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Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz (right) joins Rock and Roll Hall of Famer `Little` Steve Van Zandt (center, holding proclamation) and TeachRock Executive Director Bill Carbone at the Central Library in downtown Buffalo to proclaim `TeachRock Day` in Erie County.
Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz (right) joins Rock and Roll Hall of Famer "Little" Steve Van Zandt (center, holding proclamation) and TeachRock Executive Director Bill Carbone at the Central Library in downtown Buffalo to proclaim "TeachRock Day" in Erie County.

Poloncarz, 'Little Steven' Van Zandt proclaim 'TeachRock Day' in Erie County

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Fri, Jul 12th 2019 05:35 pm

County executive joins musician, the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, at downtown library

TeachRock Project provides teachers with free, multimedia educational materials & lesson plans to engage students by connecting history of popular music to classroom work across disciplines

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz on Friday joined Rock and Roll Hall of Famer “Little” Steven Van Zandt, Executive Director of TeachRock Bill Carbone, local teachers, and community members at the “Ring of Knowledge” in the downtown library to welcome Van Zandt to Buffalo and proclaim “TeachRock Day” in Erie County.

Van Zandt is the founder of TeachRock.org, which offers a standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students across disciplines including social studies, geography, language arts and science. Not limited strictly to music education, TeachRock provides teachers with free lesson plans and other educational materials developed by experienced educators to stimulate classroom learning.

“Music is an integral part of the human experience, and as an educational tool it offers benefits that other teaching methods do not,” Poloncarz said. “Music is woven throughout human history and permeates all aspects of our lives, so using music to expand educational offerings in other, non-music based classes makes great sense and opens up new possibilities for students.

“I commend ‘Little Steven’ and the entire TeachRock team for their focus on education, and for using their time and talent to make student’s lives richer and more inquisitive.”

Local teacher Marc Hunt, who produced some recordings of Buffalo’s Goo Goo Dolls, said, "Students have been using the TeachRock curriculum in my classes for the past few years since it was in the beginning phases. The students have enjoyed the lessons and multimedia materials that are included in each lesson and have allowed them to learn in groups or self-paced. The TeachRock curriculum has really enhanced our video production and recording arts course, in particular. I am updating my course curriculum this summer for the required NYS program re-approval and will be embedding as many TeachRock lessons into the course as possible."

Van Zandt is a member of the TeachRock Founder’s Board along with Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Bono and Martin Scorsese.

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