Resource: Wayne Splettstoezer’s Music Department Website
Yes it’s a mouthful, but WOW - if you teach music technology, you need to bookmark this site right now and dive into the HUGE wealth of resources that Wayne has made available to anyone - free of charge. Wayne is a music teacher at Torrington High School in Connecticut where he teaches band and music technology. He was the recipient of the 2009 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year award and his school district regularly wins the NAMM Best Communities for Music Education Award. I saw Wayne recently at the 2023 Connecticut Music Technology Day, sponsored by MusicFirst and Focusrite, and attended one of his sessions that he presented there. I was reminded just how wonderful of an educator Wayne is, and how generous his music department website is - sharing his entire music technology curriculum with music educators around the world. For free.
When you visit Wayne’s site, you’ll see 3 main options: Music Tech I, Music Tech II, and the Educators Page. If you click on the Music Tech I page, you will see the site that Wayne uses with his students in his Music Tech I class. All of the assignments are right there, with links to videos, tutorials, and examples of the projects that the students are working on. When you visit the Music Tech II page, same thing! Every assignment, project and links to relevant content.
If you are a music teacher who is new to teaching music technology - maybe you have been told that you’re going to be teaching a course this coming Fall - then THIS is the site for you. Wayne encourages people to use his materials with only one small request in return - that you let him know what school you are from. If you are an experienced music technology teacher, I would suggest checking out Wayne’s site to see the many cool projects that he does with his students.
The Educators Page is meant for teachers to find all of Wayne’s materials in one central place. You’ll also find a podcast episode that I did with Wayne back in Season 1 of the Profiles in Teaching with Technology series that I produce, as well as an article written by my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Lee Whitmore, on podcasting.
Do yourself a favor and check out Wayne’s site right now. He is a wonderful resource and a perfect example of a music teacher who didn’t know how to teach music technology when he was first asked to, and is now an expert. I love Wayne’s outlook and think that he is truly a rockstar. Wayne - if you’re reading this - keep up the AMAZING work!
Tom Rudolph and I presenting Wayne with the 2009 TI:ME Teacher of the Year Award