Meet our May Featured Teacher: Ellen Lefort

Congratulations to our May 2016 Featured Teacher Ellen Lefort. Ellen is the music teacher at Onondaga Nation School in the Lafayette Central School District. She teaches grades K-8 General Music, grades 4-6 Band, and grades 7-8 Band. She has been teaching for eight years.

Ellen uses a variety of technologies with her students to help them understand the content that is presented. For students in her ensembles, she uses SmartMusic and Finale. SmartMusic is interactive music learning software, while Finale is music notation software. These digtal tools help students follow along with their parts as they listen to the piece. For formative assessment, Ellen uses an iPad app called iDoceo. This technology enables her to capture student work, assign grades, and give feedback when appropriate.

During Ellen's time at the Onondaga Nation School, the students have shown marked improvement in their understanding of various musical elements. The use of SmartMusic and Finale has increased the ability of students to master the ensemble pieces they are working on for their performances. While giving students in-class formative assessment, Ellen has found Idoceo an easy and fast tool to give students fundamental feedback to aid them in their continued growth in the music classroom.