Browse News
Browse Resources
Academic Areas
Topics
Upcoming Events
Creating Taonga Puoro in the Classroom
January 25 @ 9:00 am | January 25 @ 3:00 pm
Event Category:
View Event
Musicnet Summary to 11 Dec 2020
Kia ora tātou This year has been something. A special thanks to those that posted a question or a response this year. This community wouldn’t exist without you. Thanks to those who have contributed to the “One thing you changed this year”. Whilst some topics make regular appearances, others surprise…
Musicnet Summary to 27 Nov 2020
Kia ora tātou Summary to 27 Nov 2020 The end of year is definitely upon us. Christmas parties, prize givings, end of year events and the mad rush to get everything done before everyone else goes on holiday. Thanks to everyone who responded that they wanted these summaries to continue.…
Musicnet Summary to 15 Nov 2020
Kia ora tātou Do you read these summaries? Should I continue to compile and send them? A chunk of my time each week is spent writing them that could be spent on the other aspects of my position. I didn’t do one last week. Did you miss it? Send me…
Musicnet Summary 31 Oct 2020
Kia ora tātou Over the last week, I’ve felt that there has been an acceleration of the end of year snowball. Towards Christmas, senior balls/dances, end of year prizegivings, students leaving their current schools for intermediate/secondary and planning for 2021. During my years of teaching, I found it really…
Musicnet Summary to 26 Oct 2020
Kia ora tātou The dates and location for the bi-annual 2021 MENZA conference have been confirmed. 10-13 October 2021 in Tauranga. Start planning for attending the best professional development you can find in New Zealand. For those putting in budget requests, expect $3-400 for conference fees plus your travel and…
Musicnet Summary to 19 Oct 2020
Kia ora tātou Former Musicnet moderator Shane Morrow began a thread on curriculum review, inspired by the recent interview with Anita Collins, neuro-science educator. This lead into a discussion of what the NCEA review could look like. It would be great to get some more conversation going about…
Musicnet Summary to 26 Sept 2020
Kia ora tātou It’s holidays now! Hearing the various challenges that teachers have faced over the last few months, I really hope that you can turn off your email, unplug your laptop and have some days to yourself. The second half of the year will also bring changes, as the…
Musicnet summary to 18th Sept 2020
Kia ora tātou One week to go! That’s all I can say. The NZ Music commission made a great resource of a number of terms and phrases for using te reo in the music class room. Can’t wait to see them up around classrooms around the country. A resource for…
Musicnet Summary to 12 Sept 2020
Kia ora tātou There are two weeks left of the school term for most of you. It’s been the most disrupted year that I can remember. The closest I can remember is school being closed for a few days due to flooding, or having days rostered off for rolling teacher…
Musicnet Summary to 28 August 2020
Kia ora tātou Earlier this month, Roland celebrated 40 years of the TR-808 Drum Machine. What was a commercial flop on release and ended up in pawn shops. It was picked up by Hip Hop producers and now permeates many of the songs that feature on your students’ spotify playlists.…
Musicnet Summary to 24 Aug 2020
Kia ora tātou It’s great to hear that 33 teachers have signed up to be involved in the expert teacher shadowing throughout NZ. There is now a database of those offering the chance for you to come watch them for a day. Anyone can be part of it, you don’t…
Musicnet Summary to 14 August 2020
Kia ora tātou The week has ended not quite like how most of us expected it. Here in Nelson, the local Fringe Festival has already decided to go online, and other concerts cancelled. I encourage you to all be kind to yourselves this weekend, whatever the decision is today. A timely…
Musicnet Summary to 7 August 2020
Kia ora tātou Another busy week in the life of music teachers on musicnet. Thanks for all of you who jump in with answers to questions that people ask. The strength of this community is that so many of you are willing to share your knowledge with each other. I…
Musicnet Summary to 31st July 2020
Kia ora tātou A facebook post reminded me of a great youtube channel that are a wealth of content for your classroom. NPR Music, which hosts concerts in an office (and now in homes) with possibly the widest coverage of musicians. From John Legend, Wu-Tang Clan and Mavis Staples to…
Musicnet Summary to 24 July 2020
Kia ora tātou The MENZA AGM is now only two weeks away. If you’re near Auckland, come along for the workshops and AGM being held on Saturday 8th August. You can also attend remotely via a Zoom link that will sent out to MENZA members via email. It’s a…
Musicnet Summary to 17 July 2020
Kia ora tātou It’s back to school for most of you on Monday. It’s not the case for many music teachers around the world. When I look across at our colleagues in the USA, it’s quite distressing to read on facebook groups of them fighting their boards of education…
Musicnet Summary to 3 July 2020
Kia ora tātou Summary to 3 July 2020 It’s the last day of term. I hope you all enjoy a great break after the very long term 1+2. My short nationwide survey for my PHD research on music education and digital technology is out. I’m really hoping…
Musicnet Summary 26 June 2020
Kia ora tātou One week to go for most of you. What a marathon. I hope you’ve booked a holiday or blocked out time to recover. Be gentle on what you think you’ll get done these holidays. Two-week summary to 26 June 2020 General (for all Music Levels) Thanks to…
Musicnet Summary to 15 June 2020
Kia ora tātou The MENZA AGM is being held on Saturday 8th August in AKL. It’s slightly later than usual, as the board were waiting to see what was happening with Covid-19 restrictions. It begins at 1:30 with 2 workshops confirmed so far: Delysse Glynn, National Assessment Moderator from…
Musicnet Summary to 5 June 2020
Kia ora tātou After a full week of working at Level 2, I’m aware that teachers and students are knackered. Perhaps it’s a combination of working through the last holidays to prepare for teaching online, working from home, caring for the well-being of others on top of what will be…
Musicnet Summary to 22 May 2020
Kia ora tātou The first week back at face-to-face school is drawing to a close. I do hope that you’ve all been able to successfully navigate the challenges that your individual context brings. If you’ve still got questions about Covid-19 and music teaching, head to the MENZA resources page where…
Musicnet Summary to 15 May 2020
Kia ora tātou For some of you, Monday will find you teaching students face-to-face in your classroom. I hope you find time over this weekend to take a short break, as it’s been a long term already if you spent your last holidays getting ready to teach online! I’m still…
Musicnet Summary to 8 May 2020
Kia ora tātou Another two weeks, and another shift in what we’re doing. It’s been great meeting music educators from around Aotearoa via the online workshops and chats that I’ve been having. If you want to catch up on the 12 past workshops, watch the videos and see the resources…
Musicnet Summary to 24th April 2020
Kia ora tātou It’s the end of another week on Musicnet. No doubt many of you will have zoom-fatigue, and your email inboxes are overflowing. This summary is only a summary, and not every email that’s been through Musicnet. I encourage you to close your inbox throughout the day, to…
Musicnet Summary to 13 April 2020
Kia ora tātou This week is the beginning of a new school Term, but it’s going to be different from any other term you’ve taught before. In my new role as the MENZA Digital Kaiārahi, I’ve been running free workshops online. Last week I covered a few more holistic thoughts…
Musicnet Summary to 27 March 2020
Kia ora tātou Summary to 27 March 2020 Instead of my normal summary (which would be two weeks worth!) I encourage you to actually take a break from your computer. Instead I’ve got some hopefully helpful advice. For the last 2 years I’ve predominantly worked from home office, and here…
Musicnet Summary 14 March 2020
Kia ora tātou Hygiene of recorders and the Covid-19 virus were popular threads in the last week. I do encourage you to have a read through threads and think about what your plan is if your school had to close. (Apart from catching up on all that marking, and making…
Musicnet Summary to 8 March 2020
Kia ora tātou Summary to 8 March 2020 Next week is Womad where musicians come from all around the world to perform in New Plymouth. Tune in to Radio NZ for coverage over the weekend, or check out this Spotify playlist of who is performing to discover some new…
Musicnet Summary to 29 Feb 2020
Kia ora tātou Summary to 29 Feb 2020 This list only functions due to the contributions from those who are members. I know many of you really appreciate the discussions, but don’t contribute. That’s fine, but I encourage you to participate once in a while by starting a thread or…
Musicnet Summary to 21 Feb 2020
Kia ora tātou Summary to 21 Feb 2020 Hook-line-and-sing-a-long entries are now open for 2020. Students can submit songs as individuals or groups and I know they have had entries from ranging from Year 4 through to Year 12s doing it as a NCEA task. Listen to some of the…
Musicnet Summary to 14th Feb 2020
Kia ora tātou In the last week I’ve had conversations with teachers about: Lessons starting, instrument demonstration nights, finding new teachers for roll increases, juggling rooming conflicts, ordering more stationary, learning a new student management software system, finding out where the secret staff toilet is, the best coffee closest to…
Musicnet Summary 9 Feb 2020
Kia ora tātou The announcement of the changes to Concert FM and a potential youth radio channel has been a major topic of discussion in the last week. There have been a number of posts on it on Musicnet, and also on Twitter and Facebook. Have a read here and…
Musicnet Summary to 3 Feb 2020
Kia ora tātou On Sunday, the Music Education New Zealand Aotearoa (MENZA) board met in Auckland for our annual face-to-face. Our usual monthly meetings are online, but as you know, being in the same room enabled a greater sense of community and sharing or ideas. There are some exciting developments…
Musicnet Summary 27 Jan 2020
Kia ora tātou Over the last week I’ve seen more and more activity on the Musicnet list, so it seems the holidays are over! I do hope you have all had a rest, and refresh. There have been a large number of new members to the Musicnet list. Welcome to…
Musicnet Final Summary for the Year
Kia ora tātou This is the last summary of the year before I take a break from moderating the list for 4 weeks. I’ll keep distributing emails until the end of this friday. I’ll be back checking my email and moderating this list again from the 20th Jan. Thanks…
Musicnet Summary to 1 Dec 2019
Kia ora tātou Secondary school teachers can almost count the number of classes they have left on one hand. Primary and ECE teachers are enjoying the improved weather for outdoor activities. ITMs seem to be either flat out preparing for a Christmas concert, or collapsing after a Christmas concert. Just…
Musicnet summary to 24 Nov 2019
Kia ora tātou The Christmas countdown has begun, as I spied a Christmas tree the other week in an apartment window. Buskers have added Christmas tunes to their repertoire and it won’t be long before shop owners are wearing santa hats. As is the tradition, for the third year, I’ll…
Musicnet Summary to 8 Nov 2019
Kia ora tātou I had the pleasure of attending the Vodafone Music Artisan Awards earlier this week. Duncan Ferguson from St Andrews College in CHCH was awarded the Music Teacher of the Year. Thanks to Mike at the NZ Music Commission for starting and supporting this award. Faculty Rocks is…
Musicnet Summary 28 Oct 2019
Kia ora tātou A busy week for those with senior secondary students as the countdown to the last lessons begins. For primary and intermediate teachers, they seem to welcome the change of seasons after Labour Day to enable more outside activities to take place. This week I’m off to Wellington…
Musicnet Summary to 18 October 2019
Kia ora tātou In the second week of the holidays, I joined teachers, educators and music industry supporters at the bi-annual MENZA conference in Christchurch. During its initial planning stages, we thought we’d be happy with 80 teachers, so it was a great achievement that nearly 150 people attended across…
Musicnet Summary to 19 Sept 2019
Kia ora tātou One of the most exciting opportunities to come out this week is a collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Creative NZ and Ministry of Heritage and Culture called ‘Creatives in Schools’ Initiative. Think of it as a refresh and change from the old ‘Artists in Schools’ project…
Musicnet Summary to 13 Sept 2019
Kia ora tātou A busy week on Musicnet, and it seems extra busy in the world of music education. Some great links for Te Wiki o te Reo Maori, and other music resources. Make a cup of herbal tea to fend of the lingering colds and have a read through…
Musicnet Summary to 6 Sept 2019
Kia ora tātou Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is next week, and there is a thread here with resources you can use. These will be uploaded to the Teacher Resource Exchange once some more links have been added. Thread of the week, is the currently 26-reply discussion on students…
Musicnet Summary to 30 August 2019
Kia ora tātou Welcome to the newest members of Musicnet. This is probably a good time for many of you to have a look at the guidelines and frequently asked questions listed here. It includes how to make a great post, reply and what to do when you want to change your…
Musicnet Summary to 25 Aug 2019
Kia ora tātou Summary to 25 August 2019 I’ve been enjoying listening to podcasts when I get the chance. A challenge in itself, as I find it really hard to be actively listening to people talking whilst trying to work. Practicing music, reading or writing isn’t as conducive to podcast-listening…
Musicnet Summary to 16 Aug 2019
Kia ora tātou This week, 100s of students took part in the Auckland KBB Music Festival and Wellington WEBO Festival. Concert Bands, Orchestras, Jazz Combos, Big Bands, Chamber Orchestras and ensembles in between took to the stage and performed. Earlier this month the NZ Concert Band Festival also took place. …
Musicnet Summary to 10 August 2019
Kia ora tātou Last week, I read through the latest SoundOnSound magazine, an audio gear magazine that always has a feature on a current song and how it was made. This week it’s on “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, which is breaking records for it’s length at number…
Musicnet Summary to 2 Aug 2019
Kia ora tātou Last week I was privileged to take part in the Invercargill MENZA workshop in conjunction with the MoE and NZQA. It was the first time that MENZA, or NZQA has delivered any music specific professional learning in Southland since the Regional Arts Partnerships of 2016. Thinking about…
Musicnet Summary to 19 July 2019
Kia ora tātou Today is the last day of your ‘holiday.’ If you didn’t realise. I do hope that you all managed to have a break away from you usual workplace be it the classroom, lecture theatre, conductor’s podium or teaching studio. With only about 16 weeks till NCEA…
Musicnet Summary 5 July 2019
Kia ora tātou Well done for making it to the last day of the school term! I would like to thank you all for the support of the Musicnet list over the last term. The value of this network is indispensable for many teachers, including those in sole-charge locations. Here…
Musicnet Summary 28 June 2019
Kia ora tātou This Sunday MENZA have their afternoon of PD and AGM in AKL. It’s a time to reflect on what has happened in Music Education in NZ for the last year, and look forward to the future. If you’re near AKL do take the time to come along,…
Musicnet Summary to 21 June 2019
Kia ora tātou As we enter the last 2 weeks of the term for most of you in schools it seems that everyone is piled high with report writing, parent-teacher conferences, assessments, concerts and teaching the students who arrive each day in your classroom. Perhaps you’ll think of showing them…
Musicnet Summary to 10 June 2019
Kia ora tātou Edited summary to 10 June 2019 Have you registered for the MENZA conference in October yet? Early-bird discounts end soon, airfares and accommodation prices will go up so register today! www.menzaconference.co.nz Also a big thanks to everyone who has ensured they include their name…
Musicnet Summary 24 May 2019
Kia ora tātou Around NZ today there are students striking for Climate Change, and next week many teachers will be striking for the PPTA claim. Another way to help change happen is to be part of the national organisation of Music Educators. MENZA organises our bi-annual conference, PLD…
Musicnet Summary to 13 May 2019
Kia ora tātou We’re halfway through NZ Music Month. Check out the resources and links in this email from Mike at the NZ Music commission. Registrations are filling up for the MENZA Conference in October. It is in the school holiday so accomodation and flights will go up in price…
Musicnet Summary 6 May 2019
Kia ora tātou Summary to 6 May 2019 It’s NZ Music Month, and as usual, the NZ Music Commission has been busy. Their Daily Listening Calendar, has a great number of songs and resources for you to dip into for 10 mins each day. (It’s not too late to start!).…
Musicnet Summary 29 April 2019
Kia ora tātou Today is the start of Term 2 for many of you, and I do hope you managed to have a break somewhere over the holidays. I’ve had advice from busy HODs that you should carve out 50% of your holiday time for yourself. I know this is…
Musicnet Summary to 12 April 2019
Kia ora tātou Welcome to you last Musicnet summary of Term 1! For most of you, you can look forward to a 2-week break from teaching and students. Do you have a great idea for a workshop? Registrations are now open, along with applications for presenting workshops at the bi-annual…
Musicnet Summary to 1 April 2019
Kia ora tātou Over the weekend I took part in the Cubaduapa festival in WLG. A highlight was a Trumpet fanfare with 56 trumpets, ranging from adults down to some 7 year olds. We performed in a number of venues including the Opera House stage over the space of…
Kia ora tātou I write this summary one week after the Christchurch Mosque Terror Attacks. It’s still hard to believe that it actually happened. Neuroscientist Nathan Wallis was interviewed here giving advice and answering questions about how to talk to children/students about the attacks. Summary to 24 March 2019 It’s…
Musicnet Summary 18 March 2019
Kia ora tātou Last week Helen from Computer Music formally announced the closure of her company. I know many of you will have contacted her individually, but I wish to thank her for the time she has spent supporting music education over the last decade. Although it was…
Musicnet Summary to 11 March 2019
Kia ora tātou Summary to 11 March 2019 The annual student songwriting competition, Hook-line-and-sing-a-long, which is a collaboration between MENZA and The NZ Music Commission closes this sunday, March 17th. $1500 of prizes are up for grabs. If you don’t have enough time for this year, still head to the…
Summary of Musicnet to 2 March 2019
Kia ora tātou This last week I spent time supporting teachers in developing their Music technology skills. They took time out of their busy day, to assess what they are doing, and what they could be doing in the future. Some spoke of the great support that Musicnet is to…
Musicnet Summary to 24 Feb 2019
Kia ora tātou Over the last 5 years there has been a number of consultations by the Ministry of Education on what we do in schools. However, for the current review of Tomorrow’s Schools, it is vital that as many submissions are made to advocate for Music and the…