Conference Week is Here!

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Music Therapy Presentation Download

Before I go to Cleveland for the AMTA national conference, I’m headed to the suburbs of Chicago where I’ll be presenting at the 2010 Conference on Best Practices for Nonpublic Special Education Programs.  Now say that 10 times fast :)

This will be my second year in a row attending and presenting at this conference, and I’m very excited to be returning.  Last year, I had a full room of educators and administrators who were more than happy to participate and ask questions; I’m hoping for a similar experience this afternoon.

Interested in what I’ll be talking about in my presentation?  Click below for a PDF version of my PowerPoint.

Download: Music Therapy for Learning & Achieving

I’ll also be posting materials from my presentation at the AMTA conference, so be sure to come back again for those. It’s going to be an exciting, challenging, exhausting, and wonderful week of music therapy — here we go!

Sunday Singalong: Turkey Dinner Dance

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In all honestly, the process of recording and editing my videos is usually quick and dirty — I fit it in on Sunday mornings between church, laundry, and doggie duty with loud football games on TV in the next room. So what happens when I have Veteran’s Day off and a house to myself? A more fancy “Sunday Singalong” video than usual!

The Turkey Dinner Dance wouldn’t be complete without the moves, which is why I was so excited to figure out how to use picture-in-picture so that I could dance, sing and play…all at the same time.

I’ll be turkey dinner dancin’ my way to Chicago tomorrow, where I’m presenting at a school administrators’ conference, and then right on to Cleveland for the AMTA national conference.  I’ll also be sharing my slides, handouts, and experiences with you throughout the week!

Music Therapy Across the Globe

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I’ve been practicing music therapy for almost four years now, yet I still consider myself to be a relatively new professional.  That’s why I get a little caught off-guard when I receive emails asking for advice and guidance…not that I don’t feel qualified to answer most of them :)  It’s just that there are so many music therapists out there who have accomplished SO many amazing things and remind me just how much I have left to accomplish.

One such individual is Dr. Petra Kern, who is currently serving as President of the World Federation of Music Therapy.  I’ve had the good fortune to become acquainted with Petra through Imagine, the first early childhood online magazine sponsored by the American Music Therapy Association.  Petra is the editor and invited me to submit materials for the inaugural issue, which came out back in September.  Since then, I’ve become more familiar with Petra’s work as a clinician, researcher, and educator.

Petra offers mentoring, playground consulting, project guidance, music therapy courses, and clinical jewels on her newly updated website, Music Therapy Consulting.  The coolest part is that thanks to various modes of technology, Petra is able to offer her consulting services across the globe.

I can’t wait to meet this amazing woman in person at AMTA Conference next week.  Get the full scoop on Petra’s work on her website.

Friday Fave: They’re Baaaack!

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holiday children's musicThe holidays, that is.  Even though we’re still a couple weeks away from Thanksgiving, the first signs of Christmas are popping up everywhere  — and I’m not complaining!  The truth of the matter is that I love the holidays, and I actually get excited when I see the first Christmas-themed television commercial of the season.   My family (well, minus my husband) finds it completely acceptable to break out the sounds of the season (like these, these, and these) at the beginning of November.

But don’t worry; I keep my Christmas tunes to myself (car and iPod only!) until the day after Thanksgiving.  This is especially important since I work with children who can only take so much holiday-induced excitement at one time.  I’ll stick with Ten Little Turkeys, the Turkey Dinner Dance, and Thankful for a few more weeks :)

After all, I’m super excited about Thanksgiving, too.  Spending time with my family, eating a delicious meal, and being reminded of just how much I have for which to be thankful?  Yes, please.

I am curious, though…am I the only one who is already humming The Christmas Waltz, Home for the Holidays, and the like?  Say it ain’t so!

A Week From Today…

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2010 AMTA National Music Therapy Conference Cleveland…my plane will be touching down in Cleveland for the 2010 AMTA Conference!  This national music therapy conference is something I look forward to all year long, not only because it is an amazing learning opportunity, but also because I get to reunite with so many of my music therapy friends (and meet many for the first time in person).

This will be my second time attending national conference, and I’m even more excited about it this time around.  Compared to last year’s conference in San Diego, now I know more people, have a better idea of what to expect, and have even more to do.  Here are some of the reasons why I can’t wait to get to Cleveland:

  • The Music Therapy Round Table. Kimberly, Michelle and I formed the Round Table and launched our podcast last January after coming up with the idea during AMTA’s 2009 conference.  We will be meeting up for the first time in person since then to brainstorm new ideas, record the next episode of the podcast, and…
  • CMTE Q: Music Therapy in a Web 2.0 World. The three of us will be teaching this CMTE on Thursday, November 18 at 1:30 pm.  I hope to see many of you there!  If you’d like to attend but can’t for one reason or another, we are planning to offer the CMTE as an online course in the near future.
  • The Erfurt Music Resource. Michelle Erfurt will be hosting a table in the exhibit hall with many of the merchants from the Erfurt Music Resource…including me!  I will have Time to Sing Hello CDs and copies of my songbook on hand, and it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll find me there frequently throughout conference.

For those of you who are on Twitter, be sure to follow the hashtag #AMTA10 for the latest happenings and news during the week of conference.  I know I will have my iPhone handy at all times, updating both Twitter and my Facebook page.

I’m going to have a hard time concentrating on much else this week now that I’ve caught conference fever.  There is so much to do before I board my plane on Wednesday morning, but I’ll try my best to squeeze in a few more posts between now and then!