Nea Foundation Grant Helps Elmbroook Ea Members Expand Music Program
By Ryan Hurley
WEAC PR/Comm summer intern
Elmbrook Education Association members Cheryl Lavender and Patricia
St. George traveled to Washington, D.C., this month to talk about how
a NEA Foundation's Arts@Work grant helped their program achieve national
music and technology standards.
Lavender, who teaches a sixth-grade music class, won the grant in April
2004 to further her innovative lessons on music composition. She is
among 13 recipients nationwide to receive the grant.
The grant came at a critical time for Lavender's music program. In
March 2003, Lavender taught 327 students in 13 sections. By the beginning
of the next school year, she lost 70% of her students and her sections
were cut to three. State-imposed revenue controls and the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act's focus on standardized testing have resulted
in funding cuts for arts programs statewide.
While in Washington, Lavender and St. George told the National Education
Technology Standards and International Society for Technology in Education
about Wisconsin Hills Middle School's pioneering music and technology
program.
The groups are selecting new arts curricula for publication and distribution
internationally. Lavender's and St. George's program is in the running
to be included in the publications.
Lavender's program teaches students about music's role in movies and
television, and how music can capture and express feelings. Students
watch scenes from movies to identify types of music and determine what
message the composer is trying to convey.
After exposing students to different genres of music, Lavender's students
compose music. Students draw inspiration from things in their lives
that hold strong personal meaning by bringing in pictures or objects
relating to pets, family, sports or anything else that provokes strong
emotions. "The students have shown very vivid imaginations,"
Lavender said. "They have shown increased engagement and ability,
and take such ownership of their learning."
Lavender's colleague, St. George, is a computer technology teacher
and technology department manager at Wisconsin Hills Middle School who
works with students on technical aspects of the music composition project.
She teaches students to develop Web sites that include information about
the students' inspiration. Students use music notation software to post
the compositions to their Web sites.
"It is fun for the students to see how technology and music are
related," St. George said. The $5,000 grant has brought more technologically
advanced keyboards into the classroom, which adds to the composition
process, she said.
When students complete their compositions, they present them to the
class by playing the keyboard or a previously recorded version from
their Web pages.
Lavender recently added an activity to the music composition project.
The class chose three students' compositions and arranged them into
a class song using software to add instruments and sound effects. The
students named and copyrighted the final product and shared it with
family and friends.
"It is exciting to see the kids really become connected to the
music and let music into their lives," Lavender said.
Posted July 22, 2004