Get excited because this lineup is incredible! Below you’ll find the summit schedule and replay links. To join the live session, log in here.
All session recordings will be available for free for 24 hours. Want extended access? Grab the All-Access Pass!
Click here to add the entire lineup to your calendar!
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Sunday, july 5th
8:00pm Eastern
The Elementary Music Summit® Kickoff Call
with Bryson Tarbet, M.M.Ed.
Join us for the start of the Elementary Music Summit®! Join us for our live kickoff call where we’ll set the stage for an exciting event filled with learning, inspiration, and community-building. In this session, we’ll outline what to expect, share tips on how to make the most of your summit experience, and re-ingnite your passion for elementary music education.
This is your chance to connect with fellow educators, get motivated, and gear up for an incredible journey of professional development, Let’s kick off the summit with energy and enthusiasm, setting the tone for the best summit yet!
Monday, July 6th
9:00am Eastern
Maximizing Instructional Time Through Engaging Transitions in the Elementary Music Classroom
Bryson Tarbet, M.M.Ed.
Elevate your music teaching as you explore a range of effective transition techniques to keep your lessons flowing smoothly. In this session, you'll dive into practical strategies like using rhythmic and melodic transitions, employing ostinati, and incorporating storytelling to seamlessly move from one activity to the next. Learn how these transitions can enhance student engagement, improve classroom management, and create a cohesive learning experience.
Ideal for elementary music educators seeking to refine their lesson planning, this session offers actionable tools to make your classroom more dynamic and effective.
10:15am Eastern
Performances Without the Panic: Preparing Concerts While Protecting Instructional Time
Elizabeth Gaskill
Elementary Music Specialists are often tasked with creating performance opportunities for their communities that wow and amaze everyone involved. Too often, these educators feel they have to sacrifice instructional time to focus on boxed musicals and performance pieces. In this session, I will show how to prepare students for a performance without losing instructional time.
Applicable from kindergarten and up, I will share how I select a theme and use backwards design planning to create engaging performances that include singing, instruments and movements without using weeks of class solely focused on concert songs. Participants will come away from the session with ready to go performance possibilities with varied themes, resources to select songs and the process to create their own performance plan without losing instructional time.
11:30am Eastern
On the Move: Making Music Without a Home Base
Amy Walworth
Teaching music from a cart? Traveling between schools? It’s not just survival- it can be powerful, even if it’s not the ideal situation. As we continue to advocate for dedicated spaces for our programs and our students, many of us are making it work every day in less-than-perfect conditions. In this session, I’ll share what it really looks like to travel between four schools (three of them on a cart) and still deliver engaging, high-quality music instruction in what ever space you find your self in. You’ll experience a sample lesson, pick up practical strategies you can use immediately, and learn the tricks that make life on the go smoother (and a lot more fun). From organization hacks to classroom management wins, Amy will share what’s worked. We hope you will leave feeling encouraged, equipped, and empowered to make the most of your space—wherever that may be.
1:30pm Eastern
Super Simple Centers Ideas
Becca Davis
Centers are great for increasing engagement and fostering independent work, but sometimes the prep work can feel insurmountable. In this session, we'll talk about centers ideas that are easy to set up, easy to implement, and use very few materials-- but are still fun!
2:45pm Eastern
Why Are They Doing That? Sensory Processing Behaviors in the Music Class
Joanie Calem
SPD/Autism/ACES are becoming more common throughout our schools. These conditions, though stemming from disparate roots, all often present with sensory overload. Maintaining sensory friendly classrooms and practices allow these children to participate in music activities in a way that they likely would not be able to without these strategies in place. Music teachers need to be aware of these conditions as possible explanations for behaviors. Access and equity also need to address students whose starting points are different because of neurological factors.
This workshop reviews 8 sensory areas, common behaviors that are a result of Sensory Processing Disorder, and simple strategies for the busy music teacher to put in place to support all students and maintain compassionate, inclusive classrooms.
4:00pm Eastern
You’re a Composer, Harry: The Magic of
Student-Created Tunes
Brittany Brandt
Unlock the magic of student composition in your music classroom! In this engaging session, we’ll begin with the First Steps in Music “Arioso” approach, exploring how young learners naturally create and express musical ideas. From there, we’ll follow the progression of how these early experiences lay the foundation for more structured composition in upper elementary, including projects like jingles, blues songs, and more.
Designed for early childhood through upper elementary, these strategies make composing approachable, playful, and successful for all learners; no prior experience required. Through a sequence of scaffolded activities and real classroom examples, you’ll discover how to nurture creativity, build musical understanding, and empower students to see themselves as composers. Walk away with practical, ready-to-use ideas that spark imagination, reinforce key musical concepts, and bring a little everyday magic into your classroom.
7:00pm Eastern
ESCAPE MUSIC TEACHER ISLAND: VIRTUAL NETWORKING FOR ELEMENTARY MUSIC TEACHERS
Don’t feel like you’re the only one on “music teacher island!” This dedicate live online event provides a fantastic opportunity to connect with peers, share best practices, discuss challenges, and foster a supportive community.
Whether you’re looking for new ideas, collaborative partners, or simply to connect with others who understand the unique joys and demands of teaching elementary music, this is your chance to build your network and feel more connected than ever!
TUESDAY, July 7th
9:00am Eastern
Development & Progression in Elementary Music
Dr. Liz Stafford
In this session you will explore research around development and progression of musical skills in elementary aged children. You will learn how knowledge of these different developmental stages can inform the way that you plan, teach and assess music in your elementary school.
10:15am Eastern
Teaching A Life You Actually Enjoy
Rainy Montague
Teaching can easily become something we try to just survive instead of something we actually enjoy. In this session, we’ll explore how to intentionally design a teaching life that feels sustainable, balanced, and fulfilling—both inside and outside the classroom. In this session we will explore practical ways to create a school day and weekly rhythm that supports our well-being as teachers and how to build small moments of joy into the everyday teaching experience. If you aren't taking care of yourself outside of the classroom, how can you expect to take care of yourself inside?
11:30am Eastern
Ready to Level Up Your Music Classroom? 10 Powerful Canva Tips Every Teacher Should Know
Amy M. Burns
Looking for ways to save time while creating engaging, student-centered materials for your elementary music classroom? In this session, discover 10 practical and creative ways to use Canva to enhance your teaching—no design experience required.
Learn how to quickly design manipulatives, visual aids, rhythm activities, listening maps, and interactive slides that support musical understanding and student engagement. Explore time-saving features, including Canva AI tools, templates, and easy-to-edit graphics, that let you adapt resources for different grade levels and learning needs.
Walk away with ready-to-use ideas, templates, and inspiration to streamline your workflow while keeping music learning active, visual, and fun.
1:30pm Eastern
Loop, there it is!
Guillermo Keymolent & Seth Murzyn
Loop, there it is! will cover all the basics you need to start using a loop pedal in your general music classes. Discover the endless use cases to capture students attention beyond your wildest dreams. We'll talk about gear. We'll talk about songs. We'll talk about how to integrate it into all of your favorite activities. Whether you are new to the idea of looping, of Ed Sheeran himself, come enjoy some fresh ideas you and your students will love.
2:45pm Eastern
From Exploration to Ensemble:
A Pathway to Orff Ensemble Skills
Erin Elliott
How do we move from simple xylophone exploration to Orff ensemble playing? In this session, we will use exploration, speech, song, and movement to guide students towards rhythm development, melodic understanding, improvisation, and ultimately, ensemble performance.
Emphasis will be placed on scaffolding, student choice within structure, and building technique through authentic music-making. You will leave with adaptable strategies and ready-to-use ideas that will support both creativity and musicianship in the elementary music classroom.
4:00pm Eastern
Songs and Activities to Add to Your Collection: Music and Movement for All!
David Bedard
With the intention to add to participants’ already existing repertoires, this session will be filled with songs and music-and-movement activities that aim to foster kindness, deepen community, and meet children’s social-emotional, cognitive, and motor needs. This session aims to leave attendees with some new songs and music-and-movement activity takeaways that can be used right away, while also, highlighting ways in which early childhood and elementary music can be used as a vehicle to initiate, and lean into, conversations about body diversity and inclusivity! Providing numerous access points is key and your imagination is your only limitation!
WEDNESDAY, July 8th
9:00am Eastern
Scaffolding creative group work in the elementary music classroom
Hannah Lemont
Getting students from a "must-get-the-answers-right" mindset to making creative choices, improvising, and taking risks in a small group setting can feel daunting. Come learn strategies to help students take the leap, using sure fire lessons that include movement creation, barred instruments improvisation, small group singing, and more!
10:15am Eastern
We Sing, You Play, They Move: Active Music Making in Large Upper Elementary Classes
Emily Brackney
Brackney will share activities using teacher choice of Orff instruments, Boomwhackers, hand chimes, and unpitched percussion combined with singing, recorder, and movement in kid-tested activities for 2nd-5th grade. She will use them to teach music reading, chords, simple composition, ostinato and accompaniment. The session will provide fresh ideas for students to make their own music and accompany their own singing, with modifications for special learners added.
For those with large classes, these activities show ways to keep everyone involved simultaneously, i.e. we play, you sing, they move, and we are ALL making music, even when there are only enough instruments for a few. Most of these activities could also translate to a performance without requiring students to have individual scores.
11:30am Eastern
You Don’t Need More Ideas—You Need Systems
Pamela Wilson
If your music class feels chaotic, like you’re constantly redirecting behavior, answering the same questions, or adjusting your plans on the fly, it’s not because you need more ideas. It’s because you were never given systems.
In this session, you’ll learn three foundational systems that make an elementary music classroom actually work: clear routines, repeatable lesson structures, and a room setup that supports independence instead of confusion. We’ll look at where teachers often get stuck, why common strategies fall apart, and how small, intentional shifts can reduce behavior issues and planning overwhelm.
You’ll leave with simple, practical steps you can implement immediately so your classroom runs more smoothly, your students know what to do, and you can focus on teaching instead of constantly reacting.
1:30pm Eastern
Every Voice in the Room: Simple Strategies That Transform Student Engagement
Laura Bartolomeo
Culturally responsive teaching isn't a curriculum overhaul, it's a mindset shift in how we invite students into the learning and easier to do than you think.
In this session, participants will explore three practical strategies that work together to build student buy-in from the very first moment of a lesson:
Setting up the learning: Connecting new musical concepts to students' personal experiences, cultural backgrounds, and musical lives before the formal teaching begins.
Creating within the lesson: Using creative processes to let students bring their own voice into the music.
Student choice along the way: Giving students meaningful input in the direction of the lesson so the learning feels collaborative, not just teacher-driven
2:45pm Eastern
SEL in the Music Room: Simple, Sustainable Strategies That Fit Your Existing Curriculum
Nicole Craven
Music classrooms naturally foster creativity, connection, and self-expression, but how can we be more intentional in using these strengths to support students’ overall wellbeing and lifelong engagement?
In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how music education aligns with CASEL’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) framework and current research on music and the brain. Through hands-on experiences and practical examples, we’ll examine simple ways to embed SEL into daily routines, lesson planning, and musical activities, without overhauling your curriculum.
Participants will walk away with practical tools to support student self-awareness, regulation, collaboration, and more meaningful engagement with the creative process. We’ll explore how to create a cohesive approach across grade levels that builds musicianship and lifelong connections to music.
4:00pm Eastern
TITLE PENDING
Names
Description
7:00pm Eastern
Reflect & plan post-it party
Bryson Tarbet M.M.Ed.
WAITING (include AAP or EDGE only)
Thursday, July 9th
9:00am Eastern
Uke’N’Sing for 6-12 Years
Susie Davies-Splitter
Discover easy classroom ukulele arrangements based on the Orff approach. Includes arrangements of traditional songs, original and newly composed songs especially for the ukulele in various styles including jazz, blues, Latin, gospel etc.
Pieces begin with one chord and simple finger picking then gradually progress to chord changes and opportunities for improvisation. Many pieces combine speech, body percussion, singing, movement, dance and percussion instruments.
Please note: Due to speaker availability, this session has been pre-recorded.
10:15am Eastern
Inclusive by Design: Making Music Class for Everyone
Alaina Sheridan & Emma Latham
Elementary music teachers are increasingly diverse and often asked to meet a variety of needs, standards, and expectations with limited training in areas such as adaptability and accessibility. This session will provide practical resources from two board-certified music therapists with music education backgrounds to help you bring more music to more students.
Participants will engage in familiar songs, activities, and lessons paired with new ideas for adapting the materials while increasing accessibility and supporting student learning. Strategies modeled will include adding visual supports, flexible instrumentation, adapted notation, and more.
Following demonstrations and discussion, the group will be invited to contribute to the conversation and create an adapted lesson to use in their classroom. This session is for the elementary music educator who wants to build a community of inclusivity and belonging in their classrooms.
11:30am Eastern
Choir Planning Made Easy: Practical Routines for Overwhelmed Music Teachers
Bethany Main
Level up your ensemble and build a vibrant classroom culture from the first warm-up to the final bow! Clinician Bethany Main (Artistic Director, Youth Chorus of Kansas City) will share her "choir toolbox"—exercises, brain breaks, strategies, and activities that keep kids engaged and maintain the momentum of your rehearsal. In addition, discover how thoughtful repertoire selection and creative programming create a roadmap for success by mapping out the full arc of a concert cycle. Come prepared to sing, laugh, and rediscover the joy at the center of your podium.
1:30pm Eastern
Learning With Purpose: Project-Based Learning in the Middle School Classroom
Alessandra Santaguida
Project-based learning offers powerful opportunities for students to take ownership of their musical learning, but getting started can feel overwhelming.
This session provides practical, classroom-ready strategies for implementing project-based learning in the middle school music room. Educators will explore how thoughtfully designed projects can foster student choice, collaboration, and reflection, while strengthening music literacy and supporting a wide range of learners.
Through real ready-to-use classroom examples, planning frameworks, AI considerations and adaptable project ideas, participants will learn how to design PBL experiences that are purposeful, inclusive, and responsive to students’ diverse musical lives. Emphasis will be placed on approaches that are accessible for both music specialists and non-specialists, and that build community through shared musical inquiry and creation.
2:45pm Eastern
Creating Cultural Connections
Melissa Stouffer
Music is about community. The classroom community, the community we live in, and the global community. This session will focus on using books, video, sound recordings, and other available resources to create cultural connections to cultures across the globe in your music classroom. We will discuss finding resources, evaluation of sources, and sources to examine that you may not have considered before.
4:00pm Eastern
Clapping Games that Build Rhythm, Literacy and Joy
Debbie O’Shea
Teachers are always looking for engaging activities that build musicianship while keeping students actively involved in the music-making process. Clapping games are a powerful tool for developing rhythm skills, coordination, ensemble awareness, and musical confidence.
In this highly practical session, Debbie O’Shea shares a sequence of clapping games that can be used across the primary years. Participants will experience games that build rhythmic understanding, support literacy development, and strengthen classroom community.
Teachers will leave with ready-to-use activities for early, middle, and upper primary students, along with ideas for connecting clapping games to rhythm reading, notation, and creative music-making.
Friday, July 10th
9:00am Eastern
Reggio in the Real World: Practical Adaptations for Real Classrooms
Janine Slaga
What does Reggio-inspired teaching look like outside of ideal conditions? And how can it work in real music classrooms? This session explores how principles from the Reggio Emilia approach can be adapted to fit the realities of typical elementary music programs, including large class sizes, limited resources, and short contact time.
Through practical lesson examples and classroom-tested strategies, participants will learn how to design a classroom environment that encourages curiosity and musical thinking, facilitate meaningful exploration with minimal materials, and document student learning in simple, sustainable ways.
Grounded in real classroom practice, this session focuses on manageable shifts in lesson design and classroom setup that support more student-centered, responsive, and engaging music learning. Participants will leave with:
Concrete lesson ideas that work in typical school settings
Tools to increase student voice and creative thinking
Practical approaches to documentation and assessment
Simple ways to integrate inquiry without sacrificing learning standards
10:15am Eastern
Ways to Engage Through Special Days - Activities That Foster High Levels of engagement in the elementary general music classroom!
Amy Paz
This session will present highly engaging musical activities based on a monthly theme, that will captivate even the most challenging classes while
reinforcing musical skills and concepts through song, dance and play! I will lead a trip through each month of the school year, sharing my most tried
and true activities, games and rhythm activities that will have students dancing, singing and reading rhythms joyfully! From September through
June, we will explore class favorites while demonstrating my most engaging props including cotton balls as snowballs, flashlights, candles, fingerlights, glow pens, cups and more!
11:30am Eastern
Music in S.T.E.A.M.
Rachel Johnson
Music and science go hand in hand because you need one to create the other. Arts and Music, when added to STEM, create real-world applications for students. It encourages innovation, hands-on activities, project-based learning, and critical thinking, boosting curiosity and allowing students to make connections in the classroom and in the real world. There is science in music: sound production, frequency, pitch, musical structure, emotional responses in the brain, and cognitive responses.
1:30pm Eastern
The Successful Music Room: Developing Your Classroom Procedures and Behavior Management
Cheryl Baker
In this interactive session, Cheryl Baker will share strategies about teaching procedures and managing behaviors. We will explore the following subtopics: developing rules and consequences, staying calm and asking for help, procedures, transitions and pacing of a lesson. Interaction with the participants is encouraged and welcomed.
2:45pm Eastern
Turning Storybooks Into Powerful Music Lessons: Movement, Assessment, and Musical Skills Through Story
Leanna O’Brien-Henry
In this session, Leanna O’Brien will show teachers exactly how she transforms children’s literature into complete elementary music lessons that teach rhythm, solfege, literacy skills, movement, listening skills, composing, and more. When lessons are built around a strong story, each activity flows naturally from one moment to the next, allowing teachers to teach seamlessly, keep students fully engaged, and gather meaningful assessment data with just a bit of preparation.
Participants will walk through three complete story-based music lessons using outstanding children’s books and see how each story naturally leads into movement activities, musical skill development, classical listening, and simple classroom assessments.
Beyond the ready-to-use lessons, teachers will also learn how to create their own story-driven music lessons. Leanna will share the specific qualities she looks for when selecting a book, how she turns story moments into musical experiences, and what characteristics may make certain books harder to use in a music lesson.
4:00pm Eastern
Your Elementary Music Success Scorecard:
Pinpoint Your Biggest Struggle
Bryson Tarbet, M.M.Ed.
Stop the professional guesswork and constant stress! This live keynote unveils the five "Pillars of General Music Success". You'll use a diagnostic approach to definitively identify your Growth Pillar—the single area sabotaging your time—and strategically leverage your greatest teaching strength to conquer it. Walk away with the clarity needed to focus your energy for immediate, significant results and start thriving in your classroom.
5:00pm Eastern
The Elementary Music Summit® CLOSING Call
with Bryson Tarbet, M.M.Ed.
Join us for the grand finale of the Elementary Music Summit®, our closing call! As we bid farewell to an incredible event filled with inspiration, growth, and connection, we’ll reflect on the highlights, celebrate our accomplisments, and set our sights on the exciting future ahead!
Don’t miss this final opportunity to come together as a community and leave the summit feeling empowered and ready to take your music teaching journey to new heights. Let’s make this closing call a memorable celebration of our shared passion for elementary music education!