Bald Eagle Area School District: Wingate Elementary
Mentor Teacher: Jennifer DeRemer
January 6th, 2026- March 13th, 2026
During my time as a student teacher learning from and working with Mrs. DeRemer I gained experience in multiple pathways to music education in including the Orff Schulwerk approach, the Kodály approach, World Music Drumming, and the philosophies of Dr. Feierabend. Through the lens of Mrs. DeRemers melded system I was able to integrate various aspects of each approach into my own teaching rudiment. Ever dependent on my love of creating and composing, I developed my own system of transmitting musical concepts via a narrative-driven system utilizing Ollie and other characters. My time at Wingate allowed me to further explore and adjust my teaching through this system. The students instantly fell in love with Ollie and would sing his songs in the hallways as I entered the school or ask me “Is Ollie going to be in class today?” Their anchored interest to the unfolding storyline was equally reflected in their music making. Grades K-3 specifically held deep interest in the world that they helped create and demonstrated daily their musical growth.
I was privileged to study the explicit teaching of World Culture Music pedagogy with Dr. Sarah Watts in Music 460. As an educator dedicated to teaching the musical cultures of the world responsibly and effectively, I was privileged to bring the students of Wingate Elementary, via “virtual field experience”, to the continent of Australia and the First Peoples, The Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. Students explored this 40,000 year old cultures music, art, and dance. They witnessed culture bearers performing traditional music and story telling and learned how to perform and dance along with them. They not only learned about this culture, but made connections of the meaning of “country” and nationality to the 250th anniversary of the United States.
K
Kindergarten
Kindergarteners are some of my favorite people. Students entered the classroom with a routine of singing “Engine, Engine # 9” as we march in circle around the room. Then let out a collective “Choo-Choo” to sit down. Other welcome songs are sung including, help from puppet friends Otto the Otter, and Rick the Raccoon, for a call and response of “In Any Kind of Weather.” And finally sign through a Solfeggio Elevator song with Curwen hand signs. Through Ollies world, students focused their learning and creativity on a variety of musical concepts: steady beat, “Sol-Mi” or “high-low” identification, preparing “Do,” exploring dynamics, types of voices, and singing in unison and as individuals.
1st
First Grade
This particular group of 1st graders were excited and invested in their music class. Students entered the classroom with the same routine as the kindergarten classes. Though in many instances the welcome songs were led by students operating our puppet friends. Through Ollies world, students focused their learning and creativity on a variety of musical concepts: steady beat, “Sol-Mi” identification and composition, notation reading (ta, ta-ti, rest), preparing/identifying “Do,” exploring dynamics, transforming rhyme to body percussion and instruments, types of voices, and singing in unison and as individuals.
2nd
Second Grade
Each of the three classes of second graders were in such different places on their musical journey. While they followed the same general trajectory and lesson planning each group class had their own energy and took ownership over the flow of learning. The second grade language arts and world culture lessons of their regular class time allowed for great cross curricular collaboration. They learned about the country of Nigeria and explored the uses and music applications of the Gangan or “talking drum” and then the Aboriginal Australians and the Yidaki or “didgeridoo.” Through Ollies world, students focused their learning and creativity on a variety of musical concepts: steady beat, “Sol-Mi” identification and composition, notation reading (ta, ta-ti, ta-ah, rest and ta-ka-ti-ki), identifying “Do,” exploring dynamics, transforming rhyme to body percussion and instruments, performing in sections as part of an ensemble, types of voices, and singing in unison and as individuals.
3rd
Third Grade
These students experiences music through all of the aspects of Ollie’s World and then some. They were an advanced group of explorers who challenged themselves through pick-and-pass practice. They advanced their rhythmic reading skills greatly with the “rhythm randomizer.” They prepared themselves for choosing instruments in 4th grade band by learning recorders.
4th
Fourth Grade
We first immersed ourselves in traditional folk dances singing and dancing with the music. Those songs then became the pathway to creativity. Each class composed their own song lyrics to pair with a previously learned rhyme. They extended the piece with chosen words to create ostinato patterns and performed as a class and in small groups. Much of our time was spent utilizing the xylophones available in class. Students removed certain bars and explored syncopated rhythms and melody from on of the folk dances. Then expanded from that melody by composing their own melody with the same rhythms in various combinations.
5th
Fifth Grade
These classes discovered rhythms and a variety of musical styles of various cultures through the use of tabano drums. First with the reading of a book, The Drums of Noto-Hanto, they explored the transfer of vocal patterns to the drums through Taiko Drumming. The students improvised their own vocal and rhythmic patterns in call-and-response style play. Then they were tasked to create their own rhythms and long from pattern to perform as a small group. The students learned the complete form of a Matrsuri Taiko performance and performed it themselves. They explored more than the other grades through the lens of Aboriginal culture as well.
Keystone Central Area School District:
Central Mountain High School
Mentor Teacher: Dr. James Eldreth
March 16th, 2026- May 8th, 2026
During my time as a student teacher learning from and working with Dr. Eldreth I, most importantly, strengthened my relational approach to education. I was blessed with many opportunities to connect with and directly teach individual students. Through the Rock Band classes and students involved with the school Musical “Hadestown” many of them sought out my guidance and input on their journeys. While I was very much influential leading lessons in class piano, rock bands, world drumming, and choir in their whole parts, my partnership with Dr. Eldreth allowed for more individualized instruction. Because of my strengths in voice, theater, and modern band I was positioned to directly benefit leads of the musical and students of all experience levels in the rock ensembles who were ready to be challenged.
Students would seek out my guidance during their free periods and the open WIN/9th period. During these times I would offer voice lessons, coaching, music theory conversation, and guitar maintenance. Leads of the musical or PMEA All-State students were taught. One rock band student was guided through a complete electric guitar restoration.
1
Rock Bands 1, 2, and SEL
The current arrangement of NAfME’s designation of Modern Band at Central Mountain is two levels of Rock Band and a third Rock Band class dedicated to a self contained SEL class. Rock Band 1 and 2 work towards a performance that is joined by the Faculty only Band “Low Toner.”
Students in Rock Band 1 have entry level or some higher amount of skill on an instrument or no knowledge at all. The first few weeks of the class are dedicated to all students learning the rudiments of the primary instruments in Modern Band: Guitar, Bass, Drums, and Singing. Then the class is split into small groups and work towards the performance on one to three songs as a group.
Rock Band 2 is the next level of musicianship and consists of a wide range of developing skills. Some students choose to focus on their primary instrument while others will build skill on two or more. Many groups or individuals will process their own original songs over the semester and perform them for the concert.
SEL Rock Band is a self-contained class of students that range from non-verbal to defiant among other needs. They have a primary teacher and a paraprofessional and stay together all day. Every day is different, but the goals of Rock Band remain the same, to reach the students through music and foster learning experiences through the modern band approach.
All three groups learned guitar maintenance skills including changing strings, adjusting truss rods of guitars, and even resetting a broken guitar neck. Then each class or certain students benefited in various unique ways by learning with me in smaller groups or on individual projects.
2
Choir
There is a single choir for the school with student 9th-12th. When I arrived they had already learned more than half of their repertoire for the spring concert focused on choral arrangements of popular songs such asm “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus, “Memories” by Maroon 5, and “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish. Each class began with a short warm up that I often lead. Then
3
World Percussion
In this class students explore multiple cultures from around the world by sharing two individual culture projects. Students work together to play melodies and songs on steel drums and improvise rhythmic expression on Donno (talking drums). The class builds towards a concert performance shared with the school choir. These students are taught through the World Music Drumming framework and world music pedagogy framework and world music pedagogy that I first learned through Music 460 during my time at PSU. I was blessed to be able to bring these students to the world musical culture of Aboriginal Australia as I did with the elementary students at Wingate.
4
Class Piano
The students in this class were largely self sufficient with teacher guidance through the Complete Piano Adventures Book 1. Supplemental activities for other piano skills were also taught periodically for skills like: Various Scales, Improvisation, modern band method approach to chords, chord analysis of popular music through listening exercises.
Guiding a focused student through a complete restoration of his Ibanez acoustic-electric guitar. This included: a major broken headstock repair, cleaning and polishing all hardware, cleaning and conditioning the wooden fretboard and other parts, polishing the frets, restringing, and finally a scientific approach to intoning the instrument.
Student Testimony
A Bass lesson with two students from the self-contained ESL class. I guide a slightly more experienced student through peer teaching the other.
J.A.M. 