By Emma Joleen, Music Teaching Artist
Aloha to the HMEA Conference
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Hawaii Music Educators Association conference that was held at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. I received an invitation to attend as a result of my previous experience with indigenous Australian music. My prior work with indigenous Australian children inspired me to create what I called the “Aussie Songbook,” which is an array of songs that I arranged for the Orff instrumentarium encompassing xylophones, clapping sticks, recorders, body percussion, movement and singing!
As an Australian native, the South Pacific islands have always held a special place in my heart and, considering their shared history with James Cook and the European invasion (not to mention the musical “South Pacific” and the film based on the life and times of Queen Emma Kalanikaumaka’amano Kaleleonalani Na’ea Rooke of Hawai’i), it was a dream come true to finally visit the island of Oahu.
New Ideas!
The presenters were all spectacular, and I learned something from each of them. Here is a small sampling of the conference’s topics:
I highly recommend the songs of John Farrell who presented his own original songs that include sign language, which is imperative for engaging kinesthetic learners.
I was super excited to learn about the xylophone music stands that were recommended to alleviate any discomfort students feel after sitting on the floor to play the instruments.
A wonderful idea I learned from the presenters Janet Montgomery and Paul Waskiewicz from Columbia was to focus attention on a specific area of the floor by creating a grid using blue painters tape. This presentation was geared towards children with special needs; however, it offered excellent strategies for creating focus in any K – 5 classroom setting. The floor grid was used as a beat box for walking, hopping, jumping and finding the beat and/or rhythm.
I was happy to take a walk down memory lane when I attended the Dalcroze Eurhythmique presentation by Michael Lippert because it overlaps with the movement pedagogy in Orff Schulwerk. As a teacher of both methodologies, it is always interesting to compare the two. During this session, the emphasis was on conducting with scarves and feeling the preparation – ictus – rebound whilst singing the traditional song “Down By the Sally Gardens.”
Building (Musical) Bridges!
At the conference, I was very fortunate to meet DeeAnn Gray who is the music teacher from the Wahiawa Middle School. After seeing my presentation, she invited me to present to her classes. I had no idea where Wahiawa was located but soon found out that it was a 2-hour bus ride into the middle of the most luscious landscape I had ever seen. The trip was definitely worthwhile because I was able to hear some of the most beautiful singers to ever grace the planet! We were singing and playing for hours (even after the school day had ended!). It was exhilarating!
A huge mahalo to Gail Yoshioka, the music teacher at Waimanolo Elementary and Intermediate School, because she gave me a personal tour of the surrounding tropical beaches, mountains and various landscapes. She also had the projector set up and ready for my powerpoint presentation.
The President of the HMEA, Amanda Lippert, teaches at Punahou and gave me the full tour of the most stunning music room I have ever seen. In fact, everyone calls it “The Penthouse” due to its overwhelming size and spectacular view. The students to who I presented learned how to sing “Wash Your Face with Orange Juice” and “Shoo Goanna” in a variety of ways with voice and instruments.
There were clinicians who traveled all the way from Korea and Taiwan: YongHee Kim & Jeongjoo Choi (Korea) of Interdisciplinary Arts and Music Programs for Children and Yi-Ju Shih (Taiwan) of Children’s Singing Games. These two presentations were especially helpful in learning to pronounce Korean and Taiwanese lyrics accurately, as well as hearing how teaching artists in those neighboring countries interact and collaborate with each other via technology such as Skype and Facebook. Building musical bridges across the Pacific has become a lot easier with technology these days! Yi-Ju Shih based her entire presentation on Orff Schulwerk music pedagogy and provided excellent resources for all the teachers involved; I am very excited to share the Taiwanese singing games with my students in the SMMUSD!
I was honored to be a clinician at the #HMEA2015 conference, and I was thrilled to be invited as a presenter at the Wahiawa Middle School, Waimanolo Elementary and Intermediate School as well as the Punahou School on the island of Oahu, Hawai’i.
This convening of music educators, choir directors, clinicians and musicians from all across the globe reflected the motto I value dearly, “Life is a song, Love is the music.” I’m so happy I was able to attend, and I’d like to send out an online “Bravissimi” to everyone at the legendary HMEA 2015 conference.
Mahalo, Emma Joleen
For more information and teaching resources, please visit:
http://www.hawaiimea.org/conference2015/
