By Ed Pierce
Growing up in Gorham, Simon Roussel discovered his passion for teaching music in high school. As a Gorham High student, he performed on trumpet in the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra, as well as district and all-state bands and the experience convinced him to pursue a career in music. Roussel now serves as the instrumental music teacher at Windham High School and says music can be a resource that every student can benefit from.
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| Simon Roussel is in his third year of serving as the instrumental music teacher at Windham High School. He discovered his passion for teaching music while still in high school and says music is a resource that every student can benefit from. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
Now in his third year of teaching at WHS, Roussel also directs the school’s orchestra and concert band and teaches a Modern Band class and a Piano Lab course.
As an instrumental music teacher, he teaches proper methods for playing instruments, including technical skill, reading music, and musicality. He creates structured and engaging lesson plans and sets goals for student progress while assessing student progress and offering constructive feedback. Roussel also oversees music selection for different levels of student expertise.
“The best part of my job is getting to see the growth students have in my classes over multiple years,” Roussel said. “As a music teacher, I have the unique opportunity to have the same students for all four years of high school. Getting to see the growth students have academically, but also socially and emotionally, is remarkable.”
He said that the most challenging aspect of his work is having to be on his “A-game” all the time.
Following graduation from Gorham High School in 2019, Roussel attended the University of Maine. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education Summa Cum Laude in 2023 and was hired for the WHS instrumental music teaching job soon thereafter.
“I applied for the Windham High School position because the responsibilities aligned with the type of music position I wanted to teach,” he said. “I also knew RSU 14 is a great school district and was ecstatic when I was offered the position.”
According to Roussel, there is a common perception that music is less valuable in education than other subjects, but he believes there are so many skills learned through music that extend well beyond the rehearsal room.
“Playing an instrument or learning to sing is incredibly hard and becoming proficient at it takes hours of hard work and dedication. Anyone who has developed a modicum of skill at an instrument has had to develop the ability to persevere,” he said. “Music is a vessel for learning to push through challenges and frustration, a skill we can all benefit from at any stage of life. As an art form, music is also a vessel for emotional expression. Students can learn how to express themselves healthily through performance. There is also research concluding that playing an instrument or singing can improve cognitive functioning and learning. Music is being used in therapy with stroke patients to help recover motor skills because of its ability to activate neural pathways across the entire brain. Music is extremely powerful.”
He said that one of the most memorable moments in teaching at Windham High School was its most recent concert in December.
“Right after Band and Orchestra finished their performances, all I could think about was how proud I was of them,” Roussel said. “I was thinking back to the very first concert I conducted at Windham in the Fall 2023. Many of the same students were on that stage but they sounded like a completely different ensemble, and that is all because of the hard work and effort that they have put in over the past few years.”
To that end. Roussel says he thinks people often underestimate how much work goes into a performance.
“Parents and members of the community usually only see the final product,” he said. “It takes months of hard work and practice to prepare the music to that level. On day one of working on music, you wouldn’t recognize it as a song, but by the end, it’s polished and beautiful. The most important thing I have learned while working at Windham High School is to remember that growth happens over months and years, not in a single day. There will always be good days and bad days, but if you can remember where you started and where you are now, none of that matters.” <