SUNY Ulster Scholar in Residence Dr. Liza Lee Using Music to Enhance Teaching for Children with Special Needs

STONE RIDGE, NY, October 15, 2010 (Press-News.org) During the five-month residency that brings Lee to the Stone Ridge campus, she is conducting workshops with early education and special needs teachers in the Hudson Valley, teaching SUNY Ulster students and visiting agencies that work with children.
SUNY Ulster will host a hands-on workshop at the campus on Dec. 4, sponsored with the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center (MHTC) and SUNY Ulster, featuring Lee as the keynote speaker.
Lee will demonstrate to the invited group of educators her work with Soundbeam, an award-winning device that uses sensor technology to translate body movement into digitally generated sound and image.
She is author of an innovative curriculum developed in the U.S. that draws on music, culture and cognitive developmental psychology to teach preschool children the foundations of Chinese and English, using foundational sights, sounds and musical tunes from both Chinese and Western cultures.
Lee is completing her residency at the college through an agreement between SUNY Ulster's International Programs with Chaoyang University of Technology in Taichung, Taiwan, where she is an associate professor in the early childhood development and education department.
Lee has been working with SUNY Ulster students studying music therapy and demonstrating her techniques that are applicable to all students with preschoolers at the college's daycare center, The Children's Center.
She also has visited the Center for Spectrum Disorders, Brookside School and other local agencies to meet educators and has been invited to speak at upcoming national conferences in the states of Washington and Illinois.
Also during her residency, Lee is working on the development of an online curriculum for special needs early education through SUNY Ulster's involvement with universities in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The exchange program is funded by a grant from the governments of these countries.
Lee is past chairman and currently a Commissioner for the International Society for Music Education's Commission on Music in Special Education, Music Therapy and Music Medicine that contributes to the progressive development of music therapy and music in special education.
She serves as Consultant for the Center for the Study of Music and Culture at the New York Institute for Social Research and is a graduate of Teacher's College, Columbia University, where she received her doctoral degree in music and music education.
For more information, please contact Richard Cattabiani, SUNY Ulster's Director of International Programs, at 687-5135 or cattabir@sunyulster.edu.

About SUNY Ulster
Ulster County Community College is a two-year college of the State University of New York, located in Stone Ridge, in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountain region. SUNY Ulster offers students small classes and faculty; online degree programs and courses; computer and technology facilities; and cultural programming; as well as continuing education and services for businesses. More than 60 percent of SUNY Ulster graduates continue their studies at four-year public and private institutions throughout the state and nation. For more information, visit http://www.sunyulster.edu