PD Extravaganza

I have gone since summer of 2010 without any professional development geared specifically for elementary music, and I didn't realize how much this is a necessary thing to have on a regular basis as a teacher!

Last weekend I went to Hong Kong with 6 fellow ASBers for an International Baccalaureate conference. My workshop was on the Arts in the Primary Years Programme. Now, this may not be as specific as if I had been able to go to the Orff conference in the US last fall, but, this was at least a focus on how best to teach music within the PYP framework. I have been at two other PYP schools before coming to ASB, but, this is has been the first time that I have been expected to write the music curriculum under the same framework as the classroom teachers and it has been a bit of a struggle trying to organizea spiral curriculum into a unit based system. Without going into too many details, it was well worth it- I feel I walked away with a clear idea of what to do next and how better to implement the music curriculum, staying true to what I feel is good music ed pedagogy but that also fits with the school's goals.

And bonus, it all happened in HONG KONG! A place that I may have never gotten to otherwise. We stayed on Hong Kong island and had a little time to explore this most electric and skyscraper filled city. Highlights included a boat ride on the Star Ferry to Kowloon, an evening in the Temple Street Market, exploring the Midlevels along the worlds longest (and outdoor) escalator, exploring the back part of the island in Stanley Market, and lots of fantastic food (pork dumplings and beef noodles to die for), cool weather, stops at Starbucks, and shopping. As we traveled about, lots of random memories of high school Chinese class came time mind, and ever so often I'd see a character that I'd recognize, making me a bit wistful I didn't study harder or continue on with such an interesting and complex language. Now, sadly as they speak Cantonese I couldn't try out anything I did remember as we learned Mandarin, but, as the characters are the same, it was fun nontheless to try and remember what I could (and remember those Fridays we watched Jackie Chan movies as I passed his star of fame on their own version of the Hollywood walk of fame).

And then back to ASB on Wednesday where we were all thrown into the craziness of ASB Unplugged- a conference attended by 400+ educators from all over the world on how to integrate technology into education. Thursday was a "normal" school day with people walking in and out of our classrooms and interviewing our students in separate showcases of what we do here at ASB. Then, Friday and Saturday were all workshops geared towards the latest technologies and strategies for integrating tech. We attended a fantastic session that I walked away with a few more tools and ideas (which is rare at these things as not much is ever geared towards music). Reid in his natural role as a leader gave a session on green education (to about 200 people) and the another session on technology use in a performance based ensemble.

So, after a week of professional development overload, my brain was pretty overwhelmed. So many things! So much to think about! How will I even begin??

One step at a time. I find myself more motivated and excited about teaching and realized I've been sort of in "day to day" mode and in a bit of a funk this year due to how the year started and an increased work/stress load. I'm happy to report that I've found a bit of motivation again and I'm reminded of how important it is to actively seek out growth opportunities for yourself.