Stacey Peterik

Level: SecondaryLevel: ElementaryMarching BandPit Orchestra for MusicalsJazz/Stage/Commercial
Written By Dr. Elisa Janson Jones
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Stacey Peterik is currently the 5th grade band director in Urbana School District #116. She teaches 5th grade band at all 5 elementaries, assists with 6th grade band students at Urbana Middle School, teaches the Urbana Middle School jazz band, teaches the Urbana High School jazz band, and is the director of the Urbana High School Tiger Marching Band. She also has been doing lights and sound for middle school concerts and performances for the past year as well as directing the pit for the high school musicals for the past two years.

Previously, Stacey taught high school marching band, concert band, jazz band, guitar, and music theory in Champaign, IL at Centennial High School. She also taught 5th grade band at Carrie Busey Elementary and Robeson Elementary in Champaign as well. Stacey graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with degrees in music education and psychology and taught in Champaign for 5 years. Stacey also graduated in 2016 with a Master's degree in music education from VanderCook College of Music.

When she's not teaching at Urbana, Stacey works at The Music Shoppe in Champaign teaching many private students of her own ranging from beginners to high school students. When not at either of her jobs, Ms. Peterik enjoys catching up on TV shows and watching Netflix as well as hanging out with her friends, going to boxing class, and reading for fun.

 
 
 

  • For my private students, I look at the skills the students need to improve on and find material that will best fit them and will encourage them to work on those skills. It's often a balance of an instructional book that gives them practice on that skill as well as a "fun" book that they will enjoy practicing and also hit some of those more advanced skills, whether it be music they're interested in learning or know. For my classes at school, it's about that same balance. I want students to advance in gaining their skills, but I want them to be encouraged and have fun doing it. We will often go through our method book, but I will also add other songs that they know that teach the same skills. For jazz band, we are often looking at standard jazz tunes that I think they should know, but we include other tunes that I know they love to play and that they want to share with their families at our performances.

  • I have been a cooperating teacher for 4 different student teachers in my career and have mentored 4 different new teachers in our district, including attending meetings with them and working with them daily or weekly on different things as they learned about working in our district. I have also taught privately for about 15 years and many of my students have been with me for 2 years up to 7 or 8 years at a time.

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Dr. Elisa Janson Jones

Dr. Elisa Jones designs and scales learning systems for organizations and individuals. With an EdD in Instructional Design, an MBA in Strategy, and 20+ years building education platforms, she combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution experience.

She works at the intersection of people, systems, and technology—helping leaders and learners see what's actually working and what needs to change. Her approach is diagnostic, grounded in real-world constraints, and focused on outcomes that stick.

Learn more about her work at sovereign.plus, elisajones.ai, and the Music Teacher Guild.

https://elisajanson.com
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