The Halls are alive with the sound of Country Music, as Kerri Haller was recently nominated for the Country Music Teacher Classroom Initiative (CMTCI). This program was designed to provide teachers with classroom supplies and project funds across the United States.
Teachers develop a catalogue of desired items for their classrooms and materials required throughout the year. This wish list is then shared each week on social media as part of country musician Jake Gill’s ongoing initiative to serve children and their teachers throughout the United States and beyond. These desired items can be purchased by anyone in the world and then delivered directly to the selected teacher.
“Teachers do spend a lot of their own money. So it’s helping to provide materials and supplies for my classroom that right now I probably wouldn’t otherwise have, and wouldn’t be purchasing on my own at this moment,” Haller said.
Kerri Haller, a 2nd grade teacher at Central Elementary School, stated being a teacher was always a passion of hers and is in her 10th year of teaching. Haller’s background is in Early Childhood / Elementary Education and Special Education (Birth – 3rd grade), starting out teaching preschool, and continuing over to 2nd grade.
“I feel like every day is something new, the kids’ love for learning and being at school, and getting to teach them the basics, the beginning, basics of reading math and writing. I just feel like it’s such an excitement and something new every day and their personality helps make this job so wonderful,” Haller said.
7-year member of the Country Music Association, Jake Gill, founded the CMTCI in early spring this year. Gill’s passion for this project is his sincere hope that teachers and classrooms all over the world can benefit from his initiative.
“One of the things that I enjoy the most is to be able to pick out the kids who are usually the quiet ones that sit in the back. They’re pretty reserved. They don’t interact very easily, but you can tell those are the kids that need to be reached. Those are the kids that have something to say inside. Whether they speak up during that class or not, songwriting is a valuable tool to help you deal and cope with life. Those are the kiddos that I really, really enjoyed getting to meet, because it’s just another avenue for them to express in a healthy way what’s going on in their lives. And sometimes they don’t want to verbalize it,” Gill said.
On receiving this nomination, Haller joined her kids in excitement as various news outlets featured her this week.
“One of the awesome things about this initiative is I was able to make a wish list to provide some things to our classroom. So, um, books for the classroom library, basic supplies like pencils, whiteboards, some new seating options on like stalls and some games, and I’ve already started receiving some of those things. So, so thankful for this,” Haller said.
Haller highlighted the timing of this is crucial as there’s been a litany of changes during the Virus, from constantly wearing masks to children required to have shields on their desks.
“We are doing the cleaning and sanitizing and not so much interaction between all the classes. Lunchrooms are in everybody’s own classroom, but there has been some benefits too. I think this has brought our class closer together. I always tell my class that we’re a family. So I think that this has really made them bond. And so my positive attitude comes from not only the kids doing so well with this, but it’s also allowing me to still come to school and do what I love each day,” Haller said.
To support Kerri Haller and her classroom, please visit her wish list: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1SF242E2RR5C2?ref_=wl_share
Items purchased will be shipped direct to her.
If you would like to nominate a teacher to be a recipient of the CMTCI, please visit the website: http://jakegill.net/
or the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357773521872909
