Workshops
Workshops 2024-2025
We’d love to see you at any of our yearly workshops so that we can share our love of the Orff approach and help you gain ideas to use in your classroom!
What to expect at Our Workshops
Workshop participants do not need to be trained in the Orff Schulwerk approach in order to attend – in fact, we love to introduce new people to the magic of Orff! Music teachers and other educators are welcome to attend our workshops, and need not become members of Atlanta Orff or AOSA in order to participate. Pre-registration is not necessary.
Preparing for your workshop:
Expect to move, sing, create, and play! You’ll be actively exploring elements of Orff pedagogy, experimenting with composition and improvisation processes, and generating practical ideas for your classroom. Printed workshop notes are included with each session – participants are welcome to jot down notes of their own, but Orff Schulwerk is best experienced through immersion in the process
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes that allow you to move about freely (some participants choose to work barefoot or in dance shoes). Bring along your soprano recorder if you have one. To accommodate participants with allergies, we ask that you refrain from strong fragrances. Most of our workshops are from 9:00 to 1:00. Snacks are provided!
Fees, Registration, and Times
- $100 for full workshop series for AOSA members
- $120 for full workshop series for non-AOSA members
- $45 for individual workshops (both in person and virtual)
- $40 for Local Membership and full workshop series for retired teachers
- Workshops are free for full-time undergraduate students, student teachers, and first year teachers.
To register for the workshop series and to become a member, go to Membership.
To register for individual workshops, scroll down and click the link under the workshop you wish to register for.
Virtual Option:
This year we are also offering a virtual option! All of our workshops will be recorded and anyone registered will have access to that workshop’s recording! If you would like to purchase the virtual option for an individual workshop, scroll below to the workshop you would like the recording for and register for that workshop. If you purchased the full workshop series, you do not need to do any additional registration.
Broken Stuff Breakfast
August 24, 2024 | Beaver Ridge Elementary | 9am-12pm
Got broken instruments? Aren’t sure exactly how to fix them? Join us for our Broken Stuff Breakfast! Bring your instruments in need of repair and join us for some food, fun, fellowship, and instrument fixin’!
Don’t have broken instruments, but you know how to fix them? Just want to come for the fellowship, fun, and food? That’s fine, too! Everyone is welcome! The cost to attend is $10. That gets you a light breakfast and instruments that are like new! You’re more than welcome to bring a dish to share, too!
Fill out the form here to let us know you’re coming and what instruments you’re planning to bring.
Christine Ballenger
Keep it Simple: Do MORE with LESS!
September 14, 2024 | Chattahoochee Elementary | 9am-1pm
Our jobs as general music educators can be complex– typically teaching five or six different grade levels during the course of a week, each with its own content and skills. But with this challenge comes the opportunity to teach students multiple years in a row where we can build on their skills and sequence our instruction. Here’s where I invite you to consider doing MORE with LESS– how can one song or experience apply to multiple areas of learning? How can a piece grow from a song and game in first grade into an arrangement of barred instruments and recorder improvisation in third or fourth grade? Experience several activities that can work with multiple grade levels, depending on the focus YOU want to have in your instruction!
Christine Ballenger currently teaches general music (PK-5) in Gaithersburg, MD. She holds degrees in music education from the University of New Mexico (M.M.) and the University of Puget Sound (B.M.). Christine teaches basic pedagogy, recorder, and movement in several different AOSA-approved teacher education courses and has served as a member of the editorial board of The Orff Echo since 2017. She has presented at AOSA National Professional Development Conferences, as well as for workshops for AOSA chapters and school districts across the country and has been published in The Orff Echo. Christine has also had training in Kodaly and World Music Drumming, and completed the “International Summer Course” in 2018 at the Orff Institute, in Salzburg, Austria. She enjoys reading, spending time outside, and a good cup of coffee.
If you paid for the entire workshop series, no need to register for each individual workshop.
Only click below to register if you are registering and paying for an individual workshop.
Kimberly Collins
Stepping into Orff
October 19, 2024 | Powers Ferry Elementary | 9am-1pm
Come be immersed in the interactive style of music making from the Orff Schulwerk approach! We’ll explore processes inspired by the body percussion styles of gumboot dance from South Africa and stepping from the African-American Greek tradition. This session includes immediately assessable pieces for upper elementary and middle level students with various options for analysis and multicultural learning. We will also discuss elemental music and review content from Level 1 Orff Course standards. We look forward to ’stepping’ with you!
Kimberly (Kym) Collins is a National Board Certified music educator living in Little Rock, AR. A national workshop presenter, Dr. Collins has taught choral, general music, and fine arts to elementary and middle level students, as well as educators for over 25 years in rural and urban public schools in Arkansas. She recently received a doctorate in Teacher Leadership and enjoys being an AOSA Teacher Educator of Movement and Basic Pedagogy. A self-described “Orff baby”, the elements of the Schulwerk of singing, speaking, moving, acting, and playing instruments resonated with her as a child in the elementary classroom. She strives to further those interactive experiences with diverse learners of all ages to engage bodies, minds, and hearts.
If you paid for the entire workshop series, no need to register for each individual workshop.
Only click below to register if you are registering and paying for an individual workshop.
Chapter Share
January 25, 2025 | Chattahoochee Elementary | 9am-1pm
Members who attended the November Professional Development Conference in Des Moines, IA will share some of their favorite activities and ideas from conference sessions. This workshop is free for all to attend!
If you paid for the entire workshop series, no need to register for each individual workshop.
Only click below to register if you are registering and paying for an individual workshop.
Victor Lozada
Emergent Bi/multilingual Students in the Orff Schulwerk Classroom: Music-based and Language-based Literacies
March 15, 2025 | Huntley Hills Elementary | 9am-1pm
Session Description Coming…..
Victor Antonio Lozada, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education at the University of North Texas-Dallas. He taught K-5 general music for 14 years in Texas, eight of which were at a two-way dual language campus where he held Orff Schulwerk, Kodály, and First Steps certifications. His research includes the intersections among music education, bilingual education, and literacy learning. He frequently presents on these topics at international and national venues such as the National Association for Music Education conference, the American Orff Schulwerk Association, International Kodály Symposium, the Organization of American Kodály Educators, the American Eurhythmics Society, and the National Association for Bilingual Education. His research can be found in the Journal of General Music Education, the Orff Echo, the Bilingual Research Journal, NABE Journal of Research and Practice, and Literacy Research and Instruction among others. He also offers suggestions for how secondary teachers can engage their students in being critical about curricula in his co-edited book Engage and Empower! Expanding the Curriculum for Justice and Activism, especially his chapters on rap music and antiracism. He currently serves as the Vice President-Elect of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access for the American Orff Schulwerk Association.
If you paid for the entire workshop series, no need to register for each individual workshop.
Only click below to register if you are registering and paying for an individual workshop.
Natasha Thurmon
Positive Recorder: Joyful, Playful, and Creative Ideas for the Music Classroom
April 26, 2025 | Beaver Ridge Elementary | 9am-1pm
It can be easy to treat the recorder as an instrument to be used for a singular unit: learn B-A-G and never touch it again! But the soprano recorder is an accessible and fun instrument that can bring many possibilities into your music classroom. With thoughtful planning, and creative thinking, the recorder can easily and quickly become as integral in the music classroom as any other instruments and mediums available, like singing, moving, barred instruments, drums, and ukuleles!
Natasha Thurmon teaches K-5 general music, choir, strings, Recorder, and Orff ensemble at Boldt Elementary in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, TX. She has a BME in Music Education from Pacific Lutheran University and an MM in Music Education from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She completed her Orff levels at Trinity University, and teaches Recorder at the San Jose State University Orff Levels Course. Natasha is past president of Central Texas Orff, and currently serves as a Trustee for the American Orff Schulwerk Association. She has presented at various state conferences, as well as at the national AOSA conference and for Orff chapter workshops. She serves as chair of the Communications Committee for her local union, Northside AFT.
If you paid for the entire workshop series, no need to register for each individual workshop.
Only click below to register if you are registering and paying for an individual workshop.