Two East Baton Rouge Parish School System teachers are recipients of the top honor for educators from the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.  Bertha Hinojosa and Lisa Ducote were named Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s 2008 Classroom Teacher of the Year and Music Teacher of the Year. 

Bertha Hinojosa, a teacher at Buchanan Elementary school and a 35 year veteran educator, was selected as the best classroom teacher by the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra recognized Hinojosa for her integration of the arts and music into her teaching methods.  

"When I travel anywhere, I bring music and art back with me,” says Hinojosa.  She says it is important to bring cultural experiences into the classroom and expose students to all parts of life. 

Hinojosa says she works closely with Buchanan’s music teacher Vonda Cooper to combine musical terms and songs into her lessons.  “We were reading a book on square dancing and many of the students did not know the meaning of the [square dancing] terms.” 

Hinojosa says this lesson served as an opportunity to teach students the history of square dancing, listen to songs and teach vocabulary. “We blend all day long, music, art and social studies.” 

The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra named Lisa Ducote 2008 Music Teacher of the Year.  Ducote, an educator of four years, teaches music to about 1,000 students each week at Magnolia Woods Elementary and Wildwood Elementary School. Ducote splits 2 ½ days per week at each school.

While music is not one of the core subject areas, Ducote says the students are receiving knowledge in some of those subjects. “They don’t realize they are actually experiencing math through music,” she says.

For example, during music lessons, students analyze music for phrases, number of sounds in a beat and the pitch of those sounds. Ducote says she also helps prepare students to learn musical concepts through physical, oral and visual representation of notes.

According to the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, research has documented the value of the arts in teaching problem solving, creativity, logical thinking, memory, and many other cognitive skills.

Each year, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra recognizes and rewards exceptional teachers who are enriching education with music.

The honored teachers have received several prizes from the Orchestra, including two complimentary season subscriptions to a 2008-2009 concert series, and a free presentation by Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra musicians.