• Mr. Dickinson, Lower Dauphin Middle School
    phone: 566-5344
     
    Welcome to Mr. Dickinson's webpage, where you can access
    course information for General Music and Computer Safety
     
         I have been with Lower Dauphin Middle School since it opened in 1995 and served as the choral director for 29 years before passing that baton to Mrs. Myers last year. Outside of school, I continue to direct The Hershey Community Chorus and also am on staff of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hummelstown. I am an Adjunct Faculty member at Lebanon Valley College, which is also where I did my undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. My wife and I live in the Lower Dauphin School District and have three children. Levi is entering 9th grade. Emma is a junior at Susquehanna University (but studying abroad in New Zealand!) this year. Annie lives in New York City and works as a music industry agent and music producer. 
     
         General Music is a course for 7th or 8th graders, lasting one semester. The course is centered around the four musical actions of Perform, Create, Describe, and Connect. As performers, we will use guitars, ukuleles, keyboards, and other classroom instruments to replicate existing pieces of music that fit with our units of study. As creators, we will use Soundtrap as a DWS (Digital Work Station) that allows students to create, revise, and produce original compositions. Those accounts will remain active permanently, meaning that students can use this knowledge and this resource to create music throughout their lives. Describing music is an evolving skill as students will learn how to express their views on the music that they hear, refining both their emotional and intellectual capacity to describe the things that they hear. We will do this through exposure to new music and deeper dives into familiar music. Finally, as we look to connect music to other disciplines and other knowledge bases, students will learn about American music as well as a wide variety of cultures from around the world. 
     
          Computer Safety is a 7th grade course and lasts for one marking period. It is part of the Foreign Language time block, so not every student takes Computer Safety. While the course may appear to be a computer course, it is not a technical course. Instead, the course is centered on digital wellness and learning to navigate the world of online content and issues relating to digital content. Decision-making is a key theme of the course as we look at what research suggests, what the experience of others has been, and what certain actions look like over time. The course is structured to look at these experiences through the lens of several fictitious characters who all struggle with decision-making. 
     
    OBX 2019