Fall 2023 MECA
Continuing Education Courses
Overview
A strategic plan is necessary to make the journey from the first day you sight-read a piece of music until you perform the piece at the concert. This class presents an opportunity to plan your entire school year’s worth of repertoire, performances, and rehearsal planning. Each piece of repertoire is unique and requires an artistic and technical approach and methodology. This class will equip participants with the tools necessary to set a philosophically based long-term vision, plan repertoire, create units of study, gather professional resources, discuss and share rehearsal strategies, learn ways to integrate technology into lessons, design concert formats, and plan for concert presentations. This class is just what you need to be prepared and organized for next school year, ready to engage your students in rehearsals, and in position to inspire and educate your audiences during concerts. This course will serve all music educators: band, chorus, and orchestra.
Requirements
Chat Session
Prerequisites
Required Text(s)
- All materials will be delivered via Schoology modules
- Recommended: Teaching Music With Passion, by Peter Boonshaft
- Optional: The Conductor As Leader, by Ramona Wis
Learning Platform Information - Online Courses Only
Schoology is a learning management system that allows you to interact directly with your instructors, fellow students, and members of the greater VanderCook community.
The evening before your class begins, be on the lookout for an email from Schoology with log-in instructions. Once you receive credentials, visit www.online.vandercook.edu to login.
Some courses have specific online chat meeting times (please see course descriptions), while others have a flexible meeting schedule. You can expect all courses to meet together in a live online chat. If a live meeting time doesn’t work, you can work with your instructor to make other arrangements.
More information about Schoology can be found at www.schoology.com
Please see specific software/hardware requirements in the course description.
Online course grades are available within two weeks of the course(s) completion. If you need a transcript, please CLICK HERE to access the online transcript request form. For a faster turnaround time, please submit the transcript request to the registrar prior to the end of your course(s).
Instructor
Glen Schneider
Glen Schneider is proud to be a music educator, currently at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, IL, where he teaches a variety of wind and percussion classes, and directs the Metea Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Marching Mustangs. Schneider has taught at Metea Valley since its opening in 2009 where the Music Department has received the Grammy Signature Gold Award, The American Prize, and has been featured at numerous performances from the University of Illinois Superstate Band Festival, to the Illinois Music Education Conference, to the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic. He is also an Adjunct Instructor at VanderCook College of Music (Chicago, IL), where he teaches and writes graduate level professional development classes for the MECA Continuing Education program. He holds the position of Associate Conductor of the Naperville Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Previous teaching appointments include Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, IL, Oswego Community School District 308 in Oswego, IL, and Fox Chapel Area School District in Pittsburgh, PA. He received his education from Duquesne University (Bachelor of Science in Music Education), VanderCook College of Music (Master of Music Education), andConcordia University Chicago (Master of Arts in Educational Technology).
He has served as guest clinician/conductor for the Western Sun Conference Honor Band, District 230 High School Honor Band, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Middle Level Honor Band, and has presented clinic sessions at the Illinois Music Education Conference and the Illinois Percussive Arts Society. He has authored review articles for the Music Educators Journal and Teaching Music, and regularly writes a column called “MAC Corner” in the School, Band and Orchestra Magazine. He has served in positions for the Fox Valley Music Festival, IMEA District IX, VanderCook College Alumni Association Board, ARTSpeaks 204, the Alyssa Alvin Foundation For Hope, and is an educational consultant/writer for the NAMM Foundation’s Music Achievement Council. He is a member of Phi Beta Mu, and the Vic Firth Education Team. He has received the National Band Association Citation of Excellence Award, and the Chicagoland Outstanding Music Educator Award, TeachHUB’s Making A Difference Award, and the Metea Valley Tireless Teacher Award. Most importantly he is supported by his wife Ashlee and their five children, Corinne, Caleb, Calvin, Clara, and Cole.