Student Teaching, Spring 2026
State College Area High School and Park Forest Middle School
This past semester, I collaborated with my mentor teacher (Mrs. Emma Van Allen) to teach three orchestra classes, one high school guitar class, two seventh grade general music classes, and one chamber orchestra ensemble.
The experience was incredibly beneficial in the development of my music education skills, particularly regarding my classroom management abilities, lesson plan quality, conducting clarity, and overall teaching presence. I am very grateful for the rewarding opportunity to grow in such a welcoming environment, and I look forward to continuing to develop my pedagogical skills as I begin my career in music education.
Through my student teaching experience in the State College Area School District, I was granted the PMEA-SMTE Award in Student Teaching.
Orchestra Classes
On "B" days, I worked with three orchestra classes back-to-back:
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Advanced orchestra for 90 minutes
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9th grade orchestra for 45 minutes
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Concert strings (10th-12th grade) for 45 minutes.
High School Orchestra Concert (2026)
"Swamp Thang": 45:37
Student Teaching Recognition: 1:35:18
My orchestra responsibilities included:
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Planning/leading relevant warm-ups that physically and mentally prepare the students for rehearsal
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Developing comprehensive lesson plans that adhere to national standards for music education
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Rehearsing a diverse range of repetoire to prepare students for performances and auditions
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Utilizing concert repetoire as a tool for developing technical and musical ability
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Selecting audition excerpts and providing grades/feedback for both live auditions and recorded submissions.
Guitar I objectives for the semester included:
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Learning the parts of the guitar, memorizing the string names/numbers, and demonstrating correct playing technique/posture
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Demonstrating the ability to play a variety of chords, including some bar chords and basic tablature melodies
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Improving finger dexterity and right/left hand independence
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Learning about famous guitar players and their contributions to various musical genres and guitar techniques
A typical 7th grade general music class involved:
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Vocal warm-ups that physically and mentally prepared students' voices for singing through exercises that warm up the body, breath, and vocal cords
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The development of basic guitar skills, including simple chords, note-reading, vocal accompaniment, and various strum patterns
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A presentation and discussion about either an influential Baroque/Classical composer or a famous musical theater production
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Periodically: A collaborative guitar project, exploration of a compositional software, or rhythmic game (click for video clip).
Teaching clip -- 5th Grade Orchestra (Guest Conductor)
Scranton Shakespeare Festival
Youth Orchestra Teaching Experience
The Scranton Shakespeare Festival (SSF) is a nonprofit organization in Scranton,
Pennsylvania that aims to provide free professional theater to the general public.
In addition to its seasonal professional program, the festival offers an annual
summer camp for high school students who are passionate about music and
theater---which I attended after my senior year of high school. This educational
program, which has existed since 2021, focuses on immersing aspiring actors
within the professional theatre process from auditions all the way to performance.
In 2024, the directors of SSF approached me with an idea for a new branch within its educational program: a Youth Pit Orchestra. The goal was to offer high school instrumentalists to receive the unique (and free) experience of playing alongside professional musicians in a pit orchestra. I was excited and honored to be asked to spearhead this project, and as sophomore in college, I jumped at the opportunity to gain experience working with real music students. In the two years since I founded this program, the SSF Youth Pit Orchestra has grown to become a staple of the Scranton Shakespeare Festival. .
To promote the new program, I reached out to all the schools in the surrounding area and communicated with the music teachers, asking them to share the information with their students. The non-classical music opportunity generated a lot of interest from students who were looking to branch out into different fields of music, and I received applications from range of band and orchestra students. After the deadline for the audition submissions passed, I reviewed the applications and scheduled online interviews to get to know the students and learn about their experience levels. I arranged parts and sections based on the students' previous experience and skill level, which also included assigning solos and breaking up the multi-instrument wind books.
As a part of the program, the students rehearsed twice a week in the months leading up to each of the two musicals and performed live music for a total of almost fifteen shows. From the audition process to tech week to the flexibility of live performances, the students were completely immersed in an authentic pit orchestra experience. The program was a huge success---Audience members and parents loved the live music, and the students had a lot of fun working with the actors and crew to produce a show that they were proud of. As a music education major with limited ensemble teaching experience at the time, I also benefitted immensely from the new program and improved my conducting, rehearsing, and classroom management skills. I enthusiastically accepted the offer to continue the program the following year, which received even more applications and included many returning students from the previous summer.
