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Angela Leonhardt wins EXCEL Award for NEISD

Congratulations to Hidden Forest Elementary teacher Angela Leonhardt for winning the Credit Human KENS 5 EXCEL Award for NEISD.

At Hidden Forest Elementary in NEISD, you can hear children singing all day long. Music teacher Angela Leonhardt teaches K-5 and her day is full of song.

It’s a career she loves and one she’s pursued for more than 20 years.

Before class is over at Hidden Forest Elementary, these little ones will not only know the words to a new song, they'll be keeping the rhythm on the drums and learning to improvise.

“Since Ms. Leonhardt was my music teacher, I just felt like I was a new person,” second-grader Myzael Musquiz said.

A new person, empowered by music.

“I love sharing, sharing the joy of music with others, be it little people in kindergarten or be it adults. I do lots of adult workshops for other teachers and I just love teaching,” Leonhardt said. “Music is so important that brain research shows us how it helps build those connections in the brain, how it supports other things like reading, math and science.”

In this class, they kick up their heels.

“She gets kind of spunky with us and she's just super fun because she lets us use anything in here and she has a lot of cool things,” second-grader Berkley Prater said.

“I think it's also important because the arts and music is innately who we are innately as human beings,” Leonhardt added.

Leonhardt's goal is to expose children to a universal language they'll enjoy well beyond elementary school.

“I want them to know that they can make music. They can be involved with music as an audience-goer, garage band, and even with our new digital technology. There is so much they can do for their entire life,” she said.

Whether you're 5 years old or 105 years old, you can still be a music maker.

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