Being Named NJ Teacher of the Year was Music to Jamie Warner's Ears

For Jamie Warner, a New Jersey School Boards Association “Teacher of the Year,” music has always been a point of connection with students. At Orange Avenue School in Cranford, Warner teaches eighth-grade Medieval History and has been a long-time proponent of TeachRock, musician, actor and activist Stevie Van Zandtâ€s education initiative. An initiative that grew, in part, from Van Zandtâ€s education in a New Jersey classroom. 

On being named “Teacher of the Year,” Warner considers the career achievement one of her greatest yet. Of the honor, she remains humble. Her dedication to her craft, but most importantly her students is obvious “The teaching profession has been tremendously rewarding to me,” she said. “Our students are our future leaders and to share our studies of history with them, to help develop their critical thinking and historical thinking skills, to learn from them - it is all so rewarding in itself.”

Warnerâ€s decision to pursue teaching was largely influenced by those who came before her - the teachers who had at some point, inspired her love of history and desire to know more about the cultures of time periods she would study. “History is the study of humans,” she said. “Art, or in this case music, is a study of humanity.”

Warnerâ€s first and favorite teacher was her mother. A teacher who laid the foundation for her love of learning as well as her love of music. Of this, she said, “My mother often had a wide-range of music playing as the proverbial soundtrack in our house - from Joan Baez to Donna Summer, the Beatles to Barry Manilow, Bob Dylan to Karen Carpenter.” 

Her interest in history, music and the intersection of the two only grew as she engaged with more formal classroom settings. In particular, one high school Language Arts teacher who incorporated music into her lessons left a lasting impact, leaving Warner in awe of what relevant musical connections could help accomplish in an academic setting. She recalled writing a comparative essay featuring Eric Clapton and Robert Johnsonâ€s versions of the song “Crossroads.” 

For many students, she believes music can be the perfect common ground on which to build relationships. “It helped a shy, quiet student like myself feel more willing to share since I was passionate about the music,” she said.

For this reason, Warnerâ€s introduction to TeachRock came as a fantastic opportunity to help facilitate those relationships as well as integrate the arts into her social studies classes. “Arts programs are often the first things to be cut or are often underfunded,” she stressed. “If we can seamlessly integrate the arts into other disciplines, it ensures that students will have some experiences with the arts, even when it was otherwise thought to be unlikely or impossible.” 

An initiative designed with the hope of reaching those students most at risk of dropping out, TeachRock aims to aid teachers like Warner in keeping students excited and engaged. Introduced to the curriculum through a social studies community at NYU, Warner was approached with the idea of piloting some of the lessons in her classes. 

“TeachRock has grown tremendously since I was first introduced to it,” she said. Discussing the variety of lessons that exist now versus that pilot period in 2012, she said, “Teaching a unit on Human Rights and touching upon the Sustainable Development Goals, I really appreciate lessons that connect to those themes.” Warner has since incorporated lessons like “The Science and Civics of the Flint Water Crisis” and “Cleaning up the Plastic Beach” into her regular courses.  

In addition to Warnerâ€s well thought-out and engaging lesson plans, itâ€s clear that a good portion of her success as a teacher comes from her understanding of her students and her desire to build meaningful relationships in the classroom. For her, music has always been a great way to do this. 

Warner recalled her high school aged niece, a bright young girl currently cycling through what Warner considers some pretty amazing music. “Witnessing her love and appreciation for music, I see how kids her age donâ€t just consume the music - they live for it,” she said. “Music is so central to their lives and if that becomes a connection point, maybe it makes my history lessons more poignant and memorable to them.”
  
You can find “The Science and Civics of the Flint Water Crisis” and “Cleaning up the Plastic Beach” lessons in TeachRock's Environmental Jukebox series, which examines the planet's pressing environmental issues through the lens of music and civic activism.