Past Teaching Experiences 

MMEA All State Conference Co-Presentation: Project Based Learning in the Secondary Music Classroom w/ Dr. Jocelyn Armes

Dr. Armes and I presented for teaching at the all state conference about the principles and realities of using project based learning and design in the secondary music classroom. This included process exemplars and student work from my classes. It was a great way to connect with other teachers interested in approaching music education through a constructionist/constructivist approach.

ROCK Band Recording and Music video project: 2020-2021

As a cumulative year long project students in all grades worked in classroom groups to learn rock band instruments. Students then engaged these skills to cover songs like Enter Sandman, 7 Nation Army, Wonderwall , I’m Yours, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and others. Vocalists from the local music scene were then asked to collaborate and sing the songs we were learning.

We then converted our music classroom into a recording studio and learned about the process of recording and editing music. Students then took this finished recording and created music videos. Planning and directing the shoots as well as working on their performances.

These music videos were edited together into a final presentation of completed student work in the place of a final concert. This concert is available to the public here, Labeled 6th grade Concert and 7th and 8th grade Concert.

The Jordan Small-Cast: 2020-2021

During the early part of the school year my students worked to create original oral history and interview podcasts about their concerns and perspectives regarding living through the Covid -19 pandemic. Students learned audio editing and scoring and worked as interviewers, editors, and producers. The final work was published worldwide to Spotify, a free streaming platform.

Mardis Gras Second Line parade and food drive: 2018-2020

As part of a curricular integration with Visual Art students in the Jazz band worked to learn about the musical traditions of Carnival and Mardis Gras in particular by playing some traditional second line jazz tunes and performing in a traditional Mardis Gras style parade with Masks and figures created as part of the exploration of Carnival traditions all over the world. We combined this with an effort to solicit donations for our local food pantry and in the 2 year we were able to do the parade we were able to secure more than 1000 pounds of nonperishable food items for our local food pantry.

Spring Steel Bands 2017

This spring I had the great fortune to work with the Steel Band programs at North Yarmouth Academy. It was a blast! I was able to get some practice playing the pans  and directing the ensemble as well as arranging some simple songs for beginner steel ensemble.

I worked with new musicians in the high school, some of whom had never played an instrument before, to learn a variety of traditional and pop tunes culminating in a performance at the New England Steel Band Festival at Thompson's Point in Portland.  

I also worked with 5th and 8th grade ensembles to introduce the steel pans and work together to learn and rehearse music for performance. 

Middle School Wind Ensemble

I was also fortunate to student teach with Jerry Barry at Falmouth Middle School where I worked with students from 5th grade through 8th grade in both sectional and full ensemble classes. Together we worked through three pieces including one containing an aleatoric section.  The students were great and hard working and the concert sounded fantastic!

Presenting at NAFME eastern Division

This spring I was invited to co-present a session at the eastern division conference of the National Association for Music Education. The presentation focused on using shadow puppetry to teach the essential elements of composition to students of all ages. By drawing on comparisons between traditional 5 act dramatic structure and musical form students are able to create a small puppet show and score it to demonstrate the connection between narrative, emotion, storytelling and composition