middle school

At the time of writing this, I have not yet completed my first full year of teaching. However, I have already learned a lot in the first semester. I arrived at my school mid-year and was both nervous and excited. My day consisted of five classes; 7th and 8th grade beginning tenor/bass choir; two 7th […]

This blog post was contributed by the staff at Edco, one of ACDA’s partners in online fundraising. In it they share information about their product. Profile of a choir director: This year I need to scrape together over $20,000 for travel expenses, new music, and uniforms/risers/music folders and I know about half of that is […]

Conducting a children’s choral group can be both energizing and exhausting at the same time. On one hand, your students LOVE to sing! On the other hand, it can be hard to get them to focus when it’s rehearsal time. Leading a children’s choir successfully requires you to get creative in the way you keep […]

How do we measure success?  This, of course, is a lifelong question that stares us in the face every day. This article is far less philosophical, but does perhaps pose a way in which we should change the way we view success in terms of high school choral programs.   Find out the 14″Secret” Indicators […]

Choral Clarity Blog Presents: As we move closer to our Spring concerts, many of us believe a memorized concert will make for a better performance. How we teach and run daily rehearsals greatly impacts our students’ ability to be responsive to our conducting, sing freely, and be communicative. How Students Can Memorize Music Without Really […]

Choral Clarity Blog Presents: Rubrics have a place in the performing music classroom, but they should not be used to recognize achievement. They must be used properly and give every student the opportunity to be successful. Don’t Use Rubrics Unless Everyone Can Succeed  

The latest issue of Choral Journal features an ongoing column written by retired choral conductors, for retired choral conductors. This month’s contribution was written by Linda Lovaas, a retired middle school choral music educator from California. Following is a section of the article, which you can read in full in the May 2017 issue. ACDA […]

Choral Clarity Blog Presents: In recent years, rubrics have become a popular trend for assessing student achievement; they have been the common grading tool at most choral and solo festivals for as long as any of us can remember. While rubrics can be useful, they also present several pitfalls thats can severely impact the long-term growth and motivation of students at […]

What is your experience with Perfect Pitch? On Monday morning, I was on the treadmill running, and I came across this article about a child in Atlanta who has perfect pitch. I’ve always believed that perfect pitch was far more rare than some of us believe. Maybe it’s because mine isn’t perfect!  🙂 I certainly appreciate the […]

Working with parents in your Music Classroom-Part 3 The Parent/Teacher Conference  This is the final piece in a three-part series about working with parents in your choral music classroom. In part 1 of this series, I shared some ideas about how to get started with parent collaboration.  In part 2, I wrote about some of […]