Musicast

It’s the second to last Musicast episode for the 2023-2024 school year! In this episode, I sit down with music educator, Adam Chitta. Adam is the founder of “The Chitta Sound,” an organization that provides tools and professional development for teachers to help better reach their deaf and hard of hearing students. After receiving a hearing loss diagnosis as a child, Adam w

In this fun episode, Musicast creator, Marissa Guarriello, sits down with students from Freedom High School to talk about a class they are enrolled in. “Marking Musikfest” is a unique way to connect students with music industry skills. Students used Sonic Bids and chose 10 different bands. Then, they selected favorites and offered them contracts for Musikfest, the largest free

Some of the best teaching ideas stem from identifying problems or gaps in current methods. In this podcast episode, Crystal Boyack talks about just that! Through struggling to find a beginning method that worked for her string players (including her own daughter), she decided to create her own, and "Wee Violin" was born! Crystal describes her approach to learning to play

I don't know about you, but this is the time of year when I feel overwhelmed with digital clutter and need to do some serious spring cleaning! Enter Theresa Hoover. Last summer, Theresa delivered an incredible workshop at our annual symposium. She provided ideas for using Google Apps to enhance and streamline teaching. All of us were furiously taking notes and asking for more!

In this episode, we sit down with musician, author, educator, and all-around incredible human Ashley Shabankareh. Ashley shares about her life and work and how she collaborated on our latest release with longtime friend Mia Ibrahim. Mia tragically lost their life in December 2023 and “Embracing Arabic Popular Music” is a resource that honors and celebrates their work in music

In this episode, Sarah sits down with author, musician, and educator: Yeshima! Yeshima has been an F-flat author for years and is currently doing some amazing work in the areas of project-based learning and therapeutic drumming. In this episode, Yeshima shares about their past experiences and how they started music as a clarinetist (and got kicked out of the band!!) and gradually f

In this episode of Musicast, Sarah sits down with musician and educator, Jes Cleland. Jes is a bassist by trade and has spent years supporting young learners through her business, Music U, in Nashville. In this episode, she describes her journey to being an early childhood educator, how she approaches using literature with young children, and how her book “Get Out Beetle” was i

In this episode, Sarah sits down with Jeanette Shorey, veteran music teacher and promoter of joy in the classroom! Jeanette shares her story in music education and how she centers joy and stories in teaching young children. Listen to learn how community support and inspiration can help you keep the joy in teaching. You can learn more about Jeanette at the links below: https://st

How do we cultivate a sense of understanding and empathy among students? Can the music classroom be a space where we have hard discussions and unpack big emotions? In this episode, Daniel Rivera (author of "Empathy") describes his journey in music education and how his classroom has become a space to feel and share emotions: big or small. Listen and learn about the ways

In this episode, Sarah sits down with David Dockan: musician, educator, and Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky. David shares about his history as a musician and why he centers social-emotional learning in his work as both a teacher of young children and a teacher of pre-service music educators. He also talks about the inspiration behind his new book, "Your Song,"