This is our last episode before we take our mid-season break. We'll be back with new episodes for the Spring Semester on January 28th.

Recorded 12/16/18

Bobby is here to talk about backwards mapping warm-ups and fundamentals exercises from your concert to make sure there is always time for great teaching and not just rehearsal in your class. It's band focused this time but we swear he'll be back to talk strings.

Recorded 12/9/18.

What opportunities do your students have to perform/encounter amazing music around town? With the Holidays approaching those opportunities skyrocket and we wanted to address them.

Recorded 12/2/18

The week before thanksgiving we dealt with the aftermath of the Camp Fire and the impact the smoke had all over Northern California. In light of so many performances in the area being cancelled we discussed what steps does a program take next? 

Recorded 11/18/2018

This week we talk about setting up policies in your program so your admin always has your back when parents go around you. 

Also, it's John's Birthday.

Recorded 11/13/2018

Olin and John sit down with Justin Preece to talk marching percussion.

Justin is the percussion coordinator for the OSUMB but he worked as a percussionist and educator in Texas for 20 years before moving to Oregon.

Recorded 11/4/18

We suggest strategies to take a look ahead and take a load off of our plates.

Recorded 10/28/18

We talk about how to engage more with composers of your source material in an ensemble class.

Recorded 10.19.2018

We spitball different ideas for mixing up your rehearsal, generally focused on band but can be extrapolated to choir and orchestra. Sus was absent.

We're trying a new recording format, feel free to offer feedback.

Recorded 10.14.18

Veronica is looking for ways to devote more of her time to a curriculum that isn't oriented around performance literature, but in which the performances are a byproduct of everything she has taught up to that point; developing an underlying curriculum that is independent of literature chosen.

Recorded 10.4.2018

Sus vents a few frustrations about collaborating with colleagues on big projects while she's still trying to sort out her role in the department. We then discuss different opportunities for collaboration each of our programs offer us.

This week John talks about the pillars that make healthy community in his quest for building culture and commitment in his program.

Recorded 9.20.18

Veronica is working on her conflict policies with her admin, and so wants to bounce some ideas and get feedback from the group

Recorded 9.16.18

This week we discuss how learning procedure effects music teachers and how we need to be empathetic when teaching procedure to our students. Olin is away at band camp.

Recorded 9.9.18

This week we discuss our efforts at differentiation in our classrooms for students of different abilities in the same ensemble.

Amused is a proud member of the Music Teacher Development Podcast Network.

Season 5 of AMusEd is sponsored by Vandercook College of Music find more info at Vandercook.edu

Recorded 09/02/2018

With a new school year there's just so much going on. We bounce ideas off of one another to solve a few quick problems and share solutions to the worries of how to get off the ground.

Recorded 8/25/18

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a great labor day weekend. This episode is more personal than topical as we haven't done this in a few months and there's a lot to catch up on. Specifically, Sus changed jobs. We have a few surprises in store for this season. Enjoy.

Recorded 8.18.18

Reflections on our teaching this past year and some goals for our programs and ourselves for the 2018-19 school year.

John's back from a week at a BSA Camp School with some pedagogy on enabling youth leadership, and Olin shares his methods for empowering his student leadership. We're no Dr. Tim, but 'tis the season, and we hope you find it helpful. 

Recorded 6/1/2018

Veronica is grappling with how her end of the year trip is handled for her band program. We share our thoughts on the value of these trips and suggestions for how one can reflect on that value and purpose.

Veronica did a reflection exercise with her students and we all copied it. We talk about our different results and reflect ourselves on the culture of our programs.

Recorded 5.13.2018

After almost four years we finally have a string specialist on the episode to talk shop with. Olin dragged Kathleen Smith on after a OSUMB gig. Kathy is a middle school band and orchestra teacher  in Corvallis as well as a staff member the OSUMB.

Recorded 4.28.2018

What do you do when an institution shows up at your institution? Dealing with insecurities when your predecessor comes for a visit.

We talk at length about what we've been taught and what we have taught in our classrooms regarding counting systems.

This week we brought on our friend and neighbor Patrick Neff from Rosemont HS to talk a little bit about his challenges in his first few years teaching and his perspective from the podium as a percussionist.

Recorded 4/8/2018

We talk about resources for implementing the National Core Arts Standards in your curriculum. Olin was off galavanting around with OSU's basketball team for some reason.

Recorded March 18, 2018

We talk about our interest in small ensembles as middle school, high school & college band directors.

Sus was off galavanting around the city with her choirs.

Recorded 3/11/18

We wrangled Veronica's colleague from Holmes Junior High in Davis to come sit down with us while we pepper him with questions about Brass pedagogy.

To be clear: that's planning for 90 minutes of music during a 45 minute podcast.

Olin is designing a brass methods class for the spring quarter, and so he harasses John and Veronica with questions.

If you have input of things you wanted to see in your brass methods class that you didn't get and we didn't cover, send Olin your suggestions through our Facebook group or our website, Amusedcast.org

We share our student teaching experiences and our thoughts on how we might provide an impactful and helpful student teaching experience in our programs.

We talk about our working relationships with our administration, and what we're looking for in an administrator.

With January behind us we reflect on our local honor groups, their value and how to get the most out of them.

Sorry for the poor audio quality, Sus is on the phone, in a car, with no headphones. Not much we could do.

The question we tackle this week is how best to come back from break and how to you switch gears effectively and hit the ground running.