Dave Deitz, who is PMEA’s liaison to PDE, attended the national Modern Band/Little Kids Rock Summit last summer, and during the 2018 PMEA summer conference, he approached members of the PMEA leadership about implementing it as a state-wide program in PA. (For those of you who are not familiar with Modern Band, it is a free curriculum that uses popular music styles in a sound first and then reading approach to teaching music. It can be used with anything from rock bands to ukulele ensembles.) PMEA came on board with this idea, meaning that PMEA would be the owners of this curriculum for the state of PA, and it would be free for members to use it.
With PMEA on board, Dave was able to approach PDE about this project. He was able to convince PDE to create an official course code for it so that it can be a fully-recognized music curriculum within the state of PA. He was also able to convince the state to set federal Title funds aside to be used to train a select number of PMEA members across the state on how to implement this curriculum in their schools. Training will be offered at 6 different sites throughout the state this spring (more about that later). PMEA is currently looking for teachers who would be willing to start this program in their school to take one of these trainings and then begin to implement the program in the next 1-2 years. They are especially looking to do this at the middle school level. It is the hope of PMEA that 2-3 years following the implementation of these programs at the middle school level, these school districts will then widen their programs to have a fully-functioning Modern Band program at the high school level. PMEA will closely follow these programs, and once several high school programs are operating across the state, PMEA will begin the process to implement Modern Band into the existing festival system. This is a way to include students who are talented musicians but are not in the traditional band-choir-orchestra stream at the All-State level. It is also a way that PMEA is looking to make music education within our state more well-rounded, equitable, rigorous, and personalized – which in turn, could open up more funding opportunities for music programs.
There may be work for the C/I Council to do with this project in the future, in order to make sure that the curriculum is implemented in a way that will allow it to feed into a festival system. However, for now, the first thing we need to do as members of the C/I Council is to spread the word about the trainings and get teachers, especially those at the middle school level, involved in those trainings. Here is what you need to know about the trainings:
1. They will be offered at the following sites and times:
a. April 17, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Penn State University
b. April 18, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Indiana University of PA
c. April 23, 2019 11:30 AM – 6:30 PM Temple University
d. April 24, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Scranton University
e. April 25, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Lebanon Valley College
f. May 18, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Slippery Rock University
2. Although PMEA’s target audience for these trainings is middle school teachers who want to implement a new Modern Band program within their schools, PMEA members at all levels, including PCMEA, are welcome to attend. This is designed as a stand-alone curriculum, but it can be adapted for use in an existing choral, instrumental, or general music setting.
3. PMEA members who attend are able to earn 6 hours of Act 48 credit.
4. THERE IS NO COST FOR THESE TRAININGS. They are being funded by Little Kids Rock and federal Title I, II, and IV funds. In fact, PMEA will give attendees information to pass along to their school districts about how Title funds can be used to subsidize substitute teacher pay for the day, as well as how to obtain travel reimbursement . THIS MEANS THAT NOT ONLY IS THERE NO COST TO PARTICIPANTS, BUT THERE IS ALSO LITTLE TO NO COST TO THEIR SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
5. Participants will need to pre-register for these trainings. They can do so through the following link: https://www.littlekidsrock.org/for-teachers/apply/. There is also additional information about the Modern Band movement at that site.
There may be work for the C/I Council to do with this project in the future, in order to make sure that the curriculum is implemented in a way that will allow it to feed into a festival system. However, for now, the first thing we need to do as members of the C/I Council is to spread the word about the trainings and get teachers, especially those at the middle school level, involved in those trainings. Here is what you need to know about the trainings:
1. They will be offered at the following sites and times:
a. April 17, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Penn State University
b. April 18, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Indiana University of PA
c. April 23, 2019 11:30 AM – 6:30 PM Temple University
d. April 24, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Scranton University
e. April 25, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Lebanon Valley College
f. May 18, 2019 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Slippery Rock University
2. Although PMEA’s target audience for these trainings is middle school teachers who want to implement a new Modern Band program within their schools, PMEA members at all levels, including PCMEA, are welcome to attend. This is designed as a stand-alone curriculum, but it can be adapted for use in an existing choral, instrumental, or general music setting.
3. PMEA members who attend are able to earn 6 hours of Act 48 credit.
4. THERE IS NO COST FOR THESE TRAININGS. They are being funded by Little Kids Rock and federal Title I, II, and IV funds. In fact, PMEA will give attendees information to pass along to their school districts about how Title funds can be used to subsidize substitute teacher pay for the day, as well as how to obtain travel reimbursement . THIS MEANS THAT NOT ONLY IS THERE NO COST TO PARTICIPANTS, BUT THERE IS ALSO LITTLE TO NO COST TO THEIR SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
5. Participants will need to pre-register for these trainings. They can do so through the following link: https://www.littlekidsrock.org/for-teachers/apply/. There is also additional information about the Modern Band movement at that site.
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