Several of Gorham’s schools, including the high school, middle school, and Narragansett Elementary, recently invited Gorham graduate Kate Beever into several Functional Life Skill classrooms to help children with disabilities learn and cope through music.
Beever does this through her program called Maine Music & Health, which is helping to pioneer music therapy in the State of Maine.
According to school counselor Kate Stevens, the project for all three schools was funded by a grant from the Gorham Education Foundation, and was a huge success. The event was hands-on and allowed students to be more involved.
Photo credit Kate StevensKate Beever recently brought her music program, Maine Music & Health, to several Functional Life Skills classrooms. She is pictured here with GHS students River Cummings (right) and Henry Jensen (middle), along with GHS community based education teacher Eric Lelansky (left).
Special Ed FLS teacher Sandy Morrell, who works at the middle school, elaborated, “She (Beever) had a variety of activities that allowed all students to participate. Students copied rhythms made by their peers, made their own rhythms, added to a picture to go along with a song they sang, and made up two songs with rhyming words to talk about emotions.”
“It was fun to see all the students using the instruments and interacting with each other to the level they were able to,” said Stevens.
This is the first year for this event, and is being used as a base for future events. The hope moving forward is to not only support the FLS students, but also help them make the transition easier from school to school.