Fall Professional Development
Indiana We the People Fall Professional Development
Please join educators from around the state for this Indiana Bar Foundation professional development presentation “Using Music as a Teaching Tool for Your Civil Rights Lessons.” The professional development opportunity will take place September 12.
Agenda for the Fall Professional Development
- 4:00pm-5:00pm
- Presenter: Damani Phillips, Professor of Jazz and African American Studies, University of Iowa
- 5:00pm -5:15pm
- 5:15pm-6:00pm
- Presenter: Adam Ferguson, Educator at Plainfield High School
Content Topics to be Discussed
Bring an interdisciplinary approach to your civil rights lessons. In an approach informally dubbed “edutainment”, Dr. Damani Phillips from the University of Iowa will discuss ways that Black music can be used to effectively share important events from the Civil Rights Movement. Conceived with the goal of heightening student awareness and enhancing retention of this important part of our nation’s narrative, the fusing of history, music and images can be a powerful pedagogical tool. Join us for an exploration of how music played a role in the movement and how we can learn from and teach Black music of the era.
Session demonstrates tested lessons and activities using music as the primary source in teaching social studies curricula such as World History, U.S. History, Sociology, and Civics. These lessons and activities have also been implemented effectively in English and Language Arts classes. Session will show how utilizing music and images helps fulfill requirements of Indiana’s state standards, can be connected to the hearing questions in the We the People program, and will help foster important 21st-century skills for students.
Scholar Presenters
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Damani Phillips, Professor of Jazz and African American Studies, University of Iowa
Dr. Damani Philips currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies and Associate Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Iowa, where he teaches applied jazz saxophone, directs jazz combos and teaches courses in African-American music, African-American culture, jazz education, and improvisation. Dr. Phillips completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009; becoming one of the first African-Americans in the country to do so. He was named a Yamaha performing artist in 2014. An active performer, pedagogue, and composer, Dr. Phillips has taught and performed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. As a lecturer, Dr. Phillips has presented on a variety of topics on jazz and Black music’s association with American culture. Dr. Phillips is also an active academic scholar, with scholarly presentations at colleges, universities, professional/civic conferences and scholarly forums both domestically and abroad to his credit. His research focuses on addressing cultural concerns in the pedagogy of Black music within academia.
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Adam Ferguson, Educator at Plainfield High School
Adam has taught social studies for 11 years, two years at Northwestern High School in Kokomo, IN, and the last nine years at Plainfield High School. He has taught We the People since 2018 and currently teaches AP Government, Cultural Heritage of the American People, Sociology, and a freshman-level Civics class. At Plainfield High School, Adam sponsors Student Government, National Honor Society, Riley Dance Marathon, Muslim Student Association, Academic Super Bowl, the after-school tutoring program, and coaches wrestling.