General Music, Pre K-5 Report
By Catherine Newell, [email protected]
Hello, PreK-5 music teachers! Likely very few of you know me, so I will take
a moment to introduce myself. My name is Catherine Newell and I live in
Topsham. I got my BME at UMaine, and my advanced certificate in Kodály
Methodology from the Kodály Music Institute at New England Conservatory.
I previously taught elementary music in RSU4 and MSAD#51, and for the
past four years I have mostly been home with my young daughter, who was
born in 2012. I have remained involved in MMEA and District 3 (where I live)
by managing our Orff-based Elementary Honors Festival (you can read about
it here), and participating in workshops and conferences put on by NAfME,
MMEA, and BAKE (our local Kodály chapter).
My primary goal for this school year is to close the “access gap” for
professionals in Maine. Currently, geographically-isolated teachers who work
outside of the southern part of our state have less access to professional
development and peer collaboration opportunities. The other “access gap”
we have is primarily financial. Some school systems are refusing to pay for
their elementary music teachers to attend workshops and conferences.
Teachers who cover more than just elementary school (PK-8, PK-12, etc) are
rarely released to attend our General Music workshop in the fall because of
their many school-day commitments with older students. I plan to use
technology and social media to close this “access gap” as much as possible –
creating free online resources that can be used in the classroom or as part of
teacher training.
I have started a (MMEA-unaffiliated) Facebook page for elementary-level
music teachers: "PK-5 General Music Maine." The group’s photo is a
dandelion head with music note seeds blowing away. It is a “closed group”,
which means you need to request to join and be approved by a Group
Administrator (me). If you request to join, please send me a private
message indicating where you teach so that I know you are a real person
and not a scammer. Because it is a “closed group”, posts are not public and
will not be seen by people outside of the group. If you do not personally
belong to Facebook, you may consider making a Teacher Page (as opposed
to a personal account). This would allow you to have a presence in our
group and other Facebook teacher groups. If you are unsure how to do this,
please email me and I will help you. I have started a blog as well that is