JAMM & Juneau Symphony Partner with University of Alaska Southeast

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MAT in Secondary Education

with K-12 Music Certification

OVERVIEW: 

In partnership with Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM) and the Juneau Symphony (JS), the University of Alaska Southeast proudly announces its one-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in Secondary Education with a certification in K-12 Music to reflect the changing role of today’s music teacher.  As part of the course requirements, MAT students will conduct their teaching internships at JAMM school sites and music classrooms within the Juneau School District, as well as perform in the Juneau Symphony. This program gives preference to musicians interested in using music for social change. 

Through a competitive application process, four $10,000 scholarships are available to music majors/minors whose main instrument is violin, viola, cello, or bass.  MAT graduates are awarded a Master’s degree in Education with an Alaskan teaching certificate in K-12 Music.  Program begins July 26, 2015

Application and Scholarship Form:  UAS MAT Music Scholarship Program

Application Deadline:  April 1, 2017

Living in Juneau, Alaska:  Located in Juneau, Alaska, this artistic community is surrounded by natural beauty and provides an idyllic environment to pursue a graduate degree focused on community engagement, positive youth development, and social change through the arts.  Accessible only by boat or plane, Alaska’s capital supports a symphony, two opera companies, several theatre companies, and a host of other arts opportunities throughout the community.  In 2013, Juneau was selected by the John F. Kennedy Center as the 11th city in the country for its Any Given Child program, an initiative committed to bringing equity and access to arts education for children in grades K-8.  

Interning at Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM): All MAT students will conduct their 9-month internship with JAMM, an El Sistema-inspired program, which uses the power of music and ensemble to help children reach their fullest potential.  JAMM serves 500 students in three elementary schools in the Juneau School District.  Lorrie Heagy will serve as the mentor teacher.  She is the 2011 Alaska Teacher of the Year, school music teacher, and one of fifty Sistema Fellows who studied at the New England Conservatory and in Venezuela to bring Sistema’s transformative approach to the United States.  In addition to general music classes and after-school JAMM programming, MAT students also will gain experiences in classes at the middle and high school level. 

Quartet-in-Residence: JAMM and the Juneau Symphony, along with other key community stakeholders, will sponsor a Quartet-in-Residence by providing a $10,000 scholarship to four music majors/minors who play a stringed instrument:  violin, viola, cello, or bass.  The quartet will inspire JAMM students, as well as contribute to Juneau’s classical music community and teaching artist pool, while increasing teachers credentialed to work in the K-12 music classroom. 

Aligning the MAT Music (K-12) Certification with the Transformative Role of Today’s Music Teacher:

Music teachers are agents of change, where instrumental music serves as a critical opportunity for all children to have access to the social, emotional, and intellectual benefits that music provides.  The MAT Certification in K-12 Music provides its students coursework that prepares them for their multi-faceted role in today’s society:  as citizen, artist, teachers, and scholar. 

COMPONENTS OF THE MAT MUSIC (K-12) DEGREE PROGRAM:

Brain-based Teaching Practices:    

Students will participate in Juneau’s Basic Arts Institute, where participants learn skills that will enable them to apply brain research into their classroom practice and learn first-hand knowledge of how the arts increase student engagement and achievement.  Participants will work with experts, local artists and cultural leaders to explore a variety of arts activities that they can use to integrate the performing, visual, cultural, and media arts into their curriculum.

Rehearsing and Performing with the Juneau Symphony: 

This course mutually benefits the Quartet-in-Residence, as well as the Juneau Symphony. By rehearsing and performing with the Juneau Symphony for its concert series, MAT students maintain their performance skills, while actively engaging and contributing to Juneau’s musical community 

Emphasis on Positive Youth Development:

Students will apply Lerner’s Positive Youth Development model, as well as other educational theories that emphasize student empowerment, self-determination, efficacy, and resiliency.  Educational theorists such as Freire, Dewey, Bandura, and Dweck provide different lenses in which to understand and support a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional growth. 

Overview of Music Pedagogies and Music Technology Applications: 

Students will actively participate in and teach lessons demonstrating key principles from Dalcroze, Orff, Kodaly, Suzuki, Feierabend, and World Music Drumming.  The lessons also include brain-based teaching strategies that help motivate, engage, and empower students.  Other components of this technology course include GarageBand to create music, Finale to make simplified arrangements, and Web 2.0 tools to document learning as part of a professional educational portfolio. 

Classroom Management:

Although well-structured, developmentally appropriate, and engaging lessons often preclude behavioral issues, today’s music teacher faces challenges different from those of the regular classroom teacher.  Oftentimes, music teachers are tasked with teaching ensembles of fifty students or more (each with and instrument in hand) and no other adult support.  Place this situation in an after-school context and classroom management can become even more challenging.  To equip MAT students with a more comprehensive tool kit, the internship provides students with an overview of effective classroom approaches, including the Responsive Classroom, Love and Logic, and Michael Grinder’s ENVoY.

Educational Research:   

The MAT K-12 Music Certification program embodies the scholar-practitioner model, which helps students apply new knowledge through action and civic engagement. As part of this research class, students will create and apply new knowledge to effect social change in their school and community.  Grant writing has become a necessity and required skill of today’s music teacher. Students will work alongside JAMM music teachers to identify a research project that will contribute meaningful data toward student outcomes, program effectiveness, or community engagement.  MAT students will incorporate this data into a grant application that they’ve identified and written to help support JAMM.    

Electronic Portfolio:

Throughout the MAT K-12 Music Certification program, students will document their work as citizens, artists, teachers, and scholars. By including rich media as part of their portfolios, UAS students not only will be contributing to the wider community, but also providing future employers evidence of their work. 

For more information contact: 

Scott Christian: srchristian@uas.alaska.edu      (907) 796-6563                                                          

Lorrie Heagy:: lorrie.heagy@juneauschools.org (907) 209-8063