Suffern Middle School in Second Life

Crazy busy as always - yet reveling in what sometimes appears to be a chaotic stream of creativity that is Ramapo Islands, more and more of the work being done has been managed by the teachers and students, without me. What do you mean you didn’t need me????? Oh -yeah, well, I guess that was the whole idea … Oh.. OK.

Enter Marc Jaffee, music teacher extraordinaire…

A little bit about Marc.

MArc graduated from Suffern Middle School. Many of his colleagues were his teachers. He is an accomplished musician. Since graduating from Ithaca College with a B.M. in Composition, Marc Jaffee has given over 1000 performances, written and performed nine albums, and composed four musicals. He has also taught over 1500 students and developed a Digital Music program for public schools .
Most recently, Marc was seen in La MaMa Experimental Theater’s Production of Sam Shepard’s “The Tooth of Crime” which received top reviews from the New York Times and The Village Voice.

March has been working with cutting edge technology and has brought his students into the digital music arena with a rigorous curriculum that has resulted in students projects that boggle the mind! When I approached him about the possibilities of using Second Life, he needed all of about 6 minutes of convincing. The minute he learned that his students could stream their compositions into a virtual performance venue he was signed up and on board. the project has now extended itself to an island of shops where the students are learning to market and promote their own music, as well as establish sound business skils. Their shops each house a juke box type vendor where visitors can listen to clips of the compositions and our next step is to link these vendors to an online distribution site. Also planned is an inworld concert which will stream live performances as a culminating event to the school year.