UMEA Conference
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the UMEA conference at the Dixie Center in St. George. UMEA stands for Utah Music Educators Association, it is an annual conference for music teachers throughout the state of Utah, pre-K through college level, it was wonderful!
I went down with three outstanding women, Kathy, Susan and Annette, all elementary music teachers from my district. We left Thursday right after school and got home late Saturday night. We had such a great time together, we talked nonstop for hours. I got as many teaching ideas from them as I did from the classes and workshops I attended at the conference.
One of our favorite classes was entitled "Body Electric" taught by Mark Burrows. He showed us how to use "body percussion" with vocal and mouth sounds (beat boxing) as well as rap. It was so much fun, I can't wait to teach this to my 5th and 6th graders, they'll love it!
Another really fun class was called "Orff And Beyond", a hands-on workshop where we learned to use african drums and pitched percussion instruments to create tunes and rhythms, it was amazing. I even joined in on a drum circle!
I went down with three outstanding women, Kathy, Susan and Annette, all elementary music teachers from my district. We left Thursday right after school and got home late Saturday night. We had such a great time together, we talked nonstop for hours. I got as many teaching ideas from them as I did from the classes and workshops I attended at the conference.
One of our favorite classes was entitled "Body Electric" taught by Mark Burrows. He showed us how to use "body percussion" with vocal and mouth sounds (beat boxing) as well as rap. It was so much fun, I can't wait to teach this to my 5th and 6th graders, they'll love it!
Another really fun class was called "Orff And Beyond", a hands-on workshop where we learned to use african drums and pitched percussion instruments to create tunes and rhythms, it was amazing. I even joined in on a drum circle!