This year’s Winter Conference was a wonderful respite fromthe regular work-a-day world! I love my teaching staff, but nothing is betterthan the collegiality of my fellow music teachers. I want to give kudos to SanFrancisco Unified and Steve Hendee of School of the Arts (and fellow Boardmember) for putting me in touch with two great session presenters! Monina SenCervone gave a terrific set of sessions on easy ways to incorporate taikodrums. The Friday session was well received and people even came back for moreon Saturday! Monina is a wealth of information on world drumming right here onthe Bay Area. She teaches at School of the Arts in San Francisco and is willingto come out and do presentations at your school if you missed her session atthe conference.

John Calloway gave his session on teaching in the urbanschool setting to a packed room. He is a San Francisco Arts Commissioner andteacher on special assignment who has spent the length of his career in toughurban schools. The term “urban” is controversial as it is, and thispresentation was not without controversy! If you are interested in seeing hisPowerPoint presentation, send me your email address and I will forward it toJohn. We, frankly, ran out of time and I invited him to continue the discussionat the CMEA State Conference in Sacramento. He will be presenting on Friday at1:30 pm.

Finally, I wish you all the best of luck as we head intofestival season. The end of the year is fast approaching! I hope you wererejuvenated by the camaraderie of your colleagues between sessions and at thelunch and Wine and Cheese, as well as filled with new ideas to implement inyour classrooms. I look forward to seeing you at the State Conference in March.