Rock Music as a Teaching Tool
Posted on 03/17/2023
Rock Music as a Teaching Tool

Red Bank Middle School is excited to announce their new partnership with the TeachRock program. TeachRock lessons are taught during the 12 minute homeroom period of the start of each day. The daily SEL lessons incorporate music and musicians' stories to help students build social competencies addressing everything from teamwork to cultural identity. Red Bank’s principal, Dr. Ginger Frady, shared that her students have been eagerly talking about TeachRock SEL lessons in their classrooms, in the hallways, and at their lunch tables. These lessons help our students set the tone for their day, and provide meaningful connections to educators and peers.
Students have explored concepts of Cultural Identity, Growth Mindset, and Resilience. In a recent lesson, students at Red Bank Middle learned about the significance of totems and tikis. They were asked to create their own personal design using traditional symbolism. Each student's artwork is displayed on a schoolwide art exhibit in the main hallway. Dr. Frady expressed how the students enjoyed the process of this task by having fun but also learning about themselves and their classmates. Dr. Frady stated, “TeachRock has promoted impactful shared experiences and common language. Seeing our Red Bank Middle School students having these sorts of meaningful conversations has been so powerful. They are so engaged in these lessons and are excited about TeachRock!”
We are building capacity with our students, increasing their connection to the school building and each other through the use of TeachRock. Despite our early start time you can walk by any classroom and observe students and teachers standing in morning circles sharing what part of the music is resonating with them.
TeachRock is an arts integration curriculum that is designed to focus on the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage with their students. TeachRock provides exciting lesson plans that provide genuine learning in areas such as language arts, social studies, geography, science, STEAM, general music, and more. The program has meaningful material with exciting professional development workshops which help students get engaged with lessons and excited about learning. This program is provided at no cost to educators through the Rock & Soul Foundation.
The Rock & Soul Foundation is the reason TeachRock is accessible to teachers. Anyone can make a small contribution to the foundation so they can continue to develop educational materials for teachers and students.