Get to Know the Creator

Jenai N. Jenkins, PhD is a veteran Chicago Public School general music and band teacher at A. N. Pritzker Elementary School in Chicago.  She has degrees from Wheaton College Conservatory (Wheaton, IL), DePaul University (Chicago), & Northwestern University (Evanston). Through her studies at Northwestern, she conducted research in the area of the interdisciplinary approach to music education, multiculturalism and music education, as well as professional development training for music, fine arts, and classroom teachers. 

Throughout her tenure as a music educator, Jenkins has employed the Orff-Schulwerk approach for primary and intermediate grades. She has also incorporated African Drumming and Poetic Drumming as a way to integrate history and literature. Jenkins has written original curricula and professional development resources for general music classes including a Kaleidoscopic View of the Harlem Renaissance, biographies of African American musicians, units on A Raisin in the Sun and Porgy and Bess, and finally a unit titled “Sounds of the World” which exposes students to music of various cultures internationally. Jenkins also has experience in establishing and directing beginning bands. Through her efforts at Pritzker School, she has developed a beginning band program for 5th-8th grade students.

At Pritzker Elementary School, Jenkins serves as the co-chair for Fine Arts Programming which involves managing relationships between the school and its arts partners; working with the art teacher to coordinate annual, school wide interdisciplinary units; facilitating professional development training for teachers in the area of interdisciplinary arts instruction and learning; and managing the production of annual school-wide musical productions. Jenkins serves as the Pritzker School Arts Liaison.