Music Inspires Creations by Students and Teachers for Music In Our Schools Month®
Winners Announced in Contests Sponsored by MENC: The National Association for Music Education
RESTON, VA (May 4, 2009) — MENC: The National Association for Music Education announced the winners in the “Music! Just Imagine…” Song Writing Contest (for students in grades 7-12) and the World’s Largest Concert® Song Lesson Plan Writing Contest for music teachers.
The Song Writing Contest challenged students to write songs inspired by the 2009 Music In Our Schools Month® theme, “Music! Just Imagine…”. The songs were judged on originality, lyrics, melody, and the incorporation of the theme. The top three winners, in no particular order, are:
- Emily Wenger, Grade 11, “A World of Music”
Teacher: Melinda Baum, Custer County School District, Westcliffe, CO - Kylie Shorma, Grade 11, “Imagine a Song”
Teacher: Pamela Burns, Lake Agassiz Girls Choir, Fargo, ND - Kellie Nolan, Grade 8, “With Music”
Teacher: Molly Nixon, Epiphany Catholic School, Normal, IL
Lyrics and manuscripts of the winning entries are posted at www.menc.org.
The World’s Largest Concert Song Lesson Plan Writing Contest required music teachers to write lesson plans for the song “There’s Magic in the Music,” which was featured in the 2009 World’s Largest Concert. The top three winners, in no particular order, are:
- Eldean Hagans, Meadowland Elementary School, West Melbourne, FL (MENC members may view her lesson here.)
- Jessica Hartman, Trenton Elementary School, Trenton, ME (MENC members may view her lesson here.)
- Amanda Reuther, Southeastern School, Bowen, IL (MENC members may view her lesson here.)
The entries in both contests were evaluated by panels of MENC members. One judge commented that “[Jessica Hartman] presents a very detailed, creative, team-based approach to provide a foundation to learning ‘There’s Magic in the Music.’ The scavenger hunts in ‘element groups’ could be used in learning any piece of music for upper elementary level.”
MENC president Barbara Geer commented, “I chose ‘Music! Just Imagine…’ as MENC’s national theme because imagination is often regarded as the deeply creative faculty which perceives the basic resemblances between ideas. Music also opens countless doors for creativity, and the possibilities for using that creativity are endless. These original songs and lessons are examples of students and teachers tapping into their creative capacities and sharing the results with others who can then enjoy and benefit from their creations.
“It is my hope that as MENC begins a season of change we will continue to be the leading advocate for music as an essential part of a quality, comprehensive education through imagination and creativity,” added Geer. “My thanks to everyone who participated in this contest — I feel that all of you are winners!”
As part of an ongoing collaboration with MENC, Nintendo of America Inc. is providing Wii consoles and Wii Music™ games to the schools of the top three winners of the “Music! Just Imagine…” Song Writing Contest and the top three winners of the World’s Largest Concert Song Lesson Plan Writing Contest and their schools. MENC teachers in more than 50 cities nationwide are currently using Wii Music in their classrooms, utilizing the many rhythm, tempo and song structure exercises found in the game in their lesson plans.
For more information on MENC, Music In Our Schools Month, and the World’s Largest Concert, visit www.menc.org.
MENC: The National Association for Music Education, the world’s largest arts education organization, marked its centennial in 2007 as the only association that addresses all aspects of music education. More than 142,000 members and supporters include educators representing all levels of teaching from preschool to graduate school. Since 1907, MENC has worked to ensure that every student has access to a well-balanced, comprehensive, and high-quality program of music instruction taught by qualified teachers. MENC’s activities and resources have been largely responsible for the establishment of music education as a profession, for the promotion and guidance of music study as an integral part of the school curriculum, and for the development of the National Standards for Arts Education. MENC is located at the National Center for Music Education in Reston, VA.
About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 2.8 billion video games and more than 485 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii and Nintendo DS, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™ and Nintendo GameCube™. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.
