& News From Our Division Chairs Early Childhood Education Amy Burns aburns@fhcds.org 973-493-5797
NJMEA had two webinars over the past few months. The first was “Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom” by Amy M. Burns. The second was “Keep Calm…and Teach Kindergarten Music,” by Lisa Ludwig Wichman. The third installment is currently running until 10/15/2015. It is titled, “Organizational iPad Apps for the Elementary Music Educator,” hosted by Amy M. Burns. Please contact me at aburns@fhcds.org or private message me through Facebook with your name and NJMEA/NAfME membership number to view the webinar. Every webinar can receive a professional development credit if you write a summary of the webinar and send it to me before the final date of the webinar.
Guitar Education Thomas Amoriello tom@tomamoriello.com 908-342-7795
NJMEA Honors Guitar has been approved! I am pleased to announce that the 2015-16 school year will be the first time that a NJMEA Honors Guitar Ensemble will exist for NJ guitar students in grades 9-12. This was a two year process of hosting guitar festivals, conference workshops/lectures, advocacy articles and tweaking proposals (see below) and thanks to the 2013-15 NJMEA Executive Board for supporting this with the approval at a meeting on May 12, 2015. This will have a positive effect on guitar education in New Jersey for decades to come. Please spread the word and mark your calendars for April 16, 2016 as this will be the NJMEA Guitar Festival at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ which will feature the chosen students as well as featured guest artist for performance and master class (TBA in January) We need to have student and teacher participation on many levels. Please consider volunteering your time to help as an adjudicator, sectional coach, and other festival duties. Otherwise this will be unsuccessful! Twelve students will be awarded the title through an audition process that is modelled after what the Virginia Music Education Association and their All-State Guitar Ensemble guidelines are. There will also be showcase performance opportunities for other school ensemble groups and soloists, concerts, workshops and master classes at the festival. It is important to spread the word to as many guitar educators and students as possible. A special note to students auditioning, teachers and parents: This is a commitment and 100% participation is required on all dates. If this cannot be honored please do not audition. In this issue you will find the appropriate sign up forms and audition requirements. These are also available at www.njmea.org on the Guitar Class portal.
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OCTOBER 2015