2018 NAfME National Conference

Join us again in Dallas, TX, as we take a deep dive into leading topics in music education. The following tracks, or “Opuses,” will allow you to share your own practice, collaborate and network with colleagues from across the country, and expand your toolkit of ideas, models, and activities: Amplify: Learning; Amplify: Innovation; Amplify: Involvement; Amplify: Inspiration; and Amplify: Technology. You can earn up to 30 hours of professional development by attending the conference. Justification Toolkit is now available. Sponsorship opportunities are available.

Learn More

FEATURES AND NEWS

NAfME Endorses Rep. Velazquez’s GAAME Act of 2018

The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) is pleased to announce our endorsement of Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s (D-NY-7) Guarantee Access to Arts and Music Education (GAAME) Act (H.R. 6137), released earlier today. Often, students of color and students in low-income neighborhoods do not share the same access to a high-quality music and arts education. If passed, this legislation would provide articulating language to encourage school districts to use their Title I, Part A Funds (school-wide and targeted assistance grants) to improve access to music and arts education for disadvantaged and…

How My Mentor Saved My Professional Life

How My Mentor Saved My Professional Life By NAfME Member Chris Gleason This article first appeared in the Sun Prairie Star and is reprinted with permission. The day before my first concert the student band was falling apart. I called my father, a veteran band director, for some last-minute advice. He said, “Write up something about the music and give it to a student to read to the audience before you play the piece.” The next day, with the band assembled on stage and the crowd listening intently,…

Pursuing His Passions: Faith, Family, Farm, and Music

Pursuing His Passions: Faith, Family, Farm, and Music Fred Ritter Recently Retired from the Nebraska Public Schools By NAfME member Lori Schwartz Reichl This article originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Teaching Music Magazine. After a remarkable 37-year career, Fred Ritter retired from teaching vocal music in the Nebraska public schools in 2015. Ritter began teaching in 1978 in the North Platte School District, first at the junior high and then at the high school. After 12 years, he moved to Columbus High School, where he…