JESSICA ANNE BARON (a.k.a. "JESS")
FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jess Baron is a musician, composer, music educator, non-profit founder, and the founder and Executive Director of Guitars & Ukes in the Classroom. In addition to founding and directing that successful non-profit, Jess is also an author with eight books to her name. The most recent is the 2018 SmartStart Ukulele Method for Beginners. She is a lifelong acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter who began teaching others to play guitar when she was in high school.
READ THIS RECENT INTERVIEW WITH JESS IN THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE!
Trained in Orff Schulwerk and Kodaly approaches as a music educator. As a young woman, she completed almost four years of special education training in Behavioral Disabilities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before leaving pre-degree when that state of Wisconsin outlawed mainstreamed education during her senior year. She resumed her undergraduate studies later in California and earned her B.A. in Child Development from Cal State Northridge. She received the CSUN Alumna of the Year award for her innovative work in music integration 3 years later. Jess went on to student clinical psychology with an emphasis in child psychology and Marriage and Family Counseling, earning her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, Los-Angeles in 1991.
Since her college days in Madison, Jess has devoted herself to bringing developmental and educational psychology to music education, eventually pioneering the field of Music Integration through her non-profit Guitars & Ukes in the Classroom. Her breakthrough work teaching beginners of all ages to sing, play guitar and ukulele, and to reach personal, academic, cognitive and behavioral goals through music is changing the nature of teaching and learning around the United States. The organization has made it possible for her to train many other master-level educators to take the work into school communities of all sizes and kinds with ongoing support from foundations, individuals and music products sponsors.
Jess continues to devote herself to the cause of making music accessible for educators and children through GITC and especially enjoys developing positive collaborations and partnerships as new pathways for access to the arts for students in Title 1 schools. Most recently she began developing Adaptive Music training for special educators, paraprofessionals and related service providers. This form of training with GITC is called AMASE: Adaptive Music for Achievement in Special Education. AMASE conferences in Southern California are now receiving support from The NAMM Foundation, the Qualcomm Foundation, the Nordson Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jess remains active in classrooms and continues to draw inspiration by collaborating with other teachers and specialists to create best practices and purposeful new curriculum.
Book/CDs by Jessica Baron (Prior to 2007, Jessica Baron Turner)
If you are interested in learning more, we recommend this recent article in the San Diego Union Tribune by journalist Lisa Deaderick interviewing Jess, or listen to this 2018 radio conversation with Jess by journalist Jessica Grinspan on AKindVoice.org. You can also write to Jess at jess.guitarsintheclassroom@gmail.com
FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jess Baron is a musician, composer, music educator, non-profit founder, and the founder and Executive Director of Guitars & Ukes in the Classroom. In addition to founding and directing that successful non-profit, Jess is also an author with eight books to her name. The most recent is the 2018 SmartStart Ukulele Method for Beginners. She is a lifelong acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter who began teaching others to play guitar when she was in high school.
READ THIS RECENT INTERVIEW WITH JESS IN THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE!
Trained in Orff Schulwerk and Kodaly approaches as a music educator. As a young woman, she completed almost four years of special education training in Behavioral Disabilities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before leaving pre-degree when that state of Wisconsin outlawed mainstreamed education during her senior year. She resumed her undergraduate studies later in California and earned her B.A. in Child Development from Cal State Northridge. She received the CSUN Alumna of the Year award for her innovative work in music integration 3 years later. Jess went on to student clinical psychology with an emphasis in child psychology and Marriage and Family Counseling, earning her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, Los-Angeles in 1991.
Since her college days in Madison, Jess has devoted herself to bringing developmental and educational psychology to music education, eventually pioneering the field of Music Integration through her non-profit Guitars & Ukes in the Classroom. Her breakthrough work teaching beginners of all ages to sing, play guitar and ukulele, and to reach personal, academic, cognitive and behavioral goals through music is changing the nature of teaching and learning around the United States. The organization has made it possible for her to train many other master-level educators to take the work into school communities of all sizes and kinds with ongoing support from foundations, individuals and music products sponsors.
Jess continues to devote herself to the cause of making music accessible for educators and children through GITC and especially enjoys developing positive collaborations and partnerships as new pathways for access to the arts for students in Title 1 schools. Most recently she began developing Adaptive Music training for special educators, paraprofessionals and related service providers. This form of training with GITC is called AMASE: Adaptive Music for Achievement in Special Education. AMASE conferences in Southern California are now receiving support from The NAMM Foundation, the Qualcomm Foundation, the Nordson Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jess remains active in classrooms and continues to draw inspiration by collaborating with other teachers and specialists to create best practices and purposeful new curriculum.
Book/CDs by Jessica Baron (Prior to 2007, Jessica Baron Turner)
- SmartStart Ukulele for Beginners Coauthored by Tiffany Stalker
- The Green Songbook
- YOUR MUSICAL CHILD: Inspiring Kids to Play and Sing for Keeps (String Letter Publishing, 2004).
- Guitarra de smartStart metodo y cancionero
- SmartStart Guitar for Late Bloomers and Baby Boomers
- SmartStart Guitar 43 Songs for Home and School
- SmartStart Guitar for Beginners
- Let's Make Music! Coauthored by Ronny Susan Schiff
If you are interested in learning more, we recommend this recent article in the San Diego Union Tribune by journalist Lisa Deaderick interviewing Jess, or listen to this 2018 radio conversation with Jess by journalist Jessica Grinspan on AKindVoice.org. You can also write to Jess at jess.guitarsintheclassroom@gmail.com