Two Mineola music teachers were selected to present at a regional arts educators conference. Meg Messina and Marc Ratner were nominated by Conference Committee member and Mineola Supervisor of Fine and Performing Arts Joe Owens, and were selected to present by the committee.
Messina presented a session at which she introduced chorus teachers throughout the county to new pieces of choral literature. Literature was broken up into “mini-programs” that teachers could bring back to their students to create the types of meaningful lessons that is seen in her class on a daily basis.
Ratner presented a session titled “Reaching Special Needs Students through Music Therapy,” in which he encouraged teachers to share in his belief that all students are musical, and that music therapy has the power to engage students regardless of the challenges that they may face. Music teachers learned some of the strategies that Ratner uses regularly to promote language, motor and social skills with his students; implementing technology into lessons in a meaningful way, movement, dance, instrumental music performance and singing.
