K-12 Sessions Details: 37th International Society for Music Education World Conference (ISME 2026)

When we see the words Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism, & Anti-Oppression, we tend to shy away from it as we don't know where to start, especially in the classroom. As educators, we don't want to make any mistakes when we start this work, but we can't ignore it or leave it to someone else. While I am not an expert in Anti-Oppression in Education, I can share with you what I have learned along the way, what worked for me in the classroom & workplace, and my lived experience as a person who belongs in multiple equity deserving communities. Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression work takes curiosity and courage - come join the conversation!

This session will share practical, adaptable strategies for creating inclusive, flexible learning spaces where teachers guide from within rather than direct from the front. Participants will explore frameworks for student-led rehearsals, ensemble learning without a traditional conductor, collaborative composition and arranging processes, and reflective practices that foreground equity, belonging, and shared ownership of learning. The session will highlight ways to scaffold musical decision-making, encourage peer mentorship, and support diverse learners in taking meaningful creative risks. Grounded in classroom experience and equity-focused leadership, this session offers concrete tools to shift from control to co-creation, empowering adolescents to see themselves as musicians, leaders, and creative collaborators who actively shape the musical culture of the classroom.

As the popular music columnist for the Canadian Music Educators’ journal, I have collaborated with teachers, industry professionals, and community members across Canada to share their stories alongside research, practical strategies, and theoretical inquiries into classroom innovations in popular music education. Drawing on my dual role as an academic and elementary school teacher, I include my own experiences — such as organizing tours for grade 3 to 8 student bands performing in their favourite genres, integrating music technology, and exploring offstage roles including production, business, and social media. This session will share selected stories from these columns and invite participants into a lively networking exchange to spark new ideas for future features.

Everyone can learn to improvise musically, given the right music experiences and instruction. In this workshop, we will explore a roadmap for general music and choral teachers who are striving to help their students learn to audiate harmonically and express their own ideas through improvisation. Participants will engage in carefully sourced lesson plans rooted in the sequential model (resting tone audiation, chord roots by rote and audiation, harmonic audiation, and improvising over harmonies, then chord roots), its application to major and minor tonality with tonic and dominant functions, the addition of subdominant functions, and supplemental materials, including harmonic tapestries and folk/popular music.

Traditionally, beginner wind band music is performed in the keys of concert Bb, Eb, and F. Although these established key signatures are widely used in most band rooms, the key of concert F consistently presents challenges for band directors and their students. This workshop, drawn from the lived experiences of a former Texas band director, aims to examine wind instrument pitch tendencies as they relate to concert F, the use of just intonation in harmonic chord structures, suggestions for rehearsal strategies, and more.

The purposes for using songs and music in early childhood teaching and learning are numerous. When folk and other kinds of songs are available in two or more languages and incorporated into classroom learning, children are provided with the additional opportunity to learn vocabulary in another language, as well as aspects of the culture, history and geography of various places in the world. When classrooms are made up of children whose parents (or the children themselves) come from various cultures, including familiar folk songs and music from their cultures can be a springboard for studying and celebrating their cultures. While including language songs in classroom activities is just one way of valuing cultural diversity, learning songs in more than one language also supports the development of fluency in a second language and adds to the awareness of the multicultural makeup of the world today. Learning vocabulary through song is a fun and lasting way to learn speech in a second language. (Interactive session with materials; interdisciplinary content with music teaching practices for developing rhythm, speech and musical skills in children.)

We will explore ways that Instrumental Music Educators can connect with other departments within their school/school board to create genuine, cross-curricular and experiential learning opportunities. Topics include working with Indigenous musicians in the classroom, working with and commissioning music by Canadian composers, working on alumni projects, working with history, art, drama, and communications technology departments to work together on whole-school initiatives, and how to get funding. In short, this presentation will help you help students create "core memories" by being a part of projects that expand far beyond the traditional classroom.

This interactive session explores how circle singing can transform K–12 music classrooms into vibrant spaces of creativity, shared leadership, and social-emotional growth. Drawing on participatory music-making frameworks and classroom-tested approaches, participants will experience the core components of circle singing—layering, vocal improvisation, collaborative groove-building, and responsive cueing—while examining how these practices support students’ musical fluency and personal agency. The session highlights how circle singing naturally promotes inclusion, belonging, and risk-taking by offering structured freedom within a supportive community. Practical takeaways will include adaptable warm-ups, improvisation scaffolds, culturally responsive strategies, and assessment approaches aligned with SEL competencies. Attendees will leave with concrete tools for integrating circle singing into daily instruction, ensemble rehearsals, and arts-integrated settings, empowering students of all ages to explore their voices, strengthen interpersonal connections, and develop confidence as creative musicians.

Are you passionate about your music program but unsure how to get others to see its value? This session is for you! Join us for an energetic and inspiring presentation filled with practical tips, real-life examples, and a few laughs as we explore how to be confident advocates for music education in our schools and communities. Whether you’re new to teaching or a seasoned pro, you’ll leave with strategies to showcase the impact of music on student learning, well-being, and school culture. Learn how to speak the language of administrators, engage parents and guardians, build community partnerships, and turn everyday moments into powerful advocacy opportunities. We’ll also share creative ways to highlight student work, connect with local media, and make your music program a visible and valued part of the school. Come ready to be encouraged, equipped, and reminded that what we do matters—because music isn’t just a class… it’s a movement!

In this interactive session, participants will explore project design at the intersection of music, technology, and the broader world. We will tackle the questions: How can music educators design creative projects that explicitly break down disciplinary silos? What is the value of learning that is not limited to one sphere of knowledge? Through collaborative discussion, some projects that we will explore include podcasts, media scoring, as well as a project combining music and visual art. All participants will understand how music technology can be used in interdisciplinary projects, as well as identify key design elements for interdisciplinary projects. Participants will also explore project plans relevant to their teaching context.

Music has the power to connect, empower, and give voice to students whose ways of learning may not fit traditional classroom models. This session explores how music educators can embrace a neurodiversity-informed approach, celebrating the unique strengths of students who are autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or otherwise neurodivergent. Drawing on current research and lived experience, this presentation highlights the ways music can support sensory regulation, communication, focus, and creativity. Participants will explore practical classroom strategies including flexible participation, sensory-aware environments and alternative notation with the goal of fostering genuine inclusion. Real-world examples will illustrate how neurodivergent learners thrive when music education moves beyond rigid structures and expectations. Attendees will leave with adaptable strategies and a deeper understanding of how embracing neurodiversity enriches not only individual learners but the entire music classroom.

This interactive workshop will guide participants through creative composition activities designed for the secondary guitar focused music classroom. This session will empower students to compose original music guitar working through the various areas of the creative process. Participants will see the tools, and step-by-step instructions for rhythmic compositions, bio poem creations, ostinato group creations and finally song writing units. Everything that you need to get your guitar students composing and performing their own creations.

The early years of band instruction are essential for shaping students’ musical growth and long-term success, yet they can present significant challenges: balancing diverse skill levels, maximizing limited rehearsal time, and navigating the emotional challenges many students face in today’s complex educational landscape. In this hands-on, activity-based session, participants will explore practical strategies to support students at every stage of development, embedding social-emotional learning and differentiating instruction to prevent poor habits while inspiring engagement and success for all learners. Attendees will unlock powerful strategies that empower students to develop their own musical expression, refine articulation, and strengthen rhythm and note reading, building stronger sight-reading skills and overall musical literacy. Walk away with tools to engage every student, motivate growth, boost confidence, improve retention, and transform your beginning band into a thriving, high-achieving program.

This workshop showcases how 88 Keyboard Concert Project designs an interactive concert-like music class to engage underserved students in rural areas of China to “bridge” the education gap. It is a demonstration of the six years of hands-on experience from delivering 51 concerts in more than 40 schools, reaching over 11700 students. The goal is achieved through live performance, enlightening students with cross-discipline academic pursuit, and immersing students in the music’s original culture. Through this experience, the students will be more engaged with academic study as well as diverse cultures. The development of the methodology is grounded by Western pedagogy such as Orff, Dalcroze, Constructivism, and Holism, while embedding Chinese ancient poetry, local ethnic dancing and farming culture in the music context.

Why should we be using our music classrooms to teach SEL? How can SEL be supported through music activities? These are the questions we will be discussing in this session. Over the next hour we will be defining trauma, learning how to support all students with their emotional learning, and trying music activities that explicitly teach SEL in the classroom. Learn how to use music classes to create a pathway for students to understand their emotions and how they can support each other in navigating big feelings. You will leave this session with some ideas that can be immediately implemented in your music rooms.

Join Katie for an immersive workshop where you’ll experience firsthand the top 5 games and activities that have proven successful across diverse Early Childhood educational settings. Designed to be taken straight back to your classroom, these activities will be demonstrated using the Orff process with minimal equipment, ensuring they are accessible and engaging for all students. In this interactive session, Katie will guide you through collective music-making experiences that introduce musical concepts and incorporate Social and Emotional Learning skills. Watch your students take ownership of these activities, adapting and leading them in ways that enhance their learning and classroom community. The workshop includes detailed notes with extension, variation, and adjustment ideas, allowing you to customise these activities to fit your unique teaching environment. Come prepared to play and learn … and bring new energy and creativity to your music classroom!

Giinawind is an Anishinaabemowin word that can mean, ‘This is Us.’ It is the title of Riverbend Community School’s school song. The song has been a long-term evolution of creating community inside and outside of the school, a process of breaking down the boundaries of The System and a meditation on the variables of time, space and relationships while creating music and teaching children. It is an amazing hip hop song that was created in collaboration with local Winnipeg musicians and producers and the children of Riverbend School. Giinawind, This is Us is a lesson on how to genuinely create community connections by prioritizing inclusion and relationships in music-making with children.

In this workshop, participants will explore the fundamentals of efficient violin teaching for elementary school music instructors, with an emphasis on practical and effective classroom strategies. While some schools offer brass programs, others provide string instruction—often limited to violin—making it challenging to address core techniques within limited instructional time. This session introduces adaptable methods that teachers can apply in violin or viola instruction. Topics include proper violin and bow hold, integrating Emile-Joseph Chevé’s rhythm syllables (also used in the Kodály approach), coordinating bow division with rhythm syllables, and developing effective left-hand technique. Strategies for students at varying skill levels will also be presented to support equitable learning opportunities.
The workshop will be interactive, and participants are encouraged to bring their instruments to actively engage with the techniques presented. The session will conclude with an open discussion, equipping participants with practical strategies to sustain violin classes and foster long-term student engagement and technical growth.

Explore the music, movement, and customs of countries around the world in this energetic, interactive workshop with John Jacobson. Designed for music teachers and classroom educators alike, this truly “feets-on” experience shows you how to help students travel the globe without ever leaving the classroom. Through engaging songs, creative movement, folk and line dances, and easy-to-teach classroom games, you’ll discover practical ways to bring global musical traditions to life. Each activity is adaptable, age-appropriate, and rooted in authentic cultural practices, making it simple to connect music learning with geography, history, and social studies. You’ll leave with ready-to-use ideas that build community, spark curiosity, and get students moving with purpose and joy. It’s a big musical world out there, and its rich traditions offer an exciting, inclusive resource for classrooms of every size, setting, and age level—inviting students to learn by doing, dancing, and making music together.

Wait, did you hear that?! It is the sound of discovery and recontextualization—the sound of sampling! This session explores the inquiry mindsets that producers have used to shape popular music over the past 50 years. Attendees will gain a deep appreciation for the sounds, techniques, and technology used to create sample-based masterpieces. We will examine the philosophies of producers like Daft Punk and J Dilla, who treat sampling as a method of musical interrogation rather than a shortcut to a finished track. Educators will leave with classroom-ready resources that will engage critical listening skills, scaffold student creation, develop musical literacy, and create meaningful connections across genres and generations.

In this session, I will share the music and movement used to incorporate dancing into my K-8 Jazz music curriculum. Bring your ‘dancing shoes’ because in this session, we will improvise movement using locomotor/non-locomotor movements, develop a “showstopper” performance for grades K-2 with a partner, and create an in-class performance of Lindy Hop dance moves for the 4th through 8th grade classroom using dance composition cards. Finally, we will have conversations about how social dance in the U.S. African-American community continues to be a compelling force in music and dance in the 21st Century.

Discover practical, classroom-tested strategies for running a vibrant Modern Band program in any setting. Learn how to design a responsive curriculum that grows across grade levels, anchored by student choice of all repertoire and roles, and supported by a clear performance structure. This session also offers technical solutions that allow multiple bands to rehearse effectively in the same room, and strategies to streamline arranging for highly varied skill levels. Whether you teach upper elementary, middle school, or high school, you’ll come away with concrete tools to build a program that is flexible, engaging, and rooted in the music your students love.

The traditional model of direct instruction performance ensemble rehearsal is leaving behind a large number of musicians in our modern world. When we update our teaching strategies to include students who need more movement, shorter learning periods, or time to verbally process learning, we are able to include so many more young musicians in our ensembles. This workshop will model strategies that can be easily incorporated into the rehearsal of performance ensembles. It is a hands on experience to learn how we can include more styles of learners into our music ensembles, creating a richer tapestry of experience for everyone.

Join Cree-Dene music educator and composer Sherryl Sewepagaham as she shares her nêhiyawêwin (Cree language) compositions for unison, SA, SSA, and SATB choirs. This session introduces Cree language repertoire while exploring vocal pedagogy, resonance, sound production, pronunciation, instrumentation, and cultural elements of music composition through a resurgent, compositional lens. Sherryl will also address historical contexts of cultural appropriation and song theft by North American composers, offering insights into respectful engagement with Indigenous musical traditions and song makers. (*Note the use of the lower case 'n' of nêhiyawêwin in the session title. This is intentional as all choral pieces are written in Standard Roman Orthography and avoids the use of English capitalization and punctuation rules for any Cree spellings.)

As we know, music and the arts have a way of connecting to our hearts, as well as sharing a deeper communication with others beyond words. Nature also speaks to us through means beyond speech, so when we slow down to engage with what is being shared by our more than human relatives, it can be very powerful. Participants will learn about different ways they can inspire students to witness and interconnect with the music of the world around them, with the goal of developing a relationship with the natural world and enhance their desire to care for and protect the land around them. Some experiences may include co-creating instrumental compositions, songs, dance and more, all inspired by being on the land.

A participatory workshop exploring the traditional songs and dances of Abenaki (W8banakiak) culture, designed for elementary and secondary school students. For elementary students, the activities include simple, energetic dance steps, games, nursery rhymes, and easy-to-learn songs. For secondary school students, the workshop focuses on social dances that incorporate group choreography. The learning experience is enriched by cultural explanations and contextualization, fostering a deeper understanding of traditions and encouraging students to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom.

This presentation is intended to be a story of collaboration born out of music. As a consultative group dedicated to the decolonization of music education takes shape, a friendship emerges between two nations, each person navigating their own process of decolonization. On the one hand, Gabriel, who embodies a dual Abenaki and Quebecois identity, uses music as a tool for well-being, healing, and cultural reappropriation for himself and for members of his community. On the other hand, Marie-Claude, Quebecoise, doctoral student, and lecturer in music education, questions her own practices and supports future
teachers in their learning journey by adopting a stance of cultural humility (Coppola, 2025). This meeting of two cultures reaffirms the importance of maintaining a dialogue, “mutual understanding”, about the role of music in both communities and classrooms and also highlights the challenges of addressing Indigenous perspectives in music education. A practical pedagogical application will be proposed based on three case studies : (1) Grades 10, 11 music students in a Montreal high school with a diverse population; (2) Grade 9 French Canadian music students, Quebec City; and (3) A small group of Cree students in a French language classroom (Chisasibi, Québec) (Peters, 2007; Peters & Bilodeau, 2012).

K–12 Sessions and Descriptions

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Social Justice - where do I start?

Un-podium Teaching: amplifying student voice and empowering student choice in the secondary music classroom

Popular Music Education: Stories and Discussions from the Columnist in the Canadian Music Educators’ Journal

Learning to Improvise: Readiness and Harmonic Audiation

Key of concert F: A troubling key

Using Folk and Language-Vocabulary Songs to facilitate Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning in Early Childhood

Making Core Memories - Teaching & Learning through Cross-Curricular Connections and Experiential Learning

Circle Singing in K-12: Building Creativity, Connection, and Confidence

Make Some Noise! Advocating for Your Music Program

A Sound Future: Designing Interdisciplinary Projects Using Music Technology

Neurodiversity in Music Education: Practical Applications

Creative Composition Projects for Guitar Students

Basics to Breakthroughs: Engage, Motivate, and Transform your Beginning Band

Creativity and Creative Approaches for Band

A Concert in the Rural Village from China Bridging to the World

Teaching SEL in the Elementary Music Classroom

Top 5 to Take Away … and Play!

Giinawind: Creating a Hip Hop School Song by Making Community Connections

Fundamentals of Violin Teaching for Elementary School Students

Making Music, Making Connections

It’s a Musical World: Travel the World through Song

The Sound of Sampling: Investigating Music History and Creation Through Sample-Based Inquiry

Straighten Up and Fly Right: Jazz Movement and the Lindy Hop in the K-8 Classroom

Making the Most of Modern Band!

Creating a Performance Ensemble that Includes Neurodivergent Learners

nêhiyawêwin Songs for Choirs

Connecting with the Land Through Music

Introduction to Traditional Abenaki (W8banakiak) Songs and Dances

Engaging with Cultural Communities Through Music: Paths Toward Decolonization

The State of Music Education in Canada: a panel discussion

Teach. Connect. Experience.