Skip to main content

About Jessica



Welcome to Afternoon Ti!  My name is Jessica Grant.  I am the middle school music educator at Good Shepherd Episcopal School in Dallas, Texas.  I taught elementary music for fourteen years in public schools in Michigan and Texas before teaching grades 5-8 at GSES for the past six years.

In terms of education work, I completed my Orff-Schulwerk certification and took an Orff Master Class with Werner Beidinger and Christa Coogan.  In the summer of 2019 I completed Kodály III with Lenké Igo at SMU and became certified in the approach after submitting my final videos and work in the late winter of 2020.  I have also had training in Dalcroze Eurythmics from the University of Maryland.

I earned my Bachelor Degree in Music Education from Lee University, Cleveland, TN and a Masters of Music in Music Education from Southern Methodist University from Dallas, TX.

I am currently the Co-Hospitality Chair for the North Texas Orff Chapter and was the Hospitality Chair for the 2018 National AOSA Conference in Dallas, Texas.  I am a member of AOSA (the American Orff-Schulwerk Association), OAKE (The Organization of American Kodály Educators), ARS (American Recorder Society), and TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association).

When I'm not working with students, creating content, or making music, you can find me spending time with my two girls, my husband, and our maltipoo Val.  I love making goals and going after them - seeing what can happen when I put my focus into the things I love.  This includes running through the neighborhood a lot (thanks Peloton app for the amazing sessions!), cooking each week from the Magnolia Table Cookbook (grateful for the running because our family is consuming so much good food as a result of my baking - highly recommend the chocolate cola cake), and spending time growing in my faith in Jesus.

In February 2021 I published my first book called The Afternoon Ti Guide to Teaching Music.  You can purchase the pdf versions at F-Flat Books or the paperback copies on Amazon.  And the best part is that there's an accompanying journal that allows you to personalize what you're reading and use what you learn  in your classroom!

F-flat Books:  

Amazon:
Paperback Journal

I'm so glad you're here and I look forward to getting to know you better, as well as sharing ideas for music education, teacher life, and how we can live life to the brim.  We've got this!






Comments

Post a Comment

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 set...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 th...
2 comments
Read more