ABOUT - Once Upon a Music Time

Once Upon a Music Time...

How it all started...

It all started with stick figures on a whiteboard – you know, those drawings with lines, circles, and a splash of colored markers for cool effects. Through years of teaching, I realized something important: EVERYONE loves stories! Regardless of age, stories captivate us and invite us into a world of curiosity and imagination. With this in mind, I began teaching new musical concepts, vocabularies, and rhythms by starting with a story. At first, it was stick figures, then progressed to PowerPoint slides with colorful images. But that wasn’t enough for me! I wanted to make my drawings and images come to life. So I took voiceover courses and trained with professional voice actors, leading me to create animated digital storytelling content for my students. To make stories and images more engaging, I added interactive elements like images, audio, and visualization. Through observation, assessment, and getting feedback from the students, I noticed they had a better understanding as they explored and discovered music-making using the background knowledge from the story.

How cool is that!

If stories can spark curiosity, imagination, and engagement in students, then why not use tales to introduce new things?

So, who’s ready for a story? Here we go.

Once upon a music time…

Meet Ms. Lee

Lydia is a passionate music educator, certified Orff-Schulwerk teacher, ESOL certified, and a digital storytelling creator who is currently teaching as a full time elementary music teacher. She also completed Teachers As Leaders program and was announced as the 2025 Teacher of the Year.

She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Curriculum and Instruction: Instructional Design & Technology and holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education, as well as a Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction. To introduce new musical lessons and content, she developed Digital Storytelling videos that begin with engaging stories – because who doesn’t love a good story?

In addition to education, she took voiceover trainings to learn how to expressively use her voice for educational purposes and digital storytelling.

Follow Rainbow and Ms. Lee in the classroom at #onceuponamusictime

Years of teaching

11 years

Primary instrument

Flute

Hobbies

DIY Projects

Favorite sport

Swimming

Meet Rainbow

Rainbow is a one-of-a-kind Paradise Bird who loves to hang out in the music room with Ms. Lee. Rainbow is all about spreading smiles, giggles, and getting everyone to sing and dance. Rainbow is a bit silly but super fun to be around. Psst, here’s a secret – Rainbow sometimes flies around the room when Ms. Lee is not looking! And guess what? Rainbow has a super special vacation spot known as the Paradise Island. During breaks, he flies over to the island and brings back awesome toys, stickers, and mysterious stuff for the treasure box. Rainbow is always excited to meet new friends and can’t wait to see you smile!