Atlanta Families’ Awards

Brianne Turgeon, music teacher at Springdale Park Elementary School, is one of 10 APS educators to win the Atlanta Families’ Awards for Excellence in Education (AFAEE). AFAEE announced the award in a surprise celebration at Springdale Park, and presented Turgeon with a $7,500 check to fund The Science in Music Project, a professional development opportunity, and a personal stipend. AFAEE has granted over a million and a half dollars to APS educators, their classrooms and schools over the last eight years.

“I am a little bit overwhelmed and joyous for winning Atlanta Families’ Award,” Turgeon said. “My project is a yearlong exploration on how science and music curriculum overlap, and I will be purchasing things that help integrate music and science.”

“We are a proud sponsor of AFAEE, and we’re thrilled to be a part of today,” said Jeff Parachac, Chief Financial Officer of Pure Insurance. “It’s wonderful to see such amazing teachers, give a little bit back, and see the amazing impact they have on a great group of kids.”

The Science in Music will be a yearlong exploration on how science and music curricula overlap and support each other. Turgeon will parallel the units of study with classroom teachers’ lessons as they present the Georgia Science GPS, and encourage students to seek and find their own connections between Science and Music throughout the school year. She will specifically track progress in fourth grade in sound energy and earth and space sciences, and will address science curriculum on other grade levels as they parallel and connect to this project.

Turgeon’s goal is for this project to support science curriculum and positively affect student achievement and self-esteem for all students in our school. For data analysis, she will focus on fourth grade progress by comparing her current fourth grade quarterly benchmark and CRCT scores with last year’s scores for the same students when they were in third grade, and also with the scores from last year’s fourth graders. Fourth graders will complete music and science “knowledge inventory self-assessments” at the beginning and conclusion of the project. She will also monitor general student achievement in science for all grade levels.

“Thank you so much to my students who inspire me, our amazing administration and community. Thank you, Atlanta Families’, this means a lot,” Turgeon said.

Brianne Turgeon has been the music and chorus teacher at Springdale Park since 2009. She believes it is important to use her talents to make music an integral part of the fabric of the SPARK community. She is dedicated to helping students find their talents in music and in their lives. She is a Georgia native who graduated from Forest Park High School and received a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Georgia. She earned a Master of Music Education from the University of Southern Mississippi and has earned certificates for Orff Level I and II, and for workshops in World Music Drumming, Guitar Methodology, and choral conducting. As a professional Music Educator, Ms. Turgeon has taught General and Choral Music on all levels K-12 in Atlanta, Conyers, and Jackson, Georgia since 1994. She also taught reading through Success for All (SFA) from 2003-2006.

Ms. Turgeon is also an active musician and teacher in the Atlanta area, singing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus since 1992 and with the women’s a cappella group “Yes, Virginia!” since 1996. Additionally, she has been the Assistant Music Director with the Atlanta Young Singers of Callanwolde, a professional children’s choir, since 1999.