The conference nitty gritty

Today was my day to dedicate to the music teachers' conference.  I went to four sessions, and 2.5 of them were good.  What?  Let me explain.

The first session I went to was on a piano method series I'm completely unfamiliar with, Keys to Successful Piano Performance (Ed Sueta Music).  The man presenting on the series actually co-authored it, so that was a bonus.  However, the series was very lacking.  The illustrations were okay (some were scary - look below!), the way he spoke about the series was terrible, nothing was ever reinforced with more material, and the theory/technique/other musicianship activities were next to nil.  Definitely not for me.  He actually asked me to play a few things from the level 3 book, which was fun, but then he didn't really have a focus in going through the entire series.  He also kept chiding people who were showing up late or leaving early.  Hello!  Your presentation is boring!  There's no free stuff for these people either!  Ugh.

Scary, scary dephalanged fingers dancing!!!!

The next session was on 10 tips on teaching adults.  The woman who presented the sessions was fantastic.  She spoke easily, very pleasantly, could relate to the material as well as the audience, and made it a fun session to listen to.  I loved this session!  I sat with some other Tucson teachers too, which was great, and saw some of my old colleagues from the East Valley (Phoenix).

This third session is the one I gave a 0.5 toward.  It was a session on incorporating technique into lessons (how to do it well), and it was given by a very prominent piano teacher in this country.  Her talk was great - however, I couldn't see her playing, I couldn't see the examples on the screen (I was way in the back and the room was full), and her handout had very little to do with her presentation.  Ugh.  I wish I could have gotten more out of it.

Lunch time!  I met up with the husband and girls and we wait for almost a hour to get a sandwich at a place across from our hotel.  Yikes.  The girls were happy, though, when we came back to the pool area at the hotel and ate outside.  "Pool picnic!," as L kept calling it.  Hee hee.  Then, upstairs to put them down for a nap and back for one more session for me.

The last session I attended was about the Royal American Conservatory Evaluations (RACE).  It's a Canadian program that has been in the US for about 10 years, and I'm definitely interested in seeing what it could do for myself (beyond Arizona Study Program).  It was a great session - the presenters both taught the program as well as adjudicated for it, and the materials are ample for any teacher wanting to do it.  Quite honestly, I was most excited by the program because it has a violin program that Lily could do in a few years!  Loved this session too.

After the girls got up from their nap, we finally made our way in Disneyland.  The girls were beside themselves with happiness.  Our first stop?  The monorail, about three minutes from our hotel tower!  We rode the monorail into Disneyland (it fast became our favorite family activity) and then did quite a few rides/attractions - It's A Small World, Mad Hatter's Party (tea cups), saw the parade, visited every restroom in Tomorrowland (thanks, E), visited Mickey Mouse in his house in Toontown, watched L and the husband ride Gadget's Go Coaster (E and I played in various things around that area), had dinner, rode the Casey Jr. train (we were locked in a cage!), and then rode the monorail back to our end of Downtown Disney.

Whoa, that's a big mouse...

Disneyland and California Adventure all day tomorrow - woohoo!