Linda Johnson
Linda Johnson is a Music Educator, Arts Integration Specialist, and Entrepreneur near Dallas, TX. She began her career in education over 25 years ago as an elementary music teacher in Dallas ISD and taught secondary choirs in other districts for several years before returning to teach elementary where she explored songwriting, music technology, and arts integration.
Ms. Johnson has been a writer and creative for as long as she can remember, and while in the 5th grade, she wrote and directed her first skit and TV commercial using 3 of her classmates for a social studies project. Gathering from this experience years later as a new teacher, she was eager to find a way to incorporate music and arts into her lesson plan. But instead of the elementary classroom, her first job was in the music room where she had the freedom to design cross curricular lessons that made learning exciting and new for her students. Teaching in low socioeconomic and majority minority schools made culturally relevant instruction an integral part of keeping students engaged in learning. Looking for a way to teach more efficiently, she became a certified Arts Integration Specialist in 2018. This move enabled her to create content and develop PD courses that centered around equity and culturally responsive teaching through the arts.
Before leaving the classroom in 2019, Ms. Johnson took on leadership roles in various districts as a lead music teacher and elementary honor choir clinician. Currently, she teaches piano at Music Lover’s Learning Center, supports her two adult children who are also music educators, and serves as educational consultant for music, strategic planning and program design for out of school time programming, as well as a choir clinician locally, and throughout the state of Texas.
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Posts by Linda Johnson
Research to Practice: Using Data for More than Just Grades
I used to think that research was complicated and couldn’t help me in my classroom. I used to see the Music Educators Journal arrive in my mailbox, flip through, sigh, think to myself – “If I only had time….,” and then add the issue to a growing pile on my dining room table. [...]
Musicast Episode 3: Lucky Chops – Streets & Stage: Funkifying Music Education
Lucky Chops has been unleashing high-energy brassy funk on the world since forming in NYC in 2006. The intensity of the band’s energy is fueled by their desire to share the healing and inspirational power of music with others. That power has resonated with audiences around the globe, giving the band hundreds of millions of views on their online videos and leading to live performances in more than twenty five countries. Lucky Chops maintains a busy schedule touring across several continents. [...]
Musicast Episode 2: Wanda Vasquez Garcia – Equity and Expectancy
Wanda is currently the general music teacher at the Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer in Lafayette, Colorado, and the children and youth choir director at First Congregational Church of Greeley, Colorado. As a K-5 music educator, she believes music is a very effective way to learn about cultures. [...]
The “New Normal”: Silver Linings of Going Back to School
Silver Linings I’m an optimist at heart, so some of [...]
Musicast Episode 1: Williams Goldsmith – “Dreams Don’t Work Unless You Do”
Williams Goldsmith is a 17-year-old guitarist, producer, and singer from Massachusetts. He started out playing rock and metal music, but in recent years has gotten more into pop, R&B and hip-hop. He has independently released an EP and 3 singles of varying styles, reflecting his varying music taste. He hopes to innovate and one day leave a lasting impact on the music world. [...]
The “New Normal”: Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs in Pennsylvania
Have you ever had a year like this year? I [...]