Lorelei Batislaong
'Ukulele Contexts and Applications in the Elementary Music Classroom

VIRTUAL WORKSHOP via ZOOM
October 2, 2021, 9:00am - 11:00am EST

Music teachers do so much more than teach music. They plant the seeds of lifelong music-making. With the accessible and approachable ʻukulele as our conduit for music-making, we will reimagine an ʻukulele sequence that is student-inspired and centered. We will draw from known teaching principals including differentiation and other inclusive practices and combine educational concepts such as culturally responsive and sustaining teaching, antiracist and decolonizing approaches to ʻukulele teaching by integrating historical, current classroom, and musical content knowledge surrounding the ʻukulele. During our time together we will explore ‘ukulele activities that will build your students ‘ukulele skills as well as your own. If you are so inclined, please bring along a recorder (soprano or alto). Prior ʻukulele experience is welcomed, but absolutely not required.

Lorelei Batislaong is Associate Professor of General Music Education at Baldwin Wallace University’s Conservatory of Music. She has taught undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin and University of the Incarnate Word. Previous to that Lorelei taught elementary music in San Antonio and Austin for 14 years. She received a BM in Music Education from Southwest Texas State University, an MM in Instrumental Conducting from Texas State University, and a PhD in Music and Human Learning from The University of Texas at Austin. Lorelei is an active national and international clinician presenting workshops in music learning and teaching, ʻukulele in the general music classroom, and antiracist and decolonizing approaches in music classrooms.
 
She has served on the AOSA Board of Trustees as Region Three Representative, chaired the Diversity and Equity subcommittee of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, and is the State Director of the Texas affiliate of the National Association for Music Education. She is the Assistant Course Director for the Trinity Orff Levels Course in San Antonio. Lorelei currently serves as the Deputy Director and Lead Editor of Decolonizing the Music Room, a non-profit organization working to amplify the voices of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian people in the field of music education. She is the co-author of Elemental ʻUkulele: Pathways and Possibilities. Her research includes the psychology underlying teacher skills acquisition (how teachers learn how to teach), the mechanisms of expert teacher's visual attention (is there a "why" driving what and when good teachers look at something during a music class), equity and affirmation in the music classroom and profession, and generally wondering why everything is the way it is and how it could be better.