Truely inspirational story of tragedy in Sudan, a child's ability to overcome and recover with the aid of music, and his rise to fame as a Sudanese pop musician. Well worth a view . . . makes you wonder how the students we teach will use music in their lives.

Imagine if we used cross-curricular approaches in addition to technology . . . all the doors that would open for our students. The tools to do these types projects are accessible and affordable. The next wave of teachers needs to be comfortable using technology and value the "grey area" between subject areas as valuable grounds for exploration and creativity.

This introduction to O-Generator is by James Frankel from Soundtree. O-Generator World Music is particularly useful for introducing world music and composition to students who do not have traditional reading skills (it uses spatial representation of the various sounds). This software is particularly useful with general music and music appreciation type classes. Additionally, this software helps us address the other 80% of students that aren't in traditional ensembles in our schools.

I think this is the way to reach the other 80% that aren't in the traditional ensembles or supplement the music education for students all ready in those groups. This group is led by Barbara Freedman at Greenwich High School in CT. Her website is http://musicedtech.wordpress.com

Certainly makes you think about the 80% not in ensembles and the way we teach music in the schools.

I find it notable that, while science is showing the effects of improvisation on the brain, our educational policies continue to devalue subject areas that stress improvisation and creativity.

Since we are in the MENC state conference season I wanted to talk about the educational opportunities that faculty members can help structure for pre-service music educators beyond just the sessions.

• Faculty can help students develop networking skills and may introduce students to people in the field (networking is a skill that is needed but frequently underdeveloped)
• Faculty can advise students about instrument, music, and book purchases (sometimes students' purchases don't seem to match their stated goals)
• Faculty can model interactions with clinicians after a session (sometimes students are afraid to talk to clinicians)
• Faculty can assist students in choosing appropriate sessions to address their weaknesses (students don't learn this on their own)
• Students and/or faculty can use Twitter to have conversations about sessions, ask questions, or post links to materials
• Students can share out their ideas at the following CMENC meeting (teaching ideas helps them understand them better themselves)

Please feel free to share you thoughts about the "unwritten" curriculum beyond the session at the state conferences.

Recently, there has been a push at the university level to add coursework related to world music. Arizona State University and my current institution are two universities (of many) that mandate a World Music Course for music education majors. While this is a move in the right direction, it also poses several issues:

• Do the music education faculty and ethnomusicology faculty collaborate on such a course?
• What regions of the world get priority and how can this be taught by one faculty member?
• How do we account for traditional methods of teaching world music and relate this to pedagogy that our students are familiar with?

Any thoughts on the subject are welcomed.