Music
About me:
Welcome to Music! I have been a musician for most of my life, beginning in elementary school like many of my students. My primary instrument is the flute, and I hold two degrees in music performance and am a proud veteran of the United States Air Force Bands program, where I served in the military as a musician. I have three teenaged children of my own and two very demanding dogs. Additionally, I have all my "school kids" at Dearing Elementary and at THS, where I work with the marching band, meaning I teach approximately 550 kids every week! In my free time, I enjoy exercising, watching and reading science fiction and teen dystopia, gardening, and eating Mexican food.
About DES Music:
At DES, we sing, say, dance, and play in a tuneful, beat-ful, artful way! I am an Orff Schulwerk educator, which means that I encourage students to move, play, and create through joyful play. I am also trained in the Feierabend First Steps and Conversational Solfege techniques, which we use for the literacy portion of our curriculum. I firmly believe that ALL people are musical, and, in music class, we not only learn to participate in our musical culture, but learn creative problem solving skills, presentation skills, and teamwork that students need to be successful in life.
Grading Policy:
Elementary music is a class full of experiences! The most important thing in my classroom is that students feel free to be creative, take musical risks, and grow as musicians and problems solvers. All students will develop as musicians at slightly different rates during their elementary years; this is ok and to be expected.
In that spirit, the grading policy for music classes during in-person instruction is that all students shall be graded on whether they participate in lessons via a participation rubric. Full participation will result in full credit for the week's activity.
During Learn from Home time, the same policy applies. Students will have video lessons to complete once a week. Since students will be not attending class in person, we must gather some sort of data to assure that they have completed the lessons. While students are encouraged to upload videos so that I may give them feedback and aid their musical learning, we understand that may not be possible for all families. However, each week, students must complete a task in google classroom to prove they have completed the week's assignments. This task will be age-appropriate and clearly defined in the google assignment. The assignment may be completed at any time during the assigned week at a time convenient for the student and parents.
Raine Wheeler, Music Teacher
Contact information:
Please email me with questions!
Education:
Bachelor of Music, University of Memphis, 1993
Master of Music, Western Michigan University, 2001
Certifications and Training:
First Steps in Music, 2018
Conversational Solfege, 2019
Orff Schulwerk, Level 1, 2018
Orff Schulwerk, Level 2, 2019
Other Affiliations
DonorsChoose.org National Teacher Ambassador
Georgia Music Educator's Association
Remind Connected Educator
American Orff Schulwerk Association Member