Greetings from the Kansas Chapter of the Society for Music Teacher Education!
Marie Miller
In light of this void, my dear friend, Dr. Selim Giray, and I have humbly assumed the role of state chair(s) for SMTE. We are honored to act as your new state representatives and hope you will consider us a resource as we continue working toward the betterment of Kansas's collegiate music education.
It has already been an exciting year! Our first order of business was to organize the Kansas Consortium of Music Teacher Education Professors and Students (KCOMTEPS), which met on September 28th at Senseney Music and September 29th at Wichita State University. Selim and I are pleased to report that we had a record attendance this year with 15 faculty and 102 collegiate students attending from various higher education institutions throughout the state of Kansas. On Sunday, students attended various clinic sessions pertinent to new teachers. Our Monday clinician this year was Dr. Leigh Ann Garner. Dr. Garner is an elementary classroom teacher and choral music director at Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Hastings, Minnesota. She is also the director of the Kodály Institute at the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Garner gave two very engaging Kodály-based presentations entitled, "Playing Nice in the Music Sandbox: Meaningful Collaboration with Music Colleagues" and "Nurturing Masterful Musicianship in Undergraduate Music Educators," both of which were received extremely well by faculty and students alike.
The faculty also had their annual meeting to discuss music education matters around the state. Avian Bear stopped by to report on KMEA business and Dr. Elaine Bernstorf gave a brief presentation on publishing in academia. There was also discussion about potential collaborative research projects on current music educational practices in Kansas and examining rural education throughout Western Kansas. Other topics included the current status of the new National Standards and the establishment of goals for future development of KCOMTEPS.
One point of discussion was that of enhancing the visibility of Kansas's higher-education faculty/instructor output. All of us have to do research, writing, and/or creativity activity. KCOMTEPS wants to support your work. If you are interested in presenting at KCOMTEPS, please contact us. For more information on the business meeting, see the KCOMTEPS homepage ksmea.org/kcomteps and click the 'Minutes' link in the upper right-hand corner. A special thank you goes out to Ms. Erin Funk, Kansas NAfME Collegiate President, Dr. Robin Liston, Kansas NAfME Collegiate Advisor, Dr. Elaine Bernstorf, Professor of Music Education at WSU, and Senseney Music Inc. of Wichita. Thank you for all you do.
If you would like to know more about SMTE and KCOMTEPS, we welcome your involvement no matter how limited and we extend you an invitation to attend future KCOMTEPS events. Coming up this February at the KMEA In-Service Workshop, SMTE will be hosting a Collegiate Roundtable for 2- and 4-year collegiate professors to discuss topics you feel need to be addressed in our state. Come join us for some Kansas fellowship and refreshments provided by KMEA! We hope to see you there!