Skip to main content

S7: E142 Book Series: A Place in the Staff with Jen Rafferty

Season Seven

Episode 142

Book Series: A Place in the Staff with Jen Rafferty



Presenter and author, Jen Rafferty began her career as a middle school music teacher in Central New York. Jen brings her energy, humor, and expertise to all professional development workshops. She is known for her practical ideas and passion in her presentations while inspiring teachers to stay connected to their “why.” Jen currently serves as the Co-chair of the New York State School Music Association’s (NYSSMA) Secondary Classroom Committee, member of the advocacy committee, and is the President of Cortland County Music Teachers Association. She earned a B.M. in music education and vocal performance, a M.M. in music education from Ithaca College and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in educational psychology.

Jen is frequently invited to conduct elementary and middle school choirs throughout New York State. Additionally, in 2020 she founded Sing Together, a national virtual singing community of singers of all ages and abilities. Her most recent publication is A Place in the Staff: Finding Your Way as a Music Teacher, available on Amazon.

The Afternoon Ti Guide to Teaching Music Book and Journal launched two weeks ago.  It’s a great combination of reading and applying what you learn into practical, personal applications in your classroom.  If you haven’t picked up your copy of the book or journal, check out my Instagram @highafternoonti for more information about what’s inside them!  Then go to Fflat books for your e-book pdfs (Book and Journal)  or Amazon for the paperback book and journal.  Can’t wait for you to read and discover new ideas for teaching and growing.


In celebration of the launch of my first book, this month’s podcast episodes are going to focus on books by music educators that are out in the world and whose books I believe are important and need to be shared.  Last week’s episode #141 was a chat with Jessica Peresta about her book “Make a Note: What you really need to know about teaching elementary music.” In today’s episode Jen Rafferty shares about her book “A Place in the Staff: Finding Your Way as a Music Teacher.”  I loved the way Jen approaches music education and her relationships with students, families, and colleagues.  There are so many takeaways in this episode so let’s jump right into the conversation with Jen.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

S4: E107 Active Listening Through Storytelling and Classical Music with Robert Franz

Season Four Episode 107 Active Listening with Robert Franz Robert Franz Website Stella's Magical Musical Balloon Ride Ted Talk: Active Listening and Our Perception of Time Robert Franz Bio: Acclaimed conductor, Robert Franz, recognized as "an outstanding musician with profound intelligence," has held to three principles throughout his career: a commitment to the highest artistic standards, to creating alliances and building bridges in each community he serves, and a dedication to being a strong force in music education.  As Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, and newly appointed Artistic Advisor of the Boise Baroque Orchestra, he has achieved success through his focus on each of these principles. His appeal as a first-rate conductor and enthusiastic award-winning educator is acclaimed by critics, composers, and audiences of all ages.  Composer Bright S

Recorder: What to do with Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns... it might be the bane of your existence, a song to start with students with B-A-G on the recorders that really doesn't affect you one way or the other, or a great song to use that is simplistic and gets the job done.  No matter what your feeling on it, it's likely that you've used it because it is effective at teaching simple rhythms, B-A-G and giving students a great starting place when learning recorder.  Personally, I find it useful but I'm honestly tired of it.  I decided to do something new with it this summer and wanted to change it so that it was more musical.  For many days of my summer break I spent time in the morning playing the recorder.  I wrote down melodies I had improvised and liked, played with modes and scales, added unpitched percussion parts/piano/guitar chords and enjoyed seeing what could be done.  Not all of the pieces were very good but it was a great creative way to figure out some solutions for recorder pitch sets, rhythms an

S6: E127 Mini Soundtrap Project

 Season 6 Episode 127 Mini Soundtrap Project In the last few episodes I’ve shared some Soundtrap lesson ideas that I created and used with students.  Podcasts, Fictional Character Themes, Found Sounds, and Poem with Loops.  Check out the resources provided for each of these lessons in the show notes or on the blog. Today’s episode is about a simple Soundtrap project that could be done as a collaboration by several students or by an individual in whatever time frame you provide.  The benefit of this lesson is that it’s incredibly flexible.  It could be done in as little as 20 minutes or as much as 45 minutes or more.  The idea is to allow students to create a piece containing a specific amount of loops that includes an introduction and ending.  Like I said super simple.  This might be a great way to introduce students to loops and even form structure depending on how you set up your rubric.   This was a lesson I used while I was out this past week and needed something that a substitu