Veronica Mainville Presents at State Music Conference

Her students and colleagues consider her to be one of the best teachers anywhere. Veronica Mainville gained some new admirers at last week’s New York State School Music Assn. All-State conference in Rochester, where the Huntington High School faculty member was a co-presenter.

Mrs. Mainville is Huntington’s choral director. She has been teaching at the high school since September 2009 and has won a devoted following of teenage singers. At last week’s state conference, Mrs. Mainville presented at a workshop titled “Techniques for Inclusion in the Choral Classroom.” The session included a demonstration of approaches for differentiating instruction in music classes.

“Our workshop was all about how to make students of all walks of life and abilities successful in the choral classroom,” said Mrs. Mainville, who collaborated on the presentation with Plainview-Old Bethpage music teacher Amanda Gundling. “The participants loved the interactive activities we did, like having them sing different songs by rote. We also handed out materials such as lyric sheets and sheet music without the accompaniment to give to students with special needs to help them read more easily.”

Ms. Mainville obtained a bachelor of music degree from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in May 2009. She earned a master of music degree from Boston University in May 2013.

The Huntington teacher and her co-presenter worked diligently to keep last week’s workshop interesting. “We incorporated a video of one of my former students who was quite unmotivated to do well in school, but when it came to my choir class he knew that if he did not try and do his best, that he would let his peers down,” Mrs. Mainville said. “The participants enjoyed the video and realized how much of a positive influence they have by teaching through vocal music. Amanda and I are very proud of our work and so grateful to our mentor Elise Sobol, who is the NYSMAA chair of special music education.”

“The workshop was very well received,” said Sarah Gill, Huntington’s director of fine and performing arts, who also attended the conference.