JAMM: Juneau, Alaska Music Matters: Abreu Fellows Intern at JAMM

This year, three of the ten Abreu Fellows from the Class of 2011 chose JAMM for their internship. Alsyia Lee and Stephanie Hsu are here for three weeks and Julie Davis, for four. These talented women wanted to extend the teacher training experience I provided in Boston - observing the first, team-teaching the second and teaching on their own while I supported them on the sidelines, observing and filming.

JAMM is the ideal place for this kind of embedded professional development. It's a place where teachers can observe all age-ranges, teach the same lesson to several classes with the opportunity to reflect and refine each time and participate in before, during and after-school music programs. The fellows' internship also coincided with the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council teaching artist series, which all three were able to attend. Sessions focused on classroom management, brain theory, curriculum standards and dynamic lesson planning.

Some of the effective teaching practices they applied included:

developing an attention-getting hook
using positive language
making transitions fluid and connected to the lesson
presenting information in manageable chunks
building a lesson that breathes in and out
practicing a credible body and voice
creating episodes using location, emotion, movement and relevance
providing choices for students
using enforceable statements
giving consequences with empathy
experience first, intellectualize later

JAMM and Juneau have benefited greatly from having Alysia, Stephanie and Julie here. Alysia is a vocalists who started her own non-profti; Stephani taught at an alternative high school in NYC and plays viola; and Julie holds a music education degree from Northwestern, during which she taught in an after-school strings program, the YOURS project. During their stay here, Julie and Stephanie played in the Juneau Symphony concert of Sweeney Todd. Alysia spent hours at the Juneau Public Library using the Foundation Research Center to identify grant-giving organizations for JAMM, and all of them choreographed a dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller for Glacier Valley's Harvest Carnival.

Every time I observe another teacher in action, I always come away from the experience a better one. Whether it was watching Alysia teach breathing exercises to the Morning Musicians, Julie encouraging partner activities in violin class (see photo above) or Stephanie inspiring students to create a soundscape from a painting, my teaching toolbox expanded.

Alysia sings "Frog in the Meadow" for Mrs. Peters' Kindergarten class using novelty to make repetition engaging

Thank you, Abreu Fellows, for making the journey to Juneau, working with JAMM and making us feel very much a part of a larger El Sistema network. Below is a video of Julie and Stephanie serenading Mrs. Peters' class during a very special moment: the first time the entire class held the real violin. In addition there are more photos documenting their time with us. Stephanie, we also appreciate you dedicating a blog entry about your experience here.