North and South Clinton teacher wins CMA award
South Clinton and North Clinton Elementary School music teacher Jason Glashauser has won his third Music Teacher of Excellence Award from the County Music Association Foundation. Here he shows some of the instruments he teaches students to play in his South Clinton Elementary School classroom. (photo:Ben Pounds )
Glashauser teaches preschool through sixth grade, leads an optional before-school singing program, and directs the after-school Blaze Orff Ensemble.
The CMA Foundation annually selects 10 awardees from Metro Nashville schools, 10 from across Tennessee, and 10 nationwide. Glashauser previously won in 2022 and 2023.
“It has my name on it but it’s really about the students,” he said. “I’m just crazy, crazy grateful.”
Teaching young children can sometimes feel like “herding cats,” Glashauser joked, but he described the experience as joyful. In his classroom, students rarely sit for long periods. Instead, they move, play instruments and sing.
Glashauser is a certified teacher with the Orff-Schulwerk Association, and serves as president of the Southern Appalachian group.
The Orff-Schulwerk method, created by German composer Carl Orff, emphasizes creativity and collaboration.
“At the heart of the Schulwerk is creativity and bringing the students’ ideas to what happens,” he said.
For example, Glashauser might start with a nursery rhyme, encourage students to add xylophone accompaniment, and then guide them toward building patterns that become songs.
“You’re not worried about wrong notes; you’re worried about what sounds good at the moment,” he said.
Glashauser often begins lessons with “snaps, claps, pats and stamps” to develop rhythm before transferring those skills to instruments.
The biggest challenge, he said, is seeing each class only once a week.
“Forty-five minutes is a good chunk of time, but when it’s only once a week, I have one shot to give them a positive music experience while also teaching skills they can build on,” he said.
The Blaze Orff Ensemble allows students to continue after school with xylophones, drums, maracas and other instruments. The group performs each spring at the Mosaic Arts Festival.
Glashauser also started a morning sing program this year at South Clinton Elementary. On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays before school, students gather in the gym to sing together. Participation has grown from a handful of students to more than 30.
Glashauser leads workshops for other music teachers as well. He said it helps break the isolation many elementary school music educators feel, since most schools only have one music teacher.
Among his favorite classroom instruments are mountain dulcimers, which he uses with fifth- and sixth-graders, and ukuleles, which sixth-graders learn with simple chord progressions.
He praised Clinton City Schools for valuing music education.
“They recognize that what happens in the music classroom is valuable,” he said.
Glashauser wants every child to sing, even if they struggle with pitch.
“In here it is a safe space,” he said.
“Every student can be musical if they’re given the chance.
