Faculty Advisor Spotlight on Kelly Eisenhour, Green River Community College (WA)

“I suppose it is my ‘teacher’ nature…” says Kelly Eisenhour, choral director at Green River Community College on what drew her to Pearson’s Faculty Advisor program. Eisenhour likes the idea of “paying it forward” as a Faculty Advisor seeing the position as an opportunity to show others all MyMusicLab has to offer.

Eisenhour teaches Music Appreciation throughout the year, conducting on online course during three quarters of the school year and teaching a face-to-face course in the summer. For each format, MyMusicLab is used as the “library”. During the year, students do post-tests and exams in MyMusicLab and watch documentaries. If students want extra practice, they can use MyMusicLab to access flashcards, an automated listening guide, and other resources.

The biggest difference for Eisenhour between her school-year and summer courses is the “classroom.” While MyMusicLab always serves as the course’s library, during the year the college’s online website, Angel, is the “classroom”. In the summer, Eisenhour gets to, “listen to the music with the students and point things out in person.” A portion of classroom time is also used to work collectively within MyMusicLab doing activities like the flashcards and pre-tests as a group. A table-to-table competition will even take place. Whether her course is completely online or taught in a traditional format, Eisenhour sees MyMusicLab as, “a terrific resource [where] everything is at your fingertips.”

Using MyMusicLab has helped increase student proficiency in music for Eisenhour’s students. She sees this improvement in the way her students talk about music as the course progresses and in the development of their passion for music in general.

The most surprising success is how quickly the non-musician becomes well-versed in musical terminology and is able to describe the music in a very educated way. I have my online class discuss the music in a discussion forum, and the first ones are fairly simplistic. It isn’t long though, before their descriptions become much more scholarly, describing the sonata form, or whether it’s polyphonic or monophonic, or triple or duple meter. I also love hearing from students as the class is coming to an end, that they will miss going on MyMusicLab every day and listening to the new composition. (Of course I tell them they can surely keep listening!). 

New to the Faculty Advisor program, Eisenhour looks forward to interacting with faculty who do the same thing as she does at other colleges and universities and sharing MyMusicLab with them. “I will be happy to be a part of their success in promoting and teaching music in their school.”

What was the first activity you did as a Faculty Advisor? How has interacting with other faculty changed/improved how you use your MyLab or Mastering product in your class?