Project Proposal

For my service-learning project, I plan to work with 2 music educators to provide resources to help introduce elements of Universal Design for Learning, Social and Emotional Learning, and/or bolster already established routines. I also plan to offer any requested resources to support the educator and their students’ success in our distance-learning-centric conditions. I will first seek out music educators I have worked with or have connections with. My desire is to work with the high school age range, but if there are not enough welcoming educators, I will adapt and widen my age and content ranges.

I have always loved working with teenagers; old enough to realize their autonomy, and young enough to still say whatever is on their mind. As a former educator by profession, I found myself in situations as a new teacher not knowing how to accommodate the highly structured supports students with disabilities really needed. Granted, my classes were generally performance-based being music/theatre/dance classes, that allowed flexibility in what the product looked like.

In my short time as an educator, I subbed in one of the self-contained classrooms at a high school and worked as an independent faculty member for a few years. I had students with a broad range of needs. During that time, I acquired and refined a functional understanding of IEPs, 504 plans, and attended annual review meetings.

I plan on reaching out to music educators that I know who service my county to see if there is anything I can help them plan for once/if in-person instruction resumes and how to better accommodate students with diverse needs. If there are not enough music educators that welcome this project, I will reach out to core (math, science, reading, SS, etc.) education teachers. If I need to reach out to teachers that I have no contacts with, I will reach out to school’s administrative teams (counselors, special education teachers) to see what connections I can make.