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Reed
At Reed, all students receive specialized Kodaly based music instruction taught by Kit Eakle, A.K.A. Mr. E. The program introduces children to music of all cultures and styles in a fun-filled atmosphere while teaching the basics of music-making, reading and writing in a way that contributes to the child’s learning in all subject areas.
A Bay Area native, Mr. E. has been a teacher for over 25 years in both Canada and the U.S., and has been with Reed for 7 years. He holds a masters degree in early childhood music education and is a music curriculum expert who has designed K-12 school curriculum at the national level.
In addition to teaching music to our children, Mr. E has written Music Tales ™ and other musical stories for his students. His recently published “In My Grandmother’s Garden” won the prestigious Gradiva Award in 2002. Mr. E’s philosophy can be summed up in the following:
“As a musician who has performed for and with kids for close to 30 years, I know kids love music. As a teacher with more than 25 years teaching experience, I know that more than loving music, kids love to understand it”.
Mr. E’s goal is to teach our kids to love and understand music. And from what the kids tell us, he’s doing a great job!! To learn more about Mr. E’s philosophy and program, visit his web site at http://www.musickit.com/reed.
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Bel Aire
At Bel Aire, the great music program continues under the direction of Mr. Jeb Gist and is based on Orff-Schulwerk, an approach to music education developed by the German composer Carl Orff and his colleague Gunild Keetman. Orff Schulwerk taps into children’s’ natural predisposition and attraction to games, rhymes, and chants. It is a multi-faceted approach to music education, which offers students a variety of media - singing, dancing, playing instruments, dramatizing--in which to create and experience music. Orff-Schulwerk also embraces the music and dance of cultures around the world. The social dimensions of group music-making are also a highly valued aspect of the Bel Aire music program. In addition to classroom music, students at Bel Aire have the opportunity to sing in the Choir (3rd – 5th Grade), play in the Percussion ensemble (4th & 5th grade) and play in the Band (5th grade).
Jeb Gist was born in Los Angeles, California, and spent most of his childhood there. He and his wife, Jane, have two daughters: Hallie Jo, 9, and Geneva, 7. In addition to teaching classroom music at Bel Aire School, Mr. Gist also teaches band, directs the school musical, choir, and percussion ensemble. In addition, he works free-lance as a piano accompanist, and, in the past, has directed community musical theater, served as church choir director, taught at Marin Theater Company, and at the Santa Rosa Children’s Choir. Mr. Gist did his undergraduate work at Williams College, in Massachusetts; his Graduate work at Indiana University; and received his teaching credential from San Francisco State. In 1984, Mr. Gist was the pianist at opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Los Angeles!
This is Mr. Gist's tenth year at Bel Aire. In 2003, Mr. Gist was selected as the District’s “Teacher of the Year”; and his program was again recognized last year with a “Golden Bell” award. At a time when many districts view music as a “frill”, Mr. Gist feels fortunate to be working for a school district that recognizes music as essential to the education of the whole child. He loves working with such great kids and with a terrific staff!
For more information on Mr. Jeb Gist or the music program at Bel Aire, please visit his web site at:
http://web.mac.com/jebgist/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html
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Del Mar
At Del Mar, the music program continues under the direction of Michael Miles and Jeff Narell.
In the 6th grade, students have a choice of between Band or Steel Pans. The sixth grade band is a small but dedicated and talented group of young musicians. Each year they take on several challenging works of music, performed on the winter and spring concerts. Throughout the year, they also do several activities/programs where the students are able to split up into their own small ensembles and direct their own musical learning. The Del Mar music program also includes a Concert Band (for 7th & 8th graders. Each year they take on various works by different artists; this year they will be focusing on various works by Igor Stravinsky, Edward Elgar, Modeste Mousorsky, Queen and many others. These works will be performed at the winter and spring concerts. In addition, the Concert Band has been asked to perform for the Festival of Lights in downtown Tiburon on Saturday December 10th. Guitar classes are also available under the music program for 7th & 8th graders. This class exposes expose students to the many musical styles of the guitar including blues, folk songs,and the work of various artists like The Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Eagles, U2 and many more. The goal of the guitar program is to learn to read standard musical notation, tablature and chord symbols. Additionally, students will use their new laptop technology to research famous guitarists and discover various web sites that enable them to learn new guitar music on their own. All the instrumental programs at Del Mar also utilize the new laptop technology by using the Garage Band software where students can combine various musical ‘loops’ as well as record their own playing projects. These will ultimately be saved onto a CD for future classes to enjoy and benefit from. Students are also familiarized with the Sibelius music composition software, where they learn to produce short musical compositions or arrangements of other music. Mr. Miles has a Bachelor degree in Music from The University of the Pacific and a Master of Music degree from Boston University and has been at Del Mar since the fall of 2003. |
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