DSEA Action!

May/June 2012

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Making a difference Heather Akers receives Jessie Ball DuPont Educator Award from Delaware Symphony Fourth graders on a Drum Team? Challenged students improving concentration and positive energy? You bet. - by Mary Cleary drummer…she's trained scores of different little drummers to pound their own paths to positive academ- ic performance. Recently, her Drumming for Successand other initiatives contributed to her own success as winner of …drum roll…the Jessie Ball DuPont Educator Award from the Delaware Symphony. Jessie Ball DuPont was a teacher M before she married Alfred I. DuPont, the Delaware Symphony's founder. The award is given annual- ly to celebrate a music educator who is "fantastic, life-changing and influential," according to the award website. Akers is certainly all of that at East Dover Elementary School in the Capital School District, where she has taught music for the last seven years. She spends equal time at Booker T. Washington Elemen- tary a few miles away, and doesn't miss a beat. Thanks to grants she wrote, both schools house complete sets of the African drums she uses in general music classes. "I have 11 drums and several African and South American instruments," she says, describing the colorful tubanos, djembes and the four-and-a-half-foot ngoma, a carved drum so tall her kinder- garten children must stand on a stool to play it. There's a shakere in the collection, a gourd laced with macramé and shells that rattle. There's a Talking Drum, too. "You put it under your arm and after you hit it, you squeeze it," usic Teacher Heather Akers doesn't just march to a different Akers adds. The little drum seems to intone a conversational response. Using World Music Drumming materials, she builds a cross-cultur- al curriculum in her classes. These include echo responses, then the layering of different rhythms. Akers says she starts and ends each school year with drumming at both schools. But only East Dover, the school with the highest poverty rate in the Capital School District, has the and their musical literacy has improved immensely." Many of the Drumming for Successstudents also perform on the school's Drum Team, comprised of mostly fourth graders. Wearing white t-shirts and blue jeans, this elite corps plays at the Education Faire at the Dover Mall and at fundraising events for the school. Akers brings music into the com- munity from Booker T. Washington Elementary, too. "Related Arts will have responsibil- ities with performance indicators related to student growth." Voice is her favorite instrument The Maplewood, New Jersey native has a degree in vocal per- formance and music education from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She earned her master's degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Delaware in 1996. "I took piano in college and didn't have to be proficient, but people assume music teachers are," Akers says. "I do play the string family instruments, the flute and tuba." Tuba? "Someone needed a tuba for their brass ensemble," she explains with a laugh. Akers began her career as an orchestra director and elementary strings teacher for the Christina School District for 14 years. "I love teaching beginners," Akers says. "In addition to being cute, you can see their progress." After her marriage, she commut- Thanks to grants Heather Akers wrote, two elementary schools in Dover have com- plete sets of African drums. Drumming for Success Program, Akers says. It also houses the District's Intensive Learning Center. "The idea behind Drumming for Successwas to give the ILC (Intensive Learning Center) stu- dents a kinesthetic outlet to chan- nel their negative energy into posi- tive," she says. "Over the years, I have seen their behavior change in my classes for the positive. Their attention spans are a little longer 24 May/June 2012 DSEA ACTION! Her 45-member choir of third and fourth-graders sings at the Governor's Mansion, the Modern Maturity Center, churches and other local sites. In addition to her musical influ- ence in the community, Akers has been working for teachers in help- ing to develop DPAS II Component 5, which is scheduled to roll out next year. "I was on the Cohort 5 group to develop music educators' goals for the DPAS II," she says. ed from Dover for the last five years, but says she couldn't contin- ue when two of her three children were babies. Now ages seventeen, nine and six, her children could also be cute beginners, but Akers says she won't instruct them in music. "I will not be their private teacher because 'Mom doesn't know what she's talking about,'" jokes Akers. The children will probably take her seriously now, having attended the March 24 Delaware Symphony performance. They saw their mom invited on stage to receive the Jesse Ball DuPont Award, a handsome plaque, and a $1,000 honorarium. "I was nervous and excited. What a great night!" Akers says. "I bought 50 recorders and other supplies." Yes, "fantastic, life-changing and influential," describe her work. She's personally talented, generous and upbeat. Now Heather Akers is also a winner. - Mary Cleary, DSEA-Retired, is a fre- quent contributor to DSEA ACTION! You can reach her at mmarymar ble@msn.com. www.dsea.org

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