42. Building rapport and fostering positive relationships with students. Interviews with Lisa Loucks, Stephan Labelle, Katie VanDenBerghe, and Jami Kleinert.

42. Building rapport and fostering positive relationships
with students.  Interviews with Lisa Loucks, Stephan
Labelle, Katie VanDenBerghe, and Jami Kleinert.  These
teachers share their unique experiences and strategies for
building rapport and positive relationships with students that
allow for higher quality teaching, student engagement, and a
stronger sense of community.


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Lisa (Hopko) Loucks is in her twenty-fifth year
as Orchestra Director in Orange County Public Schools Her
orchestras have consistently earned superior ratings in the
Florida Orchestra Association Music Performance Assessments, and
have performed in Atlanta, Chicago, and New York. Originally from
Chicago, Lisa grew up on the west coast of the florida and is a
graduate Manatee High School under the direction of Jim Palmer.
She then earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from UCF,
where her teachers included John Whitney, Lee Eubank, and Dr.
Ayako Yonetani. She has served as FOA 7-8 All State Orchestra
Chair, District Chair for Orange County, and is a certified
adjudicator of Music Performance Assessments. She had the honor
of conducting All-County Orchestras throughout the state, and has
served on the Board of Directors for the Florida Symphony Youth
Orchestra. She has been a summer faculty member for both the
Florida West Coast Symphony and UCF String Workshop. She has also
been an adjunct professor at Stetson University, as instructor of
their Secondary String Methods course.


Stephan Labelle is the Orchestra and Guitar
Director at Wekiva High School in the Orange County Public
Schools in Central Florida. Stephan holds a Bachelor of Music in
Music Education from the University of Delaware. He has directed
orchestra, guitar, and keyboard programs in the Cranford Public
Schools and Rahway Public Schools in NJ. He has performed as a
soloist as well as with various ensembles such as the Blue Hen
String Quartet and the Lieto String Quartet in Pennsylvania as
well as many outside organizations. He also teaches privately
throughout Orange County.


Katie VanDenBerghe is in her eleventh year as a
music teacher. She is the Orchestra Director at Patriot High
School in Prince William County, Virginia. Previously she taught
middle and high school orchestra at Courtland High School and
Thornburg Middle School in Spotsylvania County. Her orchestra
ensembles have consistently earned Superior ratings at VBODA
(Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association) District
Orchestra Assessment. She also has six years of Elementary
General Music experience. Ms. VanDenBerghe holds a graduate
degree from Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA) and a Bachelor of
Science in Music Education from the College of Saint Rose in
Albany, NY. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music Education
at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Her major instrument
is the flute, and she plays piccolo for the Fredericksburg
Symphony Orchestra. She previously performed with the
Rappahannock Pops Orchestra, the University of Mary Washington
Philharmonic, and the Old Bridge Chamber Orchestra. In her free
time, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, traveling, reading, cooking,
and hanging out with her Siberian Husky, Arrow.


Jami Kleinert is in her 12th year of teaching
orchestra and her third year teaching 4th-12th grade strings in
Flushing, Michigan.  She also coaches youth orchestra string
sectionals in the Flint area.  She has previously taught
strings in both Kansas and Pennsylvania.  Jami lives in
metro Detroit where she also performs with several local groups
on violin and viola.


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