One of the highlights of my teaching year is attending our Kansas state music teachers conference. Partly because I get to catch up with my good friend and colleague, Lisa, along with other piano teachers from across the state. Partly because it’s an opportunity to take a short road trip and explore a new place in Kansas. And partly because I always glean new ideas and inspiration for use with my piano students. So it’s a win-win-win! Here are just a few pictures from the occasion:
A historic homestead that greets visitors arriving in Hillsboro, Kansas.
We had back-to-back sessions with fabulous presenters and helpful information, planned and organized by our incoming president and conference chair, J. Bradley Baker. Here he and his wife, Jen Stephenson, present a joint session on collaborative performing.
Lisa and I enjoyed the beautiful campus at Tabor College.
Can you tell what department this is? 😉
For the conference recital on Friday evening, members were invited to perform a selection. What a delightful variety of repertoire – solo piano, piano and cello duo, and piano duet!
The evening concluded with a Divine performance – Lightning on the Prairie. So cool!
A session on Saturday by Scott McBride Smith was particularly enlightening. He shared research and insights into helping students (and ourselves!) deal with performance anxiety. He insisted that this quote really isn’t attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but I still love it and plan to share it with my students! “I am a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work the more I have of it.”
Two Kansas State University students – Lars Quincke and Barbara Mirano – gave an informative presentation on teaching tudents with Down Syndrome.
There were numerous other presentations as well, but I forgot to take pictures! The ones by Wendy Stevens on Have You Forgotten What It’s Like to Be a Child? and by Brett Janssen (of Central Christian College) on how to incorporate the audiation techniques of Gordon’s Music Learning Theory into beginning piano lessons were especially good.
If you have a state music teachers association, I highly recommend joining and attending their conference to rejuvenate your teaching!
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