I spent the first three days of my holidays in Queensland attending the Step Up mini conference celebrating the launch of Kodaly Qld's new DVD for middle primary (I posted about it here, I highly recommend checking out this resource!). The conference was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with like-minded colleagues and share ideas. I was able to crystalise my thinking about a number of aspects of teaching such as assessment and advocacy as well as picking up some new games

A summary of my wonderful time at the 2019 International Kodaly Symposium in Kuching, Malaysia. This was also published in the KMEIA Vic newsletter. If you are not yet a member of KMEIA/Kodaly Australia, you should consider joining. They even offer free memberships for music & education students! Article From the 5th to the 9th of August, a number of delegates from all over Australia flew to Kuching, Malaysia to attend the International Kodaly Symposium. Many of us were prese

Hello and greetings from the beautiful city of Kuching in Malaysia! I am writing to you from the 24th International Kodaly Symposium. The IKS is an international event held every two years which celebrates all things Kodaly and involves delegates from all over the world coming together to sing, exchange ideas, learn and be inspired. There are a myriad of workshops and paper presentations to choose from, with a bevy of international presenters coming to share their stuff (incl

One aspect of a music program that I have always felt distinguishes a good program from a truly great one is the number of extra-curricular opportunities that it offers. While the mainstream classroom curriculum is deserving of much of our attention and is the best way to offer music to the widest range of students, you still need to consider what breadth of opportunities your school's music program offers. Do you offer instrumental music tuition? Ensembles? Elective classes?

Starting at a new school can be tough - and not just when you're a student! Starting work as a teacher at a new school can present lots of challenges. Where are the bathrooms? How do classes run here? How on earth will I learn all these students' names?! I believe being a new music teacher is especially challenging, because you never know what kind of program you might have inherited. Unlike subjects like Maths and English, we have a very broad, unstructured (some might say u

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the KMEIA Victoria Autumn Seminar as part of my school-mandated professional development. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with other Kodaly teachers and musicians in my area (as the only music teacher in my school, it can often feel pretty lonely!) as well as learn some new songs, games and choral techniques. We also had a chance to brush up on the basics of Kodaly philosophy (check out this post if you'd like more info on w