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Dear Friend, Season’s greetings to you from GITC. Thank you for taking time to read this little letter. I am especially grateful for the kindness and support you’ve bestowed upon our nonprofit, making it possible to provide a record-breaking year of service. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to increase the reach and depth of our programs bringing musical learning to students from preschool through high school. Since 2023, ninety-seven classrooms in San Diego and L.A. have participated in capacity-building classroom residencies during the school day. We’ve sustained year-round online learning for teachers at every grade level in 40 states, and led in-person instruction across 5 regions of California including presenting at three statewide conferences. Our After-school and summer Strummers Clubs have been going strong, serving students directly whose classrooms teachers might not have trained with us yet. This creates greater equity in participating schools. Additionally, our work in Adaptive Music has grown, equipping greater numbers of special educators and music teachers to support student learning in moderate-severe special education. Innovation requires champions to succeed. Thank you for helping when it counted the most! Last year, Federal funding for childcare programs was lost and many child care centers and programs closed. Your donations along with a grant from the San Diego Women’s Foundation helped us launch the GITC ECE Initiative, training 226 ECE teachers throughout San Diego County in intensive workshops. 663 more early childhood educators around the U.S. also participating in special training through our free, ongoing, virtual classes. With your assistance, GITC supplied over 200 childcare programs and classrooms with student ukuleles! We’re excited to share this initiative has now gained traction, receiving grants from the California Arts Council and the Cushman Foundation to carry it forward. Thank you, educators for participating with GITC! Thank you, generous donors, for funding this effort. Together we are making a difference.  Also, thanks to your generous support, GITC was able to fund instruction for over 2100 K-12 educators and support staff with specific 8-week courses and workshops in guitar, ukulele, singing, songwriting for learning, classroom implementation strategies, literacy and math through music, and very importantly, social-emotional learning (SEL) through music. Teachers have overwhelmingly reported witnessing improvements in their students’ abilities to get along with each other, identify and regulate their emotions, express needs constructively, and focus their attention on learning. These gains are significant, and will help America’s students catch up. 2024 marks a 67% increase in the number of teachers served by Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom. In 2024, to meet the demand for our services, we’ve welcomed new faculty members, and also encouraged established faculty members to step into leadership. Guitar Club leader Dan Decker has become an inspiring coach for others on the faculty. Sharon DuBois and Reagan Duncan have both begun presenting GITC’s work at state conferences, bringing energy, joy, and effective methods to teachers from remote and rural areas of California as well as large urban centers.  Reagan’s story is a shining example of how and why GITC has been growing steadily since 2000. She began taking classes with us in 2020, engaging her kindergarten students in virtual learning at the start of the pandemic. She proved an adept songwriter for teaching literacy skills, penning catchy songs that many teachers now sing every day in their own classrooms! Once in-person teaching resumed, Reagan launched successful after-school uke clubs at Maryland Elementary, in Vista, CA. Then she joined our faculty in 2023, training teachers to start their own after-school uke clubs, and to teach SEL through music. In early 2024, she was asked by her district to teach in-person GITC workshops. We also invited her to present to teachers from around the world at the international NAMM Show, and at other conferences. She is a cherished member of the team, inspiring others lead the way! GITC’s train-the-trainer model is designed to hold steady in hard times. Bruce Robbins explains why here. Given the incoming administration’s plan to decrease funding for public education and eliminate the Department of Education, GITC must persevere. If you believe that every child deserves to learn to make music, this is an important moment to contribute. Your tax-deductible gift this month will empower us reach the teachers and students who without GITC, would not have access to learning through music. This includes students in moderate-severe special education classes, as well as medically fragile, physically challenged, homebound, and hospitalized students who learn with their teachers and parents. GITC’s train-the-trainer model is designed to hold steady in hard times. Bruce Robbins explains why here.  Given the incoming administration’s plan to decrease funding for public education and eliminate the Department of Education, GITC must persevere. If you believe that every child deserves to learn to make music, this is an important moment to contribute. Your tax-deductible gift this month will empower all of us to reach the teachers and students who without GITC, would not have access to learning through music. This includes students in moderate-severe special education classes, as well as medically fragile, physically challenged, homebound, and hospitalized students who learn with their teachers and parents.  Your donation will support our small nonprofit to continue providing all of these services, pivoting as we go to meet challenges that lie ahead. Every gift helps. Now through December 31st, your contribution will be matched by GITC board members so that our 501 (c)3 may continue to support teachers, staff, and students to imbue learning with passion, peace, kindness, and beauty through the power of making music. Giving to GITC is truly a vote for education, the arts, and for hope, and promise for our children and youth. This year, you can make one simple donation here, and let us know if you wish it to support a particular GITC program! https://www.guitarsintheclassroom.org/donate.html If you'd prefer to contribute with a check and note, that's great! It will go right into a locked box. Please mail us safely at: GITC 1286 University Ave #389 San Diego, CA 92103 We also appreciate other kinds of donations, and would be happy to speak with you if you want to donate an instrument, stocks. or time. Please reach out to Gail Wingfield at [email protected] or call us at 619-840-1010 anytime.  Thank you for seeing GITC through a wonderful year of caring and growth. Whether you took a class or taught one, provided a residency or participated in one, got students, teachers, colleagues, or friends involved, or volunteered with us as a Tuning Angel, you are a very important part of this supportive community, and your efforts are significant!
On behalf of our faculty, staff, board of directors, and volunteers, I wish you health, energy, resilience, self-care, and a new year filled with friendship music. See you in 2025! With love,
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Recently, Laurence Juber, master of the guitar, and former guitarist for Paul McCartney's Wings spent a day inspiring and educating the community with us in San Diego. "LJ" made the rounds starting with an early morning visit to the local KUSI Newsroom, to teaching a dazzling master class at Hoover High School, and ending the evening by giving a breathtaking intimate concert for GITC supporters! With this recent visit, Laurence continues his epic legacy with Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom. He has been instrumental is starting and nurturing GITC since Day One. His life has been all about music, and he embodies character traits teachers hope they can instill in their students. If not for LJ's immense talent, wisdom, integrity, care, and generosity, our organization wouldn't be here today. From encouraging the formation of the work, donating his time and resources, advising me as GITC'S founder, and performing in participating GITC districts and schools for our students, we have him to thank. New ideas need a champion, and he is our Number 1. Now, please enjoy moments from his stellar Day of Service, nearly 25 years later, as he brightens hundreds of lives in our home community. The morning of November 8th started with this very musical interview with LJ and KUSI's warm, perceptive, and undaunted anchorwoman, Lauren Phinney! Thanks to Little Tommy, and C3 Communications for making this interview possible. After breakfast, we headed to Hoover High School, a dynamic San Diego Unified Title 1 school that. along with strong school spirit and a phenomenal faculty, offers outstanding educational opportunities in the Arts! Collaborating with our district's department of Visual and Performing Arts, we invited every music student at Hoover to join our Hoover Guitar Club students for a brilliant hour of guidance, performance, and conversation. LJ shared about his incredible career, gave insights from music history, and demonstrated and amazed students with his powerful yet delicate guitar interpretations. The big thrills came when he listed the films, television shows, and video games for which he played guitar. We don't know which credit got more astonishment- Pochahontas or Super Mario Brothers! When he shared about his daughter, Ilsey Juber's phenomenal career, and mentioned that she wrote "High Hopes" for Panic at the Disco among many other hits, this put the reality of shaping a modern career in music that much closer.Now for most of us mere mortals, this might have been enough good deeds done for one day, but not for Laurence. With just a few minutes to spare, he raced to the site of our evening event in Hillcrest at the gorgeous 525 Olive St. Sky Club, and went right into his sound check. The room filled to capacity, he poured out beautiful energy for the audience, lifting spirits, bringing laughter with his stories, and wonder with his beautiful playing. In a season fraught with election tension, Laurence's kindness and emotional playing restored a sense of peace and balance to the room, elevating everyone's well-being. Please join us in enjoying his touching rendition of the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields," the song he told Lauren Phinney is his favorite. Thank you to Laurence, to our 525 Olive St. hosts at the Sky Club, Marty Goodman and Marcia Bennett of San Diego Social Venture Partners, to Mr. Boertmann at Hoover High School, to Anne Fennell at San Diego Unified's VAPA Department, to the Asian Story Theater for sound and lights, to Juniper Turner and Kent Brisby for running sound, and to our incredible team of volunteers including GITC board members Molly Stewart, and Ruth Haller, Director of Strum & Sing, Dan Decker, and GITC teachers, volunteers and auction angels Lorrin Boyer, Patrice Maller, Myx Swanson, Patti Steele, and Rodney and Joyce Howard. Thank you so much for making this an evening beyond compare! We are so grateful to the many sponsors who helped us provide our guests with delicious sustenance and wonderful auction items to raise funds for our free programs. You will find their logos in the gallery below!              GITC Summer Strummers Are Thriving Through Making Visual Art with GITC Partner, ArtReach San Diego!6/16/2024  Dear Friends, Family Members and Faculty Members, Thanks for joining us as our summer enrichment clubs swing into action! Congrats to each of you who participated in a successful launch last week, opening 9 free Summer Summers Clubs in campuses across San Diego for 270 children. Our clubs are either oriented for children entering grades 1-3 in the fall, or entering grades 4-6. The images below are from different locations and grouped by the kind of enrichment experience they reflect. The photo above shows Dig Down Deep founder, Mindy Swanson handing out seed packets to students at Marvin Elementary. We're sharing photos from various locations to show the breath of what students are beginning to learn with Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom between now and July 12, each day, from 12 pm-5 pm. Thanks to support and coordination from the San Diego Foundation and the San Diego Unified School District, we had a great first week of music, drama, visual art, puppetry, and garden education! This first collection will give you a taste of what is going on each day! 1. Garden Education with Dig Down Deep (4 campuses only) 2. Visual Art with ArtReach San Diego 3. Music with Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom 4. Puppetry with the San Diego Puppetry Guild 5. Drama with Kids On Stage Thank you to our faculty at Marvin Elementary, Tierrasanta Elementary, Linda Vista Elementary, Salk Elementary, and Sandburg Elementary for sharing their first images on Photo Phriday! Gingerlily Lowe, Brittany Cook, Patty Bertram, Ina Soliz, Teresa Adams, Christine Shepherd, Sharon DuBois, Tricia De Luna, Melanie Bruce, and Sophie Bello, our Phirst Photographers. We appreciate you!
GITC Summer Strummers Are Thriving Through Making Visual Art with GITC Partner, ArtReach San Diego!7/14/2023 K-5 Strummers are making music everyday, and creating visual art with GITC newest partner, ArtReach! Each day in our Summer Strummers Clubs here in San Diego, students in our "Littles" and "Bigs" Summer Strummers Clubs (SSCs) are making art connected to literacy, math, and music. Sometimes this is led by their club leaders, and twice each week, they're engaging in phenomenal group art lessons taught by inspirational art educators who serve with our awesome partner, ArtReach! We're highlighting some of their visual arts projects here, and we will share everyone's music making in the next blog! The Collaborative DREAM QUILT Project at Bay Park Elementary, The Final Dream Quilt at Hage Elememtary  Summer Strummers' Drums, and Making Uke Box Ukes at Bethune and Hage! At Euclid Elementary, Students Make Art with Ms. Mindy from Dig Down Deep as a part of learning about science through the garden! Check out what is living in each child's ecosystem! Students at Foster Elementary Making and Playing Funny Membranophones! Sparkling Firework Art Brought July 4th Smiles at Nye Elementary!  Exploring the lines, shapes and sculpture with Alexander Calder at Dewey and Hage! Exploring whole, half, colors, and shapes with Butterfly Art at Nye! San Diego, CA Happy June, Friends! In San Diego, thanks to support from the San Diego Foundation in partnership with San Diego Unified School Distric, we have been preparing our third year of Summer Strummers Clubs for children in grades UTK-5. The whole initiative is called Level Up San Diego This pandemic recovery endeavor is funded by the federal government. It's a massive effort to engage children in joyful learning that will boost their well-being and academic progress. We're blessed with an immensely dedicated, creative faculty of certificated teachers and student support providers who you'll see in training below. Our tiny staff worked to the exhaustion point to get this huge faculty training and supply disbursement ready on June 11th, and thanks to everyone's efforts, it worked! We've just finished the first week of Summer Strummers Clubs as of this writing. 440 students have enrolled, our faculty of 45 keeps the student:teacher ratio low, and with help from our volunteers and sponsors, it has all come together for a summer of joyful learning! Thanks to photographer Ayse Azcan Flanagan, we are sharing the photos below. We'll add more by photographer Binaca James, soon. Thank you to everyone and each organization helping out for bringing this group of caring individuals together with San Diego childre this summer. Special thanks to our Arts partners, ArtReach, Kids On Stage, and Malashock Dance for giving GITC kids a chance to flourish through artistic learning! Meet our Staff!Photography by Ayse Ozcan-Flanagan Meet Our Directors. Jess Baron and Gail Wingfield Photography by Binaca James Meet Our Faculty!Photography by Ayse Ozcan-Flanagan Photography by Binaca James Meet Our Volunteers!Photography by Ayse Ozcan-Flanagan View Some of Our Supplies!Photography by Ayse Ozcan-Flanagan Photography by Binaca James
Friends, thanks for joining us for this visual journey through some of the many highlights from Guitars & Ukes in the Classroom's services and experiences the past year. We were big on programs, both during and after school, and in the summer, but smaller on gatherings. Like everyone, we are hoping for a healthier and safer 2023 when community events such as our popular house concerts, retreats, and more in-person professional development classes can once again ring out with the sounds of music. Thank you for helping us take such big steps back into teaching in person in 2022! Glimpses into GITC 2022 Classrooms Adaptive Music Rocks! Adaptive Music for Achievement in Inclusion & Special Education Teachers and support staff train with us in Adaptive Music so all students can participate and experience the benefits and beauty of music's transformative power. This is a great adventure! We encourage everyone to release preconceived notions and begin exploring music as organized sound. We start by playing basic beats, rhythms, and patterns using a variety of instruments. |
 Immense gratitude goes to SDUSD Home Hospital Transistion Supports superstar, Kristy McNamee (below) who teaches at the Bernardy Center for Medically Fragile Children, for teaching adaptive musical tech and keyboard adaptations for inclusion! We are excited to learn more about speech generation devices, and a wide range of intuitive and adaptable music apps.   |  A truly devoted and fun group of GITC leaders served tirelessly to make yesterday possible including Molly Stewart, Patty Steele, and Gingerlily Lowe (left), and Patty Bertam (right). Talk about managing logistics with love! These gals brought the joy all day long. Thank you so much to these angels. We also deeply appreciate the outstanding instruction teachers received from the team of Annela Flores and her interns from music therapy providers. Musicworx for teaching drumming & drum circle facilitation for inclusion, special ed, and homebound and hospitalized students!  Three cheers for GITC faculty member and National University's SEL 2021 Teacher of the Year for this region, Ms. Reagan Duncan (left) of Maryland Elementary in Vista, for teaching SEL through Music! I am so fortunate to have had the chance to step in to teach an introductory lesson in adaptive ukulele, and be part of this inspiring team. A second training focusing on SEL with drums and ukes, and music leadership for student and family groups will run on September 24 from 9 am- 12 pm. GITC Teaching Artist Jody Mulgrew will be joining us in person! Seats are still available for 9/24/2022 HERE. |
We are exceptionally grateful to the NAMM Foundation, our contract with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as Kala Brand Music, West Music, the D'Addario Foundation, the Nordson Foundation, CECO, the San Diego County Employees Charitable Organization, and the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture for their support of these sequential trainings so all educators and support staff may participate at no cost, and receive training and musical supplies for their classrooms! We send love to Karen and Stephen des Jardins of Encinitas, CA whose contribution gave AMAISE it's very first opportunity to train educators in 2018.
Please enjoy these moments from the first Saturday AMAISE for the 2022-23 school year!
Thank you to Molly Stewart, Gingerlily Lowe, and Reagan Duncan
for sharing the photos in our gallery!
Thank you to Molly Stewart, Gingerlily Lowe, and Reagan Duncan
for sharing the photos in our gallery!
Back in May, 2021, Guitars & Ukes in the Classroom received a mysterious gift from our amazing board member and Education Committee Chair, Dr. Joan Maute. A large square, lightweight package containing 500 beautiful, high quality kazoos made by the Kazoobie Kazoo Company in Beaufort, SC, was about to brighten all of our lives! Joan had sourced these American made, high quality, dishwasher safe kazoos, and we just had to figure out how to integrate them into our work.
| Within four weeks, we had an answer! Opportunity knocked with the start of our first Summer Strummers Clubs in San Diego. A little preliminary experimenting taught us that some removeable painters tape stretched across the kazoo bottoms kept all saliva in, and still let the buzzing out, making the kazoos safe to use. So into the clubs these mighty kazoos went, and the kids loved them at first sight. Next step was sharing them with our educators in training. Total Beginners in our professional development workshops had a blast using the kazoos to hum song melodies. Why? A. No one sounds like the next Beyoncé playing a kazoo. You can sing and just have a good time without anxiety. In the words of Bobby McFerrin, "Don't worry, be happy!" B. You can improvise a cool instrumental solo without using your fingers! C. Kazoos can go anywhere and bring joy to the moment. And wow do they get a classroom's attention. |  Please check out Kazoobie Kazoos, and if you are teaching in our programs, stay tuned for our Fall Classroom Purchasing Guide with a special discount code for GITC-affiliated teachers and staff.  |
Guitars & Ukes in the Classroom is grateful to the kind folks at Kazoobie Kazoos, and to Dr. Joan Maute, for giving everyone the world's funniest and easiest way to make music.
JAMBAR – THE NEW ORGANIC ENERGY BAR THAT SUPPORTS MUSIC STUDENTS!
We are so excited to introduce you to JAMBAR, Guitars in the Classroom’s newest sponsor. Jennifer Maxwell, creator, mom, musician, natural foods baker, and co-founder of the original super popular energy bar PowerBar, has come up with a scrumptious new organic energy bar especially for student who need nutritional support, including music students and athletes! We are so grateful to her friend, musician-poet Don Paul, for introducing GITC to Jennifer. This kind of caring for kids is why GITC continues to serve and grow.
JAMBAR combines innovative proteins, gluten-free ancient grains, real chunks of fruit or premium chocolate, and authentic sweeteners from nature. This is a healthy after school energy booster for students who have had a long day and are heading into extracurricular activities and homework. Jennifer dreamed it up in her kitchen, and now these bars is fantastic natural fruit flavors are in production in San Rafael. Super cool that the food production is housed in the Grateful Dead's old rehearsal studio (pre-kitchen of course). Good vibes abound.
As a musician, a drummer no less, Jennifer understands that musicians need energy to make their beautiful music. She has a big heart for hungy music students, especially those in economically challenging circumstances who may not be able to afford high quality snacks. To provide them with this fun, positive nutritional support, she and JAMBAR are donating 50% of their after-tax profits to help get this REAL FOOD into students' hands.
GITC is an early beneficiary of the “JAMBAR Gives Back” program! JAMBAR made its initial contribution of 588 bars in every flavor to our music education partner, San Francisco Unified School District, so hungry SFUSD music students could experience the benefits. Thank you, Jennifer Maxwell for your incredible generosity!
About JAMBAR
JAMBAR makes delicious organic energy bars that provide excellent fuel for cyclists of all levels. Since Jennifer and her late husband Brian started making PowerBars in 1985, energy bars have become a go-to, and we can tell you first hand. JAMBAR is head and shoulders above the others. JAMBAR was created with the goal of helping people feel good about the ingredients they put in their bodies, and the positive impact they can have on their local communities. We're so happy they've joined the GITC community to create musical opportunities for ALL learners.
We are so excited to introduce you to JAMBAR, Guitars in the Classroom’s newest sponsor. Jennifer Maxwell, creator, mom, musician, natural foods baker, and co-founder of the original super popular energy bar PowerBar, has come up with a scrumptious new organic energy bar especially for student who need nutritional support, including music students and athletes! We are so grateful to her friend, musician-poet Don Paul, for introducing GITC to Jennifer. This kind of caring for kids is why GITC continues to serve and grow.
JAMBAR combines innovative proteins, gluten-free ancient grains, real chunks of fruit or premium chocolate, and authentic sweeteners from nature. This is a healthy after school energy booster for students who have had a long day and are heading into extracurricular activities and homework. Jennifer dreamed it up in her kitchen, and now these bars is fantastic natural fruit flavors are in production in San Rafael. Super cool that the food production is housed in the Grateful Dead's old rehearsal studio (pre-kitchen of course). Good vibes abound.
As a musician, a drummer no less, Jennifer understands that musicians need energy to make their beautiful music. She has a big heart for hungy music students, especially those in economically challenging circumstances who may not be able to afford high quality snacks. To provide them with this fun, positive nutritional support, she and JAMBAR are donating 50% of their after-tax profits to help get this REAL FOOD into students' hands.
GITC is an early beneficiary of the “JAMBAR Gives Back” program! JAMBAR made its initial contribution of 588 bars in every flavor to our music education partner, San Francisco Unified School District, so hungry SFUSD music students could experience the benefits. Thank you, Jennifer Maxwell for your incredible generosity!
About JAMBAR
JAMBAR makes delicious organic energy bars that provide excellent fuel for cyclists of all levels. Since Jennifer and her late husband Brian started making PowerBars in 1985, energy bars have become a go-to, and we can tell you first hand. JAMBAR is head and shoulders above the others. JAMBAR was created with the goal of helping people feel good about the ingredients they put in their bodies, and the positive impact they can have on their local communities. We're so happy they've joined the GITC community to create musical opportunities for ALL learners.
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