As part of the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame’s (LIMEHoF) partnership with rock and roll legend Steven Van Zandt’s TeachRock organization announced earlier this year, LIMEHOF will host the first ever series of free TeachRock workshops for teachers, sponsored by Harmony Insurance, on Sunday, September 17 and another on Sunday, October 15 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“We are so excited to give teachers this opportunity to learn more about Steven Van Zandt’s TeachRock curriculum and to give them some time to explore our museum,” said Tom Needham, LIMEHoF’s educational programs director. “My hope is that this leads to many music-themed lessons in the classroom and field trips to the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame moving forward.”
“Harmony Insurance is proud to sponsor TeachRock’s Long Island Music Workshops for teachers, aiming to inspire and educate through music,” Harmony Insurance said in a statement.
These free workshop events are open to local area teachers with registration. Teachers can register on TeachRock’s workshop registration page https://teachrock.org/LIMEHOF/. The first workshop Intro to TeachRock followed by a 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop themed workshop.
The workshops will be taught by TeachRock Star Teacher Stephanie Arnell, a veteran Freeport Public Schools educator who has helped her district embrace arts integration and had fun doing it. “Looking at curriculum through a musical lens keeps students engaged while they don’t even realize they are learning,” said Arnell. “For example, learning the history of MLK Day through Stevie Wonder’s song ‘Happy Birthday’ or using data from Beyonce’s Instagram account to practice calculating ratios. I’ve seen in my classroom the way students gravitate towards TeachRock lessons and I’m excited to spread that enthusiasm to teachers and students on Long Island.”
Launched in 2002 by Van Zandt and the founders board of Bono of U2, Jackson Browne, Martin Scorsese, and Bruce Springsteen, TeachRock.org provides free, standards-aligned resources that use music to help K-12 students succeed in science, math, social studies, and language arts, among other subjects. TeachRock improves students’ lives by filling every classroom with the sound, stories, and science of music. Nearly 60,000 educators — representing all 50 states — are registered at Teachrock.org.
“TeachRock teachers don’t tell kids to take out their earbuds, they ask them what they’re listening to and then make connections between their favorite music and the core curricula they need to master to succeed in life,” said Van Zandt. “This partnership will help my TeachRock team create more of those educators whose cool class keeps kids coming to school.”
“We’ve seen for years how the shared interest in music helps forge connections between teachers and students, and every year we witness how arts-integrated math, science, and social studies classes pull students from the margins and inspire them to participate,” said TeachRock’s executive director, Bill Carbone. “We’re thrilled to partner with LIMEHOF to help as many Long Island teachers as possible get excited about inspiring their students through the arts.”
LIMEHOF is located at 97 Main Street. For more information about LIMEHoF’s education programs please visit https://www.limusichalloffame.org/teachrock/