Choir Hacks by Mary Jane Phillips

I have 35 years experience in middle school choir classrooms. I spent 29 years teaching middle school choir very successfully in Texas. I have spent the past 6 years as a consultant and mentor for multiple Texas school districts. I am a frequent professional development provider, clinician, honor choir conductor, adjudicator and mentor to teachers across Texas and the USA. I am a co-author of one sightreading book (SOS-Simplifying Our Sightreading with Laura Farnell) and the primary author of 2 other sightreading books called Making Sightreading Fun! and Sightreading 101.

I've spent the past 35 years creating a safe, fun and vibrant educational space for my students. Upon retiring from the classroom, I immediately moved to consulting with school districts to mentor teachers in best teaching practices. I have seen and done it all in middle school choral music in Texas! I am especially interested in best practices in teaching sightreading and music literacy to beginners. My favorite group humans are those beautiful, squirmy, wiggly, hormonal middle school creatures!

Disney American Teacher Award, past Texas Choral Directors' Secretary/Treasurer, past Texas Choral Directors' Association chairperson of the Hospitality, Ballot, Scholarship, Governance and Ways and Means committees, Richland MS Teacher of the Year, presenter at ACDA, TCDA, TMEA, Bi-Annual National Middle School conference, and at state conferences in Oklahoma, Alabama, Connecticut and school districts across Texas

Bachelor of Music Education at Texas Christian University

I am especially proud of the fact that more than 200 of my Facebook friends are former students. They are currently choir directors, elementary music teachers, church musicians, Broadway and regional theatre performers, doctors, lawyers, business owners and lifelong music lovers. They are my great legacy!