Reach Teach Play’s Music Discovery Teaching Artists and Chicago Public School classroom teachers participate in professional development that provides enrichment, all while fine-tuning existing skills and learning new ones to incorporate music into their classrooms.
Jacqueline Kelly-McHale, DePaul University’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Director of Music Education and a Reach Teach Play education partner, has been providing Music Discovery with professional development learning sessions for 12 years. Most recently, she gave a clinic at the Illinois Music Education Conference, spotlighting the work that is done collaboratively between Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play, university music education faculty, and CPS classroom and music teachers in hopes of advocating for the inclusion of music in all schools and community settings.
“I just find it so wonderful for me personally, from a very selfish perspective, to get to be able to work with classroom teachers in this way, and then to hear back from them and to hear how they’ve taken some of the activities I’ve shown them and incorporated them into their classrooms,” Kelly-McHale said.
Every classroom is different in how they introduce music through the Music Discovery program, but ultimately the program enhances students’ musical (and academic) skills by providing teaching artists with multi-week, interactive music residencies in classrooms.
Lindsay Weinberg, a Ravinia Teaching Artist, has been a part of Music Discovery for seven years and finds having a variety of professional development workshops valuable for keeping that aspect of her career evergreen.
“It’s wonderful to see different experts sharing their strengths and to feel what they bring out of you when you are a student in their class. It’s so inspiring,” Weinberg said. “As a teacher, you can emulate them, or you can draw connections to how your strengths can transform your students in unexpected ways.”
Educators in the program attend approximately nine interactive music workshops and seminars throughout the year in addition to monthly meetings to connect and share ideas that enhance teaching and learning among educators.
“Every school needs to have a music teacher, but a music teacher only sees the kids for a certain amount of time each week. If a classroom teacher feels confident incorporating music into their teaching, the kids benefit,” Kelly-McHale said.
“It’s very fun for my students when they incorporate movement. This enhances their learning. ”
Ergen Rojas, a classroom teacher at Hamline Elementary School, has been working with Music Discovery since May 2022 and has already seen the benefits of incorporating music in subjects like math.
“Not only are there STEM elements woven into music education, but I value how it is a different mode of representation for applying knowledge and skills in the classroom. For example, when showing flashcards of numbers 1–10, instead of students just saying the number, students can practice their cardinal counting by hitting rhythm sticks for each flashcard. It’s very fun for students my grade, and it incorporates movement into their learning, which enhances their learning,” Rojas said.
Not only are teachers learning during classroom activities, but they are also keeping in touch with the program’s teaching artists to learn more. Weinberg constantly has classroom teachers reach out to her for advice on incorporating music into their lessons. She once had a kindergarten teacher email her years later to ask about a singing game Weinberg played in her class.
“I sent her a simple recording, and she was able to re-create it with her students. Games like this are more than ways to fill time; they invite collaboration, and they build community. Music enables that kind of growth in easy ways that have deep and lasting results. When I can see those connections forming, I feel honored to be able to facilitate the building of stronger relationships,” Weinberg said.
According to Kelly-McHale, research shows that babies in utero react to musical sounds, and when looking at it physiologically, the way the vocal folds operate when babies first start vocalizing is more similar to singing than speaking, so there’s an innate relationship with music.
“You can’t escape music, that’s why I find it so important to integrate it across everything in a child’s life. And when we do that, we’re not just teaching them music to teach them music. What we’re really doing is—we’re giving kids an opportunity to connect with their inner selves and to find different ways of expressing themselves and understanding the world around them,” Kelly-McHale said.
Weinberg sees this firsthand with students when music and creativity open the doors to students’ self-actualization and pride. Sometimes she has students who are not always a part of the classroom due to behavioral or emotional struggles or special needs.
“Because my class offers a welcome to a fresh start and a different way of participating, these students feel free to join in, and when they do, they shine. The teachers are always surprised, as are the other kids, because those students are not generally who they expect to be most successful in an activity,” Weinberg said.
“If we base everything we do in the classroom on building community, first and foremost, all of those other things fall into place.”
Kelly-McHale also finds that the importance of community comes up in workshops and seminars. Teachers often ask her about classroom management or how to discipline students, and that is when she asks them to take a deep breath, take a step back, and think about community building first.
“If we base everything we do in the classroom on building community, first and foremost, all of those other things fall into place. And then at that moment, learning happens when students feel like they belong, when they feel that their views are appreciated, when they feel that who they are is understood and respected—then they will open themselves up to learning,” Kelly-McHale said.
Belonging to a community brings connection. Ravinia Teaching Artists and Music Discovery teachers find pride in the community building they partake in with the help of the many professional development seminars and workshops. Once the importance of music, community, and education is established, music in the classroom becomes natural and essential, and for many students, it is something that becomes part of their day-to-day interactions outside of the classroom.
“I love how kids and teachers in different classrooms and grade levels can connect through the songs and activities that we bring to them. I’ve heard stories of kids on the playground doing games and songs that we did in class. Music truly brings people together in the classroom and beyond,” Weinberg said.