November 20, 2023
This past September, in our "back-to-school" feature on TeachRock - Steven Van Zandt's "greatest legacy," as per Bruce Springsteen - we noted that the organization recently launched an ongoing partnership with The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, and that we would be reporting more details on that exciting development in about a month. Due mainly to a slightly delayed official announcement of the Archives/Center's plans for a new state-of-the-art building, our report has taken a bit longer than expected to arrive, but it remains very good news that's well worth the extra wait to read at last.
As the Archives/Center's Executive Director Robert Santelli stated at last month's official new-building announcement event, TeachRock and The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music are "first cousins," with much in common in terms of a shared vision and mission. We recently followed up with TeachRock's Executive Director, Bill Carbone, to dive more deeply into the details of the TeachRock-Springsteen Archives/Center partnership, as well as some other welcome news on the TeachRock front.
"The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music...," said Carbone, "takes the ‘Center for American Music' part of their name seriously. They want the Archives/Center to be a place where you see America through popular music culture. The way they’ll be making connections between music and culture in their building is the same way TeachRock is doing it in schools. As their official education partner, we look forward to helping them build a pathway between the stories they're telling and the concepts teachers must address in classrooms.”
"What TeachRock brings to the table at the Archives/Center," continued Carbone, "are the resources that make a field trip align with state and national education standards. That field trip becomes an extension of students’ history courses and a powerful way to bring what they might read in a textbook to life.”
Along with the details of the TeachRock-Springsteen Archives/Center partnership, Bill Carbone also had some additional exciting TeachRock news to share. "TeachRock was awarded the Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative grant from the Library of Congress. It makes us a part of the Library of Congress' Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium, and it supports our Rock and Soul of America U.S. History project. We will be able to expand our current history offerings to become a full-credit, year-long U.S. History high-school course that runs from Reconstruction to near-present, and uses music as the primary source throughout. We'll be using Library of Congress media resources as we expand the course. They're looking for ways to get their amazing collection of American music into teachers' hands and into classrooms, and we're making this history course which will help to provide that.”
TeachRock also recently expanded its partnership with New York Edge, formerly known as the Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation (SASF), a non-profit organization that is the largest provider of afterschool programs in all five boroughs of New York City and the metropolitan region. It has more than 40,000 students from over 300 programs in grades K-12, providing under-resourced students with year-round programs to give them the extra support needed for success. New York Edge now incorporates TeachRock's comprehensive Harmony Student Wellness social-emotional learning program into its daily activities at all its onsite locations. You can click here to read our September 2023 TeachRock report, which included a more detailed discussion of the Harmony Student Wellness program with both Bill Carbone and TeachRock's Partner School Liaison Gina Machado.
Hey, fellow Stevie/E Street fans, are you looking to help support TeachRock's various ongoing efforts to change schools for the better, and have a lotta fun doing it, as well? If you can be in the New York City area on December 6, TeachRock's annual "Stand With Teachers" fundraising event is definitely shaping up to be an exciting evening. The event will be emceed by Jake Clemons, with music provided by Anthony Almonte, Curtis King Jr., and Ozzie Melendez, and a TeachRock Visionary Award presentation to photographer Danny Clinch. Click here to download and read a PDF with all of the details on how you and/or your group can attend and/or support TeachRock's Stand With Teachers 2023 fundraiser. And whether you can or can't attend the December 6 fundraiser, you always can just click here to donate some money directly to TeachRock, especially on GivingTuesday, which will fall this year on November 28.