Question and Answer with Nathan Pedretti

Every couple of years, I try to rebuild this site with a summary of who I am, what I value, what I do, and what I enjoy. I will continue this tradition, but in a new format as a question and answer session.

Tell me about yourself. What do you do?

I'm a K-5 general music teacher at Forrestal Elementary School in Great Lakes , IL. I teach music fundamentals like singing techniques, recorder, drumming, and music history to about 440 kids. My kids are primarily the children of recruits at Great Lakes Naval Training Center and from families in North Chicago, IL. I also help to lead many of the key school committees like School Improvement, Positive Behavior Support and Intervention, Fine Arts, and Emergency Crisis Response.

Also, I co-founded two companies. 88 Stories LLC is a company I co-founded with my long-time friend Matthew Stein. We work to help families preserve and protect their family history. We think the premise is strong, our scanning capacity and quality is high, and our pricing is competitive.

My newest company, Rooberry LLC, is devoted to improving schools. Currently, myself and a freelance developer perform school website management services. In the longer term, however, I see a move into website development, mobile application development (for schools), and perhaps even charter school innovation management. We see charter schools as a huge emerging market in education.

TEACHING

I loved playing recorder. I still have mine in a box somewhere. What do you do with drumming?

The drumming is new for me. A past Forrestal Music teacher had secured a great set of 20 kid-sized conga and djembe drums in bass, tenor, and alto sizes. Thanks to the generous support of the Gorter Foundation, we recieved the Will Schmid World Music Drumming Curriculum this year. As a drum circle, the students perform existing composed music, as well as improve and compose their own pieces.