Shank [EMU BA ’99 in music] teaches his classes and the school’s DJ club how to make electronic music by layering sound.

Whether students use iPads, digital sequencers or the Numark mixdeck DJ system in the back of the classroom, they are taught to find the musical balance between “sound and silence.”

“If they’re in the car listening to music they can hear the themes we’ve dissected in class,” Shank said after the DJ club’s Monday morning session. “They start to understand how music works.”

All his students from kindergarten through fourth grade use the equipment. They learn how to “juggle” beats and scratch a record on the mixdeck.

The machine is a digital version of a vinyl turntable, with a computer screen to show the musical waves being created.

“It was tricky at first. It’s fun though,” said Leah Greenfield, 10. She and Liam Wightman, 10, will demonstrate the mixdeck for Harrisonburg City Public Schools’ STEM Day on Saturday [Feb. 28].

Across the room, third-grader Omari Faison, 9, tweaked the settings of a Korg digital sequencer to create a looped beat. The device contains 100 sound samples and fits inside a pencil case.

With a few adjustments, Omari was able to produce a range of beats.

Not all Shank’s technology is strictly designed for music.

Fourth-graders Anish Aradhey, 9, and Julia Obenschain 10, will use littleBits circuitry kits at STEM Day to build a synthesizer. Shank said the kits allow users to work on separate currents for greater collaboration.

Anish said the trick is to keep all the pieces connected so the sound stays intact.

“And to save power, you have to turn [the battery] off when you’re building it,” Julia said.

Shank received grants from James Madison University, Smithland’s parent-teacher organization and the division’s Transforming Classrooms Through Technology program. The division purchased the mixdeck last year using leftover music program funds, while Shank also brought some of the equipment from home.

“It’s great because the kids work on troubleshooting their own issues,” Shank added.

He wanted enough tools to let students work independently during class time.

“Technology’s kind of my thing,” he said.

To hear some of the students’ creations go to .

Courtesy of the Daily News-Record, Feb. 24, 2015

The person filling that post, Waterman Elementary School Principal Jeremy Weaver, will have a big job ahead.

In January, Weaver will become the first executive director of elementary education for the division, coordinating instruction among five schools and a new one in the making.

“The needs of our school division have grown significantly,” Superintendent Scott Kizner said.

The division has more than 2,200 students from kindergarten to fourth grade enrolled this year and predicts having more than 3,000 students for those grades within three years. That’s according to estimates by the architectural firm VMDO, which the division hired to plan for a new elementary school.

Kizner said that Weaver, who has been principal of Waterman since 2010, was the perfect candidate for the new position because of his background in elementary instruction.

Before working for HCPS, Weaver was an elementary school principal and assistant principal in Waynesboro for six years.

“It’s just a great opportunity to kind of coordinate our instructional efforts between all the elementary schools,” he said.

As of Monday, Weaver is still the principal of Waterman and said he plans to help Jill Hart, assistant principal and his successor, interview candidates for her replacement.

“Being by yourself in a building of [543] students is not easy to do,” he said.

He will discuss his transition with administrators on Thursday, but in the meantime he will be moving between the division’s central office on Court Square and the school on Chicago Avenue.

As executive director of elementary education, Weaver said he will work with federal and state education accountability measures for the division. He added that he is looking forward to becoming better versed in the division’s dual-language immersion programs, which were added to kindergarten classes at Waterman this year.

Thirty-eight students in two classes spend half their class day speaking Spanish at the school, Weaver said.

Prior to creating the new position, Harrisonburg City Public Schools consolidated some central office roles, Kizner said.

The language arts and Title I coordinator positions combined into one role, while the career and technical education coordinator combined with the foreign language position. Meanwhile, Sandi Thorpe became director for special programs and no assistant director was hired, Kizner said.

Weaver will have a few years in the role before the division adds a sixth elementary education campus.

Construction on the school for as many as 750 students is expected to begin in 2017 on Garbers Church Road. The building will have an adjacent pre-K facility for up to 250 students.

“Having one person who’s kind of in charge of that many buildings is very helpful in terms of helping the division move forward,” Weaver said.

He does not expect to have a role in designing the new buildings but as their openings approach, he plans to help hire staff for the schools.

Courtesy of the Daily News Record, Dec. 16, 2104

The city school system is funding a strings instruction program through EMU’s Preparatory Music Program, part of the university’s music department. It will begin early October for fourth and fifth grade students at Keister, Waterman, Stone Spring and Spotswood Elementary schools.

Sharon M. Miller, director of EMU’s Preparatory Music Program, with violin student Caitlin McAvoy, 14, of Harrisonburg. She is a freshman at Turner Ashby High School who has taken lessons for six years. Photo by Jim Bishop

Initially, between 35-40 students from the four schools will receive one hour of after-school group instruction for a minimal fee.

Instructors in EMU’s Preparatory Music Program will teach the weekly classes. The city will provide bus transportation for students following the lessons.

Next year, the program will accept middle school students, fifth through eighth grade.

Successful Outreach Programs

Joan Griffing, chair of EMU’s music department, said the school system approved the strings instruction “as a result of the success of EMU’s “violin outreach project” begun in 2002 as a way of offering violin instruction to low-income students in the city and county. At the start of 2007, 50 students were taking lessons once a week after school at Stone Spring, Keister and Waterman Elementary and in evening classes at EMU.

The outreach project has been funded in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Arts Council of the Valley.

Music Gallery, a Harrisonburg music store, provides many of the CD’s and other supplies that students need, and parents of Preparatory Music Program students have donated used instruments. The evening outreach project will continue along with the new after-school strings instruction program.

“We deeply appreciate the grant funding that makes the outreach program possible, but in the longer-range view, it will be better to have strings instruction as part of the school’s music program,” Dr. Griffing noted.

Bonnie C. Hobson, instructional supervisor for Harrisonburg City Schools, said she is “excited to see this project move ahead” and expressed hope that it will eventually lead to a string instruction program from kindergarten through 12th grade.”

Program Long Time in Coming

Sharon M. Miller, director of EMU’s Preparatory Music Program, will administer the new strings instruction program. “This is something that parents and teachers have been requesting for years, and we’re elated to be able to help make it happen,” Miller said.

“EMU has provided string instruction to the community through the Shenandoah Valley Preparatory Music Program for many years, because the EMU music faculty believe that music can enrich everyone’s life and should be accessible to all,” Griffing said. “The new strings program in the local schools is a wonderful opportunity to continue achieving this mission.”

According to Griffing and Miller, the availability of strings instruction on the elementary school level will offer numerous benefits to students – “The satisfaction of learning a new skill, the enjoyment of making music with fellow students while developing a stronger work ethic and problem-solving skills.”

Griffing believes student participants will gain more appreciation for Virginia’s musical heritage – including bluegrass music – and “will be more likely to appreciate classical music and support the fine arts as adults.

“Studies have shown that students who play an instrument are most likely to appreciate classical music and support the fine arts as adults,” she said. “Strings are an integral part of today’s musical world, from symphony orchestras to movie sound tracks to rock bands.

“Not all families can afford private lessons or an instrument,” she said. “Public school programs like this provide an alternate way to learn to play a string instrument,” Griffing added.

“We’re excited about the potential this strings program has and the opportunity it affords to give back to the local community,” Miller said.

Students may register by seeing their school music teacher or by calling EMU’s preparatory music department at 432-4277. An orientation meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. Sept. 24 at Stone Spring Elementary School.