35 years. She developed an after school program to teach Native American flute techniques, as well as a world music curriculum based on her collection of instruments from coun-tries she visited. She built a set of steel drums for the school district. Jan inspired many young musicians

to follow their dreams and musical desires. Jan Greisch’s appreciation of music knew no limits, and to show gratitude for her work and talents, a mural was painted at Page Mid-dle School in her honor by the Girls Scouts of America.Jan served as editor of the Arizona

Music News, the magazine of the Ari-zona Music Educators Association, and was honored as the 2001 Music Edu-cator of the Year by AMEA.

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