Music Ed. on the Move

Being my first ISME conference, I did not know what to expect at the General Assembly meeting.  Other organizations I am a part of have had General Assembly meetings during their conferences.  I have attended several of those. The organization of the information for the General Assembly was really quite nice.  I could tell that the executives for ISME really care about the information and also how it was presented.  Information was given on updates of the constitution and bylaws and the budget, all important things.  I was surprised to see that, for an international organization, the sponsorship was rather low.  It was addressed that the sponsorship would be a focus for the next international conference. The meeting was also not well-attended.  One reason may be, well, General Assembly meetings can tend to be not very interesting to many.  Another reason is that there were several tours offered at the same time as the meeting.  I mean, I ...

I am currently taking an online class at the University of Iowa.  This class seemed interesting based on my experiences teaching and it seemed like a good continuation from my Social Justice class I had just taken in the spring.  The class is LGBTQ Topics in Education.  This class has about 22 graduate students in it from all over the country.  This week, as part of the discussion assignment, we were to read a specific document, several articles from an assigned book, and an article of our choice. Well, I'm sorry to say that this was my day to catch up on my reading and submit my online discussion posts.  The article I chose was written by two music educators and it was a study that investigated teachers' thoughts on LGBTQ inclusion strategies.  By chance, I noticed that one of the authors was HERE in Baku.  I emailed him to reach out and to see if I could pick his brain a bit.  I will meet with him tomorrow, Thursday. The inclusion of LGBTQ s...

So today is my wife's and my anniversary.  We've been married for 14 years.  She is off doing wonderful things at a women in ministry conference in St. Louis.  Ellen Jean is at Mimi and PawPaw's new house in Kansas City. I went with an egg-heavy breakfast.  There are quiches and hardboiled and omelets and scrambled.  I think I tried a little bit of each.  Also helped my self to a double espresso to go and it's on with the day. This morning, Dr. Mary Cohen led a session on Affirmation and Interplay.  In the classes I have had with her, she has used these techniques.  They were received well and the whole session participated.  How do you affirm other people? How do you affirm yourself? It is important to try and find the good when possible to benefit long-term health as music educators. The session after this was an introduction to music history and music education in the country of Georgia.  Dr. Cohen's conference roommat...

The Radisson Park Inn does a pretty good spread for breakfast.   They cater to guests from many cultural backgrounds and tastes in cuisine.  There definitely isn't your typical bacon and eggs meal.  You will be hard-pressed to find bacon. I have seen some types of ham though.  I was told that it wasn't really for cultural or religious reasons.  Pigs are just not something that is kept locally and so not prepared as typically for meals. I had to grab breakfast early because I needed to grab my name tag.  The name tags for the conference were distributed at the Music Academy, about a 15-minute walk from my hotel.  There are no sessions I want to attend at the Music Academy, and it is already 80 degrees.  I turn to the Uber.  The problem here is that I can request the Uber ride, but once I leave the safety of the WiFi access of the hotel, I don't have cell reception.  This was fine getting from the hotel to the conference. There was ...

July 15- I had time to enjoy the breakfast at my guesthouse in Istanbul today.  The mother of the manager makes this breakfast every morning. Every. Morning. It was pretty amazing!  When you look out from the rooftop of the guest house, you are looking OVER the Marmara River, past the NEXT body of water, the Bosphorus, and then THOSE buildings are Asia, sometimes called Asia Minor. The flight on Azerbaijan Airlines was delayed by half an hour.  No biggie, but it did play a part in me laying low this evening and getting to the opening concert for ISME in Baku.  Traveling to three different countries means three different currencies.  The countries where I have been comparing their currencies to the Euro, not the US Dollar.  The Euro is worth about 1.25 US Dollars.  In Prague, the Czech Koruna is worth about .05 in US Currency.  As I was buying things in Prague, I could divide the Koruna by 20 and get the US amount.  In Istanbul, the...

My blog today will be my link to the photos from Turkey. I took a 6 hour walking tour of the city with a private tour guide. Totally the way to go if you can forward it. We covered several mosques and churches dating back to Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. He said not a lot of people requested this to her. We went to the local part of town where tourists hardly go. We were there for most of the day. It was so informational. Ended the day on the river that separates Europe and Asia. PHOTO ALBUM