CSI Southwest Recap
Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting a session titled Music Education at the Crossroads: The Impact of AI & Technology on behalf of MusicFirst at the 2024 Conn Selmer Institute Southwest on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The music buildings at ASU were designed by Frank Llyod Wright - what a treat! The faculty of these CSI events is always top notch, and I was honored to be invited - especially as the only tech-focused presenter on the program.
The highlights of the day for me was sitting in Lynne Jackson’s session titled Lessons from the Rearview Mirror. Lynne is a legendary band director from Texas and I loved hearing her advice and wisdom looking back on her 54 year teaching career. I LOVED the opening Keynote Address delivered by Jason Caslor, who is the Program Director & Associate Professor, School of Music, Dance and Theatre at ASU. His talk was titled: Squirrel! Being Present In A World That Doesn’t Want Us To Be. It was centered on mindfulness and disconnecting from social media and devices. Very powerful. I also enjoyed Joyce McCall’s talk on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy - an important reminder of how we must teach the children we have in front of us, making connections to their culture. Finally, I got to sit in with the college students that were attending on a few sessions. CSI made a track just for them, and I was thrilled that they all came to my talk. Another legendary Texas band director, Frank Troyka, shared sage advice on various aspects of teaching - especially the first few years. My favorite pearl that he shared was that the first year of teaching you don’t know what you don’t know. The second year, you know what you don’t know, and the third year you learn what you need to know. Awesome stuff.
CSI has several other events planned this year, including CSI Southeast in Atlanta at the end of April, CSI Midwest in Mishawaka, IN in June, CSI Northeast in Ithaca in August, and CSI Central in Olathe, Kansas in September. I am thrilled to be a presenter on some of these events, and need to thank Rick Ghinelli from CutTime for inviting me. I urge you to consider attending any of them that are easy for you to get to. It is high quality PD for instrumental music educators, pre-service music educators and administrators. I hope to see you there!
