Dr. VerSteegt's Music Education Tools
About this Website
Over the past several years, Kris VerSteegt has led a number of professional development sessions on the use of manipulatives to practice fundamentals. If you have been to one of Dr. VerSteegt's sessions and want her originals to create manipulatives of your own, they may be found on this site by clicking the "downloads" tab at the top of this page.
Handouts from recent sessions are available under "downloads" as well.
Recently, Kris has begun to develop some short video clips to aid in recalling movement activities that have been successful in her classroom. You can find these by clicking the "videos" tab at the top of this page. You can also find a video that can help you paint a circle on your carpet, connect poetry to masterworks, and more. Please note that these videos are not professionally recorded. Kris originally placed them here for her own reference from year to year, but others have found them useful in learning new non-locomotor movements that they can teach to their students. Feel free to use any of these to learn new movement ideas!
Many people have asked if Kris has items available for sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Fortunately, the answer is "no." Kris gives away all of her ideas and manipulatives for free! Just download whatever you care to use. If you share her ideas with others, please just cite her and refer your colleagues to this website for more goodies!
Kris is available to workshop for your organization or district. Workshop inquiries and other questions for Dr. VerSteegt should be directed to her email at kversteegt@gmail.com. As Kris serves the State of Iowa as the fine arts consultant, workshops are FREE for Iowa organizations and school systems (public and accredited non-public).
Below, you can find examples of Dr. VerSteegt's academic writing.
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Creating Creative Musicians Spring 17 IME.pdf Size : 125.9 Kb Type : pdf |
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Lost in Translation Spring 18 IME.pdf Size : 124.811 Kb Type : pdf |
About Dr. VerSteegt
Kris VerSteegt is a music specialist dedicated to developing the musical and aesthetic potential of children, educating pre-service teachers and those currently serving the profession regarding the concepts and content of music education, and educating teachers and pre-service teachers regarding how an education with music can both support and elevate work in the general education classroom.
Kris is an elementary general music specialist who lives in Ames with her husband Travis. The couple have two sons (Jake and Lincoln).
Kris is the fine arts education programming consultant for the Iowa Department of Education and teaches Music in Elementary Education and American Music History for Iowa State University. Previously, Kris enjoyed a 23-year career teaching K-5 general music, primarily for the Ankeny Community Schools; she has also served on the Drake University Summer Music Institute faculty.
Kris received her Bachelor of Music degree from Iowa State University, her Master of Science in Education: Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Development degree from Drake University. and a PhD from the Drake University School of Education. Her dissertation "Creating Creative Musicians: Examining the systems that influence creative self-efficacy development among elementary music teachers" is available through ProQuest.
Kris holds a mastery certificate in the Kodály Approach to music literacy and a mastery certification in Orff Schulwerk; she has completed three levels of study in each methodology. Kris has also completed training in Conversational Solfege, First Steps in Music, and Comprehensive Musicianship.
Dr. VerSteegt was the founding president of the Kodály Educators of Iowa (KEI), an affiliate chapter of the Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE) and has served as president of the Iowa Music Educators Association (IMEA), a federated state organization of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). In addition, Kris was the general music team leader and writer on the Iowa Fine Arts Standards adoption team. Kris currently serves in an advisory capacity to many fine arts education organizations in Iowa and facilitates the Iowa Fine Arts Education Leadership Team. Kris also edits the Iowa Music Educator magazine.
Kris has presented numerous workshops in Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska on various topics including Getting Started with Takadimi, Standards Based Grading in the Music Classroom, Making Connections with Manipulatives, Integrating Technology into the Music Classroom, Orff in the Kodály Classroom, Getting Started with the Kodály Approach, Listening for Literacy, Children's Literature in the Music Classroom, Unpacking Iowa Fine Arts Standards, Creating Creative Musicians, Getting Started with Ukulele, and Folk Dancing.
Kris was honored to deliver the Keynote Address at the 2016 MKMEA conference where she also led the community folk dancing event. She served as Master of Ceremonies for the 2016 All-State Festival. Kris is also a frequent contributor to Iowa Music Educator and frequent clinician for the Iowa Music Educators Association's Annual Professional Development conference.
Kris has served on the adjudication team for Ames Has Talent, ISU Varieties, and Cyclone Voice. As a performing musician, Kris has portrayed Muriel Eubanks in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2017), Barbra Streisand and Idina Menzel in Forbidden Broadway (2017), Violet Newstead in 9 to 5 the Musical (2018), Mrs. White in Clue the Musical (2018), and Carmen Bernstein in Curtains (2019). Kris's most recent appearance in a non-musical play was as Monette Gentry in Always a Bridesmaid (2023).