By Blake Siskavich As I reflect on this past year, I am both humbled and energized by the progress we’ve made in the Fine and Performing Arts Department and the broader school community. Leading this work hasn’t just been about improving instruction—it’s been about transforming systems, expanding access, and centering equity in everything we do. …
Advancing Arts Education: Partnering with the Rennie Center and DESE on Curriculum Review
This spring, I was honored to be invited by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy to serve as a Music Teacher Advisor for a statewide arts curriculum review initiative. The project—supported in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)—aims to evaluate K–12 arts curricula across five key disciplines: Visual …
PD for Learning Targets
In a recent professional development session centered on crafting effective learning targets for elementary arts classrooms, educators explored how these targets can transform teaching and learning. Learning targets provide essential focus and direction by clearly defining what students are expected to learn, ensuring alignment with standards and instructional goals. More than just instructional tools, they …
Music to Increase Reading Engagement
Allowing young readers to read all types of media will help them engage fully in the reading process. Do you have a reader that is disengaging from regular text? Try adding some music or finding a website/app that includes music or sound effects. Here is one I created that students could listen to/watch while they …
Post Pandemic?
The last few years have been the hardest in teaching, even harder than being a first year teacher! Hey, when you're young, you don't know what you don't know! After being shut down in March of 2020, teaching a wonderful Kindergarten class of 11 students in person in 2020-2021 year, and a rotation model of …
Take A Stand
I've shared a little song I wrote for our youngest students to help encourage and empower them to stand up against bullying behavior. Take a listen and share your feedback!
Making a Musical Story
Here is a STEAM lesson aimed at Upper Elementary & Middle School that uses student writing as motivation to tap into their artistic intent. Students use a piece of their writing to create a story synopsis. Using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of choice, students will create a backing track for their story synopsis. Use …
Sound Collection
Students use their critical listening skills to respond to the sounds around us. Students listen for sounds in their environment and categorize in different ways. The main focus is to list for sounds we hear inside our house , outside our house and musical sounds we hear in our immediate environment. Students can then categorize …
Wash Your Hands Sing Along Video
Playing Cups to Help With Rhythm Recognition
Students play a music game that focusing on creating, performing and responding.
Blake Siskavich 