If you are looking for a list of valuable, educational, affordable or even free workshops and professional development opportunities for early childhood and elementary music teachers, you’ve come to the right place.
Professional development or PD courses are required of certified educators, not only to fulfill their certification or license requirements, but also to keep up to date with different approaches and effective pedagogical tools.
Below, you will find a list of online professional development trainings for music teachers. These are remote learning opportunities for music educators that are easily accessible no matter where you are.
1. Laurie Berkner's Music in the "Classroom" Seminar Series- this is a series of free seminar recordings where Laurie Berkner provides ideas for structuring classes and tips on how to engage children in the classroom. A certificate of completion is provided.
2. Embrace Race Webinars- Embrace Race provides social justice and racial justice centered educational resources to parents, teachers, and anyone who works with children. They have a series of pre-recorded webinars and presentations on various social justice topics, including one called Using Books to Engage Young Children in Talk about Race & Justice. Certificate of completion are not provided but the information is invaluable and crucial for educators to learn about.
3. Music Education Summit- this is an online professional learning event for k-12 music educators. You may attend live or there’s is an option for on demand viewing for up to a year at no additional charge.
4. F-flat Annual Back-to-School Symposium- the 2020 replays of this music education symposium are currently available including presentations from leading music educators such as Franklin Willis, Darlene Machacon, and Victoria Boler.
5. Music For Kiddos Symposium- the Music For Kiddos Symposium is an online conference for early-childhood music therapists and music educators. Registration for the 2022 conference is available for purchase. It includes presentations from experienced music therapists and music educators such as Dr. Alan Turry, DA, MT-BC, LCAT, Ani Silva-Berrios, Lorrie Kubicek, MT-BC and Kimberly Khare, MA, MT-BC, Otto Gross, and Kat Harhai.
6. Laurie Berkner's Early Childhood Songwriting Masterclass- Laurie Berkner shares her tried-and-true songwriting strategies for creating songs that celebrate children, capture attention, and invite kids to participate in their own way.
This course walks you through Laurie’s process and leaves you with strategies that you can use to support your own clients and students during music.
7. Sensory Songs is a video course that explores music as a supportive tool for sensory regulation. This course features an occupational therapist and two music therapists who walk you through concepts such as: sensory processing, regulation and modulation, sensory seeking and/or avoiding tendencies, and music strategies for regulation. In addition to 3+ hours of video and a Zoom office hour, you’ll receive 14 ready-to-use songs created specifically for sensory exploration.
