Performing Songwriter
Artist Statement
As a young person, I was captivated by the songwriting process. Musical jams with other kids were exuberant experiences. I wrote songs to help me absorb classroom learning and to express my feelings about the world around me. Creative time was focused and playful, challenging and collaborative. Today, I have a new understanding of brain function; I know that music and songwriting processes are profound for learning, communication, and interpersonal connection. When I bring songwriting projects into classrooms now, students have the opportunity to experience the joy of creative flow as we explore the craft of writing – main idea, supporting details, figurative language, beginning/middle/end, staying on topic – and the musical elements of our language – pacing, intonation and rhythmic emphasis. Our residency ends with a culminating performance, where we share the songs composed by each class.
Artist Bio
Sue Trainor is a Master Teaching Artist, musician and performing-songwriter with a gift for stirring-up enthusiasm and creativity. Sue was named 2014 Artist of the Year by Young Audiences of Maryland for her arts-in-education work, which includes her role as a lead teaching artist in local and national Wolf Trap programs, Arts Integration Facilitator at a Title 1 school, and her residency and professional development programs in pre-K, elementary, secondary, and special needs classrooms.
Sue is the musician on staff with Maryland’s Teaching Artist Institute (a professional development and certification program for teaching artists), she mentored ten other teaching artists through YA’s intensive training to work with children who have special needs, and she was invited to present at the Kennedy Center’s Very Special Arts Intersections Conference in 2014.
Sue’s children’s recordings have earned many awards, including Parents’ Choice “Recommended,” an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Seal, and several “Best” Wammie Awards from the Washington Area Music Association. Sue also performs concerts for adult audiences as a member of the vocal trio HOT SOUP, which recently celebrated their 21st anniversary. Sue received her Bachelors in Anthropology from Lawrence University.
Program Description
Songwriting workshops are a gateway to self-expression. The elements of music also describe elements of fluency: intonation, pacing, emphasis, dynamics. In a step-by-step process, songwriters explore the best language and sound choices that, hopefully, result is the most profound and clear communication.
– Write Your Song (assembly)
– Write Your Song (residency)
– Writing Songs in and for the Classroom (PD)
Quotes
Thank you for helping us make a song about diversity. I liked singing the chorus of our song. I hope I will be in a band or a singer when I grow up. If I am a singer I will dedicate some of my songs to you for inspiring me.
– Laura, 3rd grade, Lakewood Elementary
I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to enrich my students – both preschool and high school – with this wonderful training. I appreciate all of Sue’s efforts to work around our unusual situation with two age groups of students and making it valuable and educational for all. Sue is a pleasure to work with and is extremely professional, dependable and accommodating.
– Janet Warren, Child Development Teacher & Preschool Director, Catoctin High School
It is with much pleasure that I recommend Sue Trainor, teaching artist, for professional development in your school. As the principal for the pilot Arts Integration/STEAM School in Frederick County Public Schools, building the capacity of teachers to improve student achievement is the first and most important priority for me. My nine intermediate teachers and I were most impressed with the quality of the three hour workshop Sue delivered connecting reading and music. As teachers implement a change in their pedagogical practices towards arts integrated instruction, quality, purposeful, professional development is paramount. Sue’s extensive week long coaching with four of my intermediate grade level teachers raised their level of arts integration implementation beyond my expectations. Sue uses feedback with teachers to improve their instruction with and through the arts so they are able to grow professionally in their instructional practices. The research regarding the benefits of creatively teaching with and through the arts to support and increase academic growth is overwhelming. With Sue’s modeling of instruction and her work directly with students, teachers were able to see when the arts are integrated into the curriculum; new ways of student thinking emerge. I recommend Sue’s professional development workshops and teacher training to any educational entity who wishes to raise student achievement through integrating instruction with and through the arts.
– Patty Hosfelt, Principal, Spring Ridge Elementary School