Infuse U.S. Classrooms with Music for Learning!

This Summer, we participated in a district-wide summer pandemic recovery initiative for children in San Diego, ages 4-11. Thanks to a whole-hearted community effort, our Summer Strummers clubs took place in 16 school locations spread throughout the City of San Diego. Elementary students joined this 5-days per week, five week program to learn to make music everyday, and to experience and develop new artistic skills and understandings across different art forms. Young students studied visual arts and dance. Older students also studied visual arts, and also had a drama class once a week. Several clubs also participated in garden education as part of their time with Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom.

Spending twenty hours each week with peers of different ages and backgrounds, these students made friends and through the arts, developed new ways to collaborate and have fun. Many children who started out feeling shy found their confidence through singing and strumming. Others found it through a different art form.No matter what, every child found a vehicle for self-expression that fully engaged and pleased them.

While learning to sing, play ukulele, and write songs together, with topics emerging from their weekly read-aloud literature. Songwriting as a response to stories was a great way for students to deepen their verbal and creative writing skills. We  consider ourselves very fortunate to have been able to hire 46 faculty members this summer who were already GITC-trained, and capable. The majority were certificated classroom teachers.

In an effort to give students ways to understand their emotions, needs, and choices, these experienced teachers taught a popular and practical approach to Social Emotional Learning each day with the "Zones of Regulation" curriculum. "Zones" gives students a way to recognize their emotional states, their own needs, classify them according to a color, and learn to make positive choices in communicating them to their classmates and teachers. This program supports authenticity, and builds self-control, self-awareness, and communication skills. In a challenging world, we believe this kind of education gives students ways to draw on their own resilience when the going gets tough. 

In developing ways to navigate personally and socially, we noticed children expressing empathy to each other instead of judging, and many began listening more closely to each other. Negative teasing behaviors decreased rapidly. And because this learning was embedded in special songs, and group music making, the learning went deep.

Music was the motivation for these students to show up. It also served as the medium for learning through music.  We are so pleased to have been given the necessary support to keep the music flowing over the summer!

Thank you so much for your support of this project. With your care and generosity, I can promise you we will generate amazing new opportunities to reach more students this school year with music than ever before! We hope you'll be a part of it in your own way, in your life, and through continuing to help GITC reach more students by training, coaching, and equipping their teachers. 

With gratitude,

Jess

Links:

• https://www.guitarsintheclassroom.org