BYU ArtsBridge, a part of the BYU ARTS Partnership, is a program for connecting arts teachers-in-training with students currently in local public schools to foster arts integration. Whether their discipline is Drama, Visual Arts, Dance, or Music, these student teachers, known as "Arts Bridge scholars," work together with public school teachers to integrate their art form into daily classroom life.
My name is Sarah Earl, a 2018 BYU ArtsBridge Scholar. I am studying Music Education at BYU, with an emphasis in K-12 Choral Music. I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, where I discovered my passion for music with the Clark County Children's Choir and pursued it to the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts and then to BYU, where I have studied music for three years. As an ArtsBridge Scholar, I am pleased to be working with Dianne Amesse and her first grade class at Edgemont Elementary here in Provo, Utah. This program is a fantastic opportunity for me to gain real teaching experience with real students, rather than my peers role-playing, as we often do in my music education classes. As one of my teachers loves to say, "this is where the rubber meets the road!"
My goal as an ArtsBridge Scholar, first and foremost, is to be a benefit to the students I will teach. I am here to serve them, not the other way around. My secondary goal is to be a benefit to the teacher I work with, and then finally to develop my abilities as a teacher and a musician. The idea behind Arts Integration is to make music a part of the everyday classroom experience, not something that is reserved exclusively for "special time" once a week in their music class. Music can be used in countless ways within the regular classroom, and I am so excited to open the doors of the world of music to these first graders and invite them inside! I hope you will enjoy following along in my adventure.
- Sarah Earl
