Music Education - Perpich : Perpich

STate education specialist in music

Perpich Center’s Music Education Specialist serves the work of Minnesota music educators and administrators through dynamic face-to-face and online workshops, consultation, and professional development customized to school or district needs.

Wendy Barden, PhD, is Minnesota’s Music Education Specialist. Currently, a major part of her work centers around implementation of the 2018 Minnesota Academic Standards in Music. Along with the new standards and benchmarks, Barden actively engages in many related topics including:

Standards-based grading
Curriculum mapping
Create – Perform – Respond – Connect strands of the standards
Assessment in the music room
Student retention in ensembles
Culturally relevant teaching
Student choice and voice
Core literacy through music

You can expect a rigorous, yet pragmatic, approach to your questions and requests.

Wendy barden, phD, music education specialist

Wendy Barden wendy.barden@pcae.k12.mn.us | 763-279-4285

Barden joined Professional Development and Resource Programs
at Perpich Center for Arts Education in 2018. She began her career
teaching instrumental and general music in ISD 279-Osseo Area
Schools, then served 21 years as the district K-12 Music Coordinator.
Through the years, Wendy has been honored as a Yamaha National
Mentor Teacher, Minnesota Music Educators Association (MMEA) Band Educator of the Year, a Yale Distinguished Music Educator, and member of Phi Beta Mu. In 2014, Dr. Barden was inducted into the MMEA Hall of Fame.

Dr. Wendy Barden, Music Education Specialist, talks about the MusEd Conference in August, 2019. This one week conference brings together music educators from across the state for professional development and networking.

Music Education Resources for Teachers and Administrators

Standards & Benchmarks

Tools

Resources & Organizations

Curriculum Resources for K-12 Music

Here are many standards-based resources – developed from the 2018 Arts anchor standards and music benchmarks – that have been curated or created especially for your K-12 music classrooms. In-person, hybrid, or distance learning situations, use the lessons “as is” or to spark something that better fits the needs of your students.

Lesson experiences are grouped in five categories. In each category, a table of contents introduces the lessons with suggested grade levels, “I can…” statements, whether or not internet is required, and a short description. Keep in mind that most lessons can be adapted for higher or lower grades, as well.

Everything Beethoven! Celebrate the 250^th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth (December 1770)
Music of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities
Create (and Connect) lessons – Generating original music with intent
Perform (and Connect) lessons – Sharing existing music using interpretive or re-creative skills with respect to the cultural or historical context in which it was created
Respond (and Connect) lessons – Listening to and analyzing, describing, or evaluating music with respect to the context in which it was created

Everything Beethoven!

“Everything Beethoven – Mr. Peabody”

Music of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities

Table of Contents – MN American Indian Resources

Background information – MN American Indians

Traditional Music of MN American Indians

Flutes around the world – Elementary

The Story of the Jingle Dress – Elementary

The Jingle Dress – Then and Now – Secondary

The Jingle Dress 100th anniversary – Secondary

Nibi Song – Elementary

The Water Walk – Secondary

New Day Song – Secondary

Paul LaRoche & Brule – Secondary

Tall Paul – Prayers in a Song – Secondary

Meet Keith Secola – Secondary

Barden Picks from the Perpich Library – Fall 2020

Create (and Connect) lessons

“The SKITTLES Commercial Needs a New Soundtrack!”

Perform (and Connect) lessons

Respond (and Connect) lessons

“Meet Florence Price!”

“Remembering September 11, 2001”

“The SpaceX Astronauts’ Playlist”

"I always come away from your workshops with things that I can immediately apply in my classes plus you get me thinking outside the box on ways I can improve."

Heidi Olson, Big Lake Schools

“Thank you for your time and expertise today with our music needs. Your insights for retaining students in the music program and assessment ideas were invaluable.”

Bloomington Secondary Music Department, Jane Lescarbeau, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist

“Today’s workshop showed me that many 'small parts' make an impressive 'whole.'"

Linda Smith, Avon Schools

“I'm always looking for ways to tie engagement and extension activities that help connect our concerts to learning outside of the concert hall. The formats and various breakdowns of the standards and benchmarks make it so easy for me to make these extra lessons I'm creating applicable and relevant.”

Eleanor GrandPre, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Education Manager

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Why music education matters?

Perpich Center believes in art education for all. We are here as a resource to ensure all children can participate in and benefit from the arts.

Music opens pathways to creative thinking. Music training sharpens other qualities like collaboration, the ability to listen, thinking that weaves together disparate ideas, and the power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously.
A study of students ages 9 and 12 who took part in extended music classes found they reported higher satisfaction at school in almost every area, even those not related to the music classes themselves. Participation in sports or visual arts classes did not present similar benefits.
“A kid with a music degree isn’t limited to a performance or teaching career. Musicians are everywhere. We are project managers, marketers, Finance folks, IT people and engineers. In my twenty-some years as a corporate HR person, I was always impressed by the way musical people excelled at logic and non-linear thinking, both.”
The arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds that students will go on to graduate from college.
Students in high quality music education programs outperformed those in lower-quality programs in standardized tests of English and mathematics. Scientists now believe that the changes in the brain caused by music training can lead to improvements in general cognitive skills like memory, attention, and reading ability, all of which are predictive of educational outcomes.