Explore every episode of the podcast AMusEd

Sorry for ghosting everyone for a year. We're back, but we're not. This is the last episode of the podcast. Series Finale. We decided that the podcast and our listeners meant enough to us that we needed to put out one final episode to actually wrap it up. This whole endeavor has been a wild ride and a labor of love. We felt we filled a role that was really necessary when we started but in the last 9 years there has been explosion of music ed podcasts. We're now almost 15 years into our careers and our focus is now more on our families instead of establishing ourselves as professionals. We'll still be meeting regularly to discuss our teaching and share some epic mistakes and wins but we won't be recording them. We wish you the best in your growth as a music educator and hope that you can find a community of peers like we did to help you on that journey.

If you want to see our journey from the beginning, go back and laugh at those kids who thought they might know what they're doing here's a link to our pilot in all it's glory and lack of production value: https://amusedcast.libsyn.com/amused-podcast-pilot

We navigate the last few weeks of school with an increasingly urgent need for the year to be over.

Recorded 5.22.2022

We continue our conversation regarding what a professional trjectory looks like for us, our previous discussion focused on what it wasn't.

S8E23 Recorded 2.27.2022

Our friend Jeff just took a new job where he has to teach a string orchestra. He brought his questions to the podcast. Warning: John talks a lot on this one.

Recorded June 9 2019

Time for our grab bag episode at the end of the year. We talk about Olin's Presentation at the CBDNA Athletics Bands Symposium, student recognition and awards and an assortment of other topics along the way. We'll have a few more episodes out before we wrap our season for the summer.

Recorded June 3 2019

This week we talk with one of Olin's graduating students who is going off to teach in a one music teacher town. We discuss not only the challenges of being a first year teacher but also the challenges of teaching in a rural community.

Recorded 5.18.2019

We spend a lot of time advocating on behalf of our students, our programs and for music education in general. Sometimes we need to take a second and look into standing up for and taking care of ourselves as well.

What can you do at the end of the semester after the final concert? What sorts of units can you build into the curriculum that are not performance based to engage your students?

Recorded 5/5/2019

This week we discuss the difference in scope and mission of a class and a program in the performing arts.

Sus has questions about building the program off of an all inclusive class in the fall and several classes split off of that in the spring, with  the focus on bringing community and a sense of belonging to her program.

recorded 4/11/2019

John gets some (more) on air therapy and we talk out some steps moving forward for our programs. Not as much Jazz pedagogy on this episode, but there's sure to be more to come.

Recorded April 7, 2019

Who do you bring in front of your kids for feedback for them and your own teaching? It's Festival Season, so that's on most folks minds, but how else do you engage with feedback for your own teaching and who do you turn to for that?

Recorded April 3 2019.

Or should we say "joys." Selena speaks to teaching band orchestra and choir at the middle school level, and how equally challenging and rewarding it is.

What does a music educator's "professional trajectory" look like? This year we discuss a bit of difference in perspective on this topic between teachers in the classroom, administrators and what the difference is for us as music educators.

Veronica is looking for best practices in a world with so many demands on our kids time.

Recorded 3.17.2019

What values are on display in your audition process? How does it tell the kids what you value and what you are looking for in them. How does it tell them what is important to you? 

Recorded 3/10/2019

Anne stops by this week in a crossover episode (we're still building our expanded universe) to talk about a few resources for General Music teachers and some of her experiences developing as a teacher in Texas.

For more resources, check out her podcast, the Anacrusic Podcast, which can be found at our network site Mutedpodcasts.com

The Holy Names folk song inventory she mentioned can be found here

Recorded 3/3/2019

John and Veronica start a discussion about designing or re-designing curriculum over the summer (for units!).

AMusEd is moving to a Wednesday release schedule to better coordinate with our other MuTeD network podcast pals. You can find Everything Band on Mondays, AMusEd on Wednesdays and the Anacrusic Podcast on Thursdays. Source Material will remain on a monthly release for now.

We discuss what we walked away from our state conference with and talk a bit about master's programs and other avenues of professional development.

Recorded 1/13/2019, our first week back from break. We sat down with Brandon to hash out some questions he had about the different ways our schools scheduled classes, as his is going through a change now and he was interested in how other schedules affected ensemble classes.

This is the kickoff episode for our second semester for this season, where we discuss our goals for our teaching in the second semester.

Recorded 1/21/2019

So this one jumped the queue. Dr. Eric Hammer passed away on Monday 1/28/2019 and this podcast session was spent reflecting on our memories of him and how we processed our grief this week making music with our students.

Recorded 2/2/2019

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

As we are normalizing our expectations of ourselves and our students we're encountering a lot of frustration and need to stop and remind ourselves of a few key concepts.

S8E21 Recorded 2.3.2022

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

Recorded 1/20/22

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