Grants in Action | 2022/2023 School Year
Lyndsey Curson ’15, Perrysburg High School Intervention Specialist, and Abigail Miles, Perrysburg High School Orchestra Teacher, utilized two grants to expand services to students this school year!
United Sound
Ms. Curson and Ms. Miles started a United Sound Orchestra chapter at Perrysburg High School within the high school orchestra program. Perrysburg High School is the first school in Northern Ohio to have a United Sound Chapter implemented into their existing music program.
United Sound is a non-profit organization that has cultivated a
curriculum for teachers and students to teach instruments and music to students with special needs. The mission of United Sound is to remove barriers and foster change through music.
Within the United Sound chapter at the school, students with special needs become new musicians who are paired with current orchestra students to learn how to play an instrument of their choice. They also learn to read music in their own unique way and at their own pace.
While all students involved are learning how to play in the orchestra, they are also learning how to build and foster friendships and relationships with others. The chapter is almost entirely student-led.
The Perrysburg High School United Sound chapter would like to thank the Perrysburg Schools Foundation for their support in funding the start-up costs and fees for the United Sound program and for recently approving funding for the upcoming school year. The Chapter would also like to thank Rettig Music for donating the instruments on which the new musicians learn, play and perform.
Adaptive Music
Ms. Curson and Ms. Miles also began a new elective course at PHS called Adaptive Music this school year geared towards students with unique needs and students with a passion for education/music/peer mentoring.
The Adaptive Music course offers an exploratory music experience for students with unique needs while offering general education students the opportunity to serve as peer mentors and gain teaching skills and experiences. Students explore music through listening and creation, and they have the opportunity to select and perform various instruments as well as work on performance skills.
This course allows students in the general and special education populations to not only work on their musical skills, but also their social and emotional skills. Students develop their knowledge of how to use/identify music to portray emotions, translate ensemble skills into social situations as well as use music to reflect and relax in varying real-life scenarios.
The materials for this course were supplied and funded by Perrysburg Schools Foundation. The Perrysburg Schools Arts Council is charged with suggesting areas of funding from the Perrysburg Schools Foundation and its Campaign for the Arts that supports the visual and performing arts through student discovery, student experience, program growth and program sustainability.
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