Latest Blog Posts

Recently, our district asked each content area to meet, discuss, and submit a plan for teaching our students how to study and prepare for local and state exams.  My initial reaction was to roll my eyes and view this request as just another example of something that applies to other subjects and not to music […]

Rest—real rest—can be elusive.  With our ever-thinking minds, busy schedules, and life’s shifting terrain, we can find ourselves unable to really settle into a fully relaxed state.  To release physical, emotional, psychological holding.  To sleep well.  To feel restored rather than just OK.   In many ways, experiencing a state of deep rest is our greatest […]

By Bobbi Elkamely Twenty years ago, I experienced my first Ramadan. It was one of the most difficult experiences in my life. I had only recently converted to Islam and was struggling to find the balance in my life as a new Muslim post 9/11. While the Muslim community was supportive, my friends and family […]

While using our differences to our advantage. I have become very interested over the last three years in learning from people that see the world through lenses that rarely get amplified on social media or by large institutions. They seem to me, rightly or wrongly, as interesting BECAUSE they are different. The defier of stereotypes […]

“Ash Wednesday”, Russell Amenta, artist with autism (March is National Disabilities Awareness Month) “Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” — Henry Van Dyke We all assume certain things about others.  Those assumptions are usually based on something we know about […]

By Ayana Haviv Tomorrow I begin rehearsals on Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, as I have done with countless Passions over the years, and as always I am steeling myself for the isolation and alienation I feel as a Jew singing this intrinsically and unquestionably anti-Semitic text of an equally unquestionable masterpiece. In the great classic […]

If you’re a church musician, I’m guessing you’re feeling the pressure of this time of year with Holy Week and Easter just around the corner. I thought I would revisit a previous blog post that talked about rest and pause. This time of year, I would love more rest and pause, a very challenging task […]

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels but specifically K-12 and community choirs. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For more information, email  or visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the current Winter 2022 issue titled […]

Imagine if learning to matching pitch was treated like learning basic math:   We certainly believe everyone can learn addition and subtraction. In fact, our public schools require that all students learn how to add and subtract.   If a student struggles to understand the concept of basic math, how is this handled? It’s likely […]

I did a live episode recently on Teacher Burnout, and another one in December about teacher burnout leading up the Holiday Break, but STUDENT burn out is a thing too. Call it senioritis, or apathy, or “checked out.” Regardless of what you name it, it must be fought intentionally through the culture built in the […]