Mattering in the Music Room: Incorporating SEL Practices in the Music Classroom

Sara Alipanah has been teaching general music, in public and private elementary school settings, for 16 years. She currently teaches infants to first graders in Washington, D.C. She has an MME from Elizabethtown College focusing on peacebuilding, social emotional learning, and ethnomusicology. She presented at the 2023 AOSA national conference, the 2024 MMEA conference in Baltimore, MD, andMid-Atlantic and James River Orff chapter workshops. She has trained in First Steps in Music and has completed Orff Level One, World Music Drumming, and Drumming Up the Fun. Sara’s podcast, Mattering in the Music Room, focuses on social emotional learning in the music classroom. In her spare time, she enjoys performing in local community theater, reading, and exploring parks and paths with her husband,Tim, and dog, Tyson.