Heath Jones has been a music teacher since 1996 and his 27-year career has witnessed seismic shifts in education.
“I started teaching when we were in the world of having green attendance notebooks, and we looked forward to receiving paychecks in our mailboxes every two weeks,” he said.
Perhaps the biggest shift has impacted his work as a band and music instructor. After arriving seven years ago at McConnell Middle in Loganville as band director, it wasn’t long before he transitioned into teaching music technology.
“For a number of years in Gwinnett, only a few schools were teaching music technology, but they were talking about audio production, referencing more of a recording studio with mikes and big mixing boards,” he said. “In the last eight to 10 years, it’s accelerated. Those worlds are merging, and we now teach music technology as a content area in middle and high schools.”
That means students who might have little interest in mastering a tuba or snare drum can create music with digital tools and apps. It’s opened a new avenue for instructors like Jones, who also serves as the music technology chair for the Georgia Music Educators Association.
“One of the things I’ve done since becoming chair is to request enrollment information about music technology courses around the state,” he said. “When the classes started in 2015, there were about 18 school systems teaching about 3,300 students, and only one was at a middle school. In 2021-22, we had 40 school systems offering these classes, and 14 are now in middle schools. And we have more than 12,000 students – about a 250% increase.”
Jones’ students are part of that growth. “Today there are students who like and are interested in music but don’t want to play a trumpet or sing,” he said. “Because we have this class, those students have an opportunity to participate in a way they might not have done. At the same time, our band, orchestra and choir programs have grown; we now have 350 students each year taking a music class.”
Through his work at McConnell and the state organization, Jones has become an advocate for music technology, even writing a book, “Music Tech 101,” in 2021 to help teachers master the concepts and design curriculum. He’s spoken across the country about his passion, and his dedication was recently recognized by the Technology in Music Education organization that named him the 2023 national teacher of the year.
“When I first got into music technology, these were the people I looked to for advice and resources, so to be on the same list with them is very humbling and fulfilling,” he said. “It’s important to share what I know with other teachers, and I love teaching. It’s what makes me get out of bed every day.”
Information about McConnell Middle is online at gcpsk12.org/McConnellMS.
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