What is your Alma Mater?
Trinity University in San Antonio, TX

Where do you currently teach?
Carl Schurz Elementary in New Braunfels, TX

How long have you been teaching?
12 years

Why do you choose to be a member of TMEA?
Membership in our local and national music education organizations is important to the life of our community. Organizations like TnMEA and NAfME help advocate for music, provide quality resources and valuable training for teachers, and provide a network of people who are passionate about music and teaching. I joined TnMEA because I want to be a part of improving and bringing music education to all - our great purpose as teachers!

What do you love about teaching?
I love interacting with students. I love bringing an unforgettable experience to them that may impact their lives permanently. I love watching them grow as musicians and become independent from me. My life was changed through music - I want to give others that same opportunity!

If you could choose another job for one day, what would it be?
I honestly cannot answer this question! I cannot imagine any other job being as fulfilling and rewarding.

Tell us one thing about you that people would be surprised to know or something you are passionate about besides teaching.
I enjoy sewing and making things for people I care about.

Share a fun and unique idea that you use in your classroom!
​Using GarageBand and iPads, I guide 5th graders on writing and recording their own remixes to folk songs they know. It is an engaging unit for them and gives them freedom to create something that is truly their own.

What is your Alma Mater?
Middle Tennessee State University and Trevecca Nazarene University

Where do you currently teach?
East Ridge Elementary Chattanooga, Tennessee Hamilton County

How long have you been teaching?
This is my 35th year of teaching.

Why do you choose to be a member of TMEA?
I began my membership while in college, it was "just what you did". I continued my membership after becoming a band director because that was the only way my students would be able to participate in things like All-State and Concert Festival. I have since come to realize the learning opportunities TnMEA and NAfME provide for ME...Webinars, conferences, publications...

What do you love about teaching?
Watching the reactions of my students when they KNOW they "get it" and watching as they react to music they would never have heard without music class.

If you could choose another job for one day, what would it be?
Teaching Social Studies / History.... I had 2 years when I worked in the "real world" of business....I hated it.

Tell us one thing about you that people would be surprised to know or something you are passionate about besides teaching.
Thanks to Facebook it won't surprise many folks that I very much enjoy piecing quilt tops.... I learned how to sew when I was in 4th grade so I could participate in 4-H activities. I carry around a ziploc bag with a hand-sewing project that has been in progress for 10 years...I can even sew when riding in the passenger seat. While a band director I always traveled with cross-stitching....

Share a fun and unique idea that you use in your classroom!
​I do a rhythm activity based on the battles of the Revolutionary War the 4th graders must know. Lexington and, Concord, Bunker, Hill, Trenton Princeton, Saratoga, Valley Forge, King's Mountain, Yorktown, We Win! (did that from memory... means I've learned them too!) We analyze the rhythm of each battle, place them in order, play them on tubanos, woodblocks and triangles. This came up during a conversation at the copier when I asked how I might help the 4th grade teachers with their Revolutionary War unit. .. The answer: Is there any way you can help them learn the names of the battles they have to know.....? I've done this for 2 years.... report is very few of the kids fail to correctly answer this question. You can hear it in the hallway as they walk from place to place. ​

Our next TMEA Teacher Spotlight is Ray Mullins. Get to know him more here:

What is your Alma Mater?
The University of Memphis

Where do you currently teach?
St. Louis Catholic School in Memphis, TN

How long have you been teaching?
11 Years

Why do you choose to be a member of TMEA?
I love being connected with other music teachers across the state. TMEA Conference gives me a great opportunity to meet other teachers and share ideas and anecdotes.

What do you love about teaching?
I love the moment when the student "gets it." When they've been struggling with a technique or a concept, and then the "light" turns on, their face brightens to a huge smile, and they feel like the smartest person in the world!

If you could choose another job for one day, what would it be?
Any job for a day?... I'd settle for half an inning playing Left Field for the Yankees!

Tell us one thing about you that people would be surprised to know or something you are passionate about besides teaching.
I love to cook. To create something, anything, in an hour or so and fill the house with a mouth-watering aroma. Then make it look attractive on a plate, only to indulge in the taste a moment later, is completely satisfying. Who doesn't want to walk into a room where there is a plate consisting of a perfectly cooked Ribeye with herbed butter, a grilled artichoke with remoulade sauce, and garlic mashed potatoes?

Share a fun and unique idea that you use in your classroom!
I organize baskets for each of my barred-instruments that have corresponding numbers (ie-basket #6 with Xylophone #6). So, when the students are ready to move from chairs to the instruments, I select a student at random to be #1, then mark his/her name. Thus, the students have no way of anticipating who will be at which instrument. By cycling through the students each time, eventually each student will be at each instrument over the course of the year. And after 2 years of this procedure, no student has complained about which instrument they get!