Resource: Steve’s Music Room
I recently had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Canadian music educator Steve Giddings for my podcast - Profiles in Teaching With Technology. I had been following Steve through his amazing website, Steve’s Music Room, for some time. We had an amazing conversation and I quickly realized that Steve is a master music educator and our visions aligned quite closely in terms of technology integration and inclusivity in teaching music. He is a rockstar.
If you’re not already familiar with Steve’s website, you should definitely take a moment (or two) to check it out. First, aside from all of the amazing publications that you can purchase, he has a wonderful set of FREE lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations that cover a wide variety of topics including World Music, Jazz, the Orchestra, The Beatles, and more. He also has a terrific Blog where he does very similar things to this one - pointing out many great resources, both free and low cost, that can assist music educators in making their curriculum more engaging and relevant through the use of technology, popular music, and STEAM, and more.
Steve is also an author of 3 fantastic books: Rock Coach: A Practical Guide for Teaching Rock Band in Schools, Creative Musicking: Practical Real-Life Ideas to Get Your Learners Creating Their Own Music, and Technology for Unleashing Creativity: Practical Tips and Tools for Music Educators. All of these publications are definitely required reading for any music educators professional library.
Steve is a frequent presenter at conferences and has 3 events coming up. The first is this weekend at the APME (Association for Popular Music in Education) Conference in New Orleans, the Steve and I will both be presenting sessions at the DAYTiME 2023: A Day of Tech in Music Ed (online) in Australia on June 2nd, and then he’s back at the International Music Education Summit from June 15-17.
It was wonderful getting to know Steve during my podcast interview with him. I strongly recommend visiting his site, buying his books, and if you have the opportunity, attending one of his sessions. Steve does great things with his students and is 100% committed to helping other music teachers do the same.