report to the community - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and ...

Educational ProgramsThe Education Department achieved increased stability, national recognition andcontinued growth in 2008. Attendance for student, teacher and public programsincreased. The department itself also grew, as Dr. Lauren Onkey, a published authorand former associate professor of English at Ball State University for 14 years, wasnamed Vice President. To best serve an increasing number of students, the Rock Hallalso added an Education Instructor during the year.Teacher ProgramsThe free monthly Teachers Rock program and the week-long Summer TeacherInstitute help teachers to develop ideas for integrating popular music into the K–12curriculum. The 2008 Summer Teacher Institute welcomed 70 instructors fromaround the country, record attendance for our longest-established teacher program.Summer Teacher InstituteTODDLER ROCKThe Rock Hall’s program for underserved3- to 5-year olds, led by Dr.Deforia Lane and music therapists fromUniversity Hospitals of Cleveland andthe Beck Center for the Arts, uses musictherapy to increase young children’ssocialization and literacy skills. Theprogram has served more than 4,000children, parents and teachers duringits 10-year history. NBC’s Today Showvisited Cleveland in February to featureToddler Rock, and host Meredith Vieirasummed it up succinctly: “Now that’s agood idea!”Toddler RockK-12 ProgramsThe Museum’s K-12 education programs saw an upswing in attendance. Rockin’ the Schoolsteaches students about topics in music, language arts, social studies, science and technology.The onsite Rockin’ the Schools program, for example, reached more than 20,000 students andteachers during the 2007-08 school year, while the distance-learning program On the Roadbeamed classes to approximately 6,000 students in more than 200 locations.Teachers across the country gave highmarks to On the Road for the thirdconsecutive year. Polycom, a leader ininteractive videoconferencing technology,awarded the program its Teachers’ ChoiceAward for best content provider in the FineArts Museums and Organizations category.The program also received an honorablemention from the teacher-nominatedCILC Pinnacle Awards.The Education staff also developedand taught the department’s firstnon-English class in 2008: “GrandesMomentos en Rock: Música Popular através de las Décadas.” This version ofthe popular “Great Moments in Rock andRoll” was so well received that plans arein the works to adapt other offerings forpresentation to Spanish-languageclasses in the United States and toschools in Spanish-speaking countries.Toddler RockDistance Learning labAfter a recent Rockin’ the Schools class at the Museum and a demonstration on theblending of instrumental recordings to create different tracks, a stunned-lookinghigh-school student approached a Rock Hall educator with a question: “Can you reallydo that for a job – I mean, make a living?” The teenager was assured that all sorts ofbusinesses use sound technicians and was shown the booth at the back of the theaterwhere another Museum employee had been working the equipment for the class.“Can I get a job like that?” the young man persisted. He was told yes – as long as hekept up his science and math grades.A few days later, the same educator received a phone call from the student’s guidancecounselor. “I have tried and tried to interest that boy in college-prep work, but he justcouldn’t be bothered,” the counselor shared. “Now all he can talk about is getting atech degree, and next semester he’s signing up for Physics I. I just wanted you to knowthat because of what you showed him, he’s not going to end up in some dead-end jobor on the streets. He’s going to college.”