Introduction

Hello! My name is Gina Ademino, and I teach part-time instrumental and general music here at Wisconsin Heights. I grew up in Pulaski, WI, and received my Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from St. Norbert College. Before coming to Wisconsin Heights in 2005, I taught in Three Lakes (6-12 instrumental music) and in Barneveld (5-12 instrumental music). My husband and I have two children, two springer spaniels, and live in the village of Mazomanie. I am a member of the Wisconsin Heights Music Parents Association (aka Music Boosters), WMEA and NAfME.

My Classroom

I teach 5th Grade Band after school at Wisconsin Heights Elementary School (we meet twice a week). At the middle school level I teach 6th Grade Band (we meet M/W/F), 6th Grade General Music (we meet every day for a trimester), 6th-8th Grade Band Lessons/Small Group Instruction (we meet once a week for 15 minutes), and the WHMS Jazz Club (we meet once a week after school). In August I teach 5th Grade Beginning Band and the WHMS Summer Band/Color Guard.

Whether I'm teaching an individual, or a group of students, I want my classroom to be a safe, creative, collaborative, and supportive environment. My classroom should be a safe place for students to express themselves through music, and to feel a sense of belonging. I am passionate about music and want to share that with my students.

Why Music?

Music is a science • It is exact, specific; and it demands exact acoustics. A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time. Music is mathematical • It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper. Music is a foreign language • Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English--but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language. Music is history • Music usually reflects the environments and times of its creation, often even the country and/or racial feeling. Music is a physical education • It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheek, and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets. Music is all these things, but most of all music is art • It allows a human being to take all these dry technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing that science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will. That is Why We Need Music! • Not because we expect you to major in music • Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life • BUT--so you will be human • So you will recognize beauty • So you will be sensitive • So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world • So you will have something to cling to • So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good--in short, more life. 

Teaching Style

I have high expectations for my students. Our performing arts classes are one of the classes that have to display what they've learned in front of an audience. To me, the journey to the performance is just as important. It involves hard work (it's not always easy), teamwork, determination, perseverance, and a good attitude. The end result is a sense of pride in knowing you accomplished your goal of creating beautiful music...together. In general music, I want my students to know that music is something you can enjoy and do your whole life!

Contact Information

Email: gademino@wisheights.k12.wi.us

phone: 608-767-2586 ext. 3402