Our school is located in a rural community in close proximity to a larger urban city. Students are excited to come to school each day and engage with teachers and peers. As the music teacher, I am lucky to see each class twice per week for 30 minutes. I enjoy seeing students step outside their comfort zones through music. Often times, students who are shy or reserved in other areas find their voice and passions through music.
Our school is blessed to have rich opportunities for students in art, music, physical education, library, and computers.
Music gives students a creative outlet and adds variety to the school day. These classes, though outside the standard academic curriculum, enhance our elementary school culture and make school an even more enjoyable place for all students.
My Project
Our fifth and sixth grade students present a Rock Band Concert each year as the grand finale to the music curriculum. Each class selects their own music, develops custom arrangements, and plays on traditional rock band instruments such as the electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and drum sets. This is the highlight of the year, and the final musical experience at our school for our outgoing sixth graders.
As you can imagine, this is an expensive concert to produce.
We are lucky to be in a district with strong support for the arts, but the Rock Band program exists largely outside of the provided budget. In our beginning years of presenting this concert, most instruments were donated or borrowed from generous community members. As the program has grown, we have been able to purchase our own instruments.
The guitars and amplifiers in this project will replace two instruments that we will retire this year. These two guitars have been well-loved, but are no longer high quality instruments. Replacing these guitars will continue to give our students an authentic Rock Band experience.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Scott and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.