FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Oct.
15,
2009
Contact:
Jaye Ike, College of
Fine Arts, 304-696-3296
Public schools music
specialist from Maryland to
work with
music education students at
Marshall
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Timothy Bodamer from the Charles County, Md., Public Schools will visit Marshall University’s Department of Music to present three different sessions to music education majors. The sessions are designed to better prepare the students for their first years as music teachers.
The first session will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in the new marching band rehearsal room in Cam Henderson Center on the Huntington campus. Topics to be covered include job searching, “what to do when you don’t know what to do,” and the “do’s and don’ts of taking over an established program.”
The second session will occur later the same day at 6:30 p.m. in room 112 of Smith Music Hall, also on the Huntington campus, in conjunction with the monthly Collegiate Music Educators National Conference (CMENC) meeting. At this session, Bodamer will discuss the practical classroom applications of music technology.
The third session will take place at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, also in the marching band rehearsal room. It is open to all music education students, particularly those who are currently student teaching, as the discussion will focus on job searching, job interviews and some of the most commonly made mistakes by new teachers.
Bodamer, who has spent his entire career working for Charles County Public Schools, is currently the content specialist for fine and performing arts. Prior to this, he served as an instructional support teacher and band director at La Plata High School. As the content specialist, he develops curriculum, assists with interviewing candidates, observes teachers and assists school-level administrators, managing county-wide events, and multiple funding sources. Bodamer received his B.A. degree in music from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and his master’s degree from Bowie State University in Maryland.
Charles County, Md., is located approximately 30 miles south of Washington, D.C. Over the past three years, a strong relationship has been forged between the Charles County Public Schools and Marshall University, according to Robert Wray, assistant professor of choral music education. Wray taught in the school district from 2001 to 2005. In addition, Steve Barnett, director of the marching band at Marshall, along with Wray, conducted the All-County band and choral ensembles respectively in December of 2008. Dr. Jeffrey Pappas, chair of the Marshall Department of Music, conducted an honors ensemble in southern Maryland that included students from the district this past February; and in March, the Marshall University Chamber Choir, under the direction of Dr. David Castleberry, included a full day of workshops for the choral students and teachers of Charles County as part of their spring tour. Blake Racer, a recent graduate of Marshall, is in his first year as director of choral activities at La Plata High School in the district and this year’s freshman class in the Marshall Department of Music includes four graduates from the district.
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