Giving back is at the heart of Elaina Gallas’ music program at Mill Creek Elementary in Nolensville, Tennessee. For the last three years, she has implemented a service project for each grade. Examples include: kindergarteners collecting soda tabs for the Ronald McDonald House; grade 1 students participating in a food drive for the local food pantry; 2nd graders cleaning up trash on walking trails and around the school; grade 3 students send notes to U.S. soldiers stationed overseas through Operation Gratitude; 4th graders donating music therapy supplies to the children’s hospital; and grade 5 students write holiday cards to local nursing home residents.
“I believe music has the power to connect people in special ways, and I hope that by giving these opportunities to do good and help others will reach our students and community in a meaningful way that will extend further than the walls of my classroom,” says the Music Teacher and Choral Director.
Gallas — who was named district teacher of the year in her county and has received three CMA Foundation Music Teachers of Excellence Awards in 2022, 2023 and 2025 — is certified to teach music from kindergarten to 12th grade, but she chooses to teach at the elementary level because she “loves laying the foundation of joy that comes from music with all students,” she says. “For most children, I provide their first — and sometimes only — experience with music education. I enjoy cultivating a love of music and the skills it takes to be a musician. Teaching them how to enjoy and understand the beauty in a piece of music is such a gift.”
Her enthusiasm shines through in some of her out-of-the-box projects, many in collaboration with classroom teachers on academic subjects. For example, in 1st grade, students learn about Cinderella stories from different cultures, so Gallas teaches a song and choreography that they perform at a Cinderella Ball. In 4th grade, the poetry unit is taught concurrently with Gallas’ songwriting lessons that includes studying rhyme scheme, rhythm notes lining up with syllables, etc. In 2nd and 3rd grade, Gallas explores the science of sound.
During the science of sound unit, 3rd graders create their own instruments from recycled materials found at school or at home. They share their creation with the class and invite the 2nd graders to see the instruments and hear them being played.
In another program Gallas created, her students select a popular song and rewrite the lyrics using what they learned about rhythm, syllables and rhyming words, and the lyrics must be about their school. “I collaborated with classroom teachers and turned it into a schoolwide project connecting reading, writing and music,” she explains. “I even created and choreographed a song with a group of volunteer teachers to surprise the students at the end of their show with a song written just for them!”
Earlier in her career, Gallas worked at a Title I school with a large non-English speaking population and low parent and community involvement. “I welcomed students to class with a ‘hello’ song in different languages. It was amazing to see students light up when they heard their own language and see their engagement change in class,” she says proudly. “This inspired me to create a world music unit that I still teach. In each class, students learn about a different country and study their music. And we learn about respecting and embracing differences.”
