Vocal Music Kris 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 and two sons (Jake, 22 and Lincoln, 18). She teaches K-5 vocal/general music for Ankeny Community Schools, teaches Music in Elementary Education at Iowa State University, and has served on the Drake University Summer Music Institute faculty.

Kris received her Bachelor of Music degree from Iowa State University and her Master of Science in Education: Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Development degree from Drake University. Mrs. VerSteegt has completed her Ph D coursework with  the Drake University School of Education as well; she is currently working on her dissertation “Examining the systems that influence music teacher self-efficacy in the nuture of student creative capacity.”

Kris holds a mastery certificate in the Kodály Approach to music literacy and national 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.

Mrs. 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 and currently serves on the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education executive board.

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, 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 is active in the Chancel Choir at the Collegiate United Methodist Church in Ames.  In addition, 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).