Apache Junction Music Teacher, Jaclyn Chappel, Wins Teaching Excellence Award from Lead Guilar

APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz. - May 18, 2018 - PRLog -- Jaclyn Chappel, band director and music teacher at Apache Junction High School, is one of four music teachers in the State of Arizona to receive Lead Guitar's Teaching Excellence Award.

Lead Guitar is an organization that establishes permanent classical guitar classes in public schools with low access to the arts. The Lead Guitar instructors co-teach with a school's instructor and use a field-tested curriculum to teach students to play and to train teachers to teach classical guitar.

Lead Guitar Teaching Staff were asked to nominate a K-12 educator with whom they co-teach Lead Guitar classes for a Teaching Excellence Award. They were asked to consider areas such as fluency in the Lead Guitar curriculum, effective communication with our instructors, mentorship in classroom management techniques and learning strategies, cooperative lesson-planning, and any other criteria they felt to be significant.

Dr. Jonathan Crissman, who co-teaches with Ms. Chappel and nominated her for the award wrote:

"Jaclyn understands the Lead Guitar curriculum as well as any teacher I have worked with. She has bought into it 100%, and as a result, her students—even in a beginning class that has never touched the guitar before—have completed Method Book I, are in control of technique in both hands, and are on their way to becoming fine musicians."

The other Lead Guitar's Teaching Excellence Awards were given to Mike Baggesse, Sky Island High School in Tucson, Ruben Rivero, Baboquivari Middle High School in Topawa and Eric Krell, Tortolita Middle School in Marana.

About AJUSD:

The Apache Junction Unified School District serves over 3,600 students in a 217-square mile area that includes the City of Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Peralta Trail, Queen Valley and the unincorporated areas of the Superstition Mountain foothills. Formed in 1952, the K-12 district provides a quality education to its students and is proud of the variety of educational programs offered. AJUSD has a reputation for innovative approaches to education. The guiding philosophy of the school district is to put all students in the best position to succeed academically, emotionally and physically. Committed to low teacher/student ratios and individualized instruction, the focus of AJUSD is centered on a 'College Readiness For All' curriculum for every student in every grade. For more information call 480-982-1110, or visit www.ajusd.org or www.facebook.com/ajusd43.