How INGDA Teacher Allison Fojo is Engaging Students with Music Education at Home 

Allison Fojo is a middle school music teacher for Indiana Gateway Digital Academy (INGDA) who has gotten creative with ways for students to engage with music while learning from home.  

Increasing Accessibility 

Music education is essential for fostering holistic skills and development in youth. It helps boost cognitive functions, encourage creativity, improve social skills, and increase social awareness. Studies suggest that learning to play an instrument provides greater cognitive benefits than vocal music alone. However, not all students have access to musical instruments at home.   

Allison is tackling this issue through a hands-on project where students are tasked with building an instrument using common household materials. The main goals of the project are for students to create their own instruments, know the instrument family it belongs to, and be able to play it.  

Encouraging Creativity 

Examples of instruments students have created include:  

• A drum set made from a variety of pots and pans.  

• A pan flute made of straws and tape. 

• A water glass xylophone made with glass jars or bottles and varying amounts of water to create different pitches. 

• A guitar made from a box, paper towel tube, pencil, and strings.  

Each spring semester, Allison launches the project with a live demo, in which she builds her own instrument during a class session. She and the students also build one together for additional practice. From there, students are given the freedom to create their own–showcasing their creativity, unique imaginations, and personalities. 

“Music education is important because it instills creativity in our children and gives them an outlet to create everything,” said Allison. “It works on all kinds of skills. We learn math, we learn to read and write. It’s just a good outlet for all subjects.”  

Allison was recently featured on WTHR’s digital show “Parent Squad” to discuss music education and music at home. Watch and learn more on WTHR’s website.  

If you’re interested in a flexible learning environment for your students, learn more and enroll in INGDA today. 

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