Black Music Traditions Workshop

Professional Learning Workshop for K-8 Music Educators

Next session: TBD

Workshop Description

Looking for some fresh, engaging, culturally responsive music lessons for Black History Month?

If you’ve been looking for high quality, learner-centered, culturally responsive music lessons that your students will love (and won’t require you to spend hours researching and planning), don’t miss my upcoming online PD workshop, “Black Music Traditions”!

In this workshop, music educators will explore music lessons for the K-8 general music classroom that explore several Black music genres and explicitly support a culturally responsive music curriculum. You will be able to experience the lessons, engage in discussion around several key teaching tips that will help you make the lessons responsive to your specific learners, and explore how the lessons connect to culturally responsive music education principles.

You’ll leave the workshop with several lesson plan resources and be ready to teach them to your students!

Workshop Objectives

Participants will:

  1. Know several genres of Black music and prominent music skills & concepts they can be used to teach.
  2. Understand the key principles of culturally responsive music education.
  3. Be able to identify key teaching moves you can make to modify music instruction in order to make it responsive to the cultural frames of reference of your specific students.

Workshop Resources

Included with registration, all participants will receive:

  • Workshop workbook
  • Sample lesson plans with applicable music standards, objectives, assessment, suggested repertoire & musical materials, and lesson plan procedure
  • PD Certificate for 3 hours

Feedback from past workshop participants:

“You are welcoming, clear, creative, interesting, knowledgeable… I could go on. I had a wonderful experience. Thank you, Ashley.” – Karen Livingston, Music Educator – California

“Ashley is very welcoming and encouraging; she makes you feel safe and comfortable to share your experiences and ask questions. The workbook Google Doc was extremely helpful in following the session and recording thoughts/notes.” – Katelyn Parcelli, Music Educator – Virginia

“I appreciated the opportunity to have PD that was meaningful and applicable for my instruction. The class material and discussions affirmed my thoughts that it’s OK to slow down and let my students focus on longer units of instruction and include more diverse activities and content” – Sue Casto, Music Educator – Ohio

Workshop Logistics, Registration & Fees

Audience: K-8 general music educators

Time: 3 hours

Location: Virtual or in person

Next session: TBD

**Contact us today if you’d like us to facilitate this PD for your school, district, or organization! Click here to get started!

Here’s what music educator, Katie Thornton, shared about our professional learning offerings!:

Hear what teachers & instructional leaders say about our professional learning offerings here!


About the Facilitator

Ashley Cuthbertson, M.Ed, NBCT (she/her) is the CEO & Principal Consultant of A. Cuthbertson Consulting, LLC, an educational consulting firm that partners with schools, school districts, and organizations to help music educators develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to deliver instruction that is culturally responsive & relevant to the diverse and ever-changing needs of today’s learners so that all students have an equitable pathway to success in music.

Described as an “engaging and charismatic” teacher educator, Ashley has delivered over 100 professional development sessions, serving hundreds of music educators across the U.S. and internationally with 95% of attendees highly recommending her sessions. Additionally, she provides instructional coaching services and professional learning community support.

A Nationally Board Certified Teacher, Ashley holds a Master’s in Education, as well as certifications in the Kodály approach and Arts integration. Ashley has over thirteen years of experience in education as a general music & choral educator, a band educator, a K-12 musicianship instructor, a private lessons instructor, lead teacher, new teacher coach, adjunct professor, curriculum writer, speaker, and consultant.

A passionate advocate for music education, Ashley additionally serves the National Association for Music Education as a member of the Music Education Policy Roundtable and the Virginia Music Educators Association as chair of the DEI Council.

Hear what teachers & instructional leaders say about our professional learning offerings here!