As a longtime supporter of music and education, Bookmans is proud to sponsor three eight-week sessions of Guitars In The Classroom in the Phoenix metro area during the 2009-10 school year. The first local program of its kind, Guitars In The Classroom (GITC) is a non-profit organization that provides guitar classes to classroom teachers to help them integrate music into their students' daily school experiences and improve learning and retention levels. Bookmans' sponsorship of this program allows classroom teachers to receive these lessons for FREE!!

Our Phoenix Community Relations Coordinator, Lori Whipple, recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Gerry DeLaTorre, Arizona’s GITC Coordinator, to discuss the history of Guitars in the Classroom and why programs like this are so important for educational enrichment in these underfunded times. You can also check out some photos of Gerry and the GITC program on our Flikr page.

How did Guitars In The Classroom develop? Can you speak to the background and history of the organization?

Largely by word of mouth, GITC has fanned out from its California base, spawning programs in more than two dozen states. Regional coordinators and instructors, usually music specialists or local guitar instructors, train thousands of classroom teachers each year.

Jessica Baron started the GITC program in 1998 largely in response to the increased need for the preservation of music-making in educational settings and the great musical potential she saw in her educational colleagues in schools where she served as a music specialist.

GITC's founder and executive director points out that such creative approaches as using a guitar and song-based learning work wonders with most students including "unconventional learners, anxious and hyper-active children, kids with a wide variety of disabilities, and those who are just learning to speak and read English" — the same students, she says, who are often marginalized by the current focus on standardization.

Jessica holds a bachelor's degree in child development, and a master's degree in clinical psychology [and] began teaching guitar at age 12. She explains the situation this way: "Regular classroom teachers wanted to add music to the school day, but most lacked the training to do so. They did not aspire to be music educators, but to become comfortable music facilitators for their students. Meanwhile, money for traditional music education was drying up. To support the survival of music in schools, and further, to help teachers integrate music into cross-curricular activities, I began piloting GITC, one experimental program at a time. Working with guitars made total sense since they are portable, relatively inexpensive and—perhaps most important—they carry social currency. Playing guitar seems to immediately transform a teacher’s status to that of a rock star," she explains.

Now, joined by hard-working advocates, advisors, instructors, and a highly motivated board of directors, GITC's team is making a difference. The program is gaining momentum and popularity through grassroots support.

GITC differs from other school-based guitar programs because it offers teachers who have always dreamed of learning to play the chance to do that with no financial risk, using an instantly gratifying, useful, and pain-free approach to playing without the pressure of criticism. Group lessons continue for years, as long as teachers continue to re-enroll.

"It's all about discovering the joy of making music," says Baron. "More than half our participants had never picked up a guitar. Others are returning to guitar after having given it up years before. And whether they are shower singers or choral members, teachers quickly become comfortable enough with the guitar to trust the magic of their own voices, and to express their musicality in service of helping children become more successful students and happier people. The teachers' leadership and creativity inspires kids to open up and give themselves to learning every day. Music is an infinite medium."

Why is GITC important for school-age children?

In this day of tight and decreasing budgets and funds that support music and arts education in schools, resulting in many schools around the country cutting or significantly decreasing their music and arts programs, GITC provides a fun, unique, and accessible way for the classroom teacher to not only keep music in the classroom, but to use music and song writing as a proven tool to develop cross curricular lesson plans that are fun and memorable resulting in improved retention for both the lesson materials and for overall attendance and percentages of kids who graduate. When stories, concepts, lists, words, and other lesson materials are put to music, there are proven positive results across all cultures and demographics of student success resulting in improved self worth and a positive look at the future.

How does GITC support education and literacy?

GITC programs are provided at no cost to the teachers. We provide the materials, the instructors, the songs, the guitars, and everything that the classroom teacher will need to confidently lead songs and create new songs for their classrooms to fit their lesson plans to make each day a fun and exciting environment for learning. All that is required of the classroom teacher is their commitment to attend the weekly classes and to apply their new skills to their classroom.

GITC songs use proven methods to support education and literacy through the use of what we call "song-based instruction." Spelling words, language skills, creative stories, ELL materials and more are set to familiar melodies. These songs will now present the lesson materials in a new and creative way resulting in improved retention of the material.

What impact has the GITC program had in the Phoenix community?

The first GITC Phoenix program and session started in October of 2009 with about a dozen preschool and elementary teachers in the Ahwatukee area. These teachers see over 250 students every day and are now making music a regular part of their daily curriculum and routine. Most of these teachers will continue to the next level of the program where they will learn even more songs and ways to use music, rhythms, creative song writing and song leading in their everyday lessons.

We are now starting a second set of classes to begin in February which will impact hundreds of new students through the new teachers who enroll. The Ahwatukee area will continue with their second session and a new Beginners class will also start. Another new program is starting in the north Scottsdale area at the same time. Check the website for more information about these classes.

What are some significant outcomes that the program has had?

As for Phoenix, the program has just started. But to address the question in another way, there will be a new GITC program offered in the Scottsdale area. I have become increasing aware of schools, good schools, that like many others, have been forced to discontinue their general music programs due to budget cuts. When this school heard of GITC, they couldn’t wait to get a program started in their area so that each classroom teacher and staff member could now meet some of the general music standards with improved confidence and support, but, as the GITC program does well, add music to the rest of their curriculum and have fun in the process.

Is there a particular success story or you can share with us?

Soon after the very first class, I witnessed one of the teachers using her guitar to lead her class of preschoolers around a tour of the campus using songs for instruction and direction, and using chords and rhythms to give simple but effective and creative instructions such as where to stop and when to go. How cool is that! Another teacher told me how, after she uses her guitar to teach a lesson, she will have her students come up and take turns playing the guitar to the lesson also.

What plans does GITC have for the future? What are the current plans for expansion?

GITC programs as a whole will continue to grow across the country and across the world. Jessica recently related a story to me where a young female student at a university in Kabul, Afghanistan called her on the phone to get information on how to start a program there. The behind the scenes story is that teachers have been executed for bringing music and western ways to their culture, and females are discouraged from pursing higher education goals, but this university has the protection of the U.S. Embassy and these students want to use music to help bring peace and democratic ideals to this area of the world.

As for Phoenix, I will continue to grow more programs to allow all teachers access to this great program. I will eventually move myself up to a full area director position where I will train other GITC instructors who will in turn train the classroom teachers to be able to grow the program beyond me and to best service our teachers, our schools and the children in the Phoenix area.

How did you get involved with the program? Are there any other program coordinators/facilitators in Arizona?

I first met Jessica back in 2004 when I saw an ad in Acoustic Guitar Magazine and contacted her about starting a program in the Phoenix area. She, like me, was excited about expanding this program to the Phoenix area and told me all I had to do was to find a location where I could hold the classes. The school where I was teaching at the time would not allow me to use their facility, and I could not find another that would fit into the budget, so I declined the offer but kept in touch. I met her again two years ago at the NAMM show and talked again about starting a program in the Phoenix area. Unfortunately, I encountered the same resistance to starting the program at the school where I was teaching at that time. Needless to say, I left that school, started my own music business, and made plans to start the GITC program in the Phoenix area, along with several other music programs of my own and the rest is history.

At present, I am the only GITC instructor/coordinator/facilitator in Arizona and plan to grow the program as big as we can find sponsors, donors and locations to support the programs which are free to the teaching community.

How do teachers sign up for and get involved in the program?

Teachers need only go to the GITC website and look for the "Find A Program" button on the home page. By clicking here, you are sent to a map of the U.S. to select your state. After selecting Arizona, my name and the programs offered in the Phoenix area are listed. Then by selecting the "Register for a Program" button, you are sent to a registration form to fill out which will eventually be sent to me. After that, I will contact each teacher with further details and email the lesson materials to them.

Teachers wishing to enroll in the new beginners' class should register for the Phoenix I class. Teachers continuing from the first beginners' I class should register for the Phoenix II class. Teachers in the north Scottsdale area should register for the Scottsdale-Phoenix class.

Is there anything else that you'd like to share with our customers?

I just came back from the 2010 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA, the international music industry trade show, representing GITC and presenting the GITC programs at the trade show to many interested individuals. What left the biggest impact on me was the incredible love and support the music industry in general has for GITC and music education in general. Our partners and sponsors, whom I met while there, are such generous and caring individuals who could not say enough about Jessica and the program she puts her heart and soul into.

Our partners and sponsors include such industry heavy hitters as: D'Addario Strings, Godin Guitars, Daisy Rock Guitars, GAMA (Guitar and Accessories Marketing Assoc), Takamine, Fender Music Foundation, Planet Waves, The NAMM Foundation, Hohner, Ibanez, Dunlop, CF Martin & Co, Kaman, Ovation, BOSS, Musicorp, Peak, Levys Straps, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Saga Instruments, Tacoma, Roland, Samick and Greg Bennett Instruments, Poppie Musical Instruments, LMI and many more. Without their national support and the support of local organizations like you, Bookmans, this program would still only be a great idea in the heart and soul of Jessica.

*Information in italics is taken directly from the Guitars in the Classroom website.