Viva la Musica Vegas

About a week ago, I was just returning from a three day elementary music conference in Las Vegas. I had seen two of the main presenters multiple times, but I knew it would be fabulous even if I was seeing some repeated material. I was right! My brain is still full from everything I saw and learned while I was there. The presenters were Denise Gagne, Artie Almeida, Dan Fee, Marian Rose, Thom Borden, and Deborah Ziolkoski. Music Teachers: If you ever have the opportunity to see any of these people present, jump at the chance.

I'm hoping to sit down in the next week and plug some of the new activities into my long-term plans for next year. I learned about some "new-to-me" picture books to use and a lot of songs and games. I also have several new movement activities which incorporate tennis balls and scarves thanks to Dan Fee. I learned some additional folk dances from Marian. I'm looking forward to using some new drum stick activities I learned from Artie. There are so many fun activities I learned that I can't even list them all here.

This is a picture of all my Music K-8 Mailing List buddies who were attending the conference.

Fun with plastic plates! We're doing a plate routine to March from The Nutcracker in this pic. Mary Sue Kruger, the elementary music teacher from Montevideo, is to my left. I was doing all the video taping for the conference.

Artie teaching us some fun recorder activities.

Denise teaching a ribbon wand activity.

The conference filled our days from 8:30 a.m. until about 6:00 p.m. each evening. We were exhausted by the end of the day, but you can't visit Vegas and not attend a couple of shows. We saw Blue Man Group one night and The Lion King the next night. I really enjoyed The Lion King. The costumes were really creative.

I think the presenters at this conference are planning to do another next year, though it will probably be in a different location. I'm guessing I won't be able to attend again, but hopefully there are other music teachers who are reading this blog who will try to find a way to go. There will likely be discussion about it on the Music K-8 Mailing List next winter, so keep your eyes open.