Sunday, February 19, 2012

Post- TMEA Thoughts

TMEA was AWESOME and I am very glad I was able to attend and gather all of this knowledge about teaching elementary music. I have taught elementary music for 7 years but I also taught band during those 7 years and anytime I attended a professional development conference or clinic, I would gear my time towards the band clinics instead of elementary clinics. This year, since I am ONLY teaching elementary, I only attended elementary clinics. Wow... I have not been teaching the correct way. I have been doing great things but man, I could do SO MUCH MORE!

I attended an awesome seminar on using Mallets (Xylophone, Glockenspiel, etc) in the classroom with Artie Alameda. She is amazing and I learned alot on not only how to use them more often but some great tricks while using them. I have used them in the past but thanks to this session, beginning next year, I will be able to use them on a more frequent basis.

I also attended sessions on teaching recorder and building a recorder program in your school. I actually have never taught recorder so this was a HUGE help to me and this upcoming rest of the school year. My kids just ordered recorders and they should be here in a few weeks and we will begin working on them at that point. Until then, I am going to use and study the information attained in these 3 sessions and try to get a game plan for what we will be doing for the rest of the year on recorders.

I also spent a good amount of time at the 2 exhibit halls. The last time I attended TMEA, there was only 1 Exhibit hall and it was massive! This year, I noticed they had 2 Exhibit halls. The main one, which seemed larger than EVER, and then another one across the convention center which was about the same size as the Exhibit hall at OMEA in Tulsa. I was nice to be able to roam around and see all the wonderful sights and items that are available for music lovers. In fact I found some very interesting things. First, I found a toilet seat that was shaped like a guitar. This also had matching toilet paper to go with it. This company also had a toilet seat that looked like a piano. These were really neat so I inquired about the cost of each. They ended up being $200. One of these days when I not only win the lottery but also have a 6 bathroom house, I will purchase one of these for my "MUSIC BATHROOM"!!


I also saw a company selling brass and woodwind instruments that were painted and colored very odd colors. I even saw a trumpet that had the US flag painted on it! The best of this booth was the hot pink saxophone. Now these might have looked cool but trust me... the sounded TERRIBLE! But I did take a picture of the hot pink sax for my sister, Allison. I know if she ever picked up playing the saxophone, I would have to get her this one!

Throughout the 2 exhibit halls there were not only music vendors but also just crafty vendors like at a craft show event. I found one who was basically just a T-shirt vendor but she had made shirts for music teachers. This was awesome and I got a few of these shirts to were around school and other places. One of them said "Music Rocks" and another said "Music Teacher". I will wear these with pride!


The last booth I saw in the small exhibit hall was a lady from California selling T-shirts and crafty items as well with a music motto. At the back of her booth was a rack of hot pink shirts that focused on Grandma sayings and shirts. I found a blue onesie that said "Gigi's Boy". Of course, I HAD to get this for Luke. It is so hard to find stuff with "Gigi" on it! It seemed odd to find something like this at TMEA but hey, I will take what I can get. I also purchased a "koozie" for your coke cans from this same vendor which read "This Sax Player ROCKS". I thought this was pretty neat!









I was also able to see friends from College and even High School while there. I was able to reconnect with some long-time friends from college who are also music teachers/ band directors. I also was able to hear 2 friends of mine from the OU saxophone studio back in the day perform with their Saxophone Quartet on the last day I was there. They were AMAZING  and I would love to be able to hear them again!

Overall, TMEA was AMAZING! Exactly what I expected and more. I am so lucky and privileged to be able to go and I am taking SO MUCH back with me! I cannot wait til' next year!

God is Good...ALL THE TIME !

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