Date: Saturday, September 20, 2025  Time: 9am-1pm

Larchmont Elementary School

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 “Remember the Basics!”– 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, all while remembering the basics!

** This event is sponsored by an independent organization granted selective access to a Norfolk Public Schools facility pursuant to a lease.  In granting this access, the School Board and the Administration of the Norfolk Public Schools in no way express or imply their approval, endorsement or sponsorship of this event or the independent organization sponsoring it.**

Clinician Bio:

Christine Ballenger is an AOSA-approved Teacher Educator in basic pedagogy, movement, and recorder and teaches at several levels courses each summer. She teaches 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5h, and 6th grade general music and assists with middle school chorus at Georgetown Day School in Washington D.C. Christine has presented for conferences and workshops across the country and served on The Orff Echo editorial board for eight years. In addition to her Orff Schulwerk certification, she has experienced training in Kodaly and World Music Drumming, and attended the International Summer Course at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. When Christine isn’t at work, she is cooking, laughing, and singing with her daughter and husband at their home in Maryland.