Carl and Helene Wickstrom Music Education Center – Dedicated Fall, 1999
As part of our modern facility, the Ithaca College School of Music’s James J. Whalen Center for Music houses the state-of-the-art Carl and Helene Wickstrom Music Education Center (“Named in honor of Carl ’38 and Helene ’38 Wickstrom, members of the music education faculty from 1946 to 1978, by classmates, students, colleagues, and friends”). The center is comprised of several working and teaching areas that were carefully designed to meet the specific needs of music education students and faculty.
The focal area in the Wickstrom Music Education Center is the John Kinyon Music Education Resource Room (“A gift of John Kinyon ’49”). While the main music library at Ithaca College hosts an entire floor of extensive holdings for music majors, the Kinyon Resource Room is an important additional resource. This resource room provides many materials for teaching, including one of the country’s most complete educational collections of general music basal series and band, choral, jazz, and string method books. In addition, song books, classroom instrument method books, storybooks, a variety of resource books with games and activities, visual aids such as flash cards, and an extensive solo and chamber music collection with an array of instrumentation and NYSSMA grade levels. The area also holds a full array of multicultural, multimedia, and pedagogical materials to aid students in their teaching. As part of this collection, sample videos, portfolios, and pedagogical materials have been archived from 1992 to the present for use by today’s students. Most of the materials can be checked out for student and faculty use.
The centerpiece of the Wickstrom Music Education Center is the Music Education Classroom where most undergraduate and graduate music education courses are held. It is equipped with full multimedia capabilities, including both a SMART Board and SMART Podium, Quicktime video capture for students to record, review, and reflect upon their teaching practices, Internet, PowerPoint, and complete audio-visual support, allowing faculty and students to integrate technology into their teaching. In addition, numerous educational materials such as Orff, classroom, multicultural, and percussion instruments are easily accessible. Materials for teaching the special learner can be found within this collection, and items like puppets, scarves, and other general music accessories are readily available for teachers and students alike. The space is bright and welcoming and is decorated with sample final projects for the Music Education for Children. The room also contains a piano, desks, and ample space for movement, which makes this a great classroom for encouraging the reinforcement of many different learning styles. Accordingly, this room hosts several outreach projects, including Head Start “Music Friends” classes and the Community-Unity Program for underrepresented children (A project of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center: the Southside Community Center and Ithaca College).
The Carl and Helene Wickstrom Music Education Center has three separate conference rooms that are utilized for a variety of purposes. In these rooms, you will find students writing lessons plans, teaching lessons to public school children, reviewing education materials, or self-evaluating teaching videotapes. In addition, you will find faculty and graduate teaching assistants mentoring young teachers, and work-study student employees completing important music education administration work. The rooms also house Ithaca College’s burgeoning contemporary ensemble instruments, which are used in both undergraduate contemporary ensembles classes and in junior student teaching experiences. These conference rooms include the Cecilia Slocum-Blair Music Education Conference Room (“Named in memory of Celia Slocum-Blair ’28 who supervised music pedagogy at Ithaca College from 1935 to 1967, by classmates, students, family, and friends”) and the Jennie W. Tallcott Music Education Conference Room (“A Gift of Myron A. Pratt ’49 in her memory”).
The Music Education Classroom and one of the conference rooms are viewable by a single observation room that can accommodate approximately 12-15 observers. The amplification system and one-way mirrors looking into each of these areas allow students to observe teaching (including faculty and student teaching of public school students) without interrupting the class or lesson.
The Carl and Helene Wickstrom Music Education Center is tied together with a reception area. A monitor supervises this lobby, and it provides a meeting place for students pursuing a degree in music education.