01/08/10 - Gibson County

TN Lottery Educator of the Week
By: Brandon Artiles
bartiles@wbbjtv.com
7:45 p.m.

Emily Brown hit a “high-note” this week when she was surprised with the Tennessee Education Lottery Educator of the Week award. Brown has been teaching music and acting as Medina Middle School’s band director, on-and-off, for the last 13 years.

Brown said she simply followed her heart by choosing a career in music education. “Band has always been the most important thing for me to do, it’s what I’m designed to do,” Brown said.

Her love for music comes naturally as her father, Tony Burriss, is the former band director at Gibson County and Peabody High School. Her music career started in sixth-grade at Trenton Middle School and continued at GCHS, where she played French Horn under her father’s direction.

With music such an influential part of her life she devoted herself to enrich the lives of students by teaching them music. “It’s a gratifying role that I have teaching these young children about music,” Brown said.

Brown approaches music as more than just an extracurricular activity, and believes it is a valuable asset for a student’s knowledge base. “Hopefully the discipline and the responsibility that they can learn from being in the band will be life skills they will carry with them,” Brown said.

She was also views music as a way to enhance her student’s educational experience, while encouraging brain activity. “Students that know music learn in all other areas, whether it be foreign languages, math, science,” Brown listed. “There’s all kinds of ways that music enhances their learning.”
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